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)
“What do you mean by put into stasis like he was?”
“He was impaled to his tomb with the bones of an Ancient. It wouldn’t have killed him, but it would have slowly eaten away at him until only his essence remained. I suppose that could appear as a spirit.”
Something struck me that I hadn’t thought about until then. “But he was being fed,” I said, mentioning the tomb in Oak Ambler I hadn’t been there to see. “Wouldn’t that mean he’d have some form?”
“The essence of any Primal is the Primal soul. The aru’lis is different from a mortal’s or another god’s. It has form, a shape, even if it appears as nothing more than a shadow to us.” He paused. “And the aru’lis can solidify for short periods of time.”
Meaning, there’d be fangs.
The aru’lis sounded like ancient Atlantian—the language of the gods that I barely recognized. But if Kolis was nothing more than a shadow right now, then that would explain how he could’ve entered the residences without being noticed. “Do you know how he can go from that form to his full state?”
Reaver was quiet for a long moment, his gaze shifting to Poppy.
“I only know of one way.” A shadow flashed across his face, too quick for me to decipher, as he turned his stare to mine. “I was a youngling when I heard Seraphena and Ione—the Goddess of Rebirth—speaking about it.”
My lips pressed into a flat line. “I know who Ione is.”
He let out a low, gruff huff, the sound thick with barely concealed irritation. “A vessel is needed.”
I waited for him to continue.
He didn’t.
My grip tightened on the glass. “Did you happen to overhear how one obtains such a vessel?”
“The aru’lis would need to enter the vessel at the very moment the soul leaves their body. One moment too soon, and you’d have a situation where two souls would be in one body. And no one wants that again,” he said, muttering the last part.
Again?
“The vessel would need to possess, at the very least, similar embers—the essence—as those carried within the aru’sòl,” he said. “I don’t know if it has ever been attempted or successful.”
What he spoke of sounded like something that could go south in numerous ways. My gaze drifted to Poppy as I lifted the glass. Luckily, no one who possessed the same kind of essence as Kolis was around—
My heart thumped as I realized how wrong I was. Poppy carried that essence. I likely did now, too—or some version of it. And…
I lowered the glass and turned to Reaver. “Malec would’ve carried embers similar to Kolis’s, right?”
Reaver nodded. “He is Nyktos’s son. And Nyktos carries embers of true Death as—”
“Kolis’s nephew,” I finished for him. “I know.”
“Just making sure.”
I ignored the comment. It made it sound like he doubted my intelligence. “Could Poppy have been a vessel?”
Reaver’s look confirmed my suspicion regarding his tone. “Not until she completed her Ascension.”
As I turned over his words, I remembered how stunned Isbeth had been when Poppy wielded her Primal powers. She hadn’t expected that.
I barely tasted the whiskey as pieces clicked together—pieces that shouldn’t fit but did with an undeniable truth. Isbeth wanted Kolis to return. A vessel was one way for him to do that. She had asked for Malec to be returned to her—
My flinch was sharp and involuntary as a possibility occurred to me—one that was more than a little disturbing.
“I can tell your mind has gone where mine did.”
“If you’re thinking Isbeth was actually looking for a vessel and planning to use Kolis’s great-nephew as one? Then, yes.”
“It seems probable, does it not?”
More than just probable. It was safe to assume that if Isbeth possessed the knowledge we believed she did, then she would’ve known about the vessel. But if we were correct…
“Isbeth lied to us,” I said with a harsh, biting laugh. No shocker there. But it meant Isbeth never planned to sacrifice Poppy. And the tiny sliver of good we grudgingly thought she had was also a lie. She never intended to choose between Malec and her daughter.
Gods.
I briefly closed my eyes as anger rose, stroking the essence. It took several moments to push it down. I needed to focus because…what the fuck had she—or Callum—needed Poppy for then? He’d clearly lied at the Bone Temple.
I looked at Reaver. “Had this occurred to you at any point before now?”
“Not until the Blood Queen did what she did to Malec.”
“And it never occurred to you to mention it before now?” I asked slowly, doubting his intelligence now.
“No.”
I set the glass down before I shoved it through his chest. I didn’t need to kill a draken. At least not right now. “If Isbeth had succeeded, Kolis would’ve basically…become Malec?”
“For a time.”
When he didn’t elaborate, my already thin patience nearly snapped. But then I thought about how Seraphena would respond to what my mother had done to her son. Entombing him? Dread churned inside me.