And when she did, she had a lot to answer for. After I held her.
At least down here, I couldn’t hear Nithe’s restless calls as he circled the bay.
But it had also been where I last saw Poppy. And Kieran, the jackass, knew that.
“Is there a reason you all followed me?” I threw over my shoulder as I walked forward.
“You know exactly why we followed you.”
Yeah, I did.
They were making sure I didn’t do something unstable. Untrustworthy. Unpredictable. Like shadowstepping my ass to Pensdurth. What they didn’t realize was that I’d already tried.
I couldn’t open the realm.
Poppy had known I would follow and had somehow prevented it. My mind immediately went to the Fates.
Lifting the bottle of whiskey, I took a long swallow. It burned all the way to my gut. Over half the bottle was gone, but it had absolutely no effect on me. Not like it used to back then, when I felt more like a thing than a person. Which meant it wasn’t helping loosen the knot of anxiety in my stomach or dull the blade-sharp threads of fear that kept slicing through my chest every couple of minutes.
Poppy was with that sick fuck, and I was here, sidelined like someone more of a hindrance than an ally.
Fuck.
Did she know I had held her after she fed? Watched her sleep?
I took another drink as my gaze flicked around the Hall, my gaze shifting to the empty dais.
“What happened to the thrones?”
“We melted them down,” Delano said as he walked along the main alcove, his form appearing and then disappearing behind the Atlantian banners hanging from the alcove walls.
I looked around, thinking something was missing. My gaze landed on the center of the Hall. “The statue?”
“Poppy destroyed it,” Delano stated flatly from the shadows. I didn’t need to look at him to know he was pissed. “Before you decided to show up.”
My hand spasmed around the bottle as I continued forward. Reaching the dais, I hoisted myself up and sat my ass down.
I took yet another drink that did absolutely fucking nothing as my eyes landed on Kieran.
“You can keep glaring at me all you want.” His steps slowed. “You’re not going to run me off.”
“Or the rest of us,” my father said as he strode down the sweeping steps at the mouth of the Hall. Hisa followed behindhim but stopped just inside, wisely keeping her distance. Both were dressed as if ready for battle.
I, on the other hand, had no weapons.
Their words felt like a call to war that I was more than willing to rise to. After all, I’d already run Emil, my brother, Naill, and Netta off.
“Want to bet?” I asked.
“I have no interest in making foolish bets.” My father sat on one of the marble benches framing the steps leading to the alcove.
I shifted my gaze back to Kieran. He stood impossibly still, arms folded over the daggers strapped to his chest. I didn’t want them here to witness me trying to drink myself stupid and failing. “None of you needs to be here.”
“Disagree.”
I couldn’t tell if Kieran knew Poppy had done something. Part of me said he didn’t. The other half refused to listen to that part. “I’m not going to do anything to jeopardize Poppy.”
She was already doing a bang-up job of that herself.
