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)
“Careful with that,” Attes warned as the Revenant tilted forward.
I thrust the bone dagger through the Revenant’s throat, impaling him to the tree once more. Blood sprayed across my hand.
“Gods,” muttered Attes, his voice closer. “That also won’t kill a Revenant.”
“I know.” I wiped my hand on the front of his tunic. “Still felt good.”
What sounded like a barely-there laugh came from behind me.
“You still in there, Kolis?” I knelt so I was at eye level with the Revenant, searching for the crimson glow and finding it. “Good.”
The Revenant’s lips spread into a grotesque smile as blood poured from his mouth. Those lips moved.
“What? I can’t hear you?” I smiled tightly and held his gaze. “Oh, you can’t get the words out around the dagger in your throat? That’s why it’s there.”
The crimson aura flickered, and I lifted my hand.
“Maybe don’t touch him,” Attes said as I touched the Revenant’s cheek. “Or…go ahead and do it.”
“You’re not coming for me, Kolis.” I summoned the eather. Golden light streaked with silver filled the corners of my vision. “I’m coming for you.”
The essence ramped up, burning through me in an icy-hot rush. “And it will not be to serve at your feet.” The crimson aura pulsed and expanded as I pulled the eather to the surface. “Nor beneath you.”
Essence erupted from my hand, a pulse of gold streaked with silver and shadows threaded with faint tendrils of crimson.
Attes’s sharp curse got lost in the crackle of eather as it seeped into the Revenant’s flesh, lighting up the veins under eyes that still glowed with Kolis’s essence.
I smiled, even as the scent of burning flesh began to rise. I didn’t move. I didn’t look away as the eather rippled through the body, burning through organs and bones. Eather swept up the Revenant’s legs, obliterating them, his torso, and then his chest and shoulders.
The pupils turned pitch-black just as the essence climbed up his throat. Within a second, only the bone dagger remained, still buried in the tree.
So, apparently, I could kill a Revenant.
Pulling the dagger free, I rose and turned to face Attes.
The Primal stared.
I did the same. We stood there in silence as I wondered if I’d really seen him while in stasis, and then I mentally smacked myself. Of course, I had. I’d seen him. I likely knew him from…before. Which probably explained the weird wiggling sensation in my chest and stomach whenever someone mentioned him.
“Why did you flinch when I said your name?” I asked, the question coming out of my mouth before I could stop myself.
The corner of his eye twitched.
I dragged in a short breath. “You just did it again.”
He stood there, silent and looking at me like he was seeing a spirit.
“You…” My grip tightened on the dagger’s hilt. “You knew Sotoria, didn’t you?”
That earned another quick grimace, which was answer enough for me. Because if he’d known Sotoria, then he likely knew…stuff I didn’t need to think about. Kolis had already pulled the veil back more than I ever needed.
Flipping the dagger, I held it by the blade and offered it to him.
He didn’t move.
“This is yours, right?” I wiggled it.
Thick lashes swept down and then up as his eyes widened. He reached for the dagger. “Fucking Fates, woman, you’re burning your…” He frowned, eyeing my steady hand. “It’s not burning you.”
I guessed Seraphena hadn’t told him. “It tingles but doesn’t burn. It does burn Casteel,” I said as he took the blade by the hilt. “Not sure about Kieran.”
His eyes lifted to mine, streaks of eather swirling through his silver irises.
“Don’t know why.” I shrugged, glancing down at my hands. The thick clouds overhead had moved on. Blood smeared my fingers, glistening in the moonlight. “Guess I’m special.”
“Special?” he repeated, his voice lower and thin.
“I am the Primal of Blood and—”
“Incredibly Foolish Actions?” he interrupted.
My head jerked back. “Excuse me?”
Whatever had held him quiet had vanished. “What are you doing out here?” he demanded, quickly glancing around the space. “Especially here, of all places?”
My spine went rigid.
“By yourself, with a Kolis-possessed Revenant?” He sheathed the dagger, not to his hip but to his chest, where another dagger was also secured.
How many weapons did he have on him?
“Do you understand what Kolis is? What he is capable of? That’s a rhetorical question, by the way.”
If he was anything like his great-grandson, at least five more weapons were hidden.
I glanced down, catching how the pant leg above his right ankle was thicker.
“You have to know because I’m sure Seraphena warned you about exactly what he can do,” Attes continued.
My gaze shifted to his left leg. Yep. Another dagger was hidden there, in his boot. I don’t know why I found that funny. Maybe because it was so bizarre. A laugh bubbled up my throat, and a tiny bit snuck out before I pressed my lips together.