Warm, sweet-but-stale air seeped into the cage as I darted out from behind the privacy screen.
Callum stood before the throne, having entered the chamber so silently it was nearly as eerie as the fact that I’d seen him die at least four times now and last saw him with his head hanging on by only a few tendons.
The damn painted mask was in place, stretching from his forehead to the edges of his jaw. One quick look showed what I already knew. There was no evidence of the injuries I’d inflicted upon him, not even a faint red mark on his throat.
“Hello again.” Callum spoke with a smile that would’ve been friendly on anyone else, but combined with the pale, lifeless blue eyes, and his inability to fucking stay dead, it gave me the creeps. “I didn’t get a chance to ask before, but I’m not sure how I should address you. Should I call you
Seraphena or Sotoria?”
Was he seriously going to stand there and talk to me as if I hadn’t nearly severed his head and turned his heart and cock into mush?
“I believe Seraphena is more…fitting.” His cold, dispassionate gaze flickered over me. I knew damn well he could see nearly everything beneath
my gown, but he looked at me as if I wore a potato sack from head to toe. “But I suppose His Majesty will determine what you will be called.”
My jaw tightened with irritation, causing pain to flare as I quickly looked past him to where the double doors remained open, revealing the breezeway beyond, flooded with sunlight.
“Either way, I’m going to attempt to complete what I intended when I entered the chamber yesterday,” he continued. “You were in need of a bath then. That is now an understatement.”
He spoke in a tone that matched his smile as he gestured to the privacy screen. Friendly. Conversational. He’d spoken like that when I first arrived in the cage, and it was just as unnerving now as it had been then. But I was
more focused on what he’d inadvertently shared.
A day had passed.
And that meant Ash had been imprisoned for at least two days.
“Where is—?” I caught myself as my panic overrode intelligence. I’d almost said, “Ash.” Using that name would seem too intimate. Too affectionate. “Where is Nyktos?” I demanded, knowing better than to ask Kolis. It probably wasn’t much smarter to ask Callum, but I needed to know. “Is he still imprisoned?”
“Once you finish bathing, you will change into clean clothing.” He went on as if I hadn’t spoken. “If you’d like, I can choose something for you to wear.”
Yeah, that wasn’t happening.
Callum’s head tipped to the side. A strand of blond hair that had slipped free of the knot at the nape of his neck fell against the gold paint down his
cheek. “Do I need to repeat myself?”
My fingers curled inward, pressing into my palms. “Where is Nyktos?”
A faint smile appeared as if he sensed my rising frustration. “Once you’re clean and dressed, you may eat if you’d like. If you’re not hungry, you can rest. It’s possible there will be time for both before His Majesty returns for
you.”
Anger boiled inside me as I clenched my hands tighter. I may eat. I could rest. It reminded me too much of my youth, where every minute and hour of my days was summed up by what I could and could not do.
He quietly moved closer, stopping to stand in front of the cage. “But what you will not do is stand there,” Callum went on in the patient voice of a parent speaking to a young child. “In your filth, soiling your quarters.”
“My quarters?” I let out a sharp, brittle laugh that caused the side of my face to ache. “You’re calling a cage that?”
“I’ve been in your world many times. What you call a cage is better than what most have there.”
Immediately, I thought of the cramped tenements in Croft’s Cross. Unfortunately, he spoke the truth. Somewhat. “Yes, but most have their freedom.”
His smile took on a patronizing edge. “Do they? One would think they were prisoners to their poverty and the rulers who care little for them.” He paused. “Like your mother, my dear friend Calliphe.”
I stiffened at the reminder of his past contact with my mother. After all, Callum had shared with her how a Primal could be killed, which, admittedly, made little sense. Because that kind of knowledge endangered every Primal,
including Kolis. Still, neither had known about Sotoria’s soul. They’d never considered me a threat.
“But she no longer rules, does she?” Callum tacked on, his smile growing until a hint of teeth was visible. “Queen Ezmeria, along with her Lady Consort, does.” Speaking of my stepsister, he snapped a finger. “You know what? I haven’t paid her a visit. I should so I can…congratulate her.”
Every part of my being locked up as I stared at the Revenant. There was no love lost between my mother and me, but Ezra was one of the few people who had treated me like a person. I cared about her. Loved her.
“And just so you know,”—Callum leaned forward and lowered his voice
—“I’m well aware of the wards Nyktos placed around your mortal family. Nice of him to do so, but rather pointless. I’ve already been invited inside Wayfair. No wards will keep me out.”
It didn’t pass me by that I’d just learned something new about the Revenants, but that didn’t matter at the moment. I stepped forward, feeling the embers in my chest thrumming. “If you go near her, I will—”
“What will you do?” His brows rose, causing the painted wings across his forehead to crease as I slowly approached the bars. “Other than offend my
senses with your stench. You smell of the ceeren, and the gods only know
what else.”
My chest clenched at the mention of those who’d given their lives in the water. “I will make you wish you stayed dead.”
Callum chuckled lightly. “I’m not sure if you realize this or not, but in your current condition and situation, your words are not nearly as threatening as you may think.”
I matched his smile. “How did it feel when I slammed that glass into your throat?”
“Wonderful,” he replied. “Can’t you tell?”
“I don’t know much about whatever you are, but I have to imagine that coming back to life isn’t exactly pleasant, especially when you have
numerous injuries to heal.” His smile froze.
I was right. My lips curved more. “And I bet reattaching your head is painful, just as repairing your heart.” I lifted my brows. “But your cock? How did that feel?”
“I have a question for you,” he said. “How did it feel going through all that trouble, only to end up exactly where you were?”
My nostrils flared with a burst of anger.
“I bet it feels just as good as it did regrowing a dick,” he said. “And by the way, that was totally unnecessary and brutish.”
I rolled my eyes. “Disagree.”
“And so like something His Majesty would do,” he tacked on. “But you have always been more like him than you’ll ever be willing to admit.”
I stiffened. “If you think that, then you know nothing about me.”
“I’ve watched you for years,” Callum announced. “Kept an eye on you for Kolis.”
My skin prickled with irritation. I was getting really tired of learning that I’d been watched. Ash had done it, too, although his reasons had been less… cringe-worthy. “I’m sure that was a stimulating task.”
“Well, not particularly. But when you decided to start spending your time fucking instead of moping about, it became far more entertaining.”
The heat of my anger simmered just below the surface. “You’re such a fucking creeper.”
“Perhaps. But I know everything about you, Seraphena,” he said, the glow of eather flaring in his eyes, though fainter than a god’s. “Every irrelevant detail of the insignificant, sad life you’ve led. I know enough to realize the only time you ever appeared to actually live was when you were killing.”
He struck a nerve, and I glared at him. What he’d said wasn’t true. I
always felt like I was dying.
I’d felt as monstrous as Kolis.
I lifted my chin. “Yet you didn’t know who I really was, did you?” Callum’s lips flattened.
I smirked. Just like with Kolis earlier, I knew better than to clarify that. “You watched me for years, and you never realized that I was the one thing
His Majesty,” I said, mockery dripping from my tone, “valued more than the embers of life. I bet that really pissed him off.” I gave Callum my best
sympathetic smile. “And worse yet, it likely made him so disappointed in you.”
His jaw tensed.
Something occurred to me then as I leaned in as close to the bars as
possible without touching them. “Does he know that you told my mother how a Primal can be killed?”
The Revenant went so still I didn’t think he breathed.
Damn, that response told me there was a good chance that Kolis had no idea, which led to the question of why, exactly, he’d done it. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell him.” I winked. “It’ll be our little secret.”
Callum moved damn near as quickly as a god, standing so only the bars separated us. It caught me off guard—anyone moving like that did.
“I would be very careful if I were you, Seraphena.” His lip lifted enough that I saw he had no fangs. “I can see by your face that Kolis isn’t completely convinced of who you are.”
Was he suggesting that Kolis had never harmed Sotoria? What a fucking liar. He could take that lie and go fuck himself, taking Kolis’s apology with him. “As if him believing that or not matters.”
“If you were truly Sotoria, you would know that it does,” he said. “But perhaps you’ve forgotten. Either way, I know how this ends.”
“Oh, so you’re also an Arae?”
“What I am is patient. I only have to wait. Eventually, Kolis must choose between love and…well, literally everything else.” Callum grasped the bars. He didn’t react. Either he was masking the pain I’d felt when I touched the bars, or they did not affect him. “So, he may humor this…whatever this is.” His gaze swept over me with that cold-as-a-grave stare. “He may spend the next days, weeks, months, or even years convincing himself that you are all he’s ever wanted or needed, but rest assured, you will eventually end up like all of his other favorites.”
He pressed his forehead against the bars. “Because there is one thing he’s wanted more than his graeca, and that is to be the most powerful Primal ever to exist. So, it’s either something as intangible as love, or ultimate power over life and death.”
He was talking a lot of shit, but the part about there being months or even years for Kolis to grow tired of me stood out. Exactly how could he delay the Culling for that long?
Callum let his fingers slide over the bars before stepping back. He clasped his hands. “In a few moments, servants will begin entering the chamber and then your quarters. You will move to your left and not speak to them,” he instructed, nodding toward the divan and the chests. “You will allow them to complete their tasks without interruption. And just to be clear, that means you will behave yourself. So, no attempting to murder anyone.”
I breathed through the flaring pulse of red-hot anger. “And if I don’t?” “I know you want to fight, Seraphena.” That godsawful pleasant smile
returned. “I know your first response to any situation is to attack, just as you
did before. But I strongly advise against trying that again.”
“Like I give a fuck what you advise,” I hissed, losing control of my temper. Attempting to earn Kolis’s trust did not extend to Callum.
“Be that as it may, you should know what will happen if you decide not to give a fuck about my advice. If you attempt to attack me, it will not be you who pays the price. It will be a servant.”
My mouth dropped open.
“You speak to one of them? I will kill them. For each minute you delay them, one will die,” he told me, speaking so damn casually. “And just so
we’re perfectly clear, their lives are in your hands. When they die, they do not come back.”
A cold sweat broke out across my forehead as I stepped back from the bars. He couldn’t be serious.
“They mean little to me,” Callum added with a shrug. “I suppose we will see how much they mean to you.”
My gaze shifted to the open doors. Figures in white robes and veils appeared in the sunlight-drenched hall.
The Chosen.
My heart thumped as they entered the chamber, walking in a single, neat line. Each one carried a large bucket. Were they the same as those I’d seen in the other chamber the day before?
As the Chosen approached the cage, Callum sighed and then moved—so damn fast—to stand behind the first Chosen.
I hadn’t done as he ordered.
Shooting to the side of the cage, my feet slipped on the tile. “No. No—” Callum smiled.
His hands went to the sides of the veiled head—
Bone cracked like dried branches snapping in the wind.
I jolted at the clang of metal hitting tile. I didn’t want to believe what I
saw as the Chosen’s legs collapsed, and they slumped to the floor. I shook my head in denial, but the embers of life throbbed in response to the death, pressing against my skin, demanding that I use them to restore life to the Chosen. Horror swamped me as I stared at the crumpled pile of white. Dimly, I became aware of my hand lifting halfway as if that could fend off what I’d witnessed.
Or do something else. But what? I couldn’t restore life without touch.
“You…you didn’t have to do that,” I said shakily. “I can bring them back.”
Callum slowly turned to me, his brows rising. Then he moved to stand behind the second Chosen—
“Don’t!” I hurried toward the divan as nausea rose. “I’m moving. Look!
I’m doing what you asked. You don’t have to hurt them. Please.”
Callum’s eyes locked with mine, and my stomach pitched. A second passed. Two. Then he moved away from the Chosen, his haunting smile never fading.
Trembling with barely restrained anger and disbelief, I watched him approach the cage. He fished out a key as the Chosen waited behind him.
Did Callum not realize the key he’d used before had gone missing?
The cage opened, and I curled my arms around my chest, stopping myself from rushing the door and launching myself at the fucking Revenant.
My gods. I was going to do terrible, permanent damage to him one of these days.
Just not today.
I focused on the Chosen. None of them had reacted to the murder. Not a shout or a jerk, yet they’d screamed when they saw me. It was likely these were different Chosen, ones too familiar with this kind of violence.
Sickened, I stood by the divan, my stomach twisting and turning as my toes curled into the thick, soft rug. One by one, they entered, disappearing momentarily behind the screen and then returning with their pails in hand. They didn’t look at me. No one spoke. The only sound was the whisper of robes across marble.
By the time the bucket that had hit the floor earlier had been refilled and added to the water in the tub, the embers in my chest had finally calmed.
Callum locked the cage door as the last Chosen left the chamber. The approach of heavier footsteps drew my attention.
A dark-haired guard appeared in the hall, crossing the room in his knee- length, white tunic and gold greaves. The bright light of the chandelier reflected off the sigil engraved on the golden armor: a circle with a slash through it. His face was painted the same as Callum’s.
But I recognized him.
It was the guard who’d been with the draken, the one who’d knocked me out.
As he neared the fallen Chosen, his head lifted just a bit. Amber eyes lit by the glow of eather glanced over me as he lifted the body. Then, without saying a word, he left. The guard was a god, yet he’d used none of his godly abilities against me yesterday.
Neither had any other guards, and the draken had only appeared close to attacking me once I hit him with that bolt of eather.
The reason was suddenly clear to me in light of Callum’s actions. It was likely the guards and Kolis’s loyalists had been warned not to harm me. I could exploit that.
To a point.
Because Callum had shown exactly how he would ensure my cooperation. “Make use of your bath,” Callum said, drawing my attention to him. “If
you do not do so, I will bring another Chosen in here, and they will meet the
same fate as the other.”
I turned to where he once more stood before the cage. “I’m going to kill you,” I promised.
Callum laughed softly. “I suggest you bathe and change. Kolis will be most displeased if he finds you in this state.”
“Fuck Kolis,” I snarled, once more losing control of my temper.
“He would enjoy that, I’m sure.” Callum winked. “Your bath water is growing cold.”
Whatever caustic response I had died on my tongue as Callum bowed and turned. I stared numbly as he left, the wide, heavy doors swinging shut behind him. The click of several locks followed.
Callum hadn’t touched those doors.
Either that was something the doors did on their own, or Revenants had some of the same abilities as a god.
An unkillable god.
That potentially made the Revenants as dangerous as a Primal, and that was yet another problem.
 |
Worry gnawed at me. Kolis could return at any moment, but I still hesitated at the tub, my hand pressed lightly to the base of my throat. Just the sight of it full of water caused a knot to swell in my chest.
Having been nearly choked to death in a bathtub had kind of tainted what used to be a luxury I enjoyed.
Even to this day, I still felt the sash coming around my throat from behind, cutting off my airway before I even realized I’d taken my last breath. Damn, the memory was even fresher now.
I didn’t want to get into the tub, but it was too deep for me to dunk my head like I had been doing in the Shadowlands until Ash noticed I wasn’t using the tub to bathe. Instead of making me feel foolish, he’d understood the trauma and sought to work around it. He’d brought me into his chambers and stood guard in his quarters so I felt comfortable bathing.
That wasn’t the only thing he’d done. My skin briefly warmed at the memory of him climbing into the tub, leathers and all…
But Ash wasn’t here to have my back and help me feel safe.
I had to do it for myself and had a lifetime of practice doing just that.
Today would be no different. At least, that was what I told myself.
A tremor started in my legs as I shifted from foot to foot. I needed to get over this. No one would choke me. Hopefully. What would happen was retaliation from Callum if I didn’t bathe.
I was a quick learner—contrary to what my mother believed. It had only taken once with Callum. I disobeyed, and someone died.
I peeked around the screen and gave the chamber beyond the cage a hard scan. I knew no one was there, but I needed the reminder. Once I had it, I hurried behind the screen again and peeled off the bloody gown, wishing I could set fire to it as tiny bumps appeared all over my body. The feeling of hundreds of unseen gazes pressed upon my flesh.
“Stop it,” I hissed. No one was watching me. That I knew of, anyway.
I rolled my eyes. I really needed to learn how to be more reassuring.
Cursing, I stepped into the warm water. The knot in my chest expanded as I gripped the sides of the tub. Focused on my breathing, I lowered myself until I could sit.
The water reached just below my breasts, and my sore muscles immediately got on board with the whole soaking idea, but I wasted no time. I bathed as quickly as possible, using one of the pitchers filled and left by the tub to cleanse my hair. Only a handful of minutes could’ve passed when I stepped out of the tub and pulled the plug at the bottom that allowed the water to flow down the drain beneath it. Grabbing one of the towels, I dried off as I stepped onto a rug, my toes curling into the soft material. I turned, looking at myself in the mirror.
Wide, green eyes stared back at me, and without the blood splattering my face, the freckles dotting my cheeks and nose stood out in stark contrast.
But something else snagged my attention. I leaned in closer, my mouth parting with a sharp inhale. “What the…?”
A faint silvery glow of eather formed an aura around my pupils. How long had it been like that?
I hadn’t noticed it the day before. Granted, I’d been distracted by the state
of my busted face.
I swallowed, drawing back. Did this mean that despite the ceeren’s sacrifice, I was even closer to my Ascension?
To death.
“Damn it,” I whispered, wrapping the towel around me. There was nothing I could do about it now.
It wasn’t like I was unbothered by the fact that I was close to dying as I left the bathing area of my quarters. Death was as common to me as it was to those Chosen.
I’d spent my entire life accepting that it would find me. That I wouldn’t have a long life, and there was no escape. It had only been that short span of time between when Ash had shared his plans to remove the embers and we’d learned what would happen that I had begun to think of a possible future.
I wasn’t thinking of that now—at least one that involved me.
Once more kneeling at the chests, I took a bit more time searching for something close to what I’d typically wear.
I searched some more.
There was nothing, but I already figured as much. I had just been doing… wishful looking.
Disgusted, I grabbed a white frock. The halter style of the gown left my shoulders and arms completely exposed, and the material was some sort of gossamer and lace fabric. But at least it was loose-fitting at the bust and
below the hips.
Weary, I sat on the divan and began working the tangles out of my hair with the comb I’d retrieved from the vanity. The monotony of the act calmed me, allowing me to think more clearly about the idea of, well…everything, including Kolis delaying my Culling.
Kolis may not know the embers could not be removed without my death
—something not even Ash had been aware of. After all, Primal embers had never been inside a mortal before.
However, from what I’d been told, not even gods always survived the Culling. And godlings, which I was the closest to, were even more at risk of dying during the process.
So even if Kolis could Ascend me, there was a high probability I wouldn’t survive. That was why he’d stopped. He could’ve tried right then to take the
embers without killing me. He hadn’t.
Either way, there was a good chance Kolis had no idea that only Ash could Ascend me. Even more importantly, though? I didn’t think Kolis could Ascend me, even if I hadn’t taken Ash’s blood.
I thought back to the injuries I’d received when Veses freed the entombed gods in the Red Woods. I’d been pretty torn up. Ash’s blood had made it like those wounds never happened. Clearly, Kolis’s blood didn’t have the healing properties Ash’s did. He wouldn’t have had to take me to the ceeren if it did.
But what the ceeren sacrificed for me? Had it done more than just save my life? Had it also slowed the Culling? If so…
Could something like that be done again…and again? Basically, delaying my Ascension for months or even years?
Using the essence of others—their life force—to keep me alive didn’t seem all that impossible because I felt fine. Better than, actually—well, except for the ache in my face and throat. Other than that, there was no
headache or weakness. I didn’t have that bone-deep exhaustion that had plagued me before.
But if I stayed alive, that meant the embers—
“No.” I shut down that line of thought before it could grow. I wouldn’t even consider the idea of sacrificing lives to save others. There had—
A strange noise startled me, causing my head to jerk up. A resounding whoosh from outside echoed into the silent chamber. The sunlight in one window suddenly disappeared.
The comb slipped from my fingers as a…a hawk flew in through one of
the windows near the ceiling—an enormous silver hawk with a wingspan the width of my arms.
I figured I had to be hallucinating as I watched the bird dive right for the cage. It angled its body sideways at the very last moment, gliding between
the bars. My lips parted as it circled above and then swooped down, its dark
talons latching on to the top of a bedpost.
Keen, sharp eyes a vivid, intense shade of blue locked onto mine—eyes full of wisps of silvery eather. Tucking its wings close to its body, the hawk pushed off the bedpost—
And shifted. All at once, I felt the warm pulse of awareness in my chest as a burst of thousands of tiny, silvery stars swallowed the bird’s body. I recognized the feeling as the dazzling explosion of light lengthened and took the shape of a man—a Primal.
I shot to my feet, my hand going to my thigh out of reflex but coming up empty as the spectacle of lights faded. A broad chest with golden-bronze flesh replaced feathers. My gaze shot up as brownish-blond hair settled against a cut jaw and a…scarred left cheek.
The Primal God of War and Accord stood before me.
