Page 195 of The Primal of Blood and Bone (Blood and Ash #6)

POPPY

One moment, I was standing. The next, I was airborne as red-hot pain tore through me—blinding and absolute. My chest locked tight, lungs seizing before I could even take another breath or scream.

I crashed into something hard—maybe a pillar?

Whatever it was, it knocked out any air that was left in my lungs.

Falling forward, I couldn’t get my arms or legs to work to stop the fall.

I hit the floor with a sickening crunch of bones as a fire raged in my skin and under it, shorting out my senses.

I lay there, the realm dark and silent, completely absent of light and sound.

No.

The realm wasn’t dark. I realized my eyes were closed as waves of agony coursed through my body, locking every muscle.

The breath-stealing fire lessened with each pass but all that did was leave room for other pain.

A dull ache in my ribs. A burning in my shoulder.

Each breath I took required effort as I lay there, the scent of death and…

charred flesh filling lungs that felt shrunken.

The charred flesh…

It was mine. It was where the essence had hit me. I could feel it: the torn, seeping skin. It wasn’t a direct hit, and it wasn’t a killing release of eather. Either the blow to his heart had weakened him or—

My hearing returned, bringing with it the sound of something dripping, and the smack of bare feet against stone.

Something I couldn’t afford to acknowledge skittered down my spine, stroking the eather.

Bitter acid gathered in the back of my throat, along with a faint metallic taste.

I peeled my eyes open. I was staring at the dome, which meant I was still on my back.

Get up. I needed to get up. I knew this.

I couldn’t remain down. Vikter had drilled that into me, but my brain was having trouble getting the message to my arms and legs.

A deep voice hummed softly. “You really thought you could fool me.”

We had, but that didn’t matter. What did was the fact that I needed to get control of my body and move.

“That you could take me on.” His laugh filled the silent Hall.

The essence throbbed as I pulled on every ounce of willpower I had in me.

I managed to roll onto my side with a groan.

The Hall spun, a dizzying rush of crimson and ivory before my vision cleared and everything came into startling clarity.

Red furniture. White walls. Red smeared on the marble tile.

Something in a messy heap, smoking—something in black with golden-bronze skin.

Attes .

My heart stuttered as I stared at the body lying on the other side of the Hall, closer to the door. The chest of his black tunic was torn open, and blood pooled under him. He wasn’t moving, and the sickening smell of burning flesh wasn’t just mine.

The sound of footsteps drew closer and then stopped.

Kolis.

Move .

My fingers spasmed, and then my hand. Move .

A rush of pins and needles swept up my arm.

Fight . Squeezing my eyes shut, I focused on the hot feeling in my chest. Not the pain.

I forced all my attention on the essence as white crossed into my line of sight.

Pants. White pants drenched in crimson. The thin material was pulled taut, lifting and then stretching over knees as Kolis knelt beside me.

“You’re lucky, so’lis .” His blood-streaked hand appeared. Cold fingers grazed my forehead, causing me to flinch. His chuckle deepened, becoming rough. “That you are so loved .”

My insides withered.

“He took a direct hit for you—for someone who doesn’t even remember all he’s done for you. All he sacrificed for you.” Kolis’s fingers trailed over my temple. “Or perhaps I should say all he forced others to sacrifice for him.”

I had no idea what he was talking about, and I didn’t really care. Not when all I could do was roll onto my side. Not when he was touching me.

“He’s not dead,” Kolis shared. “Not yet. Not until I want him to be.”

That was a relief.

A sick one.

Feeling had returned to my legs, the muscles there twitching painfully.

“Unlike you, I made promises I intend to keep.” Kolis drew his fingers over my cheek, and my heart lurched as I realized he was tracing the scar there. “I can’t believe you actually stabbed me.”

The spasms in my calves and thighs settled.

“I wasn’t expecting that.” Kolis let out a laugh that was soft and disgustingly pleasant. His fingers slid over my lips, tugging on the lower one. “I know. I know. I should have. But I will admit, you caught me off guard. I didn’t expect the attitude mixed with the offer of submission.”

Each breath I took became easier.

“It was possibly the most contradictory spectacle I’ve seen in a long time.” His hand was now coasting over my throat, lingering briefly where my pulse had slowed. “But you’re probably wondering why I’m not nearly as weakened as you likely believed I would be.”

I wasn’t.

The thing that looked like Isbeth had said he’d been fed while entombed. Clearly, that had been the truth because he was just about as weakened as Casteel had been when I plunged the dagger into his heart.

But I had wounded Casteel.

And I knew I had wounded Kolis.

I could hear it in his voice: a strain under each word, a bite of pain that thinned his breath.

“I may have been little more than bones when I was freed, but I was never weak. I’ve never been weak—not like my brother or nephew. That was something they never understood.” His hand slipped lower. “But they will.”

I held myself still, giving the essence time to heal what it could so I could fight—do some real damage.

That was all I could think about because I knew I wasn’t defeating him.

I wasn’t getting out of this. Healing from the blow of essence would nearly drain me.

I knew I didn’t have it in me to even shadowstep.

I was weaker than when I entered Iliseeum, but even then, I wouldn’t have won.

But this wasn’t about winning anymore.

It wasn’t even about surviving.

I gasped as the sick bastard’s palm pressed into my injured shoulder.

Kolis’s hand stilled. “Gods, it has been so long since I’ve heard that breathy sound coming from your lips.” The edges of his hair tickled my forehead. “It still makes me hard.”

My body went cold.

“Maybe I stopped loving you long before now because I don’t think causing you pain should elicit such a response,” he mused as I gritted my teeth. “But I did love you, so’lis . You ruined that.”

Even if I could muster up the effort to tell him I didn’t give a fuck, I wouldn’t have wasted my breath.

His face appeared above mine as he leaned over me from behind. The skin at the corners of his mouth was pinched white despite the smile. A sheen of sweat glistened on his brow.

“By the way, you’ve always been terrible at keeping in what you’re thinking and feeling.

” His palm moved away from my aching shoulder, and I immediately wished it had remained there.

The curve of his lips widened. “You have tells. A slight squint of the eyes, a twitch of the fingers, a shallow swallow, a too-quick inhale.” His lips grazed the bridge of my nose.

Pain rippled across my chest, causing me to inhale sharply. “Just like that.”

Kolis moved suddenly, twisting his body so he was above me, his knees on either side of my hips.

My gaze lowered to the wound in his chest. The tear in his skin remained, leaving the edges of the flesh jagged.

Blood no longer poured from the wound, but it hadn’t healed, and that had to mean something.

“You were right, you know. About what I want. At least, part of it.” His hand was moving again. “I do want you.”

He’d said that once, and it was enough.

“What’s inside you,” he repeated, his breath coasting over my cheek as his hand slipped under the shirt and brushed the bare skin of my stomach.

“But I don’t want to destroy cities. I want what is due to me.

What I am owed.” His fingers slipped lower, pulling the band of my breeches taut.

I couldn’t focus on that—any of it. I wouldn’t.

“However, I do want a bit more than a little senseless killing. Starting with that husband of yours. His arrogance reminds me of…” His head lifted, his gaze moving to Attes.

“Not just him. Not even Kyn.” His eyes narrowed, and then he muttered something in the language of the gods as my skin crawled.

He spoke it too fast and low for me to hear past the buzzing that had started in my ears.

“Anyway, he will die. So will that wolf with him.”

Fear started to slither its way through me—

No.

I squeezed my eyes shut. I couldn’t give in to that. I needed to stay calm. My heart pounded, though, because how the fuck was I supposed to be calm in this situation? He was going to kill me. Then, he would turn his sights on Carsodonia.

“I’m going to tell you what’s going to happen…” His hand slipped away, delving into the hair above my braid. He jerked my head back, sending a wave of fiery pain down my spine. “And I need you to pay attention, Poppy. So, open your fucking eyes and listen, or I will make you, just as the Duke did.”

The Duke.

Teerman.

For a moment, I wasn’t lying on the floor of Seacliffe Manor’s Great Hall. I was in Teerman’s favorite office with its dark walls and crimson furniture. I could feel the cold, smooth desk against the bare skin of my chest, and the even colder, smoother surface of his cherished cane against my back.

My eyes snapped open as rage burned straight through the cold terror and pain. I met his stare.

Kolis smirked. “I had plans for you. For him.” Streaks of midnight eather lashed across the crimson of his eyes. “I wanted to fuck you while I drained you, and I wanted him to watch.”

My eyes didn’t squint.