I sighed at the less-than-friendly greeting.

  “She’s awake,” came Reaver’s low, raspy voice.

  Kieran remained firmly planted in front of the door. “And?”

  “Kieran,” I snapped, shoving back from the table. “Let him in.”

  He extended an arm, pushing the door open farther in the slowest manner possible. I stood. Just when I thought I would have to tell Kieran he also needed to move aside, he did.

  Kind of.

  Reaver wasn’t small by any means, but all I saw of him as he squeezed past Kieran was a glimpse of a bare chest.

  Having no idea if Reaver was actually wearing clothing, I dared a quick glance. Relieved to find he was wearing loose black pants instead of a curtain or nothing, I stepped toward him.

  He stopped a few feet inside the chamber and tilted his chin down, sending shoulder-length blond hair swinging forward. “It is good to find you awake.” He lifted his head as Kieran pushed the door closed. “And that you appear to be yourself.”

  I shifted on my feet, my toes curling against the stone. “Glad to be…back to myself.” I clasped my hands together as a vague memory of seeing Reaver flying backward surfaced. “And I’m sorry for anything I might’ve done while—”

  “No need,” Reaver interrupted.

  “For once,” Casteel said, setting his glass down, “I agree with him.”

  I glanced at the fine cracks in the wall and winced. “I really feel like there is a need, though.”

  “You were not yourself.”

  I hadn’t been, but still. “That’s no ex—”

  “I didn’t come here for an unnecessary apology, Poppy.”

  “Shouldn’t you address her as meyaah Liessa?” Casteel asked, his gaze fixed on Reaver as his finger tapped the side of his glass.

  I hadn’t even caught that he hadn’t called me what roughly translated into my Queen in old Atlantian.

  “The Queen of the Gods is awake,” Reaver replied, his tone flat. “Therefore, she is meyaah Liessa.”

  Casteel’s finger stilled, and Kieran stiffened. “That is not what you said the last time we spoke.”

  “What I said was that it has never applied to Nektas or me,” Reaver replied, crossing his arms.

  “You never said Poppy was no longer your meyaah Liessa,” Casteel said, his voice dropping low.

  Too low.

  It was time for me to step in. “It really doesn’t matter.”

  “Disagree.” Casteel’s stare remained on Reaver.

  “I’d honestly prefer if he called me Poppy,” I said, stepping to the side so I stood between them. “And you know that.”

  “That’s not the issue, my Queen,” Casteel said.

  “The issue is that this would be really inconvenient timing for the draken to no longer serve you,” Kieran advised, his voice tight.

  I tensed, my gaze swiveling back to Reaver. Did that mean the draken would be returning to Iliseeum?

  “I never said we no longer served her,” Reaver responded, his tone as dry as the biscuit I’d given Kieran. “Only that the true Queen is now awake and—”

  “It’s okay.” I stopped him with a wave of my hand. “Are you…leaving?”

  Reaver’s brow furrowed. “Leaving to where?”

  “To return home.”

  “Why would I do that?” The crease between his brows deepened.

  “Seraphena is awake and…?”

  “You woke us and secured our pledge to give you aid,” Reaver said. “That has not changed.”

  “Could it?” Casteel questioned.

  “If Seraphena summons us, then yes,” he answered. “But I do not foresee that happening unless…”

  “Unless what?” I asked.

  He exhaled slowly. I couldn’t tell if it was from frustration or unease. “Unless our aid is needed there, and if that occurs, it means Nektas has fallen. So, let’s hope that does not occur.”

  My breath caught as what he said registered. The idea of the first draken falling was hard to even comprehend. “Yes,” I murmured, swallowing as I fiddled with a button on my robe. “Let’s hope.” Knowing Reaver wasn’t one for idle visits, I cleared my throat. “Did you need something?”

  “Your help,” Reaver answered, his gruff voice even more gravelly than usual. “I need your help freeing Jadis.”

  CHAPTER 21

  POPPY

  “Jadis?” I whispered, my eyes widening. “Oh, gods.”

  Casteel was on his feet and beside me in the blink of an eye. He curled his hand around my upper arm. “You okay?”

  “Yeah. Yes.” I plucked at a button on the robe. “I just…I forgot about her.” I looked up at Reaver. “I’m so sorry. I should’ve remembered.”

  “A lot has happened since you woke,” Cas reminded me.

  “Yes, but…” That was a huge thing to forget. “Where is she?”

  “She’s in the Willow Plains, beneath Ironspire,” Reaver answered, speaking of the citadel atop the highest point in the Willow Plains, surrounded by four rivers fed by the sea. “Those who once occupied Ironspire and the dorms along the low ground were dealt with.”

  I figured as much, based on what I had just discussed with Kieran and Cas. “Do I want to know what dealt with entailed?”

  “Probably not,” Reaver confirmed.

  My nose scrunched. “And where is Jadis in Ironspire?”

  “She entombed herself beneath the citadel, and I couldn’t…”

  Letting go of my arm, Casteel looked over at Reaver. His chin had dipped, and his hair hung like a curtain to shield his face.

  Reaver let out a dry cough before continuing. “I couldn’t reach her in her sleep.”

  Sorrow lodged in my chest as I stared at him. He rarely showed emotion, but what he struggled with now was in every strained word he spoke.

  “I know…” Reaver eased the tension in his throat. “I know that, uh, there is a lot you need to get caught up on.” He lifted his head, and his gaze slid toward Casteel. “Since I doubt either of them were wise enough to spend the time since you woke and returned doing anything but copulating—”

  “Copulating?” I exclaimed.

  Casteel’s hand slid down my back. “It means—”

  “I know what it means,” I said, deciding against pointing out that Reaver’s statement hadn’t included only the two of us, and focused on something else he’d said. “You knew I was gone?”

  “I felt it the moment you left the realm.”

  “Oh,” I whispered, glancing at Kieran. He had returned to the table and grabbed the last biscuit from the bowl.

  “I know there are things you must do,” Reaver reiterated, “it’s just that Jadis…” He closed his eyes, and I saw the ridges of his scales become more apparent. Casteel stepped closer to me, and Kieran halted in tearing up more of his biscuit. “I don’t know how long she’s been entombed like that. And I don’t know why she did it. But I can… I know she’s not in good shape.”

  “I understand. So does Casteel. And I’m sure anyone else would, too,” I said. “We’ll take care of her now.”

  “Thank—” Reaver inhaled deeply, the sound reedy as he blinked rapidly. “Thank you.”

  I really hoped he had a reason to thank me. I turned to look for my boots. “Do you happen to know how I can wake her?”

  “Nektas believes your touch may do it since it woke him before,” Reaver said.

  Based on how Casteel’s jaw tightened, and the way the eather behind Kieran’s eyes pulsed, I could tell that neither of them was thrilled with that. “I don’t know why that worked, and I don’t know if it will…” Shouldn’t the foresight tell me? I inhaled deeply and closed my eyes—

  “What are you doing?” Kieran asked.

  “Trying to see if the vadentia will tell me why or how it works,” I said.

  “How’s that working out for you?”

  My eyes popped open, and I sent him a glare.

  He smirked. “Not good, I see.”

  “I’m never giving you another biscuit,” I muttered, turning to see that Casteel had retrieved my boots and placed them by the chair I’d been sitting in. “At least he’s being helpful.”

  “And I’m not?” Kieran replied.

  I shook my head, sat, and picked up my boot.

  Casteel knelt before me. “There’s time for you to get changed, you know.”

  “No one will see her,” Reaver said. “I’ve made sure Ironspire remains unoccupied.”

  “Then I don’t need to change.” My eyes met Reaver’s. “Jadis has waited long enough.”

  “I think I’ll stay behind,” Kieran announced, glancing at me. “Someone has to.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Reaver commented.

  “Glad I have your approval,” Kieran drolled.

  Reaver raised a brow at him and then said to me, “I wouldn’t waste time convincing him to shadowstep. Those of duality have always had an aversion to it.”

  “Even you?” I questioned.

  Reaver nodded.

  “But you can fly.”

  “It’s not the same thing,” Reaver muttered.

  “Are you sure staying is what you want?” Casteel asked Kieran.

  “It’s one hundred percent what I want,” he replied. His eyes narrowed on me when I started to smile. “And when you return, you and I are going to discuss you traveling to another realm by yourself.”

  My smile faded.

  Kieran smirked as Casteel slid on a leather baldric. “Yeah, I haven’t forgotten about that.”

  I sighed as I tugged on my other boot and then stood. Casteel sheathed a blade on his chest, and we walked out to where Reaver waited in the wide, empty hall.

  Kieran turned to me and clasped the back of my head. “Be careful,” he said, pressing his lips against my forehead. “You only just returned to us.”

  My eyes closed and my chest squeezed at the sound of his voice, low and rough with emotion.

  “Poppy?” he pressed.

  I cleared my throat. “I will be.”

  Straightening, he gave Casteel a curt nod before walking away. He made it a few steps before stopping, his shoulders rising as he stiffly turned his head toward Reaver. “I hope your friend is as well as she can be.”

  Reaver’s jaw loosened as he stared in silence. “Thank you,” he said roughly.

  What Kieran said to Reaver surprised me, but that wasn’t what had my stomach suddenly twisting into knots.

  “Poppy?” Casteel said quietly.

  Blinking, I dragged my gaze from Kieran’s retreating back and looked at him.

  Concern filled his gaze. “You okay?”

  I thought I said yes, but my heartbeat pounded as I ran through everything that had happened since Kieran entered the chamber—every glance between Casteel and him. There hadn’t been many, even during supper, though I thought they had acted normally. But when I thought back, I realized they hadn’t really spoken to each other about much outside of plans for the kingdom—at least not out loud. Kieran had told me nothing was going on, and I had wondered if maybe he’d been telling the truth, but thinking back on it now, it had been as if they barely knew each other. And the whole interaction had been…tense.

  Which wasn’t normal.

  It should’ve come as no surprise that Casteel not only wanted to try his hand at shadowstepping but excelled at it.

  I guessed the Fates really did have a reason to be worried about him following me to the other realm.

  “Setti is going to be even angrier with me,” Casteel said as the silver flicker of eather faded behind us, revealing the citadel’s entrance hall. “Because I’m not sure how one could travel on horseback after that.”

  “I know. I’m going to be incredibly lazy now,” I said, looking around. I sensed the presence of a draken but knew Reaver hadn’t arrived yet.

  Remembering Kieran’s horrified expression, I grinned as I looked around. Vibrant shades of red, yellow, and blue light danced across the emblem of a circle with an arrow piercing it. The Royal Crest of the Blood Crown. My gaze moved upward. I’d only ever seen Ironspire from a distance a few times. From the outside, the spires that gave it its name seemed as tall as the Elysium Peaks, stretching like fingers encased in iron reaching for the sky. Sunlight filtered through the stained glass, filling the hollow structures with a kaleidoscope of colors and casting shadows against the iron beams and narrow walkways. I couldn’t fathom how they had been built, and that reminded me of the impossible-to-imagine buildings I’d seen in the Continents.

  Buildings that no longer stood.

  Chest aching with sorrow, I lowered my gaze and glanced around the rotunda’s dark iron walls. I couldn’t help but wonder what was happening to those who had survived in the Continents. I wanted—

  Stopping that thought, I focused on where we were. Four hallways extended like the points of a compass, remnants of crimson and gold banners hanging from the arched entrances—charred remnants.

  Ironspire was as quiet as a tomb. Eerily so.

  Crossing my arms over my chest, I watched as Casteel systematically inspected each hall for any threats, the filtered light from above glancing off the iron hilt of the blade strapped to his chest. I hadn’t wanted to waste time looking for a thigh harness, and besides, what I wore wasn’t very conducive to weapons access. But now that I thought about it, I hadn’t seen the bloodstone and wolven-bone dagger—the one I’d learned had been carved from the bone of Malik’s bonded wolven, Preela.

  Delano’s sister.

  My stomach churned at the thought of that as we entered the southern hall. “Where is my dagger?”

  “In the chest.” Casteel scanned the eastern hall. “I placed it there after the Rev got into the chamber.”

  He turned to me and ran his fingers along the strap securing a dagger to his torso. His hair, having grown longer than when we first met, naturally parted in the middle. When he tilted his chin to the side, glossy, black strands fell forward to brush his eyebrows. I swept my gaze over his features as he came toward me, noting that the hollows beneath his cheeks were starker, drumming forth concern. “You need to feed.”

  “I will.” His gaze searched mine. “I’m sure you know this already, but I feel the need to say it. I wish you’d held off on doing this. You just woke up and then were pulled into that other realm.”

  “I’m okay,” I said for what felt like the hundredth time.

  “I know you are.” He lowered his voice. “But a lot has happened.”

  A lot felt like an understatement. Like with Kieran, I had a feeling he was talking more about learning that I’d been under Kolis’s influence than what had happened in the Continents. Still, my mind kept flashing to the tension between him and Kieran and what he’d asked me before I crossed the Veil. Those words—Do you?—came to the forefront of my mind, causing my stomach to twist.

  “Is everything okay with you and Kieran?” I asked, uncomfortable with the question.

  He tilted his head to the side, and his eyes cooled to a polished amber. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

  “I don’t know.” I shifted my weight from one foot to the other as I picked up nothing from him. He had his shields up. “It’s just that you two acted kind of strange with each other.”

  “Really?”

  I nodded.

  “We’ve been worried. Probably has us both feeling a little off,” he said, brushing a strand of hair behind my ear.

  His answer was nearly the exact response I’d gotten from Kieran. It made sense, but did it really explain the distance between them? The doubt I’d picked up from him before I crossed the Veil? “I know that I can come to you with anything.”

  “I know,” he said.

  I didn’t feel the sharp, cutting doubt then. But I didn’t feel anything. He still had his emotions walled off, which wasn’t entirely abnormal.

  “I do.” Dipping his head, he brushed his lips across my forehead. “Okay?”

  Twisting a button on the robe, I nodded, even though I wanted to ask him why he’d questioned it then. Had I mistaken what I’d felt? Seen? It wasn’t impossible, but the nagging voice wanted me to push. There was also another, much louder voice, telling me to let it go. He said he knew. Both he and Kieran had assured me that everything was fine. There was no reason for me to harp on it.

  Those words were familiar.

  I’d heard something similar a hundred times when I wore the veil and the Ascended claimed something I had difficulty believing. Let it go. It was easier—

  Casteel tucked another strand of my hair back. “I can tell a thousand different things are running through your head.”

  Exhaling a long, slow breath, I shoved all of that aside. There were far more important things for me to be thinking about. “Is it that obvious?”

  “A little.” He dropped his hand. “What’s on your mind?”

  “Just…everything,” I said.

  “Like?” He reached over and placed his fingers over mine. Energy danced between us as he gently pulled my fingers away from the button I was bound to break.

  “Kolis,” I decided on. “It’s possible he’s corporeal now.”

  “Seeing him will make killing him easier.”

  “True.” A knot of unease formed in the pit of my stomach. I let out a slow, even breath to ease the tension gathering inside me. Feeling Casteel’s piercing stare on me, I shifted my thoughts from Kolis. “You mentioned Setti before when we shadowstepped. You named your horse after Attes’s vellám.”

  “No, I didn’t. And what is a vellám?” he asked. Then I explained what it was and how Attes had once been the Primal God of War and Accord. “Okay. But I named him after Theon’s horse.”

  “Nope. The vadentia—” I tapped the side of my head—“told me Setti was Attes’s bloodsteed.”

  Casteel’s head cocked. “I guess it’s possible the scholars got the two confused,” he said, just as I sensed Reaver’s approach. “Especially if the names were similar.”

  My brows lifted. “That’s all you have to say about learning that you named your horse after Attes’s, who also happens to be a Primal of War?”

  He lifted a shoulder.

  I continued to stare at him.