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)
“I’m about to say something that will upset you both,” Seraphena said.
There went the slight feeling of ease. My jaw clenched.
She placed her hands on her knees, and my stomach twisted when her gaze slid to me. “And I’m going to need you to remain calm.”
“I’m calm,” I replied coolly, receiving a look of doubt from Seraphena.
“He is.” Poppy stepped forward.
“Okay.” She tapped her fingers on her knees. “There is a reason Eythos believed Sotoria would be able to kill Kolis—the reason I couldn’t, and why I said only you can. It is the Primal’s weakness. Love.”
I stiffened, my mind immediately going to something Isbeth had said. Shit. Not just her. Millicent also.
“Love,” Poppy repeated, and Seraphena nodded. “You’re telling me Casteel would be able to kill me because I love him? That love is my weakness?”
Seraphena’s eyes met mine. “That’s what I’m saying.”
“That is…” I shook my head as incredulity gave way to anger. “That’s utter bullshit.”
Seraphena grinned, but it was brief. “You know it’s true. The vadentia should confirm it.”
“Yeah, but it doesn’t change that it’s still, as he said, bullshit.” Poppy’s face scrunched up. “I can’t believe that’s the other way to kill a Primal.”
“Primals were never meant to love. They were to be beyond such…mortal needs and desires and, therefore, unable to be swayed one way or another by such emotions,” she said. “But a long time ago, during Eythos’s reign as the Primal of Life, and before his brother betrayed him, a Primal did the unthinkable and fell in love.”
“The unthinkable?” Poppy muttered, crossing her arms.
“Unthinkable to the Arae, at least.”
Poppy rolled her eyes. “Of course, they are involved in this.”
“Supposedly, the discovery that a Primal could love was one of the times they decided to intervene in fate.” Seraphena lifted her shoulders. “They worried that love, held within the heart of a Primal, could become a weapon.”
“Love can’t become…” Poppy trailed off, then shook her head. “It’s not love that becomes the weapon. It’s the Primal because of their love.”
“Is there really a difference?” Seraphena countered. “Either way, the Fates intervened, thinking that if falling in love could destroy a Primal, they would be less likely to do so.”
“And how did that work out for them?” I lifted a brow.
“Not great, since many still fell in love,” she replied. “But from the moment the first Primal did, each one does, knowing that the one they cherish above all others could become the sword to end their existence.”
“That’s messed up,” Poppy murmured. “Why wouldn’t the vadentia tell me this?”
“Likely for the same reason the Arae made it so. Balance.”
Poppy’s eyes rolled. “Well, Casteel would never harm me,” she said. “So…whatever.”
“I would hope not,” she replied, her gaze sliding to me. “Because if he did, he would not live for long afterward.”
Poppy blinked.
“If I ever hurt her, you wouldn’t have to worry about coming after me.”
“Good.” Seraphena inclined her head. “You don’t sound surprised by that.”
“I’m not.”
Poppy whirled on me. “You’re not?”
I felt tension forming brackets around my mouth. “Isbeth said something about never wanting the weakness Primals had. I didn’t understand until Millicent mentioned it.”
“And you didn’t tell me?” Poppy reached over and pushed me slightly, earning a raised brow from Seraphena.
I easily caught her hand and pulled her to my chest, wrapping an arm around her waist. She stared at me for several minutes, squinting. “You’re not going to kill me.”
One side of my lips curved. “No shit, Poppy. That’s why it wasn’t at the top of my list of things to discuss.”
Her eyes narrowed as she placed her hands on my waist. “It’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“Agreed.” My eyes searched hers. “So, why do you appear angry with me?”
“I’m not!”
My brows rose.
“It just makes me mad that I even have to think about this,” she told me.
“Okay.” I fought the upward curve my lips were determined to take. “But you’re still yelling at me.”
“No, I’m not!”
“You just burst one of my eardrums.”
“You’ll be fine.”
“I’m sorry.” I turned my head. “Can’t hear you.”
“Oh, my gods,” she muttered, twisting so her attention was on Seraphena. She didn’t see my smile, but I wondered if she felt my relief. Because she wasn’t panicking. She sounded like herself: a fascinating mixture of innocence and wickedness.
“You two remind me of Ash and me,” Seraphena commented.
“Really?” I drawled. “Have you stabbed Nyktos?”
“Casteel!” Poppy exclaimed, smacking my chest.
“Because she has stabbed me,” I continued.
“Oh, my gods!” she hissed, swinging her hand again.
I caught her wrist as I lowered my mouth to her ear. “So incredibly violent,” I murmured, then added for just her, It makes me incredibly hard.
“You are so incredibly dysfunctional,” she hissed.
“You know what I think?” I drawled. “That you forgot you can’t spell dysfunctional without—”
“Don’t—”
“Actually,” Seraphena interrupted. “I have stabbed Ash.”
Poppy stopped fighting and turned to Seraphena. “You have?”