“That wasn’t her,” Nektas stated, a bemused expression on his face. “That was them.”
“Them?” Kieran repeated, slowly lowering his arms from Poppy.
“The gods,” the draken elaborated. “One of them must’ve awakened nearby.”
One of them must have…
Poppy shot out from under me as fast as an arrow, her eyes still wide but now lit with eagerness. “Penellaphe,” she gasped, her head darting between Kieran and me. “Remember? You said the goddess Penellaphe sleeps beneath the city’s Atheneum!” She shoved Kieran in the arm, causing him to stumble back a step. “Oops. Sorry.”
“It’s okay.” Kieran caught himself, grinning. “And, yes, I did say that.”
She spun toward Nektas. “Can we see her? I mean after we’ve freed my father and located Jadis. You see, I was named—”
“After the goddess who spoke of you so very long before you were born,” Nektas finished. “Who was the first to call you the Harbinger and the Bringer of Death. A prophecy you have fulfilled.”
Her arms slowly lowered to her sides. “Well, when you put it like that…” She pressed her lips together. “I think I’ve changed my mind.”
I never wanted to punch someone more than I did the draken for stealing that brief excitement from Poppy.
Nektas chuckled. “I’m sure she will be interested in meeting you. All of them will be when the time is right,” he said, his face softening in a way I had yet to see from him. “We should get moving in case there are more who slumber in the capital. I do not want to be down here if that happens again.”
He was right. None of us wanted that.
“By the way,” he said, glancing at Kieran and me as we started down the hall once more. “You two are…adorable.”
Kieran’s forehead scrunched as he brushed dust from his shoulder. “I don’t think I’ve ever been referred to as adorable before, but thanks.” He paused. “I think.”
The draken chuckled once more. “All three of you raced to shield her.” He nodded at Delano, who trotted beside Poppy as she led us down another hall, this one narrower. A column had toppled here, leaning against another. “The one person who would survive the collapse of a building.”
I hadn’t even thought of that.
Poppy grinned. “It was kind of adorable.”
Kieran huffed, and I swore I saw a deepening in the color of his light brown cheeks.
“And unnecessary in more ways than one,” Nektas went on. “The three of you are Joined, are you not?”
Delano’s ears perked as Poppy’s head swung toward him. Some color returned to her cheeks. His tail wagged. Clearly, he’d communicated something intriguing through the Primal notam. I’d have to ask him about it later.
“Yeah,” she answered. “But I think it’s going to take all of us a while to remember that if I’m okay, then all three of us are.”
“Understatement of the century,” Kieran remarked, drawing a grin from me.
The expression disappeared, though. Because as soon as her blush faded, the paleness of her skin was even more noticeable.
Something isn’t right.
The feeling only intensified as we walked, traveling deeper into the underground maze of chambers and halls that Poppy had moved about as a small child. I couldn’t place why I felt the way I did. The pressure remained in my chest and the back of my throat—
Click. Click. Click.
Poppy halted once more. This time, her hands opened and closed at her sides. I dragged my gaze from her to the hall in front of us. Up ahead, a soft glow spilled out into the hall, beating back the shadows.
That sound. We all recognized it. We’d heard it before in Oak Ambler. The rapping of claws against stone.
Nektas started forward, his steps fast and sure as Poppy remained frozen. I touched her shoulder, drawing her attention to me.
“Are you okay?” I asked. This time, I wasn’t talking about how she felt physically.
Nodding, she swallowed as she looked at Nektas. He stopped at the cusp of the light, turning his head back to us.
“You sure?” Kieran asked, his gaze searching Poppy’s.
“Yeah. Yes.” She cleared her throat. “It’s just that…that’s my father, and I don’t know what to think or even say.”
I got it.
Poppy had a father she remembered: Leopold. The man she was about to set free was a stranger to her, even if she had spent time searching him out in her youth—someone who had been held captive for too long. And I was sure she was caught between excitement and guilt, feeling as if she somehow dishonored Leo’s memory, and regret that she hadn’t realized who had been caged beneath Wayfair and at Oak Ambler earlier. It was a lot for anyone to think about. More to act upon.
Cupping her cheek, I turned her face to mine. I smiled, even though the heaviness in my chest and throat expanded. Her skin was so damn cold. “You don’t have to feel or think anything right now. All you must do is make sure he’s freed.” I lowered my voice. “You don’t have to see him at all if you’re not ready. No one will judge you for that.”
Kieran nodded in agreement. “Either way, we’ll be right there with you.”
She glanced between us, then turned her attention to Nektas. I smoothed my thumb along her jaw. A faint tremor went through her, and then she drew in a deep breath. She squared her shoulders, and I knew what she had decided before she spoke. “I’m ready.”
“Of course,” I murmured, dipping to press a kiss to her cool temple. “So brave.”
“I don’t know about that,” she said but nodded. “But I will be.”
Kieran smiled, lifting a hand. “As always.” He touched her other cheek, his eyes widening slightly. Over her head, his gaze shot to mine.
He’d felt how cold her skin was. I gave him a curt nod of acknowledgment.
“I’m ready,” Poppy repeated, pulling away from us. She started walking with Delano at her side.
We hung back just for a second. Kieran spoke, his voice too low for her to hear. “Why is her skin so damn cold?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “But something—”
“Isn’t right.”
My gaze cut to him sharply. “You feel it, too?”
“Yeah. In my chest and here,” he said, motioning to his throat.
Hell.
That didn’t make me feel better about any of this, but now wasn’t the time to figure it out. We’d told Poppy we’d be beside her, so we both got our asses moving, joining her as she and Delano reached Nektas’s side.
The clicking had picked up.
“I know this isn’t easy for you,” Nektas said, looking down at Poppy. His voice was barely above a whisper. “This won’t be easy for him, either. Ires has always been…” He shook his head. “We should hurry.”
I could tell that Poppy wanted to ask what he had been about to say, but she stepped into the light and turned instead. The scraping of claws against stone stopped. We followed, my heartbeat picking up speed and matching the rate of hers. I lifted my gaze from her to what waited beyond.
A cage sat in the center of a candlelit chamber. Behind black bars, likely constructed of shadowstone, was a large, gray feline with bright green eyes fixed on Poppy—just as they had been in Oak Ambler. There was no doubt in my mind that he’d known who she was to him then. Probably had all those years ago, too.