Total pages in book: 401
Estimated words: 390373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1952(@200wpm)___ 1561(@250wpm)___ 1301(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 390373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1952(@200wpm)___ 1561(@250wpm)___ 1301(@300wpm)
“Kolis can appear as a shadow. So, he could’ve gotten to her at any time. It would’ve taken just a blink of an eye, and we wouldn’t have noticed,” I seethed.
Kieran let out a low breath. “You’re right.”
I was, and my patience was rapidly wearing thin. “Can you help her?”
Attes stood still and quiet by the door for a few seconds. “I can try.”
“Try?” I whispered. “That’s not good enough.”
His chin lifted, and tension bracketed his mouth. “I only know of something like this happening once,” he ground out. “And severing that connection killed the possessed.”
Severing the connection killed…
My breath became shallow, and my body went rigid.
“What?” Kieran exclaimed.
Fear rose, insidious and suffocating. I reacted the way I had before.
Recklessly.
And furiously.
Kieran spun toward me with a curse.
He was too late.
Snapping forward, I grabbed the Primal by the front of his tunic. Fingers tightening around the soft fabric, I slammed him into the wall, cracking the stone. “This could kill her?”
His eyes filled with eather, becoming orbs of pure silver. Essence poured into the veins beneath, lighting them and the scar up. His lips curved into a tight smile.
It was a warning.
The only one.
His palm connected with my chest, sending me flying backward. I hit the wall with a grunt, the impact still rattling my bones as I landed on my feet.
Attes stalked forward.
Kieran growled, his flesh thinning as the shadow of fur began to sprout.
“If you don’t want to spend the rest of the day mending broken bones,” Attes warned him as the veins in his cheeks glowed with eather, “don’t even think it.”
Seeing that Kieran was definitely thinking it as he started to crouch, I straightened.
“That was your one shot,” Attes hissed. “Blood or not, you won’t get another.”
I forced a laugh, even though it fucking hurt to do so. “You sure about that?”
“Fates, you are—”
“Charming and captivating?” I suggested, relieved to feel the pain lessening already.
Attes’s steps faltered. “You’re so much like him,” he breathed, voice strained and cracking on the word him.
My brows snapped together. “Like who?”
He didn’t answer. Instead, he stared at me in that strange-ass way again. Like it pained him to do it. He blinked, and his expression smoothed out. “I didn’t say this would kill her. The other was mortal.”
Kieran halted. “You couldn’t have elaborated?”
I took a breath, hearing my ribs crackle inside. Fuck. It felt like my chest was half-caved in.
“Did he give me a chance to do so?” the Primal shot back, the eather slowly receding from his veins.
“You could’ve spoken faster,” I retorted, twisting my neck to loosen the muscles.
Attes’s head whipped toward me, and he did another strange thing. The fucker laughed. It was quick but deep. “My apologies,” he said without a touch of remorse. “What I was trying to say is that was my only knowledge of such a possession. This should work. And it won’t kill her.”
I noticed the way he took a deep breath. “But?”
“Can you control yourself if I answer?”
“Just spit it out,” Kieran said. “Delaying it will only give him time to do something idiotic.”
I ignored that comment and repeated, “But?”
“But,” Attes said, adjusting the satchel so it rested against his hip, “it will hurt her.”
I took a breath. It felt like icy fire in my chest.
“I don’t want to. It’s the very last thing I would ever want,” he said, “but it cannot be avoided.”
I stared at him as the corners of my vision dimmed.
“Casteel,” Kieran warned. “We need his help.” He stepped between Attes and me. “Poppy needs his help.”
My heart thudded heavily as I stared at the Primal. Part of me wanted to let the eather swirling inside me loose, but Kieran was right. We needed his help.
Poppy needed it.
Mouth clamped shut, I nodded. Kieran hesitated for a moment, then stepped aside and faced the Primal. “What do you have to do?”
He slid his hand down the strap to the flap of his satchel. Opening it, he withdrew a dark-gray vial. “This.”
“What is it?” Kieran eyed the bottle. “Is that some type of shadowstone?”
“No. The vial is made of basalt. The slag…the slaggiest of slag,” he said with a faint and quick grin. “It’s created where the highest intensity of dragon fire strikes a surface.”
“Dragon?” Kieran repeated.
“Yes. Dragon. As in the ancestors of the draken,” he said. I was sure Kieran realized that. “It’s the only thing that will hold their blood.”
I crossed my arms. “Please tell me you’re not using draken blood on Poppy.”
“I warned you it would hurt.”
“Well, now I know why the mortal died,” Kieran muttered. “How is that supposed to help her?”
“Normally, it would burn right through flesh and bone. Even a Primal’s,” Attes said, and my head tipped toward him. “Especially his blood.”
“Nektas’s,” I guessed.
Attes nodded, and my stomach twisted sharply. “But I know how to prevent that.”