She sent a smile over her shoulder in answer. Passing Attes, she looked him over once more. The throaty, sensual sound that came from her was so Isbeth it took everything in me not to rush after her, grab her head, and put itthroughthe door.
The moment she was gone, Delano burst from the hall, running along the alcove. He leaped over several rows of pews and landed behind Kieran. He brushed past the larger wolven to come stand beside me.
I knew we needed to discuss Kolis and his demands as I watched Kieran prowl toward the staircase we’d taken earlier. My focusshouldbe on that, but…
But I couldn’t.
Because every part of my being knew what Kolis’s request was and what he planned despite the claim of a Fate being present. I knew the momenttheywere mentioned. It wasn’t thevadentiatelling me anything. It was a different kind of instinct.
So, for right now, I focused on something a little less horrific. Isbeth.
“Malik,” Casteel called flatly. “You can come out now.”
It should have concerned me that I hadn’t been aware of Malik’s presence. Blinking, I turned to the sound of footsteps. Malik appeared from the same hall Delano had been in.
Sorry, Delano leaned into my legs.He wouldn’t leave.
Malik looked unsettled as he stepped out from between two pillars, his features drawn. Gods, he did look like Attes.
“I’m just going to say what everyone is thinking,” Malik stated.
“That neither you nor Delano can follow a simple request?” Casteel crossed his arms.
“Other than that.” He walked between two pews. “That thing that was just in here? It really seemed like her.”
I sucked in a breath.
Casteel’s head whipped toward me. The eather was once more humming in my ears. It couldn’t be her.
“What if it truly was Isbeth? It did look like her.” My gaze returned to the door. “Sounded like her. Smelled like her.”
“What did Lady Hawley say?” Malik looked between Casteel and me.
“‘No one truly dies now,’” I bit out. A faint tremor went through the nearby walls, rattling the sconces. “She couldn’t have been serious.”
“Unless Kolisdidbring her back,” Casteel said, a muscle flexing along his jaw. “Can he do that? Restore someone reduced to dust?”
“He is the true Primal of Death.” Attes walked forward. “As long as the soul remains intact, it is possible.”
“How, though?” Kieran asked as he came down the steps, feet bare but wearing his dark leather pants and carrying histunic. He must’ve undressed before shifting. “Doesn’t Nyktos still rule the Shadowlands?”
Attes answered, but my thoughts were rushing too furiously from one thing to the next for me to listen. All I could focus on was the possibility that it had beenher. Thatshewas still alive. That after everything, she wasn’t spending an eternity in the Abyss, paying for her sins.
Where was the fairness—the fucking balance—in that?
Another tremor ran through the walls. Attes sent me a look.
“Seraphena said Kolis freed those in the Abyss,” Kieran mentioned.
The floor beneath my feet shifted slightly, causing Delano to lift a front paw.
“She mentioned creatures. Not people,” Casteel said, his attention on me. “And wouldn’t she have known if Isbeth was freed?”
One would think so, but… Seraphena had also just awakened, and they had their hands full.
It wasn’t impossible.
And there was only one way to find out.
