The War of Two Queens (Blood and Ash 4)

“You are the Liessa. You summoned us. You carry the blood of Nyktos and the Consort in you. You are…” He trailed off. “Yes, we are bonded to you. I am perplexed by the fact that you’re only now realizing that.”

The corners of my lips turned down. “I’m not just figuring it out. I hadn’t really thought that…deeply about it,” I finished lamely. “Can I communicate with you like I do with the wolven?”

“No, but as you know,” he said, and I blinked slowly, “we will know and answer your will, as it has always been that way with the Primals.”

“But I’m not a Primal.”

“What you are is not wise,” he responded, and now I really frowned. “You shouldn’t be this far from the manor.”

“I’m not far.” I could still smell the wood smoke mingling with the lavender.

“These mortals are afraid of you, as you already know,” he continued, and my stomach twisted. “Fear tends to lead to poor choices.”

“I won’t let anyone get close enough to do me any harm,” I said. “Neither will Delano.”

“One does not need to be near you to harm you,” he pointed out. “As you were told before, you may be hard to kill, but it’s not impossible. That woman may not have succeeded, but others could inflict damage.”

My fingers stopped their ceaseless toying with the sweater’s buttons as wind tossed strands of hair back from Reaver’s face. I finally got my first true look at him.

There was a strange asymmetric quality to him as if his features had been plucked from random traits. His eyes were wideset and tilted down at the inner corners, giving him a somewhat mischievous impression that didn’t match the somberness of his vivid sapphire stare. Nor did the full, distinctively bow-shaped lips seem to belong to the strong, chiseled jaw and light brown brows that arched in a sardonic, almost taunting way. His cheekbones were high and sharp, creating shadows below them. Somehow, the hodgepodge of features worked. He wasn’t classically handsome but so interesting to look upon that he was thoroughly striking. He had a hint of gauntness to his face that made me wonder if he was still recovering physically from such a long sleep.

I pulled myself out of those thoughts with a shake of my head. “Exactly what does kill a god?”

“A god can kill another,” Reaver said. “Shadowstone can also kill a god.”

The same material had been used to construct many of the Temples and the palace in Evaemon. I’d never thought of it as a weapon until those skeletal guards we’d seen after entering Iliseeum had wielded shadowstone weapons.

It was what had punctured Tawny’s skin in the chaos after everything had gone so terribly wrong.

“Through the heart or head,” he elaborated.

Immediately, I saw the arrow the Revenant had pointed in my direction, but the Revenant had spoken as if she hadn’t believed the shadowstone would kill me. I supposed it was a good thing she’d obviously thought wrong.

“What happens if a mortal is stabbed with shadowstone?”

“It would kill them,” he said, and air fled my lungs. “But your friend lives. There has to be a reason for that.”

Reaver had definitely been listening whenever I spoke of Tawny. “What kind of reason could there be?”

“I wouldn’t know,” he replied, and I tamped down a surge of frustration. “But you are the first female descendant of the Primal of Life—the most powerful being known. In time, you will become even more powerful than your father.”

How I could be more powerful than my father was beyond me. Nor did I know why the female part mattered. Still, I got stuck on those two words.

Your father.

Ires.

Those two words left me uncertain. I swallowed, looking away. Whatever relief I’d felt when I learned that Malec wasn’t my father had been short-lived. My father was a cave cat I’d seen as a young child and again in Oak Ambler, at Castle Redrock. But the only father I remembered was Leopold. Still, anger hummed through my blood, mingling with the eather and warming those cold, hollow places scattered throughout. I would free him, too. “How long has Ires been held captive?”

“He left Iliseeum while we slept, after waking one of the draken to accompany him.” The line of Reaver’s jaw flexed as he stared ahead. “I don’t know why he left or exactly when. I only became aware some eighteen years ago when the Primal awakened.”

My brows knitted as Delano sank onto his haunches beside me. “Why did Nyktos awaken?”

Reaver’s head swung in my direction. Those ultra-bright eyes were unnerving even with the distance between us. “I believe it was when you were born. It was felt.”

I hadn’t known that.

He returned his gaze to the sky. “That was when we learned that both Malec and Ires were gone. As was…Jade.”

It took me a moment to realize that he spoke of Jadis—Nektas’s daughter.