“You don’t know what you’re talking about, Poppy,” Reaver advised quietly.
“I think I do,” I countered, my heart thumping. It wasn’t thevadentia. It couldn’t tell me the past exactly. It was the emotion I picked up from her. I thought of what Holland had said about me not knowing the scale of devastation Seraphena did—something she was responsible for. “It’s because Malec was entombed. You went to sleep to stop yourself from…causing harm.”
“Harm?” Seraphena laughed, but the sound was without humor. “More like to stop myself from destroying the whole mortal realm in my grief and anger because I couldn’t deal with what I’d done.”
“What did you do?” I heard myself ask.
“I…” Her voice cracked. She closed her eyes, and I saw her fingers twitch at her sides. “I helped entomb my son.”
I sucked in a breath. I hadn’t expected that. Casteel and Kieran seemed just as shocked. The three of us stood there in silence.
“Why?” I whispered.
She didn’t answer for several moments. “The same reason we refused the heartmate trials. The risks were too great.”
“What risks?” I asked, feeling Casteel’s arms wrapping around me again.
Her gaze slid to mine. “Kolis.”
Casteel’s hand fisted against my stomach as the chill radiating from him cooled the length of my back. “What does he have to do with your sons?”
“Everything.” She didn’t say more for a long moment. “Malec wasn’t the only one who made poor decisions. Ash and I made choices, too—hard ones we believed were the only way to prevent Kolis from being freed and unleashing death and destruction no less devastating than the Ancients Awakening.But…” She shook her head. “In the end, our choices built the road that Malec and Ires inevitably traveled down.” Her gaze met mine. “And now that road ends with you—all of you.”
I watched her turn, the length of her tunic fluttering to reveal a white dagger strapped to her upper thigh.
“We don’t have much time, and there are things we must discuss—and do,” she said, walking toward the credenza. “The wolven already feel my presence.” Stopping at the table, she picked up a decanter and pulled the stopper, pouring some amber-hued liquor. “The longer I am in this realm, the more thenotamwill strengthen in my favor. We cannot allow that to happen. You will need their help.” She picked up the glass and faced us. “Kolis hasn’t only been freed.” Her emerald-and-sterling gaze met mine. “He’s coming for you.”
CASTEEL
Coming for you.
Muscles tensed in my neck as my head cut to Reaver. The draken was busy flipping the carving knife as our conversation about what Isbeth actually needed Poppy for cycled in my head.
“He wants to become the true Primal of Life and Death,” Poppy said, and my gaze shifted back to Seraphena. “We know we need to stop him.”
I watched her, thinking about what thegrul—Kolis—had called Poppy.
My soul.
I felt Poppy’s hand fold around mine. The warmth of her touch was a stark contrast to the coldness of mine.
“And we failed to prevent him from coming back,” Poppy said, causing me to frown. “We won’t fail at this.”
“You didn’t fail. Not really.” Seraphena took a drink. “You stopped him from inhabiting my son’s body, which would’ve made him stronger and faster—”
“I’m sorry? What?” Poppy exclaimed, and I cursed. “Isbeth needed to sacrifice someone she loved for the ritual,” she said.
“That’s what we thought,” Kieran was quick to say. “And, apparently, no one”—he glared at Reaver—“felt the need to correct us until recently.”
Catching the knife, Reaver returned Kieran’s look with a bored one.
Poppy twisted at the waist to look up at me. “What were we wrong about?”
It was Seraphena who answered. “Given what was done, it appears Isbeth plotted to use my son as a…vessel for Kolis’saru’lis—his soul. Which would’ve been…” She inhaled sharply. “I can’t even think about that. And I don’t need to,” she said, sounding like she was convincing herself as much as us. “You were able to prevent that from happening.”
“For it to have worked, it would’ve needed to happen the moment Malec’s soul left his body.” My attention shifted to Seraphena. Eather had seeped into the veins beneath her eyes again. I refocused on Poppy. “I kept meaning to bring it up, but more happened.”
“But…” Poppy’s brows knitted, and I knew the moment she realized what that meant. The breath she took was sharp and shallow. “So, she wasn’t…?” Her laugh was quick and sounded brittle. “She wasn’t making some…grand and unexpected sacrifice.”
