But that was neither here nor there.

  “You know Kolis better than anyone,” I stated.

  Something akin to pride sparked in the fuck’s stare.

  “So, even if you were busy getting your ass kicked by Millicent,” I continued, and the pride in his stare quickly vanished, “I’m sure you were aware of his whereabouts.”

  He was back to playing the quiet game.

  “I know you were trying to get to Pensdurth,” I said, remembering what Kieran had said. “Do you know that Pensdurth is no more?”

  His fingers curled inward again.

  “I know you were told.”

  “What I was told is irrelevant,” he said through gritted teeth. “And I know what I felt. A Primal fell.”

  “A Primal did, including your precious Kolis.”

  He chuckled coldly as he looked away. “You’re more delusional than I realized.”

  “And you’re more of an imbecile than I realized, so I guess we’re even.”

  His glare returned to me.

  I winked. “I suspect you know exactly where Kolis would go next.”

  He raised his brows at me.

  “And you may not have been willing to tell the others this,” I continued, “but you should be more forthcoming with me.”

  “Why do you think that?”

  “Because they wouldn’t and couldn’t kill you,” I stated. “But I can.”

  He sighed. “Once again, we’re back to your paltry threats. They’re giving me secondhand embarrassment.”

  I smiled at him.

  Then I summoned the essence.

  Shadows thickened and swelled around me, slipping over the bars. And then I was inside the cell.

  Callum jerked back, slamming against the wall.

  I could’ve just left it at that. The ability to shadowstep alone would’ve sufficed, but I wanted him to understand exactly who was giving him secondhand embarrassment.

  I willed the essence forward. My flesh thinned until silver bone gleamed. The weight of the crown settled on my head as the skin between my shoulder blades tensed. I felt the slow, steady drag along both sides of my spine as those deep muscles contracted. The thin slits of skin tingled as they opened, much like an eyelid, allowing the wings to slip free and unfurl.

  “What the—?” Callum pressed against the wall, eyes going wide as he drew his legs up.

  My smile remained as I stepped forward, lifting the wings until the shadow of them fell across his face. “What were you saying about secondhand embarrassment?”

  His stark gaze traveled to the silver feathers, his mouth opening wordlessly.

  “I don’t recall,” I added. “But I can tell you that the way you’re looking at me now is giving me that same feeling.”

  Callum’s head snapped back, and then he clamored to his feet, rattling the chains. “What the fuck are you?”

  I took another step toward him. “Something that can make Kolis do more than just bleed. Something that can kill you.”

  His throat bobbed.

  “So, again, I suggest you be more forthcoming with me,” I advised, tone almost gentle as the flames flickered. “Where can I find Kolis?”

  He stared, going still.

  My head cocked. The temperature in the cell dropped, extinguishing the fire and plunging the space into a deep gloom that the outside torches barely penetrated.

  “Fuck,” he spat.

  I snapped forward, wrapping my hand around the shit’s throat. He grabbed at me, his fingers slipping off the bone as I lifted him off the floor. “Callum?” I leaned in until my mouth was inches from his ear. “Where is Kolis?”

  He snarled, spitting out a curse.

  A smoky, shadowy laugh parted my lips as crimson-streaked mist seeped from the fingers around his throat.

  Callum’s back bowed, his body going rigid as the mist began to burn his skin.

  “Where?” I repeated, inhaling the scent of charred flesh. “Where is Kolis?”

  “I will never…betray him.” His body trembled as he strained away from the pain. “So, you…may as well kill me,” he gasped.

  “Don’t tempt me with a good time,” I told him, pulling my head back so I could look him in the face. “Because you have no idea how badly I want to.”

  His lips peeled back as his jaw clenched.

  “And my self-restraint?” I drew my lower lip between my teeth as I felt the skin beneath my fingers sink in, whatever was under them turning mushy. I watched the pain ripple across his features. “It’s nearly nonexistent these days.”

  “Then do it,” Callum rasped. “Kill me.”

  My chin lowered as my lip slipped free and pulled back, baring my fangs to him. The growl that rolled from my chest was deep and rumbling, the sound not even remotely mortal. Eather burned my veins as my grip tightened, sealing off his airway.

  I could kill him.

  Easily.

  And without remorse.

  I was sure the fucker was guilty of countless crimes, the most heinous of them being what he allowed to be done to his sister.

  His sister.

  The image of her flashed in my mind: hair the color of red wine, face fiercely beautiful. It was so vivid, so real, that it was a punch to the chest. I tried to reason with myself that she wasn’t really his sister. That even if her soul had once shared blood with the one before me, it didn’t mean there was any true relation between them. That there was a bond like the one I shared with Malik, or the one she shared with Ian.

  Ian.

  The smile on my lips faded as I saw him next. Saw his life being stolen from her. Heard her cries of sorrow and rage.

  My heart stuttered. Stomach lurched.

  I dropped him.

  I couldn’t do it.

  I couldn’t do that to her.

  As fucked as it was, they were blood, and I couldn’t make that call for her. It wasn’t my place.

  Stepping back went against every urge and need within me, but I did it. My chest heaved with the effort to do so as I stared at Callum. He lay sprawled on the floor, moaning, his legs and arms tangled with the chains he’d smiled at when they had been around me.

  I shadowstepped back to Wayfair before I did something I would regret. And I would regret it. Not ending his life, but stealing that life from her, whether it was a life she wanted to share or not.

  The Great Hall was empty as I prowled the length of the main floor, willing the essence and the effects to retreat. It wouldn’t stay that way for long. Kieran would be here soon enough, clucking around me like a mother hen. Had I eaten? Slept? Breathed fresh fucking air?

  Jumping onto the dais, I sat on the throne and focused on keeping myself there. I slowly placed my hands on the arms, feeling the bones beneath my palms as I closed my eyes. I needed calm.

  Then I felt it.

  A shiver of awareness.

  A presence had arrived.

  “Bringer of Ruin,” an infuriating voice boomed.

  And there went that calm.

  “Giver of Wrath,” the annoyingly familiar voice thundered.

  Bringer of Ruin.

  Giver of Wrath.

  Huh. I kind of liked the sound of that as I curled my fingers around a slender bone. I opened my eyes.

  Standing before the dais was the nipple-pierced motherfucker.

  Aydun.

  And he’d brought a friend that I assumed was another Fate.

  A dark-haired male stood behind him, to his right. Tall, with skin the shade of bronzed gold, there was something familiar about the square curve of his jaw beneath the vine-like pattern on it and his brow. Though I wasn’t sure what as I looked him over. He wore the same loose-fitting white pants, but his nipples weren’t pierced.

  Aydun tipped his head back, sending long, brown hair sliding over his shoulder. “Hello, Casteel.”

  Ripping a bone free from the throne, I threw it straight at him.

  “What the—?” Aydun side-stepped in a blur. The other Fate whirled as the bone shot past him, piercing a pillar behind them.

  Aydun squinted at the vibrating bone for a moment before facing me. “Did you just throw a bone at me?”

  “No.” I settled back. “I threw a bone at both of you.”

  The unknown Fate turned back to where I sat with a frown. “Is that how you usually greet guests?”

  “I’ve done worse.”

  Aydun snorted. “Don’t we know.”

  “You’ve been watching?” I asked, inclining my head. “Again?”

  “We’ve all been watching,” he replied.

  I sent him a smirk. “Have you all been entertained?”

  “Entertained is…one way to put it,” the unknown Fate answered. “Disturbed—” The ravens returned, their croaks echoing from above. “Is another.”

  “And who are you?” I asked.

  “You may call me Kyriel.”

  “I call him Ky,” Aydun announced, like I gave a fuck.

  My head straightened. “Would you also say you were afraid, Kyriel? It’s okay, you know.” I smiled. “To be afraid.”

  Aydun snorted. “We are not afraid.”

  “Thought you all couldn’t lie.” I arched a brow. “Ah, but you and the rest of the Arae aren’t Primals. You’re something else entirely, and those rules don’t apply to you.”

  “Careful,” Aydun murmured.

  Propping my elbows on the arms of the throne, I leaned forward and whispered, “Ancient.”

  The ink along the side of Aydun’s face throbbed in tune with his jaw. “I see our little chat had little impact on your choices.”

  “Our little chat?” I huffed out a dry laugh. “Which part?”

  “The one where he said you were her weakness,” Kyriel answered.

  Cold essence throbbed in my chest.

  The marks along Aydun’s face deepened in hue, becoming a darker russet. “Was I wrong?”

  I said nothing, letting the essence appear along the sides of my face in the same pattern.

  Both of their eyes narrowed.

  Grinning, I sat back. “Why are you two here?”

  Neither answered immediately. Kyriel stared at me with marked interest while Aydun eyed his surroundings. That eyebrow of his rose once more as his gaze traced the vines encircling the pillars. “This place sure has changed.”

  “Do you like what I’ve done with it?”

  “Not particularly.”

  My stare slid to Kyriel. “And do you like what you’re staring at?”

  One side of Kyriel’s lips rose. “You should’ve talked to her.”

  My fingers spread across the left arm of the throne. “I see he was eavesdropping on our conversation.”

  Aydun sighed. “There’s no such thing as privacy.”

  “Instead, you chose silence and half-truths every time she asked if something was wrong,” Kyriel continued, undeterred. “And something was. It was eating you up—the mere idea that she didn’t trust you enough to come to you with her fears. The knowledge that she didn’t believe you could stop her before she needed to be put in the ground.”

  “And the fact that she went to your…bestest friend in all the realms instead of you?” Aydun chimed in. “It rotted you.”

  Their knowledge wasn’t surprising, nor was it unnerving. The part of me that could be unsettled had mostly died. But Aydun was wrong.

  Her going to him hadn’t rotted me.

  I’d wanted her to be able to confide in him. Trust him. Rely on him. Rot, the kind he spoke of, was caused by two things: jealousy and hatred. I felt neither of those things toward him.

  It wasn’t worth the effort to correct Aydun, though.

  “Then again, both of them should’ve come to you and let you know what had been promised between them,” Aydun added with a shrug as my fingers tapped idly off the bone. “Poppy is not without fault.”

  Fury coated my skin like slick ice. “Do not speak her name.”

  “My bad.” He lifted his hands. A moment passed. “Can I say his name?”

  “No.”

  “All right, then.” Eyes that were blue, brown, and green rolled.

  “Nice chair, by the way,” Kyriel said. “You do realize we could create one ourselves.”

  “Congratulations.”

  “Thank you,” he replied blithely, a hint of amusement playing across his lips and then vanishing. “Though I don’t need to feed my ego with such endeavors.”

  Fingers still tapping, I smiled at him.

  Kyriel held my stare. “Or my vanity.”

  I arched a brow.

  Aydun approached the dais, crushing the vines beneath his boots as he made no attempt to avoid them. “I warned you. Told you that…she of no name was the Harbinger, the Bringer of Death and Destruction.”

  My tapping slowed. “Yet you failed to mention a few key details.”

  “He did what he could for you to fill in the blanks, much to the rest of our displeasure,” Kyriel stated, sending Aydun a pointed look. “All of you should’ve been smarter. You should’ve been wiser,” he said, as if I had any desire to sit here and be insulted by this fucker. “After all, you felt it inside you from the moment you woke from your stasis. Unia eta eram.”

  Ruin and Wrath.

  “You saw it in your own eyes when you looked upon your reflection.” Aydun crossed his arms. “Felt it every time you summoned the essence.”

  Had I? Possibly. It didn’t fucking matter, though. “You stopped me while I was in Pensdurth.”

  “I did.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I knew you were about to do something incredibly reckless.”

  Reckless? Fuck that. “One of them had her blood on him.”

  “He did.”

  I could feel my flesh hardening and thinning. “And you stopped me from discovering why.”

  “I can tell you why,” Kyriel said. “She bled on him.”

  Rage-barbed eather unfurled within me as I shot out of the throne, making it to the edge of the dais before I hit what felt like a wall, the impact jarring me to my bones.

  Aydun smirked. “Come now, Casteel. Have you forgotten what happened the last time you charged me?”

  “I haven’t forgotten shit,” I snarled. “But you have.”

  “Me?” He scoffed with a lopsided smile. “What could I have possibly forgotten?”

  Lips twisting up at the corner, I summoned the essence. Gathering my strength, I felt the dark, cold, and endless energy rise. Every muscle screamed in protest as I held his gaze, but slowly, like swimming through tar, I lifted my arm.

  Kyriel’s eyes narrowed, and the smirk disappeared from Aydun’s face.

  Mine grew as I tapped a finger against the air and pushed with my will.

  Silver light tinged in shadowy crimson rippled through the space before me, lighting up cords of eather that stretched from him to me. They appeared like strings of power, and I snipped them, snuffing out the eather holding me in place.

  Aydun’s eyes widened a fraction.

  “You forgot I’m not the same as I was the last time you used that on me,” I said, and then pushed with my will.

  Aydun flew backward, hitting a pillar in the alcove. The crack of the impact sent several ravens into the air.

  Unfortunately, he caught himself before falling flat on his face. “Motherfucker,” he muttered, his head snapping up as he dusted off his chest. “That was unnecessary.”

  “And incredibly reckless,” Kyriel spat. “Something you seem to excel at.”

  I prowled the edge of the dais.

  Aydun shoved the hair back from his face. “And don’t forget that it was also rude, Casteel.”

  Twisting his neck, Kyriel leveled his shoulders and inhaled. “Her blood was on him because he was helping her. Did that ever cross your mind?”

  Not at first. It had once I’d had a few hours—or days—to consider it.

  “You should feel bad if it didn’t,” Aydun suggested.

  I didn’t feel remotely bad. “Why are you two here?” I asked again.

  “Maybe I just wanted to say hello,” Aydun said.

  “Don’t play with me.”

  “If I were playing with you, you would be in a far better mood.” He winked. “Promise.”

  A noise as dark as the Abyss escaped through my clenched teeth as I turned to the other Fate. “Why are you here?”

  “Does it matter?”

  I inhaled and tasted smoke. “I will not ask a third time.”

  “That was the fourth time, but who’s counting?” Kyriel pointed out. “I’m here because this one”—he gestured at Aydun—“is here.”

  Wisps of Primal mist seeped from me as I turned my attention to Aydun.

  He held my glare, several tense moments of silence coursing between us as the ink on his face pulsed and churned along his temples. “For fuck’s sake,” he bit out. “You’re even more arrogant than you were before—something that none of us thought was possible.”

  “I live to surprise you.” I returned to the throne and sat. “Now, leave.”

  Instead of leaving, he approached the dais once more. “Do you even know what you’re doing?”

  “Do you even know if I can kill you?” I shot back. “And do you want to find out?”

  “If you wanted to find out, you would have already tried.”

  “True.” I laughed.

  Aydun didn’t look humored. “You have those you do not wish to have on edge.”

  “Hmm?” I murmured.

  “There are talks of…neutralizing you,” Kyriel shared.

  I yawned. “Is there? And those you speak of?” I lifted a leg, resting the ankle on my knee. “Are they other…” I lowered my voice again. “Ancients?”

  That muscle along Kyriel’s jaw was working overtime now.

  “So, they are afraid.” The corner of my lips twisted up. “They should be.”

  Aydun sighed. “Casteel—”

  “That’s not a threat,” I cut in. “Just an observation.” I tapped my thumb off bone. “Do you want to neutralize me, Aydun?”

  His brows lifted. “That sounded inexplicably dirty, but I wouldn’t be here if I wanted that.”

  I glanced at Kyriel. “And you?”

  “Considering it.”

  I chuckled. “At least he’s honest.”

  “I was honest, too,” Aydun claimed.