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)
Iliseeum, Kieran told me through the notam. Where Death reigns.
Rhahar’s attention shifted back to the sky. “Son of a bitch, he was right.”
Kieran stepped forward. “You want to key us in on what he was right about?”
“That it was…” Rhahar’s nostrils flared as the shadow that had not lifted deepened over the wharf and the bay. The dense clouds started to churn. “A trap.”
Lightning flared overhead, arcing from one thick cloud to the next. When the blinding flashes receded, thin streaks of crimson seeped from the center of the inky mass, spreading across them like veins of fire. A heavy, choking sensation settled over me.
Poppy pushed to her feet, swaying. Kieran steadied her.
Eather pulsed, filling Rhahar’s eyes as he turned to us. “He’s coming for—”
Water exploded from the bay as Primal mist spilled out of Rhahar. He shot into the air like an arrow as the kraken’s tentacle broke the surface.
Instinct seized me. I grabbed Poppy by the waist as red-tinged lightning struck in rapid succession, hitting the wharf and the bay as the wind lifted Rhahar toward his cousin.
Lifting Poppy in my arms, I held her to my chest as eather bled from Saion, distorting the air around him as the kraken’s limb lashed through the air like a jagged spear of bone.
Poppy shouted, her fingers digging into my shoulders—
A sickening crack reverberated through the air as crimson-tinged lightning struck the spot where Saion and Rhahar had been, and it kept coming, one strike after another, each with a clap of thunder that would shatter the eardrums of any mortals on the ship or the wharf.
Silver light erupted in a mass of crackling, hissing sparks. I could no longer see the Primal gods or the kraken as the air warped and started to roll.
“Get down!” Kieran shouted, dipping to grab Delano.
I spun, glimpsing my brother flattening himself to the ground as I pressed Poppy into the wharf.
An intense, scorching wave of power rippled through the air. My jaw clenched as I saw Malik grab on to anything he could as the release of energy traveled across the wharf. Windows shattered throughout Lowertown as the slender palms dotting the landscape snapped. Buildings all along the lower street collapsed.
It’s okay, I told Poppy through the notam as she jerked beneath me. It’s okay.
Roofs peeled back on the structures behind them as the shockwave howled, and the ground trembled beneath us.
It’s all right, I reassured her, even as the earth cracked, splitting into thin fissures, and the sound of the rocking ships echoed all around us. I kept telling her it was okay until the screaming roar of unfettered power receded, and the weak rays of the evening sun fell upon the wharf.
“Cas,” Poppy whispered, the press of her fingers against my chest surely leaving bruises.
Exhaling raggedly, I dipped my head and kissed her forehead before rising just enough to look over my shoulder.
Several of the remaining ships were gone, destroyed, and where the two Primal gods had been…
Aurelia flew low over the sea. Her mournful call, low and aching, rolled across the clear skies as she circled the bay.
The Primal gods were gone.
The ground began to shake.
CHAPTER 32
POPPY
“When you summon the essence, you’ll feel the warmth of it,” I told Kieran as he placed his hands on the man’s broken leg. The unconscious mortal had been found in the rubble of one of the warehouses. “Then think of something that makes you happy.”
Kieran’s crystalline-blue eyes lifted to mine. “That’s all?”
I nodded. “The essence does the rest.” I smiled despite how it made my entire face ache to do so. “You can do this.”
That earned me a quick grin. “All right.” Taking a deep breath, Kieran closed his eyes. “Here goes nothing.”
Maybe he hadn’t healed Malik.
Resting on my knees beside the prone mortal, I felt the moment the power, warm like the summer sun, rose within him. The eather in me didn’t react like it did when I felt it stir in Casteel. Strangely, it sort of comforted me.
Golden swirls appeared in Kieran’s warm-brown cheeks and spread down the sides of his throat and arms, swirling to where his hands rested above the torn, bloody trousers and the obviously broken bone. Gold-tinged eather sparked from his fingertips and flowed over the man.
I lifted my gaze to the injured mortals and Atlantians lying in haphazard rows across the dusty floor of a warehouse located about a street or two from the bluffs leading to Wayfair. The cool breeze coming in from the buildings’ open doors and windows didn’t dispel the scent of blood and sweat. Under the dim light cast by gas lanterns, around two hundred had been brought here, over half suffering from life-threatening injuries—well, less than half now.
Kieran’s eyes opened. “Holy shit,” he whispered and stared at where the essence began knitting the man’s broken leg bone. His gaze snapped to mine. “It’s working.”