Attes stiffened.
“I would’ve loved to see her face.” He yanked the dagger free, his gaze flipping to mine. A wave of shadowy eather washed over the dagger, collapsing it.
My lips parted, and that buzz returned to my ears.
“But your expression will do.” Kolis rose, and fast—too fast for someone who should’ve been mortally wounded. “Ouch.” He ran his hand over his chest. “That stung.”
Had I missed?
No.
I hadn’t. I knew where the heart was.
“Did you really think, Penellaphe, that you knew what I wanted?” He smiled, and there was nothing practiced about it. It was wide and gruesome, blood smeared over his teeth. “I may be, as some would say, unstable. Perhaps even desperate.”
I felt Attes circle an arm around my waist and draw me back.
“Do you really think I’m so desperate, so insane, that I would still love the bitch who helped entomb me for over a thousand years?” Kolis demanded. “I had a lot of time to think things over. To get over it. I’ve moved on,so’lis.”
Oh, gods.
Casteel had been right. He’d beenrightabout Kolis.
I felt the essence rise in Attes as the scent of burnt ozone reached us.
“Where are you going?” Kolis asked. “I still want you—well, I want what’s inside you,Poppy.”
The crackle of the realm starting to open tore through the air. A strange scent reached me, a mixture of citrus and lilac—
“And when I’m done with you?” Crimson and midnight swirled through his flesh as it thinned. “You know where I will go,” Kolis hissed.
I summoned the eather, letting it rush to the surface even as the tear in the realm opened. The scent of…citrus and fresh air grew, and I knew Attes wasn’t taking me to Carsodonia. He was taking me to Iliseeum. Because he could cross with the wards. Kolis couldn’t. The tear would seal behind us, and I knew Kolis would go where he threatened.
To Carsodonia.
To Casteel.
And to Kieran.
I dug in my heels and shoved my elbow into Attes’s stomach, tearing myself free. I locked gazes with Kolis as Attes shouted—
The realm exploded in crimson and night.
What sounded like a clap of thunder came from within me, sudden and sharp, and then…then there was nothing.
CHAPTER 56
CASTEEL
Somehow, someway, Poppy had done something.
“Is there a reason you wanted to come here?” Kieran asked.
Besides that, being in the Solar made me feel like the walls were closing in on me? No. I had no good reason for being in the Great Hall. I just didn’t want to stray too far from where Poppy said she would return.
And shewouldreturn.
She had to.
