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 watched crimson-streaked shadows flow over my bare shoulders and willed the eather to settle. It responded at once. My skin warmed as the shadows slowed and then disappeared. The chill left the air, and the glow of the eather in my eyes dimmed. There was no denying what I saw and felt.
The essence that had transferred from Poppy to us wasn’t the same. Somehow, the two she had within her had split between us.
Life.
Death.
And I had no idea what that made us. Or what it meant for the future.
I’d just finished bathing and changing Poppy when I became aware of Kieran drawing close. My fingers halted around the delicate clasp of the necklace that held my ring.
Because of our bond as an Elemental Atlantian and a wolven, we’d always been able to sense each other’s proximity. When Poppy began her Ascension, and the Primal notam kicked in, that had stopped.
But it had changed yet again.
Sensing where Kieran was didn’t happen immediately after we woke up. I couldn’t say exactly when I’d started to pick up on his whereabouts again over the last two days, but I had. And it wasn’t the only thing that was new.
Hearing the sound of a second set of footsteps and claws rapping off the stone floor, I leaned over and placed the necklace on the bedside table. Kieran wasn’t alone, which explained the quiet knock.
“Come in,” I called, running my thumb over Poppy’s cool knuckles.
The door opened, and Kieran entered, his gaze immediately going to the bed. He knew there was no change, but it was hard to shake the desperate hope.
My gaze shifted to the others. The dark-haired Elemental Crown Guard commander remained at the door—something I’d tried to get her to stop—as a snow-white wolven padded in behind her.
Delano jumped onto the bed, brushing his head against my shoulder before lying down and wiggling to get as close as he could to Poppy.
My gaze lingered on the commander. Hisa Fa’Mar wasn’t someone who made needless small talk—she was often direct and focused. But there was too much rigidity in how she stood cloaked in the white mantle of the Crown’s Guard. I looked at her closer, opening my senses. The usual golden undertones of her light-brown skin were absent, and her knuckles had bleached white from how tightly she gripped the hilt of the sword at her waist. A sharp, acidic citrus taste gathered in the back of my mouth. Unease.
Something was up.
She kept her gaze trained away from Poppy, but my wife’s current state wasn’t the source of Hisa’s unease. Respect for Poppy’s privacy was why she didn’t stare.
“What happened?” I asked.
“We’re not entirely sure at this point,” Kieran said, staring down at Poppy as he walked closer. “But it’s not good.”
I inhaled through my nose, then exhaled slowly. “Details.”
“It appears there was an…incident in the area of the Luxe,” Hisa answered, speaking of the neighborhood in the Garden District occupied by the wealthiest mortals and the Ascended who, for whatever reason, hadn’t earned residency in one of the sprawling manors just beyond Wayfair’s inner Rise. “Multiple deaths.”
I frowned and looked at Kieran as my finger stilled on Poppy’s hand. “Mortals?” I asked, but that didn’t make sense. The Ascended were under guard. No mortals were allowed near them.
“No.” Kieran brushed the backs of his knuckles across Poppy’s cheek. “The Ascended.”
My brows lifted. “How?”
Kieran straightened with a sigh and glanced at the small dining table someone had brought in at some point. The plates of food remained largely untouched. His jaw tightened as he returned his gaze to mine.
Foreseeing a massive, annoying-as-fuck lecture coming my way in the too-near future, I sent him a look of warning.
The glow of eather behind his pupils pulsed, and then he looked away. “You need to see what happened for yourself.”
Tension invaded my muscles. “Or you could just tell me.”
“That won’t be enough.” Kieran made his way to a chest near the bathing chamber doors. “This isn’t a case of Descenters demanding to burn the Ascended in their homes,” Kieran continued.
Damn. That had escalated from them wanting to drag the Ascended into the daylight. Or would that be considered a de-escalation? I guessed it depended on the person.
“It sounds like they moved on from demanding and actually did it.” Which meant the guards disobeyed my orders and allowed mortals in. I tried to drudge up anger but couldn’t really be mad. It’d be hard to find an Atlantian who hadn’t lost someone close to them in the War of Two Kings—or after.
“Mortals didn’t do this.” He reached down and unhooked his broadsword. “Like I said, you need to see it.”
Irritation simmered like a dying fire waiting for a spark to reignite the inferno, causing the essence in the center of my chest to hum.
“He speaks the truth.” Hisa cleared her throat. “You won’t believe us otherwise.”