More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Read between
October 21 - October 23, 2023
“Why does the Consort sleep so deeply when Nyktos doesn’t?” Reaver looked down at his apple, not speaking for several long moments. “It’s the only way to stop her.”
“I feel so much better now that I’m here.” She glanced down at Delano, who watched her closely. “Even though he looks like he wants to eat me, and not in the fun way.”
Tawny leaned in even closer then, over the table. “He told me you already knew her name.”
One side of his lips tipped up. “Poppy, you’re being—” “Ridiculous.” I sat up so suddenly that Kieran jerked back. “I know.” “I was going to say cute,” he replied.
“So nosy,” Kieran murmured. Losing my hold on the memory, my eyes flew open, and I peeked up at Kieran. His eyes were closed, the lines of his face relaxed. His full lips were parted in a slight, barely-there grin. “Should’ve known you’d be nosy,” he continued, but he didn’t sound mad. He sounded amused, and as if he’d just woken up.
“You going to pretend that you don’t know I was watching the both of you and that you and Casteel were watching us?”
He touched his chest. “She stabbed me yesterday. With my own dagger.” A rough laugh left me. “That’s my girl.”
“I’ve seen it give others unbelievable strength. But out of all the many, many years I’ve lived, I’ve only seen love stop death once.” “Is that so?” Callum nodded. “Nyktos and his Consort.”
“You’re so very special.” Kieran gave me a half-grin as we edged around the dais. “Very,” Reaver said dryly. I glared at the draken’s back. “Neither of you sound like you think that at all.” “So special,” Kieran added.
Fury exploded, stirring up the Primal essence. “I want him dead.” “Noted,” Reaver said from the entrance.
“Only that I love you,” I said, lifting enough to press a kiss to the top of her hair. “With my heart and my soul, today and tomorrow. I will never get enough of you.”
“You’re my favorite kind of torture.”
“I’ll call you whatever you like, as long as you call me yours.”
“How did Coralena die?” “You sure you want to know that?” Malik exhaled heavily as he held a limb back. “She was forced to drink the blood of a draken.”
“You’re more than a Queen. More than a goddess on the verge of becoming a Primal. You’re Penellaphe Da’Neer, and you’re fearless.”
“And you run from no one and nothing.”
Callum dragged his teeth along his lower lip. “When you shed the mortal flesh and began your Ascension, it freed him. And soon, when Malec takes his final breath, he will be at his full strength. All these years—all these centuries and centuries—he’s been waiting. Sleeping even more restlessly after your birth. Sensing you, feeling you. He’s been waiting and waiting for the proverbial key to his lock, for his…pretty poppy to pick and watch bleed.”
“But only if a female descendant was born and Ascended would that restart begin anew. And it begins with you and your children if you choose to have them. They will be the first to be born Primal since Nyktos.”
“You are not just a loophole. You’re many things. The Primal of Blood and Bone—the true Primal of Life and Death.”
