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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.
“My gods,” gasped Nektas, his eyes widening as the skin around his mouth went taut at the sight of Ires.
The god hadn’t looked this haggard when we’d seen him last. Ribs pressed against his dull gray fur coat. His stomach was sunken. Tendons strained in his throat as his head whipped toward Nektas.
Ires reacted upon seeing the draken, jumping weakly at the bars as his still-bright eyes shot between Nektas and Poppy when they entered the chamber.
“Are these wards?” Kieran asked, noticing the markings etched into the shadowstone ceiling and floor, symbols and letters in ancient Atlantian—the language of the gods.
“Yes.” Nektas went to the bars. “No one in the mortal realm should be in possession of this knowledge.”
“Callum,” I surmised, watching Poppy kneel before the cage.
Nektas nodded. “But that’s not the issue right now.” He clasped the bars, drawing Ires’s attention, but only for a moment. “He might be a bit…unstable, especially if he’s been in this state for as long as I fear. He’ll be more animal than anything. We need to be careful.”
No one needed to tell us that as Ires kept jumping at the bars, pressing his sides and head against them as a low noise radiated from him, a sound that was a cross between a growl and a whine.
I crouched behind Poppy, forcing my hands to my knees to stop myself from grabbing her and hauling her back.
“Can you get past these bars?” Poppy asked, her hands twisting together, a sure sign she was anxious. “Or can I?”
“You will probably be able to. Eventually,” Nektas tacked on. “But I can.” He focused on Ires. “You’re safe now. I promise you,” he said to the god, voice thickening with emotion. “I just need you to stay calm. Okay?”
Ires leapt at the bars again.
“I don’t think that’s a yes,” Kieran noted, kneeling beside me.
“It’s okay,” Nektas told Ires once again, but the more the draken spoke, the more the god behaved erratically, pacing and lunging at the bars. “Dammit, he’s going to hurt himself.”
“I can barely…barely pick up anything from him.” Poppy’s worry flooded her tone, and I swore I could feel it gathering in my throat like too-thick cream. “He wasn’t like this before.”
“He’s been in this form too long,” Nektas answered. “It’s not like us,” he added, nodding at Kieran and Delano. “We are of two worlds. He is only of one, and it’s far too easy, even for a god and a Primal, to lose themselves if they stay in their animal form for too long.”
Shit. How long was too long for a god when we were likely talking about hundreds of years? But another thought occurred to me. He’d said if a god and a Primal stayed in their animal form for too long. Did that mean Poppy would…?
I shook my head. Now wasn’t the time to consider that. Rubbing Poppy’s back, I watched Ires pace, hating this for her—for both of them.
“I didn’t know that,” Poppy responded to what Nektas had shared.
“Neither did I,” Kieran added.
“And on top of that, he’s probably felt the other gods awakening,” Nektas explained. “It would feel like an extreme jolt of energy that he would not have been prepared for.”
