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)
“How?” I demanded.
“It’s not important,” he countered.
I was this close to choking the fucker out. “Then what is?”
“For Kolis to have forged a connection with her,” he said, his words slow and deliberate, as if he chose each one carefully, “she would bear his mark.”
“Mark?” Kieran frowned. “What kind of mark?”
“His.”
The word echoed in my head like a thunderclap. His. I breathed in, but the air tasted like ash.
“The symbol of death?” Kieran’s head cut to me. “Did you see anything?”
I swallowed hard, my throat dry. “I saw no mark,” I told him.
“There has to be one,” the Primal said.
My mind raced, replaying every moment that’d passed since Poppy woke. Had I missed something?
“I don’t understand,” Kieran spoke low and quick. “How would she end up with his mark? You didn’t sound all that confident that it was because of the Revenant.”
“He touched her arm, and I’ve seen her arms,” I said. “There’s no mark there.”
“With her,” Attes said quietly, his gaze on the door, “he wouldn’t need to physically touch her.”
I stiffened as I hissed, “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“That doesn’t matter either.”
My nostrils flared. “I beg to fucking differ.”
“It doesn’t,” he snapped.
“Bullshit,” Kieran snarled. “We need to know why he wouldn’t need to physically touch her.”
Something occurred to me then. “Teerman.”
Kieran’s eyes narrowed on me. “Why are you thinking about that dead fuck?”
“When I took him out, I thought I saw something in his eyes. A flicker.” I dragged my hand through my hair. “He also said that she had always been his.”
Attes stiffened.
“What?” Kieran growled, his eyes flashing a vivid cobalt-blue.
“And when Kolis got through earlier, he said the same damn thing.” I dropped my hand. “He was in the Duke. Said he was whenever he wanted to be.”
“I have no idea who you two speak of,” Attes said as Kieran took a step back.
“He was an Ascended. A vampry,” I said.
“I know what they are. Kolis created the first Ascended,” Attes said, a crease forming between his brows as he shocked both of us into silence. “Like the Revenants, their very existence is thanks to him. Therefore, they are irrevocably tied to him.”
I would have to table the what-the-fuckery in that piece of information. “Are you telling me he could’ve been jumping from Ascended to Revenant? That he still could?”
“He is linked to all his creations if he chooses to be.” Attes looked at Kieran. “Just as the Queen can do with the wolven if she so decides.”
Fucking gods.
“But Poppy is neither a Revenant nor an Ascended,” Kieran pointed out.
But her sister was.
Well, sort of. Who the fuck knew what Millicent actually was?
Attes drew in a deep breath. Once more, I had a feeling he was about to say some shit I would not be happy about. “Her blood,” he stated. “He’s a Primal god. If he’s had her blood, even a drop…” His stare cut away from me. “And if she’s had his, there’d be a link between them.”
“Even if the Duke was the one who took her blood?” Kieran asked, his skin losing some of its color.
Blood thumped in my head as I stared at the Primal.
Attes met my stare and nodded.
A deep, menacing growl emanated from Kieran, reverberating through the corridor. He spun on his heel and walked several feet down the hall, where he stopped, his hands on his waist. And I…
I didn’t move.
Part of my consciousness was still working through and absorbing what Attes had said, even as the rest of me wanted to dive right into denial. That part recognized that the chances of Poppy not even remembering something like that happening were good. I’d learned that she wasn’t always conscious after her lessons in his office. She may not even know. Not only was the Ascended skilled at taking what was not his while the innocent slept, but he also had unlimited access to her. He knew all the forgotten stairwells and hidden halls of the castle.
Though it didn’t even have to be Teerman who forged the sickening connection. Poppy had been surrounded by the Ascended and Revenants for most of her life. And her mother? Isbeth? She’d wanted to bring Kolis back. Did she have access to his blood? My mind flashed to the golden Rev, Callum. It could’ve been anyone.
Maybe he’s always been in her or connected to her.
Reaver’s words haunted me as I stood there, my lungs burning. It made sense as I thought about the Rev who’d attacked me. How he’d sung the verse Poppy had heard the night she was attacked in Lockswood and in her dreams. What a pretty poppy. She’d once thought it was the Dark One she’d heard, but later realized it was neither Malik nor me. What if it wasn’t something she’d heard that night as a child?