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Kieran cursed under his breath, rubbing a hand over his hair. I stared at Poppy, the pressure in my chest tightening. Had this been what both Kieran and I sensed through the bond we’d forged during the Joining? That she was on the verge of going into stasis? And she could be out for days? A week?
“Gods,” I bit out, feeling fucking helpless and hating every moment of it.
“Get her someplace comfortable and wait it out. That is all you can do,” Nektas said. “I’ll take care of Ires.”
Somewhere comfortable? Here? I shared a look with Kieran. Poppy wouldn’t be comfortable anywhere in Wayfair, but what choice did we have?
“We’ll find a place,” Kieran assured, slipping into the role he always did. The logical one. The calm and supportive one when shit went south. But I knew that was far too often a façade. I started to turn.
“There is just one thing you should be aware of,” Nektas added, stopping all of us in our tracks. “The stasis that comes at the end of a Culling can have…unexpected and lasting side effects.”
A fist seized my heart. Trepidation rose. “Like what?”
“Loss of memory. Lack of knowledge of who they and those around them are,” he explained.
That invisible fist…
It fucking crushed my heart.
Kieran’s entire body jerked back a full step. “It’s possible she…” The calm began to crack. “She won’t know who she is? Who we are?”
“It is, but it is very rare. I can only think of twice that it has happened,” Nektas said, tension bracketing his mouth. “You just need to be aware of the possibility.”
And what if it became a reality? Kieran’s stare met mine. I swallowed. “And if it does happen?”
Nektas didn’t answer for a long moment. “Then she will be a stranger to herself and you.”
Kieran’s eyes closed.
Mine couldn’t. I looked down at Poppy. She was my heart—my everything. I couldn’t even consider her not knowing who she was—not knowing us.
“Talk to her.” Nektas’s voice had softened. “That’s what Nyktos did when she was in stasis. I don’t know if she heard him, but I think it helped.” His head tilted as he looked down at Ires. “I know it helped him.”
I nodded, turning from the draken. I knew I should’ve asked when or if he’d be back. I imagined he would be. His daughter was in this realm, but given the single-minded bastard I was, my only priority was to get Poppy somewhere comfortable. I wasn’t thinking about Nektas and his daughter. Nor Poppy’s father, or the Crown we’d just overthrown—the kingdom we’d conquered, yet only in the most technical sense. All those things were important, but none of them mattered.
I carried Poppy back through the underground maze and to the first floor, my heart calm and steady because it followed the rhythm of hers. I kept reminding myself of that as Kieran walked ahead and Delano stuck close to my side. Other than that, the surroundings were a blur. All I knew was that Kieran and a member of the castle staff had a hushed conversation, and I thought I heard Emil’s voice as we climbed a narrow set of stairs. I didn’t know how many floors we went up. There were only whitewashed stone walls and a few windows until we entered an empty hall lined with heavy, black drapes. A door opened ahead, and I followed Kieran into a darkened chamber. He went straight to two large windows framing a bed and grabbed the brocade curtains, tearing them from their rods.
“This is a guest room,” Kieran explained, tossing the drapes aside. “It hasn’t been used in a while, but it has been recently cleaned.”
A faint breeze drifted in through the windows as I looked around. The chamber was outfitted with several couches and chairs, and there appeared to be access to a bathing chamber. It would do.
Kieran followed me as I carried Poppy to the bed. He grabbed hold of a cream-hued blanket and pulled it back. I didn’t want to let her go. It was like I was physically incapable of doing so. My arms trembled as I laid her down.
“She hasn’t stirred once,” I heard myself saying as I forced my arms out from under her. I sat beside her, shaking my head. “Her eyelashes haven’t even fluttered.”
“She’ll be okay,” Kieran said as Delano jumped onto the bed and lay down on her other side by her hip, placing his head between his front legs. His gaze was trained on the door. “I don’t think Nektas would lie to us.”
“Does that make you feel better about this?”
“Hell, no.”
Drawing my lower lip between my teeth, I kept shaking my head. So much shit was running through it. “I don’t like being here, in this godsforsaken place, when she’s in this vulnerable state.”
“I will make sure no staff even enters this floor,” Emil said from the doorway.
