Shoving aside the folds of canvas, I dropped to my knees beside the dark-haired male. I channeled the throbbing eather in my chest as I placed my hands on his arm. I didn’t hesitate. There was no time to think about what I was doing when I’d only seen three land and the rest fall. Heat rippled down my arms, spreading across my fingers as I pressed them into his biceps, feeling the faint but distinct ridges that were shaped like scales. A silvery glow washed over the draken in a veiny web of light and…and then rolled off, washing uselessly onto the tent.
My heart lurched as I tried again, pulling forth even more of the Primal essence and pushing it even harder into the draken.
It did the same, rolling right off him.
Kieran appeared on the other side, touching the draken’s neck. His gaze lifted to mine. “He’s gone.”
I sucked in a breath. “I can bring him back. Like I did with that girl. I just need to try harder.”
“You can’t.” The raspy voice sent a shudder through me. Kieran’s eyes moved beyond me to where Reaver must’ve stood in his mortal form. “You can heal, but once the soul parts a being of two worlds, you cannot restore life.”
Kieran rocked back, blinking rapidly before turning his head to another caved-in tent. To where soldiers and wolven gathered in multiple clusters around—
The anguished, warbling call came again.
“No.” I whipped toward Reaver and started to rise. “I can try with another.”
“You cannot.” Reaver knelt at the feet of the fallen draken, his head bowed.
“Why not?” I shouted, anger and disbelief crashing together. My heart was pounding, my breathing heavy.
“Only the Primal of Life can restore life to any being of two worlds.” The finality in his words was a punch in the gut. “They’re gone.”
They’re gone.
I stared at Reaver as those two words cycled, over and over. Only three had landed, joining Reaver. That meant…
A shudder rocked me. Sixteen had been in the air. Sixteen draken who’d just awakened from the gods knew how long to do nothing but die?
My hands opened and closed as I turned in a slow circle. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“This wasn’t your fault,” Kieran argued, standing.
But I’d woken them. I’d brought them here. They’d followed me—
All that you and those who follow will find here is death.
I stood on trembling legs, eyes and throat burning as I saw the cracks in the ground, some thin and others thick enough to trip someone up. The fissures spread across the land like a fragile web and continued along the walls of the manor. The roof had no damage that I could see in the moonlight. It was as if no arcs of light had pierced it.
Slowly, I turned to where Naill and several soldiers stood, staring beyond the collapsed tents. Skin pimpling with another chill, I followed their stares. Beyond the encampment, the pines no longer reached for the stars. The trees and the heavy, needled branches were bent forward, touching the ground. It looked like a massive hand had come down upon them, forcing them to bow. I looked at Kieran.
“I don’t know what caused this.” He dragged a hand down his face. “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
“But we’ve felt it,” Naill uttered, his amber eyes bright. “After those bastard Unseen tried to kill you, and Cas had you in that cabin. That happened when you woke up,” he told us, and I remembered seeing the trees outside the cabin. They, too, had been bent to the ground. “The same kind of storm happened when you Ascended to your godhood.”
“This was not a storm,” Reaver said, and I turned to him. “It was an…awakening.”
“Of what?” I asked.
He lifted his head, and his eyes…they weren’t like earlier. They were still a vibrant shade of blue, but the pupils were thin, vertical slits. “Death.”
My entire body jerked as Vessa’s words came back to me. “You,” she’d said. “I wait for you. I wait for death.”
Numbly, I stumbled back to the manor and started walking. My pace picked up. The dressing robe streamed out from behind me as I ran.
“Poppy!” Kieran shouted.
I flew through the door into the manor, racing toward the Great Hall—to the chambers two doors away.
Kieran caught up to me. “What are you doing?”
“Her.” My steps slowed as we passed the dark room. Behind us, I knew Naill and others followed. “Vessa.”
Reaching the door, I grabbed the handle. Like with the chains at the gates of Massene, I melted the locks. The handle turned, and the door swung open, letting the potent stench of stale lilacs slam into me.