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)
Slipping the robe on, I shook my head. “All I know is that a newly Ascended Primal doesn’t come into their full power for years.” As I secured the buttons on the robe, I walked back to the settee and sat. “Sorry.”
“It’s all right.” Casteel’s lips curved upward. It was a tight smile, not one of his genuine ones. “Kolis’s whereabouts are up in the air, which also makes planning difficult.”
“I can’t imagine he’s gone far,” I said. “What he wants is here.”
“Would we be able to sense him?” Kieran kept an eye on Casteel, the air charging faintly. “If he remained in Carsodonia? Like the draken can?”
Instinct told me that we could. “Yes.”
“What about his vellá?” Casteel asked, his tone level but holding a distinctively hard edge.
“Vellá,” I whispered, stiffening. The extension of a Primal’s will. My mind immediately flashed to the mist and how I had summoned it. That was only one way a Primal’s will could manifest. It could take shape and form, or remain unseen—
I sucked in a short breath. The nightmare. I looked down at the buttons on the robe. My skin turned icy as I remembered feeling someone watching me as I prepared for my bath, the sense of something cold brushing against me—
A hand touched my arm and caused me to jump. I cranked my head to the side, and my eyes connected with Casteel’s.
“Poppy.” Concern seeped through the thin, barely-there cracks in his shield. “What is it?”
My gaze dropped to where his hand was curled around my upper arm and, for a moment, I saw a different one. Golden skin stained with blood. My blood.
CHAPTER 24
POPPY
I blinked rapidly, my heart thumping. The hand came into focus. Golden-bronze skin sprinkled with dark, coarse hairs near the wrist. It was his hand. Casteel’s.
“Poppy.” His grip firmed as I became aware of Kieran hovering nearby. “Talk to me.”
Dragging in a breath, I shook my head. “I…I think I…” I trailed off, stopping myself from telling him what was beginning to click together in my mind. That it hadn’t been my imagination earlier. I hadn’t been alone.
The words were sitting on the tip of my tongue, but I pulled them back. I couldn’t be sure I’d felt his vellá. And without absolute certainty, I’d only provoke their anger and worsen their concerns. It had nothing to do with the itchy, prickling sensation that made me want to scrub at my skin.
At least, that’s what I told myself as I nodded. “I was just thinking about his vellá.” Swallowing, I reached for the glass I hadn’t touched since it’d been placed before me and took a drink. “We wouldn’t sense it…strongly. It would be like a vague feeling of unease. Nothing like when a god is actually present—one not able to mask their essence. Some can do that. Did you know that?”
Kieran exchanged a glance with Casteel that he didn’t even bother to hide. “No, I didn’t know that.” His gaze returned to me, sharp and piercing as he slowly sat back down. He didn’t relax. He remained on the edge of his chair. “Can Kolis do that?”
“I don’t believe so. Only a certain type of god can,” I said, my grip loosening on the glass as I sorted out what floated through my head courtesy of the Primal foresight. “They would be from the Court of Lotho, though not all the gods from that Court can do it. Just a bloodline that…” My eyes widened. “These are the gods changelings descended from.”
“Makes sense.”
I nodded as Casteel’s hand slipped from my arm. I lifted the glass and sipped, letting the burn of the whiskey spread to my chest. Both Casteel and Kieran were still watching me like hawks. I briefly closed my eyes and steadied myself. “I’m fine,” I told them. “It just freaked me out thinking that he could project his will, be among us, and we really wouldn’t know.”
What I said wasn’t a lie. It did freak me out.
“Understandable,” Casteel remarked, and I couldn’t decipher a damn thing from the word. “Attes told us there is no limit to how he projects his will. What he didn’t say was what his vellá was capable of. I’m guessing it’s probably the same for him and other Primals.”
I thought about that as I set the glass down. I’d taken two large drinks and figured I should be clearheaded for this conversation. “I think that would be close to limitless for him and the Queen of the Gods…and maybe me. Us.” I nodded. “In time.”
“Close to limitless?”
“A lot can be done with it. The closer to the…object you are using your will on or for, the stronger it will be.” I thought about how I’d snapped the necks of the archers along the inner wall of Castle Redrock’s Rise without lifting a finger. “He would not be able to kill from a distance with his will alone. Up close? Yes.”