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)
“In the other room,” Kieran said. “Why are you here?”
Attes arched a brow, his gaze sliding to the draken.
Reaver shrugged. “To make sure everyone gets along.”
Kieran snorted. “You’re here to keep the peace, Reaver-butt?”
“Speaking of asses.” Recalling the shawl left in the sitting chamber, I lifted a hand. A heartbeat later, it hit my palm. “I don’t want your bare ass on my chair.”
Attes’s lips twitched as Reaver sighed and snatched the shawl from my hand. He shook it out, eyed it with a frown, and then tied it around his hips. The shawl was nothing more than layers of lace and didn’t hide much, but it was better than nothing.
Reaver looked up through a sheet of blond hair. “Happy?”
“Not really.”
The fucking draken still sat.
“Do I want to know why a shawl just flew through the air?” Poppy’s voice floated out from the other room.
Normally, my gaze would’ve been glued to the entryway. Seeing her after only a short time apart was like seeing her for the first time. It never failed to physically affect me, and I might be a little addicted to that gut-punch feeling. But this time, my gaze stayed trained on Attes.
Because his was glued on the archway.
“Reaver needed something between the chair and his bare ass,” Kieran announced.
I knew the moment she entered because Attes’s jaw tightened, and he looked away fast, seeming to find the grain in the table fascinating.
“You do realize that’s Tawny’s shawl?” Poppy said. When I looked at her, she had stopped inside the Solar, her brows knitted. She wore a plain dressing gown the color of the elms that complemented the fiery waves now cascading freely down her back.
“What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her,” Reaver said, reaching for the bowl of fruit I hadn’t brought back to the bedchamber earlier.
Poppy opened and then closed her mouth as she stepped onto the dais. The emerald flecks in her eyes churned slowly as she looked at Kieran. “Are they still arguing?”
My lips flattened.
“Not exactly,” Kieran drawled, watching Reaver with a frown as the draken pulled an apple from the bowl.
“Good.” Poppy started to walk past me, clearly heading for the seat on Kieran’s other side.
I wasn’t having that.
Snaking out an arm, I snagged her around the waist. She grunted softly as I pulled her down onto my lap.
The center of her cheeks flushed as she managed to sit as far from me as possible, perched like a little statue on my knees. “You do realize there are many chairs?”
“I do.” I smiled at her. “But I’m your favorite chair.”
The crease between her brows deepened.
“I’m guessing you two are still fighting.” Reaver bit into the apple with a crunch.
“We’re not,” Poppy insisted.
Kieran sent both of us a curious look. “What are you two fighting about?”
“Nothing,” she answered.
“She saw someone on the Cliffs and decided to pay them a visit,” I said at the same time as she did. “Without waking me.”
“And that someone turned out to be a Revenant,” Attes chimed in as he leaned back once more, crossing his arms. “Possessed by Kolis.”
Kieran tipped forward, his gaze narrowing on her. “What the fuck, Poppy?”
“What?” she shot back as I sipped my whiskey. “I didn’t realize I needed permission.”
“No one said you did.” As I lowered the glass, I kept it out of her reach. I had a feeling she was about to get animated. “But I am confident you promised you wouldn’t run off alone.”
“I do not recall ever making that promise.”
Poppy ignored the look I sent her and picked up the dressing gown’s sash.
“I assume you suspected it was a Revenant,” Kieran surmised. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t have gone out.”
“I did.” Poppy glanced toward the Primal and then me. “I woke up and couldn’t go back to sleep.”
Had she had a nightmare? Or just woken up naturally? And had she knowingly gone to the glass wall? I didn’t know. But the fact that her movements hadn’t woken me warned me that I needed to feed again, sooner rather than later.
“That’s when I saw someone out there,” she continued. “And I think—no, I know—Kolis has been keeping an eye on…us, using the Revenants.”
Attes’s head tilted. “You haven’t cleared the city of them?”
“We believed we had.” My arm tightened around Poppy as she moved to stand. Her disgruntled, barely audible growl tugged at my lips. “But in case you haven’t noticed, the city is enormous, with countless places to hide.”
“You should find those places fast,” he advised, his attention returning to Poppy. He blinked several times. “They are weaknesses.”
I swallowed the no shit, and felt I deserved a pat on the back for doing so.
“We know,” Kieran said, his stare drilling into Poppy’s profile.
Poppy exhaled loudly. “I didn’t want to wake you,” she said, peeking at me. “I didn’t see any reason to when I knew I could handle a Revenant—”