There were only ten beings in either realm that were powerful enough to tear open the realms.
A Primal.
But as the shadows stopped the maddening spinning, and the shape of wings became nothing more than a hazy outline, I saw who stood in the center, and it made no sense.
Because it was him. The Shadowlands god. Ash.
He looked over his shoulder at me, the striking planes of his features a brutal set of harsh lines. I stared at him, my heart thumping. His skin…it had thinned, taking on a silvery-white glow. The breath I took lodged in my throat.
Oh, gods…
The silver of his irises seeped throughout his entire eyes until they were iridescent. They crackled with power—the kind that could unravel entire realms with just a lift of a finger. A web of veins appeared on his cheeks, spreading across his throat and down his arms under the silver band on his right biceps then traveling along the swirling shadows that had gathered under his skin. He was…he was like the brightest star and the deepest night sky given mortal form. And he was utterly beautiful in this form, wholly terrifying.
The buzz of incredulity filled me, throwing me straight into denial because it couldn’t be.
It couldn’t have been him this entire time. “Who…who are you?” Tavius rasped.
Slowly, his head turned to where my stepbrother stood. “I am known as the Asher,” he said, and I shuddered. Is it short for something, I’d asked when he told me his name. It is short for many things. “The One who is Blessed. I am the Guardian of Souls and the Primal God of Common Men and Endings.” His voice traveled through the Great Hall, and absolute
silence answered. I could barely force air through my lungs. “I am Nyktos, ruler of the Shadowlands, the Primal of Death.”
The whip slipped from Tavius’s hand, falling to the cracked marble tile.
Ezra and my mother were the first to react, dropping to their knees as they placed their hands over their hearts. The Royal Guards who’d entered behind them followed suit. Tavius and the other guards were as frozen as I was.
Nyktos looked to his right, to who I slowly realized was the god who’d given me the shadowstone dagger. Ector nodded curtly before turning to me.
As the Primal returned his attention to those before him, Ector knelt beside me. Distaste filled his deep amber eyes. “Animals,” he muttered.
“That’s an insult to animals,” came another voice, and I looked up to see the god who had stood to the Primal’s left. The deep black skin of his jaw was hard as he glanced at my back. “There is no blood.”
“He didn’t break the skin,” I heard myself whisper. “He’s not skilled enough with a whip for that.”
His eyes, the color of polished onyx, flicked to mine. Eather glowed behind the barely visible pupils as a slow grin started to appear. “Apparently, not.”
“Saion?” Ector carefully touched my shoulders. “Can you get rid of the ropes?”
“Gladly.” The god curled his fingers around the bindings. Immediately, the edges of the rope frayed under Saion’s hand. A faint charge of electricity danced around my wrists, and then the rope broke apart, falling to the floor as ash. I started to topple forward, but Ector kept me upright.
A sharp sensation of pinpricks rushed down my arms as they fell to my sides, the blood returning to them. “Is this…is this real?”
“Unfortunately,” Ector muttered.
Saion snorted as his hands replaced the other god’s. “Unfortunately?” He eased me down, so I was sitting, but his hands remained, causing another jolt of energy to rush over my skin. “I’m about to get my daily dose of entertainment.”
Ector sighed as he rose. “There’s something wrong with you.” “There’s something wrong with all of us.”
“This won’t end well.”
“When does it ever?” Saion asked.
“Who?” the Primal snarled, jerking my attention to where he stood. Fury radiated from him, and I had…I had never heard him sound like that. “Who took part in this?”
“Them,” a soft, shaking voice answered—the same frightened voice that had lured me into that room to be attacked.
I found her by the doors on one knee, her head barely lifted. “I saw them in the hall with her, Your Highness. Three of them were with the Prince, and the fourth joined with…” She shook. “I went to get Her Grace.”
The Primal’s chin lifted to where the three Royal Guards stood with Pike, who still held the bow. A guard spoke in a trembling voice. “I thought he was just going to scare her. I didn’t know—”
The Primal turned his head to the male, and that was all. He looked at him. Whatever the Royal Guard had been about to say in his defense ended in a choked gasp. The man stumbled forward, the blood draining rapidly from his face. His head kicked back as his lips peeled over his teeth in a scream that was never given life. I jerked as tiny cracks appeared in the man’s pale, waxy flesh—deep, bloodless splits opening across his cheeks, down his throat, and over his hands.
The Royal Guard shattered, broke apart like fragile glassware, into a fine dusting of ash and then…nothing. Nothing remained of him, not even the clothing he wore or the weapons he bore.
My wide eyes shot to the Primal. That kind of power…it was inconceivable. Terrifying and impressive.
“Here we go,” Ector murmured.
My gods, that was what he was capable of. And I had stabbed him? I’d actually threatened him. Multiple times. The strangest thought occurred to me as one of the other Royal Guards turned to run and only made it a step before he froze mid-flight, his arms whipping out, stiff at his sides. Why in the hell did the Primal ever use a sword if he could do that? A grossly inappropriate laugh crawled up my throat as the guard’s mouth dropped open in a silent scream. Cracks appeared across his cheeks as he rose off the floor. He…he crumbled slowly, from the top of his head to his boots, collapsing in a stream of dust.
Ector glanced down at me, raising a brow.
“Sorry,” I mumbled. It had to be the pain in my back that ebbed and then surged. The shock. Everything.
The third guard fell to his knees, begging. He too shattered into nothing.
“He seems angry,” Ector spoke over my head.
“You…well, he’s been moody lately,” Saion replied, and I felt another laugh taking form. “Let him have his fun.”
“I’m not going out like that.” Pike—the utterly idiotic man—lifted the bow and fired.
The Primal twisted, moving so fast it was nothing more than a blur. He caught the arrow just before it made contact with his chest. “
“Now that was a bold move,” Saion commented. “A really bad one, but bold.”
“You fired an arrow at me? Are you for real?” The Primal tossed the arrow aside. “No, you don’t have to go out like that.”
“Oh, man,” Ector added with another sigh.
The Primal was suddenly in front of Pike. I hadn’t even seen him move. Taking hold of Pike’s arm, he twisted sharply. Bone cracked. The bow fell, clattering off the tile as the Primal gripped the man around the throat. “There are many ways you can be taken out. Thousands. And I’m well acquainted with all of them,” he said. “Your options are endless. Some
painless. Some quick. This way won’t be either.”
The Primal’s head snapped forward. There was a brief flash of fangs, and my stomach hollowed. He tore into Pike’s throat, ending the man’s short, abrupt scream of terror. Wrenching his head back, the Primal forced the man’s jaw open as he spat a mouthful of Pike’s own blood into his mouth. My stomach churned with nausea as I planted a hand on the tile. The Primal shoved Pike aside. The mortal fell to the floor, twitching and grasping at the jagged tear in his throat. I couldn’t look away. Not even when he stopped moving and his blood-coated hands slipped away from his neck.
Ector’s head cocked to the side. “You call that moody?” “Well…” Saion trailed off.
The Primal then turned to Tavius. “You.” Ice fell from the word.” He looked down, his blood-smeared lips curling into a smirk. The breeches along the inside of Tavius’s leg had darkened. “So afraid you pissed yourself. Do you regret your actions?”
Tavius said nothing. I didn’t think he could. All he could do was nod jerkily.
“You should’ve thought about that before you picked up that whip,” the Primal growled. “And touched what is mine.”
What is mine?
Another laugh tickled the back of my throat. Now he claimed me?
A rush of air stirred around me. I blinked. That was the amount of time that had passed. The spot where Tavius once stood was empty. My brows lowered. A second later, my mother screamed. I turned, barely feeling the pull against the tender skin of my back.
The Primal had Tavius pinned to the statue of Kolis, several feet off the floor, the whip wrapped around his throat. The Primal’s skin was more silvery than dusky now, thinner, and those shadows became even more apparent. “I would ask what kind of mortal you are, but it is evident that you’re a pathetic pile of shit shaped into that of a man.”
Tavius’s face turned a mottled red and purple as he sputtered, digging at the whip around his throat.
The Primal’s chin dipped as his head cocked. With his other hand, he reached for Tavius’s waist and jerked his hand back. He held the dagger he’d gifted me. “This,” Nyktos growled, hooking the blade into one of the leather straps that crossed his chest, “does not belong to you.”
“No! Please! He’s my stepson.” My mother rushed forward, stumbling over the hem of her gown. “I don’t know what got into him. He would never do this. Please. I beg of you—”
“Beg and pray all you want. It matters not to me.” The Primal’s voice turned guttural as the shadow wings swept high, stirring the air once more. “He has proven what little significance and value he has to this realm.”
“Don’t do this,” my mother cried, holding out her hands. I squeezed my eyes shut. Not wanting to hear her beg for him… “Please.”
“He’s a monster. He’s always been a monster.” Ezra’s steady voice cut through the room, and I opened my eyes. She hadn’t risen from where she knelt. “Our…our father knew that. Everyone knows that. He is, as you said, of little significance.”
“But he is the future King,” my mother said as Tavius’s eyes bulged, and veins protruded from his temple. “He will never do something like this again. I can promise you that.”
I stared at my mother, my chest rising and falling rapidly as she continued pleading for his life. That icy fire returned, washing away the shock and the disbelief. It dulled the pain in my shoulders and upper back. It dulled everything. I pulled away from Saion and pushed to my feet. I
stood on surprisingly steady legs, my gaze never leaving my mother, even though she had not looked at me.
“Let him go,” I said. “Please.”
“You would beg for his life?” The Primal’s voice was barely recognizable. The limestone of the statue cracked behind Tavius. “He hurt you. He forced you onto your knees and whipped you.”
“I don’t beg for his life,” I said, that throbbing icy hotness taking root in my chest as I turned to the Primal.
A long moment passed, and then the Primal looked down at me. His eyes… The silver was radiant, almost blinding, the wisps of eather nearly obscuring the pupils. The glow seeped out of his eyes, crackling and spitting. Power charged the air, and behind him—all around him—a darkness continued to gather, pulling from all the nooks and shadowy areas of the Great Hall. Shadows also moved under his skin.
“As you wish, liessa.” The Primal dropped my stepbrother. He fell forward onto his knees, and then rolled to his side as he tore the whip free of his throat, tossing it aside as he wheezed. The whip slid across the petals and cracked flooring, coming to a stop before me.
I looked down at it. “Thank you.”
“Do not thank me for that,” he bit out. The shadows collapsed back into the Primal’s skin and were released to the hidden corners of the room. The luminous glow was the last thing to fade. His eyes met mine. “Do not allow this to leave a mark.” He then turned back to Tavius, kneeling beside him. “You will not die by my hands, but I will have your soul for an eternity to do with as I see fit. And I have a lot of ideas.” He winked as he patted the mortal’s cheek. “Something to look forward to. For both of us.”
Saion laughed under his breath. “He’s giving like that.” “Thank you,” my mother whispered. “Thank you for your—”
“Shut the fuck up,” Nyktos snarled as he stepped over Tavius’s trembling body.
My mother did just that, and I turned to her. Finally, finally she looked at me. Her eyes were wide, red, and swollen, and I felt nothing as I faced the Primal. He shifted an arm to the side, revealing the hilt of a sword strapped to his lower back as Tavius righted himself, leaning against the statue of Kolis. The redness had eased from his face as he tilted his head back. The mark the whip had left behind on his throat was clearly visible.
Grasping the hilt of the Primal’s sword, I pulled it free. Ector stepped to the side. The shadowstone was heavier than I was accustomed to, but it was a welcome weight in my hands as I turned to my stepbrother. Tavius looked up at me.
“What did I promise you?” I asked.
His watery eyes widened with realization. He threw up an arm as if he could somehow ward off what was to come.
I swung the shadowstone sword down, across his right forearm. The blade met no resistance, cleaving smoothly through tissue and bone. Tavius howled a sound I’d never heard a mortal make before as he scrambled against the statue, blood spraying and spurting. Someone screamed. Probably my mother as I brought the sword down on his left arm, just below the shoulder. His shrieks rang across the glass ceiling.
I thrust the sword through Tavius’s right chest in a most dishonorable manner, impaling him to the statue of the Primal of Life. He flailed and jerked, wide eyes rolling as blood sprayed the length of my night rail. I stepped toward him.
“I think that’s enough,” the Primal said.
“No, it’s not.” I picked up the whip and snapped forward, grasping Tavius’s blood-and-sweat-soaked hair. I jerked his head back. Wide, panicked eyes met mine as I shoved the handle of the whip into his mouth, pushing it down as hard as I could.
“Okay.” Saion cleared his throat. “Got to admit, I was not expecting that.”
The light was quick to go out of Tavius’s eyes then. The icy heat in my chest throbbed in response, but I let go of his head before my gift could undo all my hard work. I stepped back, wiping his blood on my night rail. Blood now trickled from his ragged wounds.
I didn’t carve out his heart or set him on fire, but what I had done…it would do, and it would not leave a mark.
Taking another step back, I looked around the room. My mother had stopped screaming. The faces were a blur as I looked at Ezra. “Take the throne,” I said hoarsely, and she stiffened. “You are next in line.”
Ezra shook her head. “The throne belongs to—” “The throne belongs to you,” I cut her off.
Her gaze darted to the presence behind me and then to where my mother had collapsed in a pool of white skirts, one hand clutching her chest as she
looked at me—as she saw what I was, what she had helped to mold.
A monster just like Tavius, only of a different sort.
I turned to the Primal, to the other who had helped to shape me into this thing, and slowly lifted my gaze to his face. He stared down at me, his expression unreadable as Tavius’s blood seeped across the floor, cool against my bare feet.
A roar replaced the nothingness as I stood there, staring up at him. The Primal of Death.
My would-be husband.
Nyktos.
The very key to stopping the slow, painful destruction of my kingdom.
Suddenly, that feeling of familiarity made sense. I had heard his voice before.
I have no need of a Consort.
The Primal inhaled sharply as emotions rolled through me, wave after wave, crashing into a rising tide of so many feelings that I choked on them
—the disbelief, the hope, the dread, and the anger. So much anger. “You,” I croaked.
“Get everyone out of here,” the Primal ordered. “Get everyone out of here, including yourselves.”
The gods hesitated. “Are you sure?” Ector asked. “Go.” The Primal didn’t take his eyes off me.
I heard the gods walking away, heard them rounding up those still alive
—heard Saion asking, “You have whiskey? I’m in the mood for whiskey.”
A shudder worked its way through me as the Primal continued staring down at me. Did he…did he now just realize who I was? Three years had passed since he’d last seen me. A lot had changed in that time. Whatever softness of youth had lingered in my features had faded. I was a little taller and fuller, a little harder, but I wasn’t unrecognizable. Apparently, I was just forgettable while my entire life had only ever been about him. And because of him, the last three years of my life had been…well, they had been nothing but pain, disappointment, and unfulfilled duty.
Every part of my being centered on him as my chest continued to rise and fall rapidly.
His head tilted again, the slash of dark brows lowering. Reddish-brown hair slid against his cheek, and something…something deep inside me
began to rattle and crack open. I tasted rage, a hot and acidic rage so potent and consuming, my throat burned with it.
I lost whatever control I normally had. I launched myself at him, swinging my closed fist straight for the Primal’s face.
His eyes widened with a flicker of surprise and that second almost cost him. My knuckles grazed his jaw as he stepped to the side. He twisted at the waist, his hand snapping out. Catching my wrist, he spun me around. The columns of the Great Hall whirled as my bare feet slipped in the blood. In a stuttered heartbeat, my back was pressed to his chest, and an arm pinned me to him around my waist.
“That was not the reaction I expected now,” he said from behind me. “Obviously.”
An inhuman sound crawled out of my throat, a growl of fury as I winged my free arm back, fingers reaching for his hair. It was such an unbecoming move, but I didn’t care.
“Oh, no you don’t.” He caught my other wrist, pressing both my arms to my waist as he crossed his arms over my chest.
Ignoring the protest of the raw skin across my shoulders, I drew up my foot and slammed it down. He shifted out of the way as he lifted me enough that my foot didn’t make contact with the hard floor.
He turned us so we faced away from the statue and Tavius. “You seem angry with me.”
“You think?” I threw my weight back against him, hoping to upset his footing.
He didn’t move. “I see I was correct about you striking me as the type to fight even if you knew you wouldn’t succeed.” His chin brushed the top of my head. “It’s exhausting always being right.”
I threw my head back with a shriek. Pain lanced my skull as I connected with some part of his face.
“Fates,” he grunted, and a savage smile tore at my mouth. His hold on me tightened as he dropped his chin, pressing his cool cheek against mine. Within the span of a too-short breath, he effectively pinned my head between his and his chest. “Are you done yet?”
“No,” I seethed, fingers splaying uselessly. Frustration scorched my skin, stroked against the icy heat in my chest, as did the knowledge that even with years of training, he had still easily rendered me absolutely harmless.
“I think you are.” His cool breath touched my cheek.
“I don’t care what you think,” I spat, trying to pull free, but it was useless, and it was starting to hurt. I didn’t gain an inch. I pulled both legs up, but that did nothing. He didn’t budge.
He sighed. “Or I suppose you could just keep doing this until you tire yourself out.”
Planting both feet on the floor, I pushed as hard as I could against him.
The Primal still didn’t move, but he did tense.
“I would suggest you stop doing that,” he advised, his voice deeper, rougher. “Not only are you going to further irritate the wounds along your back, but I don’t believe your actions are inciting the type of reaction you’re aiming for.”
It took a couple of moments for the firestorm in my blood to ease enough for me to make sense of his words…and for some inkling of rationality to seep in. Breathe in. I stared at the cracks in the white and gold columns, dragging in a deep breath. My chest rose, pressing against his arms. Hold. Slowly, my senses returned. My cheek tingled from the contact with his. The night rail was barely a barrier. The length of my back and hips prickled from the feel of his flesh against mine. The coarse hairs of his arms tickled the sensitive skin of my chest through the sagging bodice. My pulse thrummed erratically as I stared forward, unable to understand the riot of sensations. The skin-to-skin contact was a lot.
I squeezed my eyes shut. Breathe out. Had I seriously tried to attack the Primal of Death?
I didn’t want to think about that. I couldn’t think about what surely awaited me after what I’d done to the would-be King of Lasania. All I could focus on was that I was here now with him, the object of over a decade’s worth of training and grooming. A strange sort of laugh worked its way up my throat, but it found silence against my sealed lips. Because no matter what had happened in this Great Hall, no matter who took the throne now, I still had a duty to Lasania.
I was supposed to be seducing Nyktos, not dismembering people in front of him and trying to kill him. Not until I’d made him fall in love with me. In my anger and disbelief, I’d apparently lost sight of a very important step there.
The reality of the situation once again settled over me as the anger slowly returned to the simmer of the last three years…and maybe even
longer than that.
Nyktos.
A name known but never spoken out of fear of gaining his attention or inciting his wrath. A name I’d never even allowed myself to think.
But he was finally here. How many times over the last three years had I wished for just such a chance to fulfill my duty? Countless. He was finally here. This could be it.
Could’ve been the chance.
I wasn’t sure how one could seduce another into falling in love with them after stabbing them in the chest.
But I knew what he’d meant when he said that my actions were inciting a reaction I didn’t intend. I’d been around enough men in my life to understand what he was saying…and to feel now what I had been too furious to register when I pushed back against him earlier. The thick, hard length of him had pressed against my lower back. He had been aroused.
He still was.
My mind was quick to push past everything, seizing on the knowledge that this was something to work with. Perhaps there was still a chance—a small one. Physical intimacy was only part of a seduction. It was everything else that would be damn near impossible now—forging a friendship, learning what he liked and disliked so I could mold myself into what he wanted, gaining his trust and then his heart.
My stomach churned. Molding myself into what he wanted. When I was younger, there had been a time that I hadn’t questioned any part of my duty or what it entailed. I was young then and wanted nothing more than to save my kingdom.
Now, every part of me chaffed at the idea of becoming someone else to gain the love of another. If that was what it took to make someone fall in love, then I didn’t think I wanted anything to do with it.
But this wasn’t about me. It never had been. This was about the Nates and the Ellies and everyone else who would continue to suffer. I needed to remember that.
“Did you forget to breathe?” the Primal asked softly. Possibly.
I exhaled raggedly as I opened my eyes, my lungs burning and white spots blinking in and out of my vision. I needed to think. He’d come for me. That had to mean something.
He shifted his stance behind me, the slight movement sending a shiver of awareness through me.
There was no way I could think with him holding me so closely. “Let me go.”
“I don’t think so.”
I bit back a retort that surely would not help me. “Please?”
A deep chuckle rumbled out of him and through me. My eyes widened at the sensation. “You saying please makes me warier of letting you go.”
My hands opened and closed. “You’re a Primal. I can’t hurt you.”
“Do you think I’m incapable of feeling pain because I’m a Primal?” His cheek dragged against mine, sending a shiver across my skin. “If so, your assumption would be incorrect.”
My gaze dropped to the floor. “I wouldn’t be able to seriously hurt you.” “True.” He didn’t relax his hold. “But I don’t for one second believe that
piece of knowledge would stop you from trying yet again.”
It wouldn’t. Except attempting to harm him again wouldn’t further my duty one bit. “I’m not going to do anything. I promise.”
“That sounds about as likely as a cave cat not clawing through the skin of the hand that attempts to pet it.”
I inhaled sharply and then jerked at the sensation of those coarse hairs against my breasts. “Are you afraid of me, then?”
“A little.”
I let out a harsh, biting laugh. “Nyktos? The Primal of Death, afraid of a mortal girl?”
His breath brushed against my jaw. “I’m not foolish enough to underestimate a mortal, whether female or not. Especially after what I just saw you do,” he replied. “And don’t call me that.”
I frowned. “Nyktos? That’s your name.”
“I’m not that to you.”
I wasn’t sure if I should be offended by that or not, but whatever. Calling him Ash was easier than using a name that symbolized death.
My gaze shifted to where his arms were crossed over my chest. His skin was several shades darker than mine in the sunlight, smooth beneath the dusting of hair. “You don’t have scales for flesh.”
“What?”
Tavius’s taunt still echoed in my mind as I closed my eyes, and I felt my control slip again, releasing something other than anger. It was a raw, painful rush. “You rejected me.”
His hold loosened.
“And worse yet, you didn’t even realize who I was, did you?” I said, not faking the hoarseness in my voice. I wished that was an act.
A wake of tingles erupted as Nyktos’ arms slid away from me. Warm air rolled over my back and shoulders. “I always knew who you were.”
My eyes flew open, and I turned to face him. “You did?”
Quicksilver eyes fixed on mine. “I knew who you were when I stopped you from getting yourself killed when you went after those gods.”
He…he’d known and hadn’t said anything? He knew and appeared surprised by my anger?
“You knew who I was then and said nothing? You knew the night we found that body and didn’t say a word? And the night at the lake?” A tremor worked its way through me. “You knew then and didn’t tell me what the name Ash was short for?”
He bit his lower lip as he glanced at the still-impaled body. “I have a feeling if I answer that question honestly, you will be inclined to go back on your promise.”
“I’m already halfway there,” I snapped before I could stop myself. I stepped forward, lowering my voice. “You made a deal. You didn’t fulfill it, Ash.”
His jaw locked as his gaze returned to mine. “Why do you think I’m here now?”
