The door opened, and Kieran entered, his gaze immediately going to the bed. He knew there was no change, but it was hard to shake the desperate hope.
My gaze shifted to the others. The dark-haired Elemental Crown Guard commander remained at the door—something I’d tried to get her to stop—as a snow-white wolven padded in behind her.
Delano jumped onto the bed, brushing his head against my shoulder before lying down and wiggling to get as close as he could to Poppy.
My gaze lingered on the commander. Hisa Fa’Mar wasn’t someone who made needless small talk—she was often direct and focused. But there was too much rigidity in how she stood cloaked in the white mantle of the Crown’s Guard. I looked at her closer, opening my senses. The usual golden undertones of her light-brown skin were absent, and her knuckles had bleached white from how tightly she gripped the hilt of the sword at her waist. A sharp, acidic citrus taste gathered in the back of my mouth. Unease.
Something was up.
She kept her gaze trained away from Poppy, but my wife’s current state wasn’t the source of Hisa’s unease. Respect for Poppy’s privacy was why she didn’t stare.
“What happened?” I asked.
“We’re not entirely sure at this point,” Kieran said, staring down at Poppy as he walked closer. “But it’s not good.”
I inhaled through my nose, then exhaled slowly. “Details.”
“It appears there was an…incident in the area of the Luxe,” Hisa answered, speaking of the neighborhood in the Garden District occupied by the wealthiest mortals and the Ascended who, for whatever reason, hadn’t earned residency in one of thesprawling manors just beyond Wayfair’s inner Rise. “Multiple deaths.”
I frowned and looked at Kieran as my finger stilled on Poppy’s hand. “Mortals?” I asked, but that didn’t make sense. The Ascended were under guard. No mortals were allowed near them.
“No.” Kieran brushed the backs of his knuckles across Poppy’s cheek. “The Ascended.”
My brows lifted. “How?”
Kieran straightened with a sigh and glanced at the small dining table someone had brought in at some point. The plates of food remained largely untouched. His jaw tightened as he returned his gaze to mine.
Foreseeing a massive, annoying-as-fuck lecture coming my way in the too-near future, I sent him a look of warning.
The glow of eather behind his pupils pulsed, and then he looked away. “You need to see what happened for yourself.”
Tension invaded my muscles. “Or you could just tell me.”
“That won’t be enough.” Kieran made his way to a chest near the bathing chamber doors. “This isn’t a case of Descenters demanding to burn the Ascended in their homes,” Kieran continued.
Damn. That had escalated from them wanting to drag the Ascended into the daylight. Or would that be considered a de-escalation? I guessed it depended on the person.
“It sounds like they moved on from demanding and actually did it.” Which meant the guards disobeyed my orders and allowed mortals in. I tried to drudge up anger but couldn’t really be mad. It’d be hard to find an Atlantian whohadn’tlost someone close to them in the War of Two Kings—or after.
“Mortals didn’t do this.” He reached down and unhooked his broadsword. “Like I said, you need to see it.”
Irritation simmered like a dying fire waiting for a spark to reignite the inferno, causing the essence in the center of my chest to hum.
“He speaks the truth.” Hisa cleared her throat. “You won’t believe us otherwise.”
“I’m sure you could convince me,” I said, my hand fisting the blanket. “If you try.”
Given how tightly I clenched my jaw, I worried my teeth might crack. Kieran’s mark brushed against my mind like an earthy, woodsy breeze.
Poppy was right.
Kierandidfeel like a tree.
Cas.
That was another side effect of the Joining—one that caught us both off guard when it first happened. We figured it was due to us sharing Poppy’s ability to communicate through thenotam. But where she’d said it took a few moments to find each wolven’s unique imprint, it wasn’t like that for us. Unfortunately, it took no effort at times.
You need to see this.
