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Another shock rippled through me, once more tugging at a strange feeling in the back of my mind. The sensation that I somehow knew this already. But I didn’t. “So, they weren’t together because they loved one another?” I asked.

“I don’t know, but they had Ian together. Ian told me they were his parents,” she said. “That doesn’t mean they were in love, obviously, but there was definitely something there, and I don’t think that being a viktor means you can’t love.”

I nodded slowly. I knew that Vikter had been in love with his wife. The grief he’d felt whenever he spoke of her was far too real to have not been birthed from love. And in that moment, I chose to believe that Coralena and Leopold—my parents—did love one another.

“Vikter had to know, though.” Kieran’s eyes met mine. “He became a Royal Guard—became your personal guard, and he made sure you could protect yourself. That you could fight better than most Rise Guards. Besides all of that, his name couldn’t be a coincidence.”

I’d always believed that Vikter had trained me because he knew I never wanted to be as helpless as I had been the night in Lockswood, but he could’ve been ensuring that I knew how to keep myself alive until I Ascended and completed the Culling.

“If he did know what his purpose was, why didn’t he tell her?” Kieran turned back to Tawny. “Could’ve made things a lot easier.”

“If he knew, he couldn’t because even though viktors are there to protect their charges, they cannot reveal their reasons. There was a lot of things he couldn’t tell me, saying it had to do with the Fates and balance, so he was very careful and deliberate with what he said,” Tawny said with a shrug. “It’s the same reason they’re born without memories and from what I gathered, even mortals who are bound to do some terrible stuff may also have viktors. He would’ve been unable to speak the truth.”

I didn’t know how to feel about the fact that Vikter could’ve known who I truly was or knew that Hawke was really Casteel. Or that he came into my life with one purpose: to protect me. Some of his last words came back to me then, squeezing my heart into pieces. I’m sorry for not protecting you. His belief that he’d failed me took on a whole new meaning now. I reached out, running my fingers between Delano’s ears when he rested his head on my knee. “Did he look well? Like, did he look the same?”

“He looked…” Tawny dragged her gaze from Delano. “He looked like I remember. Not the last time we saw him, but before that.” Tawny smiled, and it was only a little sad. “He looked good, Poppy, and he wanted me to tell you that, yes, he was proud of you.”

I sucked in a shaky breath as raw emotion rose, clogging my throat. I closed my eyes, struggling to keep the tears at bay. “Did he tell you anything more?”

“Yes, and no,” she answered.

“That’s not really helpful,” Kieran replied.

Tawny’s blanched eyes drifted to Kieran and the look she gave him was one I’d seen her give many Lords in Wait in the past. One that said she was sizing him up and wasn’t sure if she was impressed or not by what she saw. “No, it’s not.”

“So, Vikter was able to tell you all about viktors and update you on things that have happened in Poppy’s life, but he wasn’t able to say anything of importance regarding the Blood Crown’s plans?”

“I’m not sure if you were listening or you just didn’t understand when I said that there were things he couldn’t say because of the balance and the Fates,” Tawny said in a tone I also recognized. Gianna pressed her lips together to hide her smile, while I didn’t even fight mine. “So, he obviously couldn’t spill all the secrets.”

Kieran’s eyes narrowed. “Obviously.”

Tawny lifted her brows at him.

“What was he able to say?” I asked before the argument I sensed brewing could really take off.

“He told me about the prophecy the goddess Penellaphe spoke about.”

Frustration rose, as did dread. I was so damn tired of that prophecy. “I know what the prophecy is.”

“But do you know what the whole prophecy is?” Tawny asked. “I don’t think you do. Or at least I don’t think Vikter believed you did.”

Again, it was a shock to hear Vikter’s name and to be given proof again that Tawny had spoken to him or someone who knew a whole hell of a lot. “What were you told?”

“I remember it completely. How, when I normally can’t remember what I had for supper a few hours after I eat it, I have no idea,” she said, and her memory was notoriously subjective. “‘From the…from the desperation of golden crowns and born of mortal flesh, a great primal power rises as the heir to the lands and seas, to the skies and all the realms. A shadow in the ember, a light in the flame, to become a fire in the flesh. When the stars fall from the night, the great mountains crumble into the seas, and old bones raise their swords beside the gods, the false one will be stripped from glory until two born of the same misdeeds, born of the same great and Primal power in the mortal realm.’” She took a deep breath. “‘A first daughter, with blood full of fire, fated for the once-promised King. And the second daughter, with blood full of ash and ice, the other half of the future King. Together, they will remake the realms as they usher in the end. And so it will begin with the last Chosen blood spilled, the great conspirator birthed from the flesh and fire of the Primals will awaken as the Harbinger and the Bringer of Death and Destruction to the lands gifted by the gods. Beware, for the end will come from the west to destroy the east and lay waste to all which lies between,’” Tawny finished and twisted a pure white curl. “That’s it.”