“Because I would feel it,” he said, as if that explained everything.
It really explained nothing, not even touching on why I was different than Malec. But those questions were lost in the realization that I would have to feed. I hadn’t felt the need yet. I didn’t even know what to think about what would happen if I had to do it before I freed…him. That was yet another thing I didn’t want to stress about.
Delano nudged my limp hand with the side of his face. I reached over, gently petting the back of his neck. I wished my hands weren’t gloved so I could feel his fur. I knew that his coat was thicker and softer than even Kieran’s.
“Why can’t I feed from a draken?” I asked and then wondered if that was a rude question.
“Because it would burn the insides out of most. Even Primals.”
Oh.
All right, then.
I shook that disturbing image from my mind. “What exactly would weaken a god? Besides being injured?”
Reaver’s head tilted once again. “You do not know much about yourself, do you?”
My lips pursed. “Well, this whole god thing is relatively new, and, you know, there aren’t any gods standing around ready to educate me. Nor are there any texts I can simply read.”
He made a harrumphing sound as if those weren’t good enough reasons. “Most injuries would only weaken you unless they were serious. Then you will weaken more quickly. Using the essence of the gods can, over time, also weaken you if you haven’t completed the Culling. Which, as I said, you have not.”
Delano’s ears flattened. That’s not ideal.
No, it wasn’t. Using the eather meant that I could fight like a god, but if it weakened me… My stomach dipped. “I didn’t know that.”
“I’m shocked to hear that.”
Even Kieran would’ve been impressed by the level of sarcasm in Reaver’s voice. “How will I know when the Culling is complete?”
“You’ll know.”
I resisted the urge to pick up one of the small rocks and throw it at him. “What good is having that kind of power if it inevitably weakens me?”
“It is a balance, meyaah Liessa,” he said, and I blinked. I hadn’t expected to hear him call me my Queen like the wolven did. “Even we have weaknesses. The fire we breathe is the essence of the Primals. Using it tires us. Slows us down. Even the Primals had their limitations. Weaknesses. Only one is infinite.”
Nyktos.
He would be infinite.
“From what I can remember, it varies how much using the essence weakens from god to god,” he continued. “But as I said, you carry the Primal essence within you. I imagine it will take longer for you to weaken that way, but you will know when it happens.” His head turned in the direction of the camp. “Your wolven comes.”
A sugary ripple of amusement came from Delano as I looked over my shoulder, seeing a distant figure among the broken stone and tall grass. “If you’re talking about Kieran, he’s not my wolven.”
The wind lifted the strands of Reaver’s hair away from his face, revealing the bland set to his features. “Is he not?”
“No.” I ignored the quiet huffing sound that Delano made as I rose. “None of the wolven are mine.” I glanced up at him. “The wolven belong to no one but themselves. The same goes for you and the other draken.”
There was a pause. “You sound a lot like…her.”
Noting the softening of his tone, I looked up at him, opening my senses. As before, I felt nothing. In my chest, the essence of the gods hummed, and the urge to push, to see if I could shatter his walls was almost as hard to resist as not throwing a rock at him had been. “The Consort?”
A brief smile appeared, and my gods, it was a breathtaking transformation. The chilly hollowness to his features vanished, turning him from someone uniquely appealing to a stunning, otherworldly beauty. “Yes. You remind me very much of the…Consort.”
The way he said that was more than a little odd, but I thought of what Nektas had said. A reminder that this wasn’t just about him. “Will the Consort really wake upon Ires’s return?”
“Yes.”
“And what does that mean for the other gods?” For us, I wanted to add, but I wasn’t sure if I truly wanted to know the answer to that at the moment.
“I imagine they will eventually wake.”
I wondered why the Consort being awake had anything to do with the other gods. Or if it really had to do with Nyktos—that if his Consort had to sleep, he chose to be with her, which caused the other gods to sleep. I was also tired of calling her the Consort. “What’s her name?”