Page 8 of The Primal of Blood and Bone (Blood and Ash #6)

Kneeling, I took a closer look. In the darkness of the night, the trumpet-shaped blooms and oval leaves were such a deep shade of gray they nearly blended into the nothingness around them. Clearly, this wasn’t their natural state, and I had a feeling I knew what had done this.

I glanced back at the home, remembering how the grass had crunched when we walked. That’d happened outside of each house. I hadn’t paid much attention to it then, but I had a feeling we’d see many lawns of dead grass come morning.

Aware of Emil and Hisa watching me, I reached out and brushed my fingers over a curled leaf. The whole damn thing shattered into a fine, chalky gray dust, releasing a scent I was becoming all too familiar with.

Sweet but stale.

The smell of Death.

I straightened, looking back at the darkened home as I thought about the bite marks on the Ascended’s throats.

Spinning around, I stalked into the street. I found what I was looking for when I spotted the sweeping spires that appeared to have captured the stars from above.

“Uh, Cas?” Emil called.

I turned to Hisa. She and the rest had followed me into the street. “Have all the remaining Blood Crown generals and ranking officers been located?”

“We never had an exact roster. Only what General Da’Neer located at Ironspire,” she answered, her hand resting on the hilt of her sword. “All who were located have been dealt with. At last check, three remained unaccounted for.”

That was better than I’d expected. “Assign General Aylard to oversee the remaining search,” I instructed.

My jaw tightened. I was reluctant to say what was about to come out of my mouth, but if my suspicions were correct, we needed more support.

“I want my father, Lord Sven, and General Damron,” I ordered, naming Perry’s father and the female wolven general close to Hisa, “to enter with a contingent of guards. But stress the importance of keeping the numbers low so as not to stir more unease among the mortals.”

Surprise flickered over her otherwise impassive features. “Their orders?”

“Two of the generals and their chosen guards are to assist with securing the Ascended,” I said.

Her head tilted slightly. “And the third?”

“I want them and their guards stationed at the Shadow Temple,” I advised. “They are to make sure nothing enters or leaves, be it mortal, god, or shadow.”

Naill’s brows lifted. “Is there a reason?”

I exhaled heavily. “I fucking hope not.”

“I heard you were looking for me,” Reaver said the following afternoon, brushing past me and entering the bedchamber.

“Come on in,” I muttered, pushing my temper down as I forced myself to gently close the door instead of ripping it off its hinges and beating Reaver upside the head with it.

The draken ignored the comment as I crossed the chamber. He’d stopped at the foot of the bed, looking down at Poppy. His angular features appeared even sharper. “She doesn’t…”

I waited for him to finish. “What?” I asked when he didn’t.

He went to speak, then shook his head. It struck me then that he hadn’t been this close to Poppy since she went into stasis. None of his feelings showed in his expression, nor could I pick up anything from him. But neither could Poppy.

“What did you want?” he asked.

“You heard what happened last night?” I asked, walking to the table.

“Other than me almost causing Emil to piss himself?”

I almost laughed as I picked up the decanter next to the untouched plate of covered food. “Yes, other than that.”

“And something other than you actually leaving this chamber and stepping up?”

Fingers tightening around the neck of the decanter, I slowly lifted my gaze to him.

Whatever he saw on my face erased the shit-eating grin from his. “I heard something happened with the Ascended,” he said finally. “That they were killed.”

“Someone bit them and drained their blood.” Pulling the crystal stopper from the decanter, I poured myself a glass. “I don’t know how much you know about the Ascended—”

“I know enough,” he cut in as I placed the decanter down. “You aren’t going to offer me a drink?”

“No.” I lifted the glass in a mock toast.

Those vertical pupils contracted as his eyes narrowed. “You’re as annoying as that wolf. Possibly even more so.”

“Thank you.”

“That wasn’t a compliment.”

“So you say.” I took a drink. “ Anyway , since you know enough about the Ascended, then I’ll get to the point.”

Reaver was quiet, hopefully listening.

“No one was seen entering or leaving those homes,” I continued. “And those I trust are confident it’s not a situation where one of our people disobeyed orders.”

“That’s…odd.” He cocked his head, sending strands of hair against his cheek. “But I’m not sure what that has to do with me.”

“Nektas said…” I glanced at Poppy, not wanting to discuss this shit while she slept—I didn’t know what she could hear. I lowered my voice when I spoke again. “He said we stopped Kolis from returning to his full flesh and bone form. We assumed that meant he wasn’t entirely corporeal.”

Reaver stiffened, immediately getting where my mind had gone. “You think it was him?” He moved away from the bed and walked to the table. His voice lowered, too. “Just because no one saw anyone committing this crime? Or because someone said they believe your people obeyed orders?”

“It’s not just that.” I leaned against the chair. “The flowers and lawns were dead in front of those homes—and only those homes.”

He opened his mouth.

“The plants were completely gray and shattered with a single touch,” I added. “And it smelled like the houses did. Sweet yet stale. Not only that, one of the homes had dead birds in it.”

Reaver inhaled sharply. “Sweet yet… Like the Revenants smell? Like stale lilacs?”

Taking a sip, I nodded. The Revs did smell like stale lilacs. Except for Millicent—the First Daughter spoken of in that damn prophecy—who was a Revenant yet…not.

Poppy’s sister.

The scent didn’t cling to her. Come to think of it, Callum didn’t smell like stale lilacs either. Then again, they weren’t like the other Revenants.

Reaver’s brows slashed together. “Kolis has to be here. Or, at the very least, close. If not, the Blood Queen wouldn’t have acted when she did. But I don’t sense him. Neither have any of the other draken.”

“Would you have sensed him if he wasn’t fully restored?”

Reaver snapped his jaw shut. A moment passed. “I don’t know.”

“Is it possible for Kolis’s form to be more like a spirit? As in being able to move unseen but possessing enough of a physical form to have fangs.”

A single brow arched. “You do realize how…nonsensical that sounds, right?”

“Yes.” I sighed. “I do.” Taking a drink, I watched him drift away from the table. “So?”

“I suppose,” he said, stopping at the window. “Considering how he was put into stasis and how long he remained in it, there’d be little left of him but a few bones and blood.”

“What do you mean by put into stasis like he was ?”

“He was impaled to his tomb with the bones of an Ancient. It wouldn’t have killed him, but it would have slowly eaten away at him until only his essence remained. I suppose that could appear as a spirit.”

Something struck me that I hadn’t thought about until then. “But he was being fed,” I said, mentioning the tomb in Oak Ambler I hadn’t been there to see. “Wouldn’t that mean he’d have some form?”

“The essence of any Primal is the Primal soul. The aru’lis is different from a mortal’s or another god’s. It has form, a shape, even if it appears as nothing more than a shadow to us.” He paused. “And the aru’lis can solidify for short periods of time.”

Meaning, there’d be fangs.

The aru’lis sounded like ancient Atlantian—the language of the gods that I barely recognized. But if Kolis was nothing more than a shadow right now, then that would explain how he could’ve entered the residences without being noticed. “Do you know how he can go from that form to his full state?”

Reaver was quiet for a long moment, his gaze shifting to Poppy.

“I only know of one way.” A shadow flashed across his face, too quick for me to decipher, as he turned his stare to mine. “I was a youngling when I heard Seraphena and Ione—the Goddess of Rebirth—speaking about it.”

My lips pressed into a flat line. “I know who Ione is.”

He let out a low, gruff huff, the sound thick with barely concealed irritation. “A vessel is needed.”

I waited for him to continue.

He didn’t.

My grip tightened on the glass. “Did you happen to overhear how one obtains such a vessel?”

“The aru’lis would need to enter the vessel at the very moment the soul leaves their body. One moment too soon, and you’d have a situation where two souls would be in one body. And no one wants that again,” he said, muttering the last part.

Again ?

“The vessel would need to possess, at the very least, similar embers—the essence—as those carried within the aru’sòl ,” he said. “I don’t know if it has ever been attempted or successful.”

What he spoke of sounded like something that could go south in numerous ways. My gaze drifted to Poppy as I lifted the glass. Luckily, no one who possessed the same kind of essence as Kolis was around—

My heart thumped as I realized how wrong I was. Poppy carried that essence. I likely did now, too—or some version of it. And…

I lowered the glass and turned to Reaver. “Malec would’ve carried embers similar to Kolis’s, right?”

Reaver nodded. “He is Nyktos’s son. And Nyktos carries embers of true Death as—”

“Kolis’s nephew,” I finished for him. “I know.”

“Just making sure.”

I ignored the comment. It made it sound like he doubted my intelligence. “Could Poppy have been a vessel?”

Reaver’s look confirmed my suspicion regarding his tone. “Not until she completed her Ascension.”

As I turned over his words, I remembered how stunned Isbeth had been when Poppy wielded her Primal powers. She hadn’t expected that.