I looked down at Poppy.
“That wasn’t me,” she said, her head lifting.
Following her gaze to the veil of clouds, I squinted as the faint scent of…lilacs reached me.
“Seraphena,” Poppy whispered.
A large, winged shape took form in the sky—no, not one. Three.
The draken.
They broke through the clouds. Brownish-green scales. Ash-colored ones. Purplish-black. Aurelia. Nithe. And the fucker. A pulse of unease and awe swept through the crowd as the draken’s wings stretched wide. People began to move, bumping into one another.
“It’s okay,” Poppy called out, her voice carrying over the crowd with a distinctive throb of eather. “They are not here to harm.”
“If you say so,” Kieran muttered.
Poppy shot him a murderous glare, but the people…damn if they didn’t calm.
“They’re not going to land…” Malik trailed off as Aurelia descended first, landing on a spire.
Nithe was next, coming down on the spire to our left, his long, black tail wrapping around the stone column.
A dark shadow fell upon us, and Kieran stiffened. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” he muttered.
The Temple shuddered as Reaver landed on the spire directly above us, drawing Hisa and my father out.
I watched, somewhat fascinated, as he climbed his massive ass down the spire, his claws leaving grooves in the stone as his spiked tail whipped behind him in an arc. He planted a huge talon on the flatter roof at the spire’s base and stretched until his head was close enough that I could likely smell his breath if I inhaled deeply. My gaze shifted to Kieran, whose head was only a few inches from Reaver’s.
He stared straight ahead, arms crossed with an expression that said he couldn’t be any less impressed.
Reaver puffed out a breath that rolled over us.
Kieran’s nostrils flared, and eather pulsed behind his pupils.
And that damn draken made a chuffing sound a lot like a laugh.
“Behave,” Poppy warned. I had no idea if she was talking to Kieran or Reaver.
It didn’t really matter because, as we faced the crowd, I saw that whatever momentary calm had held them immobile had disappeared. They began to lower to their knees in groups of tens and then hundreds. The young and the old, bending the best they could. Even the youngest lowered as voices rose, shouting about the gods and being blessed until it seemed like the entire city had bowed.
Poppy exhaled softly. “We did not come here for you to bow before us.” She spoke with only a slight tremor to her voice. “Nor for us to stand above you as conquerors or gods. We are your—” Her words ended suddenly, her eyes widening as we feltitsimultaneously.
A shift in the realm.
A presence or awareness similar to a god’s but different. Darker. Oily.
Poppy stiffened beside me as Kieran stepped forward.
What are we feeling? Kieran reached out through the bond.
I don’t know,I sent back, scanning the area below. The crowd was still kneeling, glancing at one another as the silence continued. The swell of confusion and uncertainty was hard to push out.Poppy?
Her response was immediate.Something is here.I don’t know what. It feels like a god…but not.
A gust of hot air blew against our backs as Reaver lifted his head. Like stone cracking, a low, rhythmic clicking sound reverberated from deep within his throat. The sound built, becoming a low growl of warning. Aurelia and Nithe repeated the unsettling sound as I continued to scan the people below.Unease grew from the mortals, rippling throughout the crowd. Gold armor glinted as soldiers turned to look up at us.
“Cas.” Malik’s voice was low as I felt my father step onto the balcony. “What’s going on?”
