Eather-laced shadows swelled from Ash, smothering the bolts of power until they fizzled out. He glanced back at me before refocusing on Kolis. “The moment you breached custom and faith,” Ash seethed, rising to his full height, “you started the war.”
“Have you forgotten yourself, nephew? Clearly, you have.” Tendrils of eather flickered from Kolis’s fingertips as the golden Revenant moved into sight behind him, once more alive and standing. “Because I am your King.”
“You’re no King of mine.” Lightning streaked from Ash, slamming into the tile floor and Callum, throwing the Revenant back. The scent of charred
flesh rose. “I could humor you by saying your sovereignty ended the moment you took her. But truthfully, you have never been my King.”
Catching sight of several fallen shadowstone swords by the guards’ twisted and mangled bodies, I ignored the dampness at the nape of my neck and rolled onto my side. It took even more effort than before.
“Bold words.” Kolis stepped forward, a streak of eather whipping out toward Ash. “And surprising ones. I killed your father, and you swore fealty to me. I take your Consort, and you kill one of your brethren and attack me. Why is that, Nyktos? Is it the embers of life inside her?”
I rolled my eyes as I shifted my weight to my flattened palms. That had been Ash’s plan, but once he’d learned what it would cost, it became the last thing he wanted.
Because taking the embers meant killing me, and he had chosen me, even though I was already dying, and it was foolish.
Still, it was beautiful.
“That’s it, isn’t it? You sought to take the embers from her and rise as the Primal of Life,” Kolis accused, golden-tinged eather sparking from his fingertips. “You sought to hide them from me. To hide her. That’s treason.”
“Treason?” A deep, dark laugh rumbled from Ash, a sound I’d never heard him make before. “You killed my mother and the true Primal of Life.” Shadows spilled onto the floor below Ash, billowing like smoke. “You’re a fucking joke.”
Kolis stiffened. “You want to know what’s a joke? You thinking I had no idea what you’ve been up to. That I haven’t seen through your false
assurances and pledges and didn’t know you’ve been plotting to overthrow me and take all that is mine.”
Ash’s fury lashed out, causing the temperature in the room to plummet as I began the slow crawl toward the bodies. “None of this has been yours. You stole it—”
“From your father,” Kolis interjected, moonlight reflecting off the golden band around his biceps. “And I imagine you believe history has repeated itself, but you’d be wrong. The embers of life do not belong to you.”
“She does not belong to you!” Ash roared.
The air thinned once more. I halted, arms trembling. Raw, violent energy drenched the ruined chamber, pimpling my skin.
“You think she belongs to you simply because you crowned her as your Consort?” Kolis’s laugh caused my heart to clench. Golden swirls of eather began churning across his bare chest, where the wound Ash inflicted had already healed. “If she is who she claims to be, she was never yours to
crown.”
I needed to get to my feet and get my hands on a sword. And I needed to do it quickly. But my head still swam, and my legs felt strange, like I was disconnected from them. It wasn’t because of the hit to the head, though that hadn’t helped. It was blood loss. I’d lost too much. I could feel that in how hard my heart worked to pump what blood remained inside me, how fast it raced. And I had a feeling, some instinctual knowledge, that told me if I didn’t have the embers, I’d already be unconscious or dead.
As I pushed onto my knees, I thought it was strange that what would inevitably kill me was also keeping me alive.
Kolis stepped forward, his too-perfect lips curved into a smile. “She was never yours, nephew. She has always been mine.”
Ash’s fury lashed out. The breath I exhaled formed a puffy cloud as energy charged the space once more. Ash rushed Kolis, taking to the air.
All I saw was a sneer from Kolis before wispy eather poured from the
false King. He rose, slipping into his Primal form, creating a glow that was too bright and painful to look upon for any length of time.
Ash and Kolis met high above me, and it was like seeing the night and the sun crash into each other. The eather-laced shadows and the intense, gold-and silver-streaked light whirled at dizzying speeds, but the wind had stopped.
The clouds had ceased their journey across the sky. Everything…everything else had gone silent and still as my chest constricted.
I squinted, catching glimpses of the two Primals between the shadows and daylight. Golden hair, then reddish-brown strands. Black tunic, then white linen pants. Silver cuff and golden band—one that appeared to flash white when the arm moved. Fists. Heads kicked back.
They were punching each other.
Then the swirling around them stilled, and the air began to vibrate and pulse. The embers in my chest hummed—
A bolt of eather burst from Ash, hitting Kolis and throwing the Primals apart. The false King caught himself and returned to Ash, his speed shocking. A harsh, low scream tore from my throat when Kolis slammed into Ash.
Eather spat and crackled around them as they rose.
They came back down in a blur. I stared wide-eyed and couldn’t make
sense of it until one of them crashed into the tile, cracking several feet of the marble around them. Only when I saw the swirling black mist overtaking the brilliant glow did I know that Ash had driven Kolis into the floor.
Relief shuddered through me when the essence around Kolis dimmed enough for me to see Ash straighten. He stepped over his uncle, spitting a mouthful of shimmery blood onto the Primal before reaching down and grasping Kolis by the head—
The false King shot up like a spear, sending Ash flying back. Wind surged, blowing my hair in front of me. Lightning arced overhead. My head tilted toward the horizon, to the west. I saw no signs of the draken.
My heart lurched as Ash and Kolis battled with fists and bursts of Primal energy, their bodies rising and falling so quickly. I turned back to where the guards lay, the distance between them and me seeming insurmountable. But I needed to get to a sword. I wasn’t sure what I would do once I had it, but I had to do something.
Hands suddenly landed on my upper arms. I let out a startled scream, and instinct took over. I immediately tried to break free. My mind knew how to, I’d been trained by the best, but my body wasn’t responding quickly enough. I felt sluggish and disjointed, and all I seemed to do was wiggle like a dying worm.
“Stop,” a voice hissed in my ear—one I recognized. Attes.
Anger boiled as I jerked my body to the right. “Let go…of me, you…
fucking traitorous bastard.”
Attes’s grip tightened, and he turned me sideways, bringing us face-to- face.
I got a really good look at him. And he didn’t look well. Bluish-red blood trickled from his nose, eyes, ears, and the corners of his mouth. The shallow scar running from his hairline, across the bridge of his nose, and down his left cheek stood out starkly.
Godsdamn. That one blast from Ash had really done a number on him. “Listen to me,” he said, shouting over the wind.
“Fuck you.” I pitched back—or fell back—kicking out. My foot glanced
off his chest.
Attes halted, raising his brows. “You really need to conserve your energy, Sera. And listen to me.”
Yeah, that wasn’t happening. “You betrayed…us,” I forced out, feeling dizzy. “After I helped Thad, you…betrayed—”
The ground shook as Ash and Kolis hit somewhere to our right, their bodies digging up tile and sending marble flying in every direction.
Cursing, Attes twisted and pulled me toward him, shifting us away from the rain of debris. I reached up, digging my fingers into his hair and yanking hard. It was a bitch move. I knew it, but it was the best I could manage at the moment.
Attes snarled through bared teeth—fangs. He jerked his head, and I felt a savage burst of satisfaction when I saw strands of golden-brown hair between my fingers.
“Damn it,” he growled. “Stop—”
Fingers clawed, I aimed for that fucking dimple.
“I know what I’ve done.” He caught my wrist, eather snapping in his eyes as Ash and Kolis returned to the sky. “There isn’t time to discuss that or for you to seek revenge.”
My mouth opened.
“Kolis will kill Ash,” Attes said, our faces inches apart. “He won’t mean to, and that’s not because he doesn’t want to. It’s because of what will happen if he does.” Something wet hit my cheek and then my arm. “Ash is not powerful enough to defeat Kolis and his draken, which will come this way
the moment they sense that Kolis is truly in danger. Ash will die.”
Panting, I stared at the Primal who’d strolled into Ash’s office, seemingly without a care. The one who had flirted while delivering Kolis’s message and teased as he asked about the movements of the Shadowlands’ forces toward
the borders of the Court he shared with his brother, Kyn. Ash hadn’t trusted him completely, but there had been something between them. Not exactly a friendship but maybe a kinship.
And he’d fucked us.
He’d likely been in on Kolis ordering me to slaughter that poor draken, and had probably told Kolis that I brought Thad back.
The act the false King had been waiting for me to complete, as it was proof that the embers had matured enough to be transferred.
Something splashed off the hand Attes held between us. The drop was a shimmery reddish-blue color.
It was Primal blood.
I sucked in a startled breath.
“They need to stop,” Attes insisted. “And the only person either of them will listen to is you.”
I wasn’t sure about that. Kolis didn’t seem like the type to listen to anyone. And Ash was likely beyond listening. He was caught in a cyclone of fury that had been building for centuries. This wasn’t only about me. It was about his mother, whom Kolis had slaughtered while Ash was still in her womb. It was about his father, whom Kolis had killed—whose soul he still held. It was for all the lives inked into Ash’s skin that Kolis had taken from him or forced Ash to take.
But Attes, bastard or not, spoke the truth.
Kolis would kill Ash.
And the death of either Kolis or Ash would destroy not only the mortal realm but also Iliseeum and every Primal. Completely. I wasn’t sure if the draken could even survive. Perhaps only the Arae—the Fates—would remain.
But I didn’t care about any of them. Only Ash mattered to me. So, I had to try. But how? They were still going at it, trading blasts of eather. The glow swallowing Kolis had faded, making it so he was no longer painful to look at. The shadows had grown thinner around Ash. I didn’t even know what I planned to do if I made it to one of the swords.
My gaze flew to the daggers at Attes’s hips, and I thought… I thought maybe I knew how to get Kolis to stop.
I started to push up with legs that felt like the jelly my stepsister Ezra liked to smother her rolls in. “Help…help me stand.” My cheeks warmed with embarrassment, which was so godsdamn stupid considering the situation. “I…I can’t do it.”
Features tense, Attes hesitated. It was clear he didn’t trust me. And he shouldn’t. Because if I lived longer than tonight, I would find a way to do terrible things to the fucker.
But also because I had lied—well, partially. I could stand, but I also knew the effort it would take, and that would wipe me out. I was doing what Attes had suggested: conserving my energy.
After a heartbeat, he tipped closer and shifted his hold from my wrist to my shoulders. He rose, bringing me with him. “You steady?”
I couldn’t really feel the floor beneath my feet. “Yeah.”
“Good.” Attes’s gaze searched mine, his features pinched with what looked like concern. I had to be imagining it. “So, what’s the—?”
I moved as quickly as possible, which wasn’t very fast at all. I was surprised I managed to grab the hilt of one of his shadowstone daggers before he could stop me. I’d just caught him off guard.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Attes exclaimed, eyeing the dagger I took from him. “Was I not clear enough?”
“Calm down.” I took a shallow breath, and my chest…gods, it felt weird.
Like it was loose. “You aren’t worth…the effort.”
Surprise flickered across his face. He hadn’t expected that response.
Feeling top-heavy, I turned to where the two Primals had landed. Their hands were on each other’s throats, eather firing from their fingers.
I stepped forward, shouting, “Stop!”
Neither heard, or if they did, they ignored me. Their veins were lit from within, and if they hadn’t been in the process of killing each other, I would’ve thought they looked oddly beautiful.
And I also knew there might not be enough blood getting to my brain.
Panic trickled through me as I yelled again and again, feeling myself swaying. Attes, the rat bastard, steadied me. My heart was slowing, and I suspected that wasn’t good. Mainly because darkness crowded in at the edges of my vision. I didn’t know how I, a mortal, could get two Primal gods to—
But I wasn’t entirely mortal. Not anymore.
The embers of life had changed that—the embers of Primal essence.
The back of my skull tingled, and my mind raced. The power the embers could manifest was connected to me feeling extreme emotion, just like a god or Primal as they grew closer to their Ascension. Ash had tried to get them to come out in me intentionally. It hadn’t exactly worked then.
But it was strange. As I stood, my chest oddly loose, sort of feeling detached from myself, I suddenly knew why the embers hadn’t flared.
I had been born with them inside me, but I’d never considered them part of me. I’d only been a vessel. Something to hide and store them. It was what Eythos, Ash’s father, had intended.
But that was no longer the case. The embers were a part of me. And for right now, they were mine.
I hadn’t truly understood that before. Hadn’t believed it until now.
Taking a deeper, slower breath, I concentrated on the throbbing in my chest. The embers fluttered and then pulsed as I summoned the eather, tapping into it.
“Good Fates,” Attes whispered.
What came next simply happened, almost like when Rhain told me about the deal Ash had made with Veses. Except this time, I was well aware of the essence coming to the surface. I controlled it. And when I used it, I didn’t think about how. It was just instinct, ancient and primal.
Primal essence seeped into my veins, hot and smooth, and when I spoke, I felt the power in my words. “Stop.”
I didn’t realize what I’d done until both Ash and Kolis halted, the bolts of eather fizzling out mid-streak.
I’d used compulsion. On the two most powerful Primals alive.
“Good Fates,” Attes whispered again hoarsely, clearly shocked. Ash and Kolis turned their heads toward me.
I was surprised, too. I hadn’t expected that, but I shoved my astonishment aside because while I’d been able to do that, I could already feel the embers weakening. Yes, they were a part of me, but I was dying. So, they were dying. I had to be quick. I stepped forward and did the only thing I could think of.
Ash cared for me greatly. If he could, he would love me. He’d pretty much said that himself after we’d spoken with the God of Divination, Delfai. But he’d removed his kardia, the piece of the soul that all living beings had that allowed them to irrevocably love another not of their blood and enabled them to do anything for that person. The goddess Penellaphe had said it
must’ve been incredibly painful for him to do so. To me, it was just so damn tragic. He’d done it in an attempt to protect himself and whoever he might
come to love from his uncle.
Kolis was an evil, sick bastard, and I didn’t think that what he felt for Sotoria was love. It was more like an obsession. But he was still in
possession of his kardia, and he believed he was in love with her. If that were
true, then he’d do anything for her. Someone he believed was me.
Heart stuttering, I lifted the dagger to my throat.
“Fucking Fates,” Attes snapped from behind me, his voice low. “That wasn’t what I had in mind.”
“Stop fighting,” I repeated, ignoring the Primal of War and Accord. “Do this for me. Please.”
I was focused on Kolis, speaking directly to him, but Ash reacted first.
The thinning shadows whirling around and inside him vanished. Blood leaked from his parted lips and nose. His jaw was already swelling, and his tunic was burned in places, revealing charred flesh beneath. But it was his eyes that caused my heart to lurch. They were wide and stark, the wisps of eather still.
Kolis was slower to respond, the golden glow only fading enough that his features became visible beneath it. He wasn’t much better off than Ash. His chest was also a burned, bloody mess.
“Sera,” Ash rasped thickly, his hands lifting halfway. “What are you doing?”
I swallowed, my stomach full of knots of anxiety, but my hand was steady. “Stop fighting, or I will slit my throat open.”
Kolis’s chin snapped down. “You will do no such thing.”
I pressed the tip of the blade into my skin until I felt the prick of pain. Suddenly, Ash…gods, it seemed like he had no control over his body. He jerked back a step. “Yes,” I said, keeping my gaze trained on their chests. I didn’t trust either of them not to use compulsion. Though avoiding eye contact wouldn’t prevent them from doing it. Not completely. “I will. And if I even think one of you is about to use compulsion, I’ll do it.”
“Sera,” Ash said again. “Put the dagger down.” He took a step forward, seeming to completely forget about Kolis as his scorched chest rose and fell rapidly. “Please.”
I sucked in a sharp breath, my hand trembling. “I will—” I gasped, a sharp sting of pain slicing across my throat when someone ripped the dagger from my fingers.
Ash shouted, and the fear in his yell…gods, it was palpable. I immediately knew I’d made a grave mistake.
Oh, gods.
I’d underestimated what they would and wouldn’t do. I’d thought I could distract Kolis. That he would be vulnerable to his love, his obsession for
Sotoria.
But I’d distracted Ash, too.
The dagger I’d held to my throat was now in Kolis’s hand.
The false King of Gods was so damn fast. He twisted, slamming the dagger into Ash’s chest.
Right into his heart.
