I had to see it with my own eyes.

  Every home I entered was the same, yet not. Some only had two people in them. Others held four. A few had upwards of six. They had died in sitting rooms, bedchambers, and foyers. And each hand, no matter how big or small, clutched the weapon of their demise. Every victim I looked at—and I made sure to look at each and every face—had the same smile that, at first glance, appeared serene.

  But I knew better.

  As Kieran replaced the quilt covering a small boy, I lifted my gaze to the wilted plants in the corner of the kitchen. Dead, just as the first family’s had been. No matter what house we entered, everything inside was dead.

  Delano’s large head nudged my shoulder, drawing my attention. Running my fingers through his soft fur, I rose slowly. This house—the last—held a family of five. Four adults, two of whom appeared to be the grandparents, and a young boy.

  “I just don’t understand.” Emil leaned against the wall. His arms were loosely crossed, but tension vibrated through his lanky frame. “What was the point of this? What did he gain from this senseless loss of life?”

  “I think he wanted to make sure we knew he was still around,” Casteel said. “Let us see what he’s capable of.”

  My gaze lifted to him. He stared at the bodies. “Really?” I asked.

  “It’s what I did.” He lifted his gaze. “In the past and as the Dark One. Small attacks that only served as a reminder that, even though things were quiet, the rebellion wasn’t dead.”

  I didn’t say anything to that as I continued to stroke Delano between his ears. Petting him was…well, it comforted us both.

  “It’s a fucking nasty way to send a reminder,” Malik said. He stood by the window, his attention fixed on the dark sky. Naill and Perry had gone into a different home several houses back. “What I don’t get is how he managed to do all this without anyone sounding some kind of alert.”

  “If he’s still in his wraith form,” Kieran said, “they may not have even seen him until it was too late.”

  “Even if he was in his physical form, he can project his will. His vellá,” Casteel added, and my gaze shot to him. “From what Attes said, the stronger he gets, the less limit there is to how he can wield his will.”

  My fingers stilled in Delano’s fur, and my skin chilled. His will… Once again, I thought about what had happened when I fell asleep. The touch against my lips, my…

  Casteel twisted toward me. I dipped, nearly burying my face in Delano’s fur. I pressed my lips together. It didn’t mean that any of that had been real. It was a nightmare. I’d been asleep. And why would it have been him? He wanted what was inside of me. The essence of life and death.

  But what Casteel had said about sending a message cycled back through my thoughts. When he was the Dark One, those sporadic acts of violence weren’t just reminders. They were also a tactic. A way to unsettle the Ascended.

  Delano wiggled closer, and I lifted my head. His eyes met mine, and I smiled—or tried to.

  “This compulsion?” Malik said, drawing my gaze to him. He had turned, all color absent from his cheeks. “Does it work on Atlantians? Wolven?”

  Everyone looked at me, and I had the urge to look behind me as I straightened and glanced at the patchwork quilt. “I…I don’t…” A faint tingle stopped me. If he could use it against me, he could—no, that wasn’t right. I was different than other gods because of that disturbing blood bond. He couldn’t use it against… “He can’t use it against Atlantians. They’re descended from gods. But…” I looked down at Delano. He sat, staring up at me, and my chest squeezed. “He can use it on the wolven.”

  Casteel swore. “Why?”

  “Because they are of dual life, and he…can use it against wolves. Against animals.”

  “What about the Ascended?” Malik asked, his chest rising sharply. “Or the Revenants.”

  My eyes met his. “Yes. But I think—no, I know Millicent is different. She’s not fully a Revenant.”

  Relief briefly flickered through Malik’s eyes, but then he looked down at Delano. “There has to be a way for us to know when he’s up to something like this so we can prevent it.”

  “That would be nice.” Kieran crossed his arms. “But I don’t think we’re going to get that lucky.”

  “I doubt we—” I sucked in a shallow breath.

  “What?” Casteel stepped toward me.

  “Earlier tonight, before you returned, I felt a sudden sense of unease. Not as powerful as it was when the Ancients were Awakening in the Continents.” I swallowed. “But I think—no, I know—I was feeling this. The wrongness of it. It was brief, and I didn’t understand what I was feeling at the time.” My gaze remained on the quilt. Who had made it? The older woman lying next to the boy? The mother on his other side? “Maybe if I had, I could’ve done—”

  “No.” Casteel was in front of me in the blink of an eye, his hands on my cheeks. “There was no way for you to know what you were feeling. And even if you did, this still isn’t on you.” He tipped my head back so that my gaze met his. “Please, Poppy, don’t take on guilt that doesn’t belong to you.”

  “I’m not. It’s just…” I closed my eyes, concentrating on the feel of Delano’s weight against my legs, and took a deep breath before I reopened them. “We can’t let this happen again.”

  Casteel didn’t promise that it wouldn’t. He couldn’t. But he pressed his lips to my forehead. “I think we should return.”

  I nodded. Glancing at the bodies on the floor one last time, I let Casteel lead me from the house. Once outside, I breathed in the fresh, salty air, free of the scent of death. As Casteel stopped to speak with Emil, I kept moving, unable to stay still. The shock of what I’d seen was fading.

  Casteel snagged the back of my cloak before I made it too far. Stopping me, he lifted my hood and then let go. But I knew he kept an eye on me as I stepped out into the street.

  Delano started to follow me but seemed to think better of it, lingering with the others instead. I was glad for the space. My mind…it started randomly showing me what I’d seen inside those homes. And each face that flashed in my mind threatened to snap my fragile grip on my anger. The small shoes that would never be worn again. The books left on a nightstand, never to be finished. Glasses on tables that would remain half full. And for what? To send us a message? A reminder that he was still here? There were any number of methods Kolis could have used instead of something so unbelievably cruel.

  We couldn’t allow this to happen again.

  But how did we stop what we didn’t even realize had happened until it was too late? The sense of helplessness was nearly overwhelming.

  The energy pressing against my skin was icy, and as wrong as it felt, I had to stop thinking about it. If not, my grip would snap, unleashing a storm of rage. I could already taste it as a thin, metallic coating on the inside of my mouth, and feel it in the dark, shadowy energy building in my chest.

  My hands fisted at my sides as I stopped and closed my eyes, once more focusing on breathing. I couldn’t give in to the anger. It would be…catastrophic if I did. And the Arae were right. I didn’t want to harm innocents. If I lost control, that was exactly what would happen.

  I wasn’t my mother.

  I wasn’t Kolis.

  There would be time later to…lose my shit, preferably on Kolis. Promising myself that, the rage calmed to a simmering anger. It wasn’t entirely gone but it was more manageable.

  Exhaling slowly, I opened my eyes, my gaze immediately locking on Malik.

  He stood two homes away, alone, his back to me. I glanced to where Casteel and Kieran spoke with Emil. A guard had joined them. From what I could hear, they were getting an update on the other houses on the surrounding streets. My gaze shifted back to Malik. He stood apart from his brother, who he’d risked his life for—the same sibling who had been willing to go to any lengths to free him.

  But the distance between them was more than just physical, and that made my already hurting heart ache even more. It wasn’t hate that kept them apart. They loved each other. I knew that much. It was regret, sorrow, and everything that had gone unsaid between them. I understood Casteel’s anger. He’d believed Malik had spent all these years treated as he had been while kept captive. Discovering that he’d moved about rather freely in the capital was a betrayal made worse by the discovery that Malik had led the Craven to Lockswood.

  But I knew Malik had never really been free. He’d done what he needed to do to survive. He’d played Isbeth’s games but hadn’t done it for himself. He’d done it for Millicent.

  I knew Casteel understood that.

  I moved toward him, watching how his back stiffened. I stopped a few feet from him, my senses stretching out. His walls were up, and when he faced me, the rigidness in his posture disappeared in a flash. His shoulders relaxed as he shoved his hands into the pockets of his dark trousers, and his head tilted, his lips silently pressing into a thin smile.

  “Penellaphe,” he said, his half-lidded eyes meeting mine with the practiced distance of someone unimpressed and untouched.

  The change in him that had occurred between when I first saw him upon arriving in Stonehill and now would’ve been startling if I didn’t know it was just a mask—one he slipped on so easily it reminded me of how I pretended to feel when I donned the veil. Unbothered and untouched.

  But it was just a façade. I broke through his shields and saw the turmoil beneath the relaxed line of his jaw and the faint smirk on his lips. I searched his features, noting the shadows under his eyes. He looked tired, and I suspected the weariness that went deeper than the bone wasn’t only because of the fractured relationship between him and Casteel.

  “I was wondering,” I began, my fingers going to the buttons along the front of my cloak, “if you know where Millicent is?”

  He eyed me for a moment. “I wish I did, but I don’t.”

  Disappointment rose, even though I knew I shouldn’t be surprised. If he knew where she was, he wouldn’t be here. “Do you think she will come back?” I asked.

  “I do.” He met my eyes, and a moment passed. “She will because you’re here, and she wants a relationship with you.”

  My brows rose, and I pulled back slightly. “Really?”

  Malik’s jaw tensed. “It may be hard to believe, but yes.”

  “I’m happy to hear that,” I said quickly, realizing he’d misread my reaction.

  He arched a brow. “Is that so?”

  “Yes. I was just surprised because she didn’t really give me the impression that she would be…” I trailed off. “Not that she had a lot of time to do so.”

  Millicent and I hadn’t spent much time alone. Someone had always been around—even if I hadn’t seen them. Our…mother’s Handmaidens saw and heard everything.

  Which made me think about their current whereabouts. Had they, too, been dealt with? Most—if not all—were Revenants.

  “But I am happy to hear that,” I said, twisting a button as I glanced toward Casteel. Our eyes met, and an eyebrow rose, just as it had done on his brother’s face. I opened my mouth, closed it, and then took a breath, returning my attention to Malik. I didn’t know everything he’d gone through, but I knew it’d broken him. Just as it had Casteel. And I knew what had done it. Seeing his bonded wolven tortured and killed in front of him. It made me wonder once more if Delano knew how my bloodstone dagger had been crafted.

  The faint, one-sided curve of Malik’s lips started to fade. “Why are you staring at me like that?”

  “I forgive you.”

  He took a step back, the rest of the smirk quickly disappearing from his face.

  I didn’t know why I’d even said that. I wasn’t sure how I felt about Malik. But…it wasn’t a lie.

  “I don’t know if I’ve told you that or not. Some stuff is still fuzzy for me,” I admitted. “But in case I didn’t, I wanted to say it now. I forgive you.”

  He was so still, I wasn’t sure he even breathed. “You shouldn’t.”

  “You could’ve killed me,” I reminded him. “And you didn’t.”

  “I betrayed Coralena.”

  I managed not to react to that. “You did.”

  “And you forgive that?”

  “I understand why you did what you did.” I stilled my fingers before I twisted the button off. “And in the end, you did what was right. Coralena had to know that.”

  Malik looked away.

  “And Casteel knows why you stayed here,” I continued, lowering my voice. “I think you guys could, you know, get along if you stopped mentioning how you once planned to kill me.” I paused. “And if Casteel pulls his head out of his ass.”

  The lone dimple in his left cheek appeared briefly. “You really think that?” he asked.

  “I do.” I stepped back and smiled. “Anything is possible, right?”

  “I guess so.” His gaze moved to mine, and the grin disappeared. “You have a…soft heart.”

  I was pretty sure he didn’t entirely mean that in a good way. I fixed a smile on my face anyway. “Aren’t all hearts soft?”

  He chuckled. “I suppose so, but yours is softer than others.”

  “I prefer to think of it as being larger.” A moment passed, and then something occurred to me. “Did you hear we will be addressing the public?”

  “I did.”

  “I want you to be with us when we meet with the generals and during the address.”

  Malik’s eyes widened, and then his expression smoothed out. “Penellaphe,” he drawled, pulling his hands from his pockets and crossing his arms. “While I appreciate your willingness to repair my relationship with my brother…”

  I frowned.

  “I think your concern is misplaced,” he continued. “It is better directed toward someone much closer to you.”

  “What?”

  With a lifted brow, he flicked his gaze to where the others stood. “What do you notice?” he asked. I followed his stare.

  Other than another guard having joined the group? My gaze shifted to Casteel and Kieran. They, too, stood apart. Tension crept into my shoulders. Things had been somewhat normal between them when we were in the Solar, but they hadn’t really interacted with each other either.

  “I don’t know how long you’ve been awake, but you must have noticed that something is up with them,” he said quietly.

  “I did.” Hearing someone else say it didn’t just confirm my suspicions; it made me uneasy. Swallowing, I turned my attention back to Malik. “Do you know if something happened?”

  “I don’t.” He squinted. “Neither has been in a caring and sharing mood with me of late.” He paused. “They’ve fought before, over one thing or another. It happens when you know someone for so long.”

  I honestly wouldn’t know. The only people I had known for any length of time were Vikter, Tawny, and Ian, and not even those relationships could be considered lengthy.

  “Especially since they were bonded,” Malik continued. “It’s almost like you share the same mind. It can be great. Also, extremely annoying. But this? Whatever is going on between them now? It’s not like them.”

  I resisted the urge to turn and look. “Well, thanks for the advice, but repairing your relationship with Casteel wasn’t why I suggested having you with us. The Descenters know you. They don’t know me. And I’m sure Casteel isn’t known to many of them either.”

  “He’s the King of Atlantia,” Malik said, his brows drawing together. “That is all they need to know to support him.”

  “But I was the Maiden—one many were told was dead or a demis.” I reminded him of what he had said to me in the Great Hall. “And I know some Descenters likely distrust me. They would be foolish not to.”

  Malik stared at me for several moments. “My brother won’t like it.”

  “Your brother will deal with it,” I replied.

  He huffed out a low laugh and looked over at the group. “Well, this will be…entertaining, at least.”

  Smiling at that, I turned, and my gaze landed on one of the quiet homes.

  Children.

  My hands fisted at my sides as anger burned through the ache of sorrow. Kolis had killed children to send a message.

  Because wasn’t that what this was? A tactic like Casteel had used. Kolis wanted us unsettled. He wanted to show us what he could do without even setting foot in the city.

  What was stopping him from sending another?

  Nothing.

  Nothing, unless I stopped him.

  “I saw a lot of messed-up shit during my time here,” Malik said quietly. I tore my gaze from the house and noticed he was now staring at it. “Isbeth…she was capable of many things—things you can’t even imagine.”

  I swallowed but stayed quiet.

  “But this? All those kids?” He shook his head. “I’ve never seen such senseless cruelty visited upon the most innocent.” His gaze returned to mine. “I hope you don’t plan to do something ill-advised.”

  “I’m not sure I understand what you mean.”

  “If you’re anything like Millie, you know exactly what I’m talking about.” Malik’s smile was tight and didn’t reach his eyes. “Because if she saw something like that, she would want to exact some vengeance.”

  I quickly looked away. While I was relieved to hear that Millicent would want to do something about this, I didn’t like that Malik suspected where my thoughts had gone.

  Without saying anything, I started to make my way to Setti, who seemed to have been watching. I’d always thought the horse behaved as if he understood what was happening around him in a way that wasn’t normal for even the most intelligent horses. And I’d been right, even though I never could’ve guessed why.

  As I walked, my gaze moved over the dark, silent homes. A creeping familiarity began to build as I took in each terracotta roof and weathered door.

  Wait.

  I stopped, looked back to where I’d been standing with Malik, and then turned, scanning the other side of the street.

  I was walking before I realized it, heading in Malik’s direction again.

  He shoved his hands back into his pockets with a sigh loud enough to have impressed Kieran. “Did you forget something?”