“Your eyes,” I whispered as he finally got his daughter’s hand free of my hair, tucking her and her blanket against his broad chest. “Not sure if you’re aware of this, but they just changed color for a couple of seconds.”
Everything about Nektas changed in an instant. The smile was gone. His features sharpened as the faint ridges of scales became more prominent. “What color did they turn?”
“Blue.” I glanced at Reaver, who looked as if he was still half-asleep. “A really bright, intense blue.” I thought his skin lost a little of the rich, coppery hue it usually had, but I wasn’t sure. “Is that normal?”
“Sometimes,” he murmured, then leaned forward. He pressed a quick kiss to my forehead, stunning me into silence. “Thank you for watching over the younglings.”
I watched Nektas rise, not quite sure how I’d watched over them unless falling asleep counted. Reaver clamored from his chair as Nektas stepped to the side, and then I finally saw him.
Nyktos leaned against the bare wall, arms crossed over the dark gray tunic he must’ve changed into. His head was tilted to the side, and I was no longer thinking of changing eye colors because the expression on his face wassoftand warm.
Nektas stopped by the Primal, speaking too low for me to hear. Whatever Nektas said to him caused Nyktos to push off the wall. His arms unfolded as he glanced at me.
I resisted the urge to wiggle myself between the cushions.
Nektas nodded at something Nyktos said, then turned to Reaver. The young boy gave me a little wave, and then the trio disappeared into the hall. We were alone, and Nyktos was walking toward me. I was a mess, only managing to sit up as he came to me, taking the seat Nektas had occupied as I busied myself with straightening the hem of my vest.
“I see someone likes your hair as much as I do.”
“Yeah,” I whispered, and that was all I said.
There was a beat of silence. “You okay?”
“I…I think my hair is sticky.” Closing my eyes, I ordered myself to get it together. There was no reason for me to behave so strangely. My big, unnecessary epiphany didn’t change Nyktos, and I needed to treat this the same way I treated the looming summons or the matter of who the soul inside me belonged to: deal with it by…not dealing with it.
Sounded like a plan.
I peeked up at him. Tension had gathered in the lines of his mouth and brow. Concern blossomed.
His gaze swept over my face so intensely I wondered if he was counting my freckles again. Or if I’d been projecting the wild mix of emotions earlier, and he was trying to figure out what had caused them. I really hoped it was the former.
It was neither.
“You’ve been sleeping a lot more lately,” he said.
A little bit of relief swept through me, but it was brief. “I know. I feel fine,” I quickly added. “No headaches or anything, but I didn’t sleep this much before. I guess it’s the Culling,” I finally admitted aloud—and to myself.
Nyktos nodded. “It could’ve been the training this morning—”
“I don’t want to stop.”
He pulled back as I swung my legs off the couch and scooted to the edge. “I’m not suggesting we do.”
“I feel like there is abutcoming.”
Nyktos was still watching me closely. Too closely. “You saw Nektas’s eyes change color.”
I frowned. “To blue. Is there something wrong with them?”
“No,” he answered, brushing a few tangled curls back from my shoulder. “I’ve never seen them that color, but all of the draken used to have blue eyes.”
“Really?” Surprise flickered through me. “Why are they now red?”
“They turned that way after Kolis took the embers of life from my father,” he said. “It’s a sort ofnotam—a Primal bond between the draken and the true Primal of Life. It was severed when the embers were taken, and their eye color has stayed that way since there has been no true Primal of Life—no true Primal of Life who Ascended.”
“Then why did they just—?” I sucked in a sharp breath, rising to my feet. “Did they momentarily change because of me? But I haven’t Ascended. Obviously.”
“The embers could be growing stronger in you, and that innate, Primal bond between the draken and the true Primal of Life was temporarily responding to them.”