The look on his face wasn’t what told me he didn’t believe me. It was the bitter taste of his distrust. I wasn’t sure what I could do to change that. And at the moment, I honestly didn’t have any fucks to give concerning it.
Malik’s gaze lowered, and his jaw tightened as he stared at the new scar on my chest. The wound caused by the bone dagger was no longer charred, and it was completely healed, but the mark remained. His jaw flexed. “You could’ve died.”
“I didn’t.”
“Doesn’t change that you could have.” A moment passed. “What did Reaver want, by the way?”
“For Poppy to wake up.” My gaze drifted back to the space between the door and the wall. “But I’m sure you already knew that.”
“I did,” he said, which made me wonder why the fuck he’d bothered asking. “He’s just worried about that female draken, Cas.”
“I know.” I glanced at my brother. He was still watching me intently. “Are those two related or something?”
Malik shook his head. “From what I know, Reaver was raised with her, but they aren’t related.”
Huh. Based on what Reaver had said when I had him by the throat, I figured they were either bound by blood or the heart.
“Our father is restless,” Malik started. “And worried because he doesn’t know what’s going on with you or Poppy.”
My father’s concern was understandable, considering I still refused to allow him or any of the generals or guards—outside of Hisa—to step one foot inside Wayfair.
“He’s not going to hurt her,” Malik said.
Sighing, I straightened my arms. This wasn’t the first time we’d had this conversation. “I know, because I won’t allow it.”
Malik was quiet for a moment. “You know, at first, I thought you were just being overprotective.”
In my opinion, there was no such thing as being overprotective when it came to Poppy.
“But I’m not so sure now.”
Eyeing the end of the wide hall, I said nothing to that. I could hear the soft, rhythmic pattern of muffled steps—a wolven prowling the nearby corridors. If I concentrated, I could…
“You really cannot think that he would seek to harm your wife,” my brother said. And there went any hope of concentrating. “Who also happens to be the godsdamn granddaughter of the true Primal of Life and a Primal of Death,” he said. “Our father is many things, but idiotic isn’t one of them.”
“I don’t think he would,” I admitted, exhaling roughly. “I just…” I trailed off and shook my head.
I didn’t want anyone to know that Poppy was in such a vulnerable state. That hadn’t changed. It had been hard enough to allow Tawny to see her in the state she was in.
Not that I’d had much choice.
She had shown up hours after we returned to the chamber, beating on the door with enough force that I’d actually thought she might crack the wood.
But if Poppy didn’t know herself again upon waking? If Kolis had reconnected with her? No one else needed to discover that.
Turning back to him, I faced my brother and really looked at him. I’d only seen him once since we’d stood outside the cell, and that had only been for long enough to speak about how Kolis could feed from the Ascended. We hadn’t even talked about Attes. I didn’t know if he’d spoken to our father about our great-what-the-fuck-ever-grandfather. But he still looked like shit. The shadows under his eyes were deeper, and his loose, golden-brown hair didn’t hide that his face was thinner.
“You can’t keep avoiding him,” Malik said.
I couldn’t help but let out a dry laugh. “That’s rich coming from you.”
His features locked down, but I could tell my remark had struck a nerve. Not because I knew him so well—I couldn’t say that about my brother anymore—but because I tasted his emotion, the acidic anger.
“I wasn’t avoiding my family,” Malik stated. “Not in the way you’re insinuating.”
“That’s not what I was saying.”
The burn of his anger turned icy. “Bullshit.”
