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“He took Malec back to Iliseeum.”
“Shit,” he said, brows raised. “He was still alive?”
“Barely, from what I gathered.” I glanced down the hall. “Are there more of those vials?”
His stare sharpened. “There are.”
“And do either you or Millie know if the draken Isbeth got that blood from is being held?” I asked, even though we knew. “That’s Nektas’s daughter—you know, that big-ass draken.”
“I was kind of temporarily dead when he came through,” he said, and my stomach twisted sharply. Malik had died. I’d seen that, too. “So, I didn’t see him in that form, but to answer your question, I don’t. Millie? Possibly. There were many things she wasn’t supposed to know that she found out, but I seriously doubt that draken will be in a good way. So, when you go for her, make sure another draken is with you. They can fuck up a Primal really bad.”
“Noted,” I murmured.
“I’m surprised our father hasn’t arrived yet,” Malik stated.
“We delayed him a bit.”
“Because of Poppy?” When I said nothing, he laughed. “You don’t trust him, either.”
“There’s only one person I irrevocably trust. Not taking chances with anyone else.”
Malik eyed me. “You’re a little overprotective of a being who is literally immortal.”
Just because Poppy was a Primal didn’t mean she was indestructible. I didn’t know a lot about Primals. None of us did. But there were always checks and balances. Besides, I didn’t fear my father attempting to harm Poppy.
It was that slim chance that Poppy didn’t remember who she was when she woke.
“Why do I have a feeling there’s something you’re not telling me?” he asked.
I said nothing to that.
“All right.” Malik smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. I realized none of his smiles had since we’d been reunited. “So, what is your game plan here, Cas? You took down the Blood Crown, but there’s been no public address. Only Descenters on the streets, acting as Priests and Priestesses, preaching the goodness of Atlantia and their new King and Queen.”
“Poppy and I are not their King and Queen.”
His brows shot up. “I’m sorry, you two rule Atlantia, correct? You just seized the capital and destroyed the reigning monarch. Does that not make you their sovereign rulers?”
I got what he was saying, but this was another thing that Poppy and I hadn’t had a lot of time to really hash out. “No decisions on that will be made until she’s awake.”
“Okay, then, but they think you two are their new rulers—an Atlantian and a god, by the way. They have no idea she’s a Primal—”
“I know.” I rubbed my temple. “Those are bridges we’ll cross when we get there.”
Malik stared and then laughed. This time, it reminded me of one of his old laughs, and that hit me in the chest.
Hard.
I cleared my throat. “What?”
“It’s just…” Trailing off, he shook his head. “When we were kids, you were always at your lessons on time. I had to be tracked down. You learned what it took to handle land disputes and which crops grew best where, and I forgot everything the moment our tutors were gone. You always would’ve made a better King than me.” His gaze flicked back to mine. “And yet, I get the impression you don’t want to be King.”
“Being King meant accepting that you were dead,” I said, and his mouth tensed. “Or, at the very least, incapable of ruling. So, maybe when I was younger and jealous of what you had, I wanted that, but I don’t now.”
“But you did it anyway,” he said quietly.
“Poppy took the throne,” I reminded him. “She superseded all of us. She is the Queen. I am the King because of her. If she had chosen differently? Our mother and father would still sit on that throne. It would still be yours.” Anger festered. “Hell, it could’ve been yours years before Poppy arrived in Atlantia if you had come home.”
“I couldn’t.” Malik pushed off the wall, anger flaring in his eyes. “I wouldn’t leave Millie alone, and it’s not like you wouldn’t have done the same thing. You just admitted that you’d abdicate the throne for her. And I’m sure you’ve done a whole lot of other shit for her that goes against what is right or wrong. So how about you knock off this self-righteousness a bit, okay? You’re no better than me—”
“I never said I was,” I seethed, stepping toward him. “I spent the last fucking century torn up, thinking about what was being done to you, exactly the kind of horrors they were putting you through. All the while knowing that I…it was my actions that put you there.”
Malik went rigid. “Cas—”
“If I hadn’t been so foolishly obsessed with proving myself, I wouldn’t have gotten captured. You never would’ve had to come for me. That is an inarguable fact. It wasn’t Shea who put you there. It was me, so I drowned in that guilt until I learned to exist with it.” My nostrils flared as my lips flattened against my teeth. “And look, I don’t blame you for doing what you needed to do to survive, playing whatever fucked-up game you had to. I don’t blame you for staying because of Millicent. And the shit with Poppy when she was a child? I’m not going to even think about that because it makes me want to fucking choke you. But you know what I can’t understand? Your silence. You could’ve sent word to me. You could’ve let me know you were surviving.”
