“I don’t want to. It’s the very last thing I would ever want,” he said, “but it cannot be avoided.”
I stared at him as the corners of my vision dimmed.
“Casteel,” Kieran warned. “We need his help.” He stepped between Attes and me. “Poppy needs his help.”
My heart thudded heavily as I stared at the Primal. Part of me wanted to let the eather swirling inside me loose, but Kieran was right. We needed his help.
Poppy needed it.
Mouth clamped shut, I nodded. Kieran hesitated for a moment, then stepped aside and faced the Primal. “What do you have to do?”
He slid his hand down the strap to the flap of his satchel. Opening it, he withdrew a dark-gray vial. “This.”
“What is it?” Kieran eyed the bottle. “Is that some type of shadowstone?”
“No. The vial is made of basalt. The slag…the slaggiest of slag,” he said with a faint and quick grin. “It’s created where the highest intensity of dragon fire strikes a surface.”
“Dragon?” Kieran repeated.
“Yes. Dragon. As in the ancestors of the draken,” he said. I was sure Kieran realized that. “It’s the only thing that will hold their blood.”
I crossed my arms. “Please tell me you’re not using draken blood on Poppy.”
“I warned you it would hurt.”
“Well, now I know why the mortal died,” Kieran muttered. “How is that supposed to help her?”
“Normally, it would burn right through flesh and bone. Even a Primal’s,” Attes said, and my head tipped toward him. “Especiallyhisblood.”
“Nektas’s,” I guessed.
Attes nodded, and my stomach twisted sharply. “But I know how to prevent that.”
“How?” I demanded.
“It’s not important,” he countered.
I wasthis closeto choking the fucker out. “Then what is?”
“For Kolis to have forged a connection with her,” he said, his words slow and deliberate, as if he chose each one carefully, “she would bear his mark.”
“Mark?” Kieran frowned. “What kind of mark?”
“His.”
The word echoed in my head like a thunderclap.His. I breathed in, but the air tasted like ash.
“The symbol of death?” Kieran’s head cut to me. “Did you see anything?”
I swallowed hard, my throat dry. “I saw no mark,” I told him.
“There has to be one,” the Primal said.
My mind raced, replaying every moment that’d passed since Poppy woke. Had I missed something?
“I don’t understand,” Kieran spoke low and quick. “How would she end up with his mark? You didn’t sound all that confident that it was because of the Revenant.”
“He touched her arm, and I’ve seen her arms,” I said. “There’s no mark there.”
