Kieran sent me a glance of concern, and I really had no idea what Nektas was speaking of or what would happen if the Consort awakened. But I asked, “What is it that I need to help bring back?”

“Your father.”

I opened my mouth, but it took several moments for me to find the ability to speak. “Malec?”

“Malec is lost to us. He was lost to us long before any of us realized.”

Confusion swept through both Kieran and me. “I don’t understand,” I started. “Malec is—”

“Malec is not your father,” Nektas said. “The blood that courses through you is that of Ires, his twin.”

Shock rolled through me as I stared at the draken’s back. Isbeth…she hadn’t confirmed that Malec was my father…and she had spoken of Malec in the past tense, as if she believed that he was gone. Oh my gods, Isbeth didn’t know where Malec was, and…

“Ires was lured from Iliseeum some time ago,” Nektas said. “Drawn into the realm with my daughter while we slept. We have not been able to look for Ires. Not without being summoned, and he…he has not called for us. But we know he lives.”

My thoughts raced, settling on the painting I’d seen in the museum of Nyktos and the two…the two large cats. “Oh, gods…”

“What?” Kieran looked at me.

I swallowed, almost afraid to ask. “Could Ires shift forms?”

“He, like his father, could take other forms. While Nyktos preferred that of a white wolf, Ires was often fond of taking the shape of a large gray cat, much like Malec.”

“Fuck,” Kieran whispered.

I…I could only stand there while it felt like my heart had dropped out of my body. “I saw him,” I uttered. “We both did.”

The muscles along Nektas’s back rippled and flexed. “How?”

“He was…he was caged by the one who took Casteel,” I said. I had only briefly considered that the creature I’d seen in the cage had been Malec, but at that time, we’d believed Malec to be a deity. Not Nyktos’s son. Not a twin. “The Blood Queen,” I rasped, reeling. “She…she says she’s a god because Malec Ascended her.”

“A god?” A rough, dark laugh left the ancient draken. “A god is born. Not created. What she is…she, like the Revenants, are an abomination of all that is godly.”

Casteel…he had been right.

Nektas’s hands closed into fists. “Then your enemy is truly an enemy of ours.”

Shaken by the revelation, I pressed the heel of my palm to my chest. How had Isbeth lured a god? Had Malec shared something with her? “Your daughter? Do you know if she lives?”

Nektas did not answer for a long time. “I do not know. She was young when we went to sleep, into statas. She was barely on the cusp of adulthood when Ires woke her.”

“What is her name?” Kieran asked.

“Jadis.”

“That’s a pretty name,” I said, briefly closing my eyes. I wished I hadn’t. I saw the too-thin man behind the bone bars, his features mirroring the chaos of his mind. I saw the far-too-intelligent eyes of the cat. My father. And I had left him there. I shuddered.