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)
“Maybe,” Kieran said.
I couldn’t help but wonder what could’ve caused Attes to do that. I didn’t know the answer, just as I had no idea why he would’ve endured the pain of draken blood for me. But I didn’t think that was something a Primal god did often—or at all. In both cases.
I shook my head as I glanced toward the chamber door. “Did Casteel ever say why he named his horse that?”
“Ego,” he said with a snort. “Only Cas would name his horse after a Primal God of War’s steed.”
“How did he acquire Setti?”
“The vadentia isn’t telling you that?”
My eyes narrowed.
Kieran smirked. “It was about fifteen or so years ago. Maybe closer to twenty.”
“That long?” Surprise rippled through me. I knew Atlantian horses were different than others. They were several hands taller and longer than a shire horse, able to carry two people and pull significant weight. And I knew they could live longer, but I hadn’t realized it was by that much.
“Setti is a sirtian—a breed of Atlantian horse rumored to have originated from Iliseeum. Who knows how true that is? But sirtians, if taken care of, live for many decades.” His brow pinched. “Anyway, he was part of Elian’s herd.”
My eyes shot to his at the mention of Casteel’s ancestor—the one who had summoned the gods to smooth things over between the Elemental Atlantians and the wolven after the war with the deities. Elian was obviously important to the history of Atlantia, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more to that. What? I had no idea.
“We were visiting his estate—Valyn, Cas, and I. Malik was…well, we know where he was,” he continued. “Elian was long gone by then, and the estate was being run by one of Valyn’s stewards. Setti was a colt, alone in the field, filling himself with orchard grass—which was odd. Normally, you don’t see a young horse by itself.”
I’d have to take his word on that.
“The moment he saw us, he started following.” Kieran tilted his head, and his eyes narrowed. “I forgot about that.” A wry grin tugged at his lips as he glanced down. “It made Delano nervous as fuck at first.”
“Interesting,” I murmured, mulling all that over as I picked up my glass. The warhorse named Setti would’ve been Attes’s vellám. The only way for his will to have transferred to Theon was through death, and clearly Attes didn’t die. And even if he were dead, Theon wouldn’t have named his vellám the same as Attes did. That would be like naming your next child after one you lost. But Casteel found Setti when he was a colt, so how could he be Attes’s bloodsteed? This…feeling I had, one that made absolutely no sense, had to be wrong. Right?
Still, a part of me wanted to rush down to the stables to see Setti.
Gods, I needed to refocus. What had happened in the Luxe was far more important—
Something else occurred to me then. I’d been in stasis for a long time, and I knew the Ascended could go for extended periods without feeding—just like an Atlantian but not for as long. It varied on how old they were, too. “Have none of the Ascended fallen into bloodlust?”
“They had stockpiles of blood.” Kieran’s upper lip curled, and my stomach twisted.
I didn’t want them to, but my thoughts went to Ian. The idea of him living off bottled blood turned my stomach. I just couldn’t see that. Not Ian. Well, not the Ian I’d known. But he hadn’t seemed all that different when I saw him at Spessa’s End, and Vonetta said he hadn’t been threatening.
“We haven’t destroyed any of them,” he added. “Yet.”
My brows lifted. “Really?”
“Cas figured a bunch of blood-starved Ascended would be even worse to deal with.”
“True.”
“At least one of the homes didn’t have a stockpile in it,” he added after a moment.
A ripple of shock went through me. “Were they just out?”
“I can’t say for sure.”
My mind raced as I considered what that discovery could mean, and I kept coming back to one question. Was it possible for Ascended to survive without feeding?
No answer spontaneously came to me, and I wasn’t sure if that was because I only had some vadentia, or if silence was the answer.
“Are any of the other Ascended homes without any?” I questioned, trying not to get too far ahead of myself.
“I can ask,” Kieran said. “Admittedly, I hadn’t thought of doing so.”
My lips pressed together. What difference would it make? To me, a lot. “Have you heard of any Ascended surviving without feeding?”
“I haven’t,” Kieran stated. In a way, that was answer enough.
But it didn’t mean there weren’t any. And if some did and survived somehow, could Ian—?
I stopped that avenue of thought, knowing I was likely setting myself up for disappointment. “I’m kind of surprised they are still alive.”