I wouldn’t lose anyone.
Without thinking, I grabbed Kieran’s arm and shadowstepped to Poppy and Delano’s side. Still holding on to his arm, I kept him from toppling forward. Poppy was clutching Delano, her eyes wide and pupils dilated, the glow of essence dull.
“Get him out of here,” she bit out through a clenched jaw. “I will survive—”
“I’m not leaving you,” I snarled.
“You have to!” she yelled—or tried to. It was more of a whisper. “Take him.”
Delano’s head whipped around as he pressed down on Poppy, ears flattening as he snapped at me.
“Take him!” she screamed this time.
“Shut up,” I roared, grabbing her arm as the essence rose within me, dark and cold—
“Cas!” My brother’s voice rang out, jerking my gaze around.
Malik raced down the wharf toward us—closer to the wave that would crush him.
“Idiot,” I rasped, heart pounding. “Fucking idiot.”
“I’ll get him.” Kieran pulled free, straightening as the shadow of the wave fell over us. “I’ll—”
My eyes locked with his, and I knew he felt it when I did.
A heavy throb of awareness that sent energy dancing across my flesh and caused the eather inside me to thrum. Some instinctual part of me knew what I was feeling, what had the eather pulsing and flaring in warning, in response to the sudden Primal power drenching the air. It felt similar to what I’d picked up from Poppy when she went…full Primal.
“Cas,” Kieran rasped.
Poppy’s arm stiffened beneath my hand as I saw Malik suddenly pull hard on his horse’s reins. I turned my head to the bay.
The wave was suspended in air, its foamy white crest frozen in place, refusing to fall as if time had stopped.
That alone was enough to send a shockwave through anyone, but that wasn’t what we sensed. And it wasn’t what held my stare.
It was what wasinthe motionless wave. The silhouette of a figure taller than any mortal.Thatwas what we sensed.
A Primal of Sky and Soil. Of Earth, Wind, and Water.
“Saion,” Kieran uttered, his voice raspy with shock.
The god emerged from the wave, the rippling cloth of his white pants untouched by the sea. His skin was a dark brown, his eyes pure silver orbs. He lifted his hand, and a veil of shimmering silver washed over the wave.
It collapsed, returning to the exposed earth as the eather in me began humming, throbbing—
I jerked Poppy—and, by extension, Delano—closer to me, preparing for the wave to rush the shore.
A flash of sudden, bright light streaked through the realm. When it faded, another god with skin the same shade as Saion’s stood with his back to us.
The sea rolled toward the wharf but seemed to hit an invisible wall—no, not a wall.
It was the god standing before us. He felt like a Primal, but…not.
With a swipe of his hand, the water obeyed and settled into the bay.
“Do you have any idea,” I asked, “who that is?”
“Rhahar,” Poppy whispered.
