“No,” Nyktos replied, his tone cool enough to chill my skin.
“Well, that will be a complication, will it not? One I would not envy.”
I opened my mouth, but Attes continued. “And you’ve had a lot of complications of late, it seems. I heard you had quite a few entombed gods escape on you.”
“I assume you had nothing to do with that.”
Attes smirked. “You should know me better than that. If I had a problem with you, I wouldn’t send one of my draken, nor would I unleash those entombed here.”
“No, you’re not the type to plunge the sword into someone’s back.”
“Neither are you.”
“Glad we have that in common,” Nyktos replied, but he didn’t sound glad at all. “What is it that you want, Attes?”
“There are many things I want, and very few of those things are available to me.” Attes stretched out a leg. His gaze dropped to where Nyktos’s hand was. “I’ve never seen you quite so…engrossed with another before.”
I almost laughed.
“You haven’t.” Nyktos’s lips brushed my cheek, causing my pulse to skitter in surprise. “I prefer to have her within reach.”
Only because he feared I would do something reckless, but notexquisitely reckless.
“I can easily see why.”
“And I can see you’re nowhere near getting to the point before I run out of patience,” Nyktos warned. “And I’m almost there, just so you know.”
Good gods, the way he spoke to the other Primal was shocking. I knew there was a hierarchy to the Primals, with the Primal of Death and Primal of Life being at the top, but still. This was the Primal ofWar.
Attes’s stare sharpened, hardening the handsome angles of his face. “You killed my Cimmerian. Those who came to your Rise.”
The swift change of subject threw me as Nyktos said, “They were not your Cimmerian. They served Hanan. And if you had such concern for them, you should have taught them better than to serve such a coward.”
Tension poured into the chamber, even as Nyktos’s finger continued drawing short, idle lines over the flesh of my thigh.
“As much as it pisses me off to admit this,” Attes said after a long moment, “you have a point there. But you also killed Dorcan. I was under the impression that you two were fond of each other.”
Dorcan…he had called Nyktos an old friend. I hadn’t thought much of it, because Nyktos didn’t consider any of those close to him friends. But that didn’t mean they weren’t.
“I may have tolerated him. But whatever tolerance I may have for someone ends when they come to my Court, make demands, and attack my guards. None of the other Primals would’ve done anything less.”
“You are usually more lenient than the rest of us.”
“Perhaps you don’t know me as well as you think you do,” Nyktos said. “So, what have you come to do, Attes? Lecture me on my lack of leniency? If so, what did you do to your brother’s guards when they stepped out of line?”
“Kyn’s guards were pieces of shit.”
“From what I heard, they were simply intoxicated and celebrating that night.”
“Their inability to handle their spirits wasn’t why I gutted them.”
“It wasn’t?”
“No.” Attes tipped his chin toward me. “I assume your soon-to-be Consort is wise enough not to repeat what is discussed here?”
“His Consort is wise enough,” I snapped, yet again failing to control my tongue.
“I do hope so,” Attes replied. “I also hope you’re more careful with your tone. I may find your boldness refreshing. Alluring, even. Others will not.”