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After scouting for the ruins, he arrives just in time to join the fight with the Craven. He takes out several trees and incinerates the remaining threats. Once things die down, he tells them the ruins are a day’s ride north.

When talk turns to Malec, Reaver tells them that the documented O’Meer was not Malec’s last name, and if he did have one, it would have been Mierel, which was the Consort’s mortal last name.

As they approach the ruins, Reaver mentions that he didn’t see the mountain of rock from the air and figures it must be where the forest is the thickest. When the Gyrms attack, he warns the wolven not to bite them, saying there’s no blood in them, but there is a poison that will eat them from the inside out. He elaborates and says the ones attacking are Sentries, which are like Hunters and not like the other kind of Gyrms they’ve fought before. Fire won’t work on them. He also mentions they’re filled with snakes.

Poppy asks him if eather will work on them, and he tells her it will from her, but only because she’s a Primal about to complete her Culling.

After the fight, he asks if anyone was bitten and informs them that the snakes’ bites are toxic, too.

As they talk about the Unseen, he says he doesn’t know what they are or how or why they’d be summoning the Gyrms. After Poppy explains more about them, he surmises that they must have come to be a thing while he was sleeping.

Before they rest, Reaver tells them the Gyrms were once mortal, those who summoned a god and pledged servitude for whatever favor the god granted them. Hunters hunt things. Sentries guard things—objects, people…usually people. Seekers, like Hunters and Sentries, can sense whatever they’re searching for. Either they find said thing and bring it back, or they die in the process of defending it. He explains that the ones they saw and fought were down there for hundreds of years and tells Cas that whatever brought the Sentries wasn’t tied to what Eloana did. He adds that he thinks the mountain formed as a way to protect Malec’s tomb and that the Gyrms they encountered weren’t summoned by Primal magic—only a Primal could have sent them.

Reaver reveals that when Malec left Iliseeum, he did so right before the other gods went to sleep and didn’t do so on good terms. The Primal of Life, even if asleep, would have sensed that he was vulnerable. However, the deity bones would have blocked their ability to know where he was. Therefore, the Primal of Life must have summoned the Sentries to protect Malec.

He talks to Poppy more about Malec and says they were friends when they were younger, before Malec started visiting the mortal realm and lost interest in Iliseeum. That loss of interest meant a loss of affection for those who lived in the Land of the Gods.

Reaver comments that it’s strange that Malik is so closely named to Malec, but he imagines it was a way for Eloana to honor what could have been.

Cas asks Reaver if Nyktos could have prevented Malec’s interment, and Reaver says the Primal of Life could have prevented it, but Malec must have been injured or significantly weakened to be entombed. If neither Nyktos nor the Consort intervened, they must have had their reasons.

At the Bone Temple, Poppy orders the draken to take to the air to avoid the dakkais. Reaver lands and shifts to mortal form, telling Poppy to stop using the Primal essence since it’s only drawing the dakkais to her. She tells him that Kolis will be at full strength if Malec dies. He responds that if that happens, they will all pray for death. He urges her to go and try to save him, then takes to the air again, lighting up the Temple grounds.

Eventually, he gets taken down by dakkais and dies. Luckily, he returns like everyone else when the Consort merges with Poppy. After, he takes Malec to Iliseeum.

Click here to see a full-size image of Reaver in his draken form by Kassia Ramos.

JADIS

Click here to see a full-size image of Jadis by art.bymikki.

Hair: Dark.

Preternatural appearance: Greenish brown scales. Long neck. Oval-shaped head.

Personality: Fearless. Inquisitive.

Background: Taken prisoner by the Blood Crown.

Family: Father = Nektas. Mother = Halayna †.

JADIS’S JOURNEY TO DATE:

Oh, dear, sweet Jadis. The visions I first had of her were of her youngling days. She was such a precious little thing. But the more I saw of her, the more a miasma began to cover her visage, leading me to believe that her future was in flux. I now know why, given my understanding that she went missing, and knowing what the Blood Queen has said about the one who came to the mortal realm with Ires, looking for Malec.

Let’s take a peek at what I did see—and do know—about this bacon-loving draken.

A precocious child, Jadis spends most of her time getting into trouble, irritating her older friend Reaver, sleeping, and begging for food. When she meets Sera, she instantly takes to her and isn’t unaffected by the changes occurring within the soon-to-be Primal—like when Sera brings Gemma back to life.

The draken loves Nyktos and spends as much time curled up with him as she can.

Proving just how much she’s taken to the new addition to the Shadowlands, Jadis agrees, at Sera’s request, to eat from a fork, a feat nobody else has been able to do and falls asleep with her in her god form, something the draken only do when they trust implicitly.

Jadis goes to the mountains with Nektas and is left there with Reaver, which makes her incredibly unhappy when she realizes she can’t attend Sera’s coronation.

The bits between this and the future are murky for me, sad to say. The only things I know are supposition and piecemeal factoids. It’s assumed that Jadis accompanied Ires into the mortal realm to look for Malec and was somehow taken prisoner along with the god when Isbeth locked Ires away. After that, we can assume that her blood was used for nefarious purposes since only draken blood can kill a Revenant, and Isbeth killed Coralena. It’s also unknown whether or not she still lives. Isbeth says she was dealt with, but that could mean many things.

I certainly hope that she’s just hidden away somewhere, and Nektas and Sera will be reunited with the sweet girl again so they can help her heal.