“With her,” Attes said quietly, his gaze on the door, “he wouldn’t need to physically touch her.”
I stiffened as I hissed, “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“That doesn’t matter either.”
My nostrils flared. “I beg to fucking differ.”
“It doesn’t,” he snapped.
“Bullshit,” Kieran snarled. “We need to know why he wouldn’t need to physically touch her.”
Something occurred to me then. “Teerman.”
Kieran’s eyes narrowed on me. “Why are you thinking about that dead fuck?”
“When I took him out, I thought I saw something in his eyes. A flicker.” I dragged my hand through my hair. “He also said that she had always been his.”
Attes stiffened.
“What?” Kieran growled, his eyes flashing a vivid cobalt-blue.
“And when Kolis got through earlier, he said the same damn thing.” I dropped my hand. “He was in the Duke. Said he was whenever he wanted to be.”
“I have no idea who you two speak of,” Attes said as Kieran took a step back.
“He was an Ascended. A vampry,” I said.
“I know what they are. Kolis created the first Ascended,” Attes said, a crease forming between his brows as he shocked both of us into silence. “Like the Revenants, their very existence is thanks to him. Therefore, they are irrevocably tied to him.”
I would have to table the what-the-fuckery in that piece of information. “Are you telling me he could’ve been jumping from Ascended to Revenant? That hestillcould?”
“He is linked to all his creations if he chooses to be.” Attes looked at Kieran. “Just as the Queen can do with the wolven if she so decides.”
Fucking gods.
“But Poppy is neither a Revenant nor an Ascended,” Kieran pointed out.
But her sister was.
Well, sort of. Who the fuck knew what Millicent actually was?
Attes drew in a deep breath. Once more, I had a feeling he was about to say some shit I would not be happy about. “Her blood,” he stated. “He’s a Primal god. If he’s had her blood, even a drop…” His stare cut away from me. “And if she’s had his, there’d be a link between them.”
“Even if the Duke was the one who took her blood?” Kieran asked, his skin losing some of its color.
Blood thumped in my head as I stared at the Primal.
Attes met my stare and nodded.
A deep, menacing growl emanated from Kieran, reverberating through the corridor. He spun on his heel and walked several feet down the hall, where he stopped, his hands on his waist. And I…
I didn’t move.
Part of my consciousness was still working through and absorbing what Attes had said, even as the rest of me wanted to dive right into denial. That part recognized that the chances of Poppy not even remembering something like that happening were good. I’d learned that she wasn’t always conscious after herlessonsin his office. She may not even know. Not only was the Ascended skilled at taking what was not his while the innocent slept, but he also had unlimited access to her. He knew all the forgotten stairwells and hidden halls of the castle.
Though it didn’t even have to be Teerman who forged the sickening connection. Poppy had been surrounded by the Ascended and Revenants for most of her life. And her mother? Isbeth? She’d wanted to bring Kolis back. Did she have access to his blood? My mind flashed to the golden Rev, Callum. It could’ve been anyone.
Maybe he’s always been in her or connected to her.
