The glass dome shattered, drawing my gaze upward as Kieran yanked at my grip. Crimson-laced eather streaked through the clouds, and the presence poured into the Great Hall.
Kolis was here.
My gaze shot to my father. He was still fighting with Delano, who was trying to get to one of his swords. I looked over my shoulder to see that Hisa held her cloak.
“Hisa!” I yelled at her. “He’s here!”
“There’s no honor,” she whispered, but I heard her as I saw the cloak become a death shroud. “There’s no honor in this.”
I felt my grip slip.
My head swung back to Kieran. He had the blade at his chest, piercing his tunic.
Fuck.
I didn’t have time for this.
Not holding back, I jerked Kieran’s arm back and snapped that bone, too. As the dagger clattered off the floor, I didn’t have time to root out all his weapons or fight him like my father did with Delano. I gripped Kieran’s head and slammed it into the floor. The crack of his skull off the stone was lost in the shock of the gilded doors swinging open and slamming into the wall.
Kieran’s body went limp as a mass of midnight and crimson whirling mist entered.
The singing stopped.
The Primal mist unfurled, revealing Kolis. His face was more bone than flesh, his eyes burning like hot coals. And he was a fucking mess.
His throat had been torn open, leaving strips of flesh hanging from fresh, pink skin. A chunk of it was missing from his shoulder. His chest was ripped open, exposing fractured ribs, and his stomach hadn’t fared much better. Something had clawed at him. Blood and clumps of tissue stained the front of his white pants.
Please, gods. Tell me Poppy had done that to him.
Kolis’s head lowered, and the mist contracted as I rose.
It happened so fast, yet it felt like time slowed to a crawl as his blood-red gaze flicked to Hisa. Bone cracked as her necktwisted sharply to the side andkeptcracking. She jerked as blood leaked from her nose and mouth and then didn’t make a sound as she tipped forward, her body falling across Lizeth’s.
Kolis’s head turned to my right.
Delano stiffened, then shuddered. Crimson poured from his eyes and nose. His mouth opened, and blood—gods, blood gushed from it as his knees collapsed and his head fell back.
My father caught him as he shouted. I staggered back.
“What did I tell you?” Kolis’s voice boomed.
My father’s head jerked up, his eyes locked with mine and widening.
I halted.
Everything came to a stop inside me. My heart. My lungs.
“What did I promise?” Kolis’s voice slithered through the Great Hall.
The flesh peeled away from my father’s face, his throat. His armor shattered as Delano slipped from his arms, crumpling to the floor. Exposed muscle ripped and splintered. His spine snapped. Bone crunched and turned to ash.
“I promised both of you,” Kolis hissed. “That I would kill everyone you held dear in front of you.”
Valyn Da’Neer didn’t make a sound as he held my gaze.
He didn’t scream.
He didn’t groan.