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)
Stunned, I stared at him. “But that’s…”
“Odd?” he finished for me. “Well, that’s not the only odd thing. One of the homes had caged birds, which I assume were kept as pets. They were also dead. And Cas noticed that anything alive outside their homes was dead, too—like the grass and flowers.” He leaned back. “Remember what the vines looked like at the Bone Temple? How they turned gray?”
“Yes.” Knots of tension formed in my stomach. “You think it has something to do with…Kolis?”
Kieran nodded, his gaze sweeping over me. A moment passed. “He can feed on those he created.”
I frowned until I understood what he was saying. “He created the Ascended—the first Ascended?”
He nodded again. “And the Revenants. He can feed on them—”
“To return to a more physical form,” I said, my stomach twisting. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
A small grin appeared. “It’s all right.”
My thoughts immediately flashed to my sister. If Kolis could feed on the Revenants, then she was likely in danger, even if she wasn’t like the others. “Where is Millicent?”
Kieran opened his mouth but then closed it. “I don’t know.”
“What do you mean?” Tension crept into the muscles of my neck. Unable to stand still, I started to pace. “Casteel said she was here. That she spent some time with me while I was in stasis.”
“She did.” Kieran’s gaze tracked me. “But we don’t know where she is now.”
Folding an arm across my stomach, I stopped to stare at one of the fissures in the wall. “Do you think she left?”
“I don’t know, Poppy.”
What if she had? I remembered how she’d run after I killed…our mother. But she had come to see me while I slept. That had to mean something. I swallowed. “How many Ascended have been killed?”
“There’ve been multiple incidents. Twenty in total.”
“Gods.”
“Does your vadentia tell you how many it would take for Kolis to no longer be in what is basically the form of a wraith?” he asked.
I opened my mouth but closed it as I gave myself a moment to think. When the back of my neck tingled, I sort of wished I hadn’t. “They were completely drained?”
“Yes.” He drank some water.
I exhaled slowly. “I don’t think there’s a known number since he’s the only one who can gain strength from their blood, but I have a feeling it doesn’t take many.”
“So, it’s possible he may be corporeal by now.” He ran his fingers along his chin. “We have guards stationed at the Shadow Temple.”
That made sense. After all, it was where the Primal of Death was…honored. Worshipping death seemed wrong.
“How did you all find out that Kolis can feed from them?”
“Attes.”
My stomach wiggled again at the mention of the Primal, and a weird mixture of fondness and sorrow swept through me. I had no idea why I felt that way when I had never heard of him before. “Did he say how old he was?”
“Old,” Kieran replied, setting his glass down and dropping his elbow onto the arm of his chair. “As in only Kolis and Nektas are older.”
“Holy…”
“Exactly.”
I thought about that as I toyed with the buttons on my robe. “Then he would have to be a Primal god of a Court.”
“If he was, we’d know his name.”
True, but that tingling sensation was at it again. If Attes was that old, it meant he was one of the first Primals born instead of created. He would’ve ruled over… “Vathi,” I whispered.
Kieran paused as he reached for his glass again. He looked as surprised as I felt to hear myself speak the name of the Court belonging to the Gods of War and Peace.
“The Primal God of War and Accord to be exact,” I said.
Kieran blinked. “Setti—”
“Is the name of Attes’s…vellám. The extension of Attes’s will, his essence. Each Primal god who oversees a Court gains the ability to summon their bloodsteed.” I frowned, having never heard nor spoken that word before. “Setti was Attes’s bloodsteed.”
Kieran stared at me, a little slack-jawed. “It’s so weird that you actually know this stuff. I’m not sure how I feel about it.”
I frowned.
“But how is that possible?” he asked. “Unless Lailah and Theon are lies.”
“They’re not.” I drifted toward him. “The only thing I can think of is that Attes…abdicated his throne and gave it to Theon.”
Kieran let out a low whistle. “He did mention that he had spent the last several hundred and then some years in stasis.”
Instinct told me that was something the Primal gods had to do to, well, basically stay sane. Something we would have to do at some point. And, gods, that was… I couldn’t even think about that. But back to the matter at hand. They didn’t hand over their Courts unless… “He must’ve planned to be in stasis for so long that he knew he couldn’t rule.”