Page 112 of The Primal of Blood and Bone (Blood and Ash #6)

“Malik,” Tawny murmured. “The even less friendly Da’Neer?”

My eyebrows rose.

“I heard that,” came Malik’s voice.

Tawny pressed her lips together and puffed out her cheeks.

Malik strode into the sitting chamber, a single brow arched as he glanced down at Tawny before his gaze flicked to me and then his brother. He looked a little better than he had last night—the shadows under his eyes weren’t so unforgiving.

“I didn’t mean to interrupt,” he said.

“Tawny doesn’t mind,” Casteel remarked.

She huffed.

Casteel winked.

“Once again,” I said, “that is not as charming as you think it is.”

“And, once again, you’re a terrible liar.” Casteel turned to his brother. “What did you need?”

“I need to speak to you two in private.” Malik shifted his stance, his hands in his pockets as he glanced at Tawny. “No offense. It’s business related to the Crown.”

Tawny sighed. “I guess that’s a nudge for me to leave so you can be all queenly.”

My lips curved up. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay.” She picked up my braid and smoothed the ends. “I know you’ll be busy being Queen and everything, along with keeping him ”—she paused, sending a pointed look over my shoulder—“entertained. But will we have time to talk more?”

“I don’t know.” Casteel took a drink. “Keeping me entertained is a full-time job.”

Tawny snorted.

“I’ll have time,” I assured.

“I’m going to hold you to it,” she warned, rising. As she walked past the brothers, she did so slowly enough to give Casteel a once-over. “You’d better be treating her like the Queen she is.”

“Always,” he replied.

“Good.” Tawny all but pranced toward the door.

“Tawny?” I called, standing.

Stopping a foot into the Solar, she turned. “Yes?”

Pressure built in my chest. “You haven’t had any…sensitivity to light, have you?”

Her head cocked as Casteel stiffened. “Not that I’ve noticed. Why?”

A little bit of relief swept in until I realized I had to come up with a reason for asking her that. “I just…wondered with…the change in your hair and eyes if it made you more sensitive to sunlight.”

“Uh, no.” Tawny smoothed a hand over the front of her gown. “But you’ll be the first to know if that changes.”

I smiled at her.

“See you this evening.” Tawny waved rather jauntily before pivoting on her heel and walking off, her footsteps fading.

The moment the door closed behind her, Casteel shook his head. “Your friend is…”

My eyes closed as the sorrow I’d checked earlier resurfaced. “Perfect.”

“I wouldn’t go that far.”

“Talk bad about her, and I will be kissing a barrat before your lips touch mine again.”

Malik’s lips curled as Casteel chuckled.

I turned to Malik, remembering that he’d been wounded. I glanced down at his arm covered by the long sleeve of his surcoat. I wondered if Kieran had healed him like I suggested, or if Malik had declined.

“How’s your arm?”

“Completely healed,” he answered with a tight smile. “There’s something I wanted you two to see.”

“You’re not going to tell us what?” Casteel asked, wariness in his stare as he set his tumbler aside.

“I’d prefer to show you,” he replied, his head tilting in the way his brother’s often did.

Curiosity rose. “When?”

He seemed to think about that for a moment. “Tomorrow morning.”

I glanced at Casteel, and he nodded. “That should work.”

“Perfect.” Malik stepped back. “I’ll see you both in the morning then.”

Casteel nodded again and watched as Malik turned and left. The moment the door closed behind him, he pushed away from the credenza. “What happened earlier?” he asked.

Knowing what he was asking about, my stomach began to twist. “Remember when we were talking about how Kolis and Nyktos can capture souls?”

He nodded.

“I think—no, I know —there are different ways to do it,” I said, my throat tightening as the tingling sensation skittered across my neck. “And it can be done with a god. But I don’t think it’s meant to be used on a mortal.”

“That makes sense. A mortal without a soul would be…”

“Basically dead, for all intents and purposes.” My throat tightening, I walked back to the settee and sat. “The mortal body can continue without a soul, but the soul makes a person who they are. Without it, they become a…” My brows knitted. “A…”

“A thanion .”

My head whipped toward him. “How did you know that?”

“Soul Eaters,” he said, dropping into the chair across from me. “They usually killed while taking a soul, but sometimes, their…victims survived.”

“And they didn’t know they had lost their soul?”

He shook his head as he leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees.

“From what I can remember, they wouldn’t notice a difference at all until they started to change.

” His lips pursed. “It’s almost like the vamprys, but their transformation is more internal.

Like eventually developing a lack of empathy and feeling unpredictable rage or engaging in sudden cruelty.

Without their souls, they lose their memories of who they were, and when that happens, they become soulless…

” He inhaled sharply, sitting straight. “Is that why you asked Tawny if she was sensitive to light?”

I nodded.

He didn’t speak.

“I…I don’t know if it was because of me trying to heal her when she was wounded by shadowstone or if the essence of Death reared its head.

It could’ve even been the part of me that others feared.

” Shame scalded my insides, even though I knew it wasn’t my fault.

I hadn’t intended to do it, but I hadn’t understood my powers then, and that lack of knowledge hadn’t stopped me. “Either way, I did that.”

His eyes shut.

My fingers curled inward, nails digging into my palms as I felt Kieran drawing near. “I took her soul.”

Casteel twisted his head to the side. “Oh, Poppy,” he whispered.

“And I…I can’t release it.” My voice thinned as an ache settled deep inside me like a weight I couldn’t shake. I forced a slow, even breath. In and then out. “I Ascended with her soul, which shouldn’t have happened,” I told him, even though I didn’t fully understand it. “And her soul?”

Casteel’s eyes opened.

“It’s lost.”

He was before me in a heartbeat, his hands folding over mine.

And, gods, this was why I loved him so damn much.

We’d been arguing before Tawny showed up.

Something was clearly up between us, but when it came down to it—when I needed him?

He was here . “It’s not your fault. You were trying to heal her.

You had no idea this could happen,” he said.

“I know.” And I did. Truly. But knowing it didn’t make things better. “I have to tell her.”

“You do.” He lifted my hand and pressed a kiss to my marriage imprint. “But before we do that, let’s try to find out if there is something we can do. We can check with Sven. See if he knows of anything. Even Willa. We have time.”

“How much?”

“It all depends on the person and how long they can hold on to who they are.” He smoothed his thumb over the imprint. “And Tawny is strong.”

“She is,” I said, desperately wanting there to be something we could do.

But the vadentia was silent, and I didn’t know enough about the foresight to understand if that meant I simply didn’t know or if the silence was the answer.

That nothing could be done.