A wave of eather crept up my spine. “We?”
A muscle flexed along his jaw. “Yes,we, you asshole.Weneed to make sure she’s safe.” He started to move closer but stopped himself, crossing his arms. “So she can live with herself afterward.”
That.
That last sentence got right inside me, moving past the anger, frustration, and pain. I inhaled, but it felt choking. I opened my mouth, then closed it. When I could speak again, my voice cracked. “I swore I would never put her in a cell again.”
His eyes closed briefly, and I knew he was seeing in his mind what I was. Poppy bleeding out on the cold floor of a dungeon. I looked away.
“I know,” he breathed. “But it has to be done, and you know it. And you know she will understand once she’s herself again.”
Fuck, she’d probably thank us for it.
Knowing that didn’t make it any easier, though.
Turning from them, I sat beside Poppy. My hand trembled as I picked hers up. “I want every comfort possible made available for her.”
“Of course,” Kieran said quietly.
“Get Delano and…Emil to help,” I said, lifting her limp, cool fingers to my lips. “No one else can know.”
“Of course,” Kieran said quietly.
“Since that’s decided,” Reaver said, and I heard him stand, “I will head for Iliseeum as soon as she is…moved. You may need me if she wakes before.”
Nodding, I kissed her knuckles and then lowered her hand. There was one question I hadn’t asked yet. I didn’t want to but it was necessary. “What color are his eyes?”
“Silver.” Reaver paused, knowing who I was asking about. “When he pretended to be the Primal of Life, they were silver and gold. But once the Queen Ascended, they returned to silver and crimson.”
Red symbolized death. It was why the Blood Crown’s colors were crimson, and why the Rites were soaked in the color. Still, knowing there was this connection between her and a Primal god none of us had even known existed made me want to destroy everything in the chamber.
“Can you get Delano and Emil and make sure the space is ready for her?” I said.
“Yes,” Kieran answered.
I heard him make his way to the door. “And, Kieran?”
He stopped. “Yes?”
I closed my eyes, the words I was about to say already stinging my throat and skin. “I don’t want to see you after she’s moved.”
The air grew heavy in the silence that followed, but I knew he was still there.
“Understood,” he said, his voice vacant of all emotion.
He fell silent again, but I knew he remained. I waited.
“You should ask yourself why she asked me to make such a promise,” Kieran said.
I closed my eyes.
But it did nothing to prevent him from landing a blow that hurt worse than any fists could. “And not you.”
“I don’t like this,” Delano ground out as he stared down at a still-unconscious Poppy.
We’d been lucky she hadn’t woken while we moved her, and it made me sick to my stomach to even think that.
Fuck.
