My eyes popped open.
Two nostrils I might be able to fit my hand inside were only a few feet from my face.
“Naberius,” Kolis shouted.
Thin lips vibrated, peeling back farther from those wicked teeth as the draken leaned in, close enough that I saw the strands of saliva clinging to his fangs.
Kolis yelled his name again. “Stand down. Now.”
It didn’t look like Naberius was about to do that as his breath ruffled the strands of my hair. A low rumble came from his throat once more.
Naberius looked like he was about to eat me.
I thought I should feel fear. Of all the ways to die, I imagined draken teeth tearing into flesh and crunching bone was likely a painful one. Regardless, I felt nothing but lingering confusion and disbelief. I didn’t even feel the embers.
As Diaval crept into the edges of my vision, Naberius…sniffed me.
The draken huffed out a breath that sent the top of my gown blowing back. Then he retreated, drawing his tail toward him.
“Come on,” Diaval growled in exasperation, jumping out of the way of the draken’s thick tail.
A different guard wasn’t as fast.
Naberius’s tail swept the legs right out from under him, knocking the god onto his back.
I blinked.
“Seraphena.” Attes’s quiet voice intruded, causing me to jerk. He stood close but didn’t touch me as Naberius’s head returned to the floor, and his eyes closed. “You should return to the dais.”
My gaze shifted back to Kolis as he reclined on the throne. “I…I don’t understand.”
“It’s okay,” Attes reassured, but it wasn’t okay. It was nowhere near all right. “You need to return to the dais.”
I didn’t feel myself walking, but I was. Attes stayed close to my side until I reached the platform. He remained there until I climbed the steps.
“Thank you, Attes,” Kolis said, his swirling eyes locked on Naberius.
Attes might have answered, but I wasn’t sure as the conversations picked up behind me, once more becoming a quiet murmur of voices.
“I don’t understand,” I repeated.
“About what? Naberius? He is old. Therefore, grumpy.”
“I’m not talking about the draken.”
Kolis’s gaze slid to mine. “Then what are you confused about?”
He couldn’t be serious. “Evander. He was hurting her.”
“He was,” Kolis answered.
“Why did she react that way then? She behaved as if—” I wheezed in a pained breath. “She behaved as if she cared for him. But that’s not possible. They weren’t known to each other. She didn’t like what he was doing to her.”
“And how do you know that?”
“You told me—”
“I did not tell you that.” Kolis’s head tilted, sending a lock of blond hair across his face.
“W-what?” I stammered, a wave of disbelief coursing through me. “You asked me what I would do if I knew—”
“I did ask what you would do if you knew someone’s consent was not obtained, but I did not say she was being forced.”
He had. My thoughts raced over our conversation. He’d named them and then said Evander knew how to feed and give pleasure, but he enjoyed pain. Then…then he’d said, “So now you know.”
He hadn’t explicitly said the god was forcing Jacinta.
I shook my head. “I saw her. She was in pain. She was crying.”
“Tears of pain? Or ones of pleasure?” Kolis asked. I opened my mouth. “Did you ask her? I assume not.”
Why would I ask her in front of the one hurting her? That was irrelevant anyway. “Why would I ask when you led me to believe—？”
“I didn’t lead you to believe anything, my dear,” Kolis cut in. “I asked what you would do in such a situation. You answered that you would shove a blade through their heart. I told you what I saw. You didn’t ask if they knew each other. You didn’t ask if she was in distress. You only asked about yourself and how your actions would affect you.”
I flinched.
“You, like my nephew and far too many others, hear what you want to hear. See what you want to see,” Kolis continued. “And then act upon what fits your narrative.”
“That’s not what happened,” I argued. He’d disregarded the entire context of our conversation leading up to that.
Kolis leaned forward. “That’s exactly what happened, so’lis. You filled in what I did not share. You chose to act upon that information and what you already believed. That was your choice.” His smile returned. “Perhaps you won’t be so trusting of what your eyes and mind tell you next time.”
As I stood there, I remembered the shock on Keella’s face. No. No. I looked around, not seeing her in the crowd. “What…whose Court did Evander—？” My voice cracked. “Where did he serve?”
Kolis dragged the edges of his fangs over his lower lip, and I knew. I fucking knew then. “He served in the Thyia Plains.”
Evander had been one of Keella’s gods.
My body flashed hot and then cold as the motivation behind what had just gone down became all too clear. It wasn’t about proving some twisted version of reality to me. It was Kolis striking back at Keella, who he likely knew didn’t believe a single thing he’d said about the coronation or my answer. And he’d proven it through me.
Just as he’d done with Kyn.
Callum went to Kolis’s side, bending to speak quietly to the Primal. I…
I just stood there.
I couldn’t believe what he’d just said. I knew what I’d heard. What I’d seen. Kolis may not have said that Jacinta was being forced, but he had implied it. He hadn’t insinuated that she was enjoying herself or that she derived pleasure from receiving pain. He’d told me what he believed I wanted to hear. What I…
What I would have easily assumed and had assumed moments before when I saw Malka and Orval. He’d known what I would do and had goaded me into it.
Into killing a possibly innocent god.
Into punishing Keella for daring to ask about me.
The weight of the dagger I still held felt even heavier then. I looked down. Blood no longer dripped, but it still smeared the midnight-hued blade. My knuckles around the hilt were as white as Jacinta’s had been.
Slowly, I lifted my gaze to Kolis. He still spoke to Callum, one hand relaxed on the arm of the throne that glittered like his crown, the other holding the chalice by his fingertips, letting it dangle. His legs were spread, knees loosely bent. He lifted an arm, brushing some hair back from his face. Warm light glinted off that band around his biceps. The false King was entirely at ease, the smile on his face slippery and smug.
In an instant, my memories took me back to when I’d stood before Thad. When the young draken had asked me to get it over with. I saw in Kolis now what I’d seen then.
What was in that golden essence of his—his power and beauty. A darkness that had nothing to do with death. It was the same thing I saw in his smile. The kind that was just as real as the lopsided, uncertain ones.
Something tainted.
Vile.
Corrupt.
It smudged the aura beneath his flesh and shaded the gold in the lifeless gray of the Rot.