“He…” Pressing his lips into a flat line, he shook his head. “I’m not so sure anymore.”
So, he thought he knew but was no longer sure? “What does that mean?”
“Exactly what I said.”
Irritation spiked. “How is our patience in our bloodline? I’m assuming it’s short.” Eather throbbed. The breath I took didlittle to calm the stir of essence. “And you should stop staring at her.”
Attes’s gaze slowly moved to mine. “Perhaps you should have told your wolven to remain with you.”
“Nah. I’m good.”
“I can feel the eather building in you—eather you should not have. Eather that doesn’t feel like anything I’ve ever felt, and I’ve lived a long time. There’s very little I haven’t felt, and that makes you dangerous.” He held my stare. “To her.”
My chin dipped as I bit out, “She has nothing to fear from me.”
“I didn’t say she did,” he replied. “And you know that.”
I did.
I worked hard not to prove him correct. “Since you know Kolis, what can we expect from him?”
“You’re not going to like the answer,” he drawled.
“Try me.”
“Beyond attempting to return to a corporeal form—a process that would take ages of deep rest unless he knows of another way?”
“I think I know how he’s doing that.” My mind flashed to the Luxe. “We’ve found several dead Ascended drained of their blood.”
“Fuck,” Attes spat. “That will do it.”
After what he said about Kolis being linked to them, I figured as much. I wasn’t at all thrilled with that confirmation, considering we had a city full of Ascended. “And beyond returning to his full form?”
His brows furrowed. “He’s been entombed for an incomprehensible length of time, much of it he would’ve spent conscious.”
Conscious while impaled in a dark hole in the ground? Fuck. I knew what that could do. “He could be crazed.”
“He was already that before he was entombed,” he said wryly. “Kolis never went to rest. Never sought to clear and reset his mind. He was unpredictable before, and he will be even more so now.” He shifted against the wall. “He must be dealt with permanently.”
“You got any tips on how to carry that out?”
Tension bracketed his mouth. “She’s in this room.” Attes’s eyes narrowed on me as anger surged. “She has the power within her.” His expression smoothed out. “But I…” He dragged his good hand over his jaw. “You should really find out what you and the wolven have become. But especially you.”
“Why?” I leaned toward him. “You think I can take him? That we can?”
He stared at me for a moment, then laughed. “He is the oldest of all the Primals. That should be impossible.”
“Should?”
“Only the Fates would know. And they…? They are even more vague and unhelpful than the common draken.” He dropped his hand. “Find out what you’ve become.”
I sighed. “I’ll add that to my to-do list.”
“I’m sure that won’t happen until she wakes.”
I said nothing to that.
“You and her?” His head tilted toward Poppy, his features softening. And I swore to the gods… “You’re mates of the heart, aren’t you?”
