Nyktos’s fingers continued to tap, matching the tempo of my heart. I tried to keep the awakening frustration at bay. If he didn’t answer, I wasn’t sure what I would do, but it would probably be loud and a little violent.

“To openly speak of such a thing against the King of Gods,” he finally said with a slight curl of his upper lip, “would earn one, even a Primal, a sentence in the darkest parts of the Abyss, where even a god of death would not willingly travel.”

And to speak of actively working against Kolis wasn’t? Like he’d done in the throne room? I smirked. “I doubt that has stopped you from planning just that.”

“What do you think a war of Primals would entail?” he countered instead.

“Something unimaginable.”

“That would be accurate.” He pushed off the desk and walked to the credenza. “No Primal in their right mind would attempt to go to war against the King of Gods, false or not.”

I watched him pull the tome I’d seen him with before the Cimmerian showed closer. I knew I was right, and he wasn’t speaking the truth. He just didn’t want to talk about whatever plans he may have made or still plotted.

He didn’t trust me.

It wasn’t like I expected him to. Not after everything, but it still… bothered me. Stung. And the sting made me think of that unfamiliar thing again—a future. If Nyktos’s plans regarding the embers worked, I could be Nyktos’s Consort for hundreds of years—if not more. That was if we all survived Kolis. But would we continue this way once I was crowned in a day’s time? Would we still live like this? Separate beds? Separate lives? A Consort in title only, uninvolved in the politics of Court and possible battles sure to come? Would I be left behind as he ruled as the King of Gods? A knot lodged in my throat. Or cast aside, no longer the Consort at all?

“What are you thinking about?” Nyktos asked.

Jarred from my thoughts, I looked up. “Just your plan.” “I don’t think that’s true.”

“Why?”

“Because you just projected…sadness.” I stiffened. “I did not.”

“Tell me something, Sera?” His head tilted. “When is it that you speak the truth?”

“When I’m comfortable doing so,” I retorted.

An eyebrow rose. “I think that was actually the truth.” He eyed me for a span of a few heartbeats and then opened the tome. “There are things I need to attend to…”

In other words, I was being dismissed. Without him even making a single reference to what had occurred between us last night. And, yeah, his refusal to acknowledge what’d happened was a nonissue compared to everything else. But I’d rather be frustrated with him over that than dwell on a future that may or may not come.

So, I welcomed the rising frustration. “When I first arrived, you said I could go wherever I wanted inside these walls and the courtyard. Does that still stand?”

“It does.” He turned to a blank page.

“You’re not worried about me making a run for it?”

“Not when I’ve made it so every guard who patrols the Rise and the palace is sure to watch the gates.”

My eyes narrowed on his bowed head. “So I can go anywhere?” Nyktos nodded.

I moved quietly toward him. “Even here? Your office?” “I’m sure there are more interesting places to be.”

“I’m beginning to doubt you actually live here if you think that.” “I live here, Sera.”

“Well, you said anywhere. And I choose here.” I paused by the chair. “With you.”

The breath he exhaled practically rattled the walls as he looked up at

me.

Fighting a grin, I tilted my chin at the tome. “What’s that?” “One of the Books of the Dead.”

My heartbeat tripped as I eyed the book as if it would leap from his desk and choke the life from me. “The book that lists those who will die the day it’s opened?” I whispered. “I was never sure it was real.”

“It’s real.”

“Is no one going to die today? The page is blank.” “For now. I have yet to write the names.”

“Do you need something to write with?” I glanced at his otherwise bare desk. “I’m sure I can get you something. I wouldn’t want to delay you from ripping people away from their loved ones.”

“I’m not killing people when I write their names,” he replied dryly. “They would die with or without me doing so.”

“Then what’s the purpose of writing their names?” I picked up several curls and began twisting the strands together as I edged around the chair.

“Their souls cannot cross through the Pillars until I write their names.” “You left that part out when you told me that bodies do not need to be

burned for their souls to leave them.”

“I didn’t think it was something you needed to know.” His attention dropped and lingered where my fingers toyed with my hair.

I drifted closer. “Do you need me…” His gaze flew to mine. “To retrieve something for you to write with?”

“I have what I need.” “Is it invisible?”

“No. I haven’t summoned it yet.” He lifted his hand. A slender, shimmering swirl of silver-white energy appeared, and a second later, a thin black stylus lay in his once-empty palm.

My lips parted. “Did you…just summon a stylus from thin air?” “I did.”

That was somehow more mystifying than watching him conjure Odin from his cuff. “What about ink?”

“The names of the dead are not written in ink. They’re written in blood.”

“Your blood?” Nyktos nodded.

My lip curled as he lowered the stylus to the bound parchment, and crimson appeared as he began to write. “Does it hurt?”

Nyktos shook his head.

I came even closer, stopping at the edge of his desk. I watched him in silence. He wrote name after name in neat, flowing lines of red until he turned the page and began to fill that one, too. “Your penmanship is beautiful.”

“Thank you.”

He filled another page. Then a third.

“How…how do you choose who dies?”

“I don’t.” Another name. “The names come to me as I write.”

I leaned my hip against the desk, curling my leg just enough that the panels of the gown parted, revealing my leg from the calf to just above the knee. “What if you make a mistake?”

He stopped writing, his gaze slowly sliding up the length of my exposed leg.

“What if you’re making names up and don’t realize it?” I asked as I untwisted the strands of my hair. “Or what if you misspell a name?”

“I don’t make mistakes.” “Ever?”

“Not with this. In other things?” he muttered, the edges of his fangs dragging over his lower lip as his gaze lingered on the curve of my hip. “Far too often.”

“Really?”

“I can think of a few right now.”

“Like what?” I asked, knowing I was being a brat and thoroughly enjoying myself.

“Like not having Nektas take you with him when he left.” He returned to writing. “He could’ve put you down for a nap. I’m sure Jadis and Reaver would’ve enjoyed the company.”

I pressed my lips together to stop from laughing. “That was rude.” “Was it?”

“Yes.” I watched him write several more names. Seconds ticked into minutes. Good gods, how many would die today? “Perhaps I should’ve left with Nektas. I wonder if he would’ve…enjoyed putting me down for a nap. He did seem to like my gown.”

That got his attention.

The stylus stopped moving. His chin lifted, and thundercloud eyes pierced with lightning met mine.

Very purposefully, I placed my hands on his desk and leaned forward.

The slight bend of the waist was enough to test the limits of the gown.

Nyktos’s eyes lowered. The stylus vanished from his palm. I hoped that meant he was finished.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “Am I being distracting?”

“You don’t sound sorry at all.” The line of his jaw flexed as he slowly drew his gaze to mine. “And you know exactly what you’re doing.”

“What’s that?”

“You’re purposely being distracting.” “I would never.”

“And seductive.”

“Why would you think that?” I asked, blinking wide eyes.

“Your breasts are inches from my face, Sera.” His gaze dropped and then returned to mine. “I don’t think. I know. And it’s not going to work.”

“Your failure to keep your eyes from straying to inappropriate places is not a reflection on my actions,” I told him, tipping my head and letting my hair fall forward onto his hand. “But if I were trying to seduce you, Your Highness, it would most definitely work.”

“You think so?”

“I don’t think.” I smiled then, bright and wide. “I know.”

That muscle began to tick in his jaw. “Well, you would know how to be successful in that endeavor, wouldn’t you?”

“Ouch.” My fingers pressed into the smooth surface of the desk. I’d most definitely opened the door and walked right into that comment.

“Did that offend you?” Those wisps in his eyes swirled.

“Not really. It’s true,” I said, glancing down. “I know all the ways to…” My eyes narrowed on the book. I frowned. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but is it not odd that so many with the same exact name died today?”

Nyktos said nothing.

A grin tugged at my lips. “You were pretending to still be writing names, weren’t you?”

“I thought you’d realize that I was busy and decide to be less distracting,” he told me. “Obviously, that didn’t work.”

Losing the battle against a smile, I let out a throaty laugh. “Maybe I will find someone else to distract,” I taunted, pushing off the desk.

I didn’t make it far.

His hand snapped out, closing around the nape of my neck. My breath caught as my gaze locked with his. “I want to make one thing perfectly clear, Seraphena.”

The pressure he used was slight, only enough to force me to place my hands on the desk as I bent until we were at eye level, our mouths inches apart. My pulse skittered recklessly. His hold wasn’t painful. I could slip out of it if I wanted to, but I didn’t. I’d wanted his attention, and now I had it.

“As long as you’re my Consort,” he said, his tone deceptively soft, “you will be very selective about how you spend your time with others.”

“I assume when you reference how I spend time with someone, you’re speaking of what typically comes after the act of seduction?”

The Book of the Dead slammed shut and slid across his desk. Neither of his hands had moved. “You know exactly what I’m speaking of.”

“Then I’m confused,” I said in the little space between us. “You said I was to be your Consort in title only.”

His gaze dropped again, just for a brief second, but I knew where he looked. “I did.”

The breath I inhaled was all him. My blood heated and my skin flushed. “Then what of my needs?”

“Your needs?” he repeated, his voice smoothing to a decadent drawl that I wasn’t even sure he was aware of.

“Intimacies. Touching. Skin-to-skin contact. Sex. Fuc—” “I think I get it.”

“So, what of them?”

He curled his arm, and it stretched me even farther. There was a really good chance my breasts would exit the gown. His head tilted. It was only a slight move, but it lined up our mouths perfectly. If either of us leaned forward an inch or two, our lips would meet. “I’m sure you can resist those desires or handle them yourself.”

“Because you watched me do it.” I wet my lips. Nyktos said nothing, his gaze now on my mouth. “You watched me last night. You touched me,” I whispered, feeling a faint tremor in the hand on the back of my neck. “I felt you. Inside me. That was highly inappropriate of you.”

“More inappropriate than you fucking your fingers while you knew I was watching?”

The breath I took went nowhere as liquid heat flooded my veins. The way he said “fucking” conjured images of silk sheets and tangled limbs. “What would’ve been more inappropriate was if you hadn’t taken care of it, and I had to do it myself.”

His nostrils flared.

“Why did you come to my bedchamber last night?” “Arm’s reach,” he murmured. “Remember?”

“I remember, but was it truly that? Or did you sense my need? My want? Of you.” I inched forward, half-expecting him to retreat. He didn’t. When I spoke, my lips brushed the corner of his, and I felt a faint zap of static. “I was thinking of you when I fucked my fingers. Imagining that it was your touch—before I even knew you were in the chamber.”

“Sera,” he warned—or begged. It sounded like both.

“Just thought you should know.” I drew back, stilling when his molten silver eyes locked onto mine. “I can take care of my desires, but that only goes so far.”

“You’d better make it stretch as far as it can go,” he ordered softly. “And if I don’t?”

“What I did to those gods in the throne room will pale in comparison to what I do to whoever satisfies your needs.”

A jolt of surprise shot through me, quickly followed by a really twisted dose of pleasure at his jealousy-fueled threat. Anger was right behind it, though. I had no intention of satisfying my needs with anyone. But what he demanded went beyond arrogant when he claimed to want no such thing from me. “Let me make one thing perfectly clear to you, Nyktos. If you want me as your Consort in title only, then you have no say over what I do or with whom, from this point until I take my last breath—whenever that may be.”

“If? You speak as if there is another option.” My pulse skipped. “Because there is.”

“And what is that?” His head moved, and his lips brushed the corner of mine.

“We satisfy each other’s needs.” I was a little surprised as I spoke the words, but they were the right now I’d been thinking about earlier. “You don’t need fragile trust, nor do you really even have to like someone when you have attraction.”

His fingers curled into my hair. “I don’t dislike you, Sera.”

An unwanted emotion swelled in my chest, leaving me off-kilter and making me nervous. I tried to put distance between us, but his hold prohibited it. “There is no reason to lie. I know where we stand with each other. I’m not offering myself for whatever meager affections you or anyone can give.”

A muscle ticked in his jaw. “Then what are you offering yourself for?” “Pleasure.”

The wisps of eather went wild in his eyes. “That is all?”

“Why does it have to be anything else when it’s what I want?” I said, and that was the truth. Maybe there was more behind it, but I knew better than to pry too deeply into that. “Either way, I will not play the I-don’t- want-you-but-no-one-else-can-have-you game. With you or anyone.”

“There is no one else, Sera.” His hand landed on the center of my back, causing me to jump.

“Only if there is you,” I said, fully aware that I had no plans of easing my needs with anyone else at the moment or in the foreseeable future. Not because of anything he’d said, but because it simply didn’t appeal to me.

But he didn’t need to know that.

“So, that’s the deal. Between us. Not between your father and some ancestor of mine.”

His eyes flashed, the eather seeping into the veins just beneath them as his mouth came within inches of mine once more. “Pleasure for the sake of pleasure?”

“Yes,” I whispered as I felt a strange warming in my chest.

“You’re so reckless.” His hand slid from my back to my hip, leaving shivers in its wake. “You have your dagger on you?”

My brows pinched at the unexpected question. “Yes?”

“Make sure it stays hidden,” Nyktos warned. “Because a Primal has arrived.”

The heat in my blood immediately cooled. “Were you expecting one to visit?”

“Not at all.” Without warning, Nyktos hauled me across his desk and onto his lap. His strength and the feel of his body against and beneath mine was a shock to the senses. “There’s not enough time for you to leave, so there’s no avoiding this. No matter what I say or do, you’ll stay right where I have you. Do you understand?”

I nodded.

Nyktos brushed my hair over my shoulder. “I’m being serious, Sera.”

“I know.” I turned my head to him. “I know when to be reserved and not reckless.”

“Good. Just don’t forget how to be so exquisitely reckless later.” His gaze flicked to the closed doors. “I apologize ahead of time for how I’m about to behave. I have a feeling you will not appreciate it, considering what we just discussed.”

Before I could respond to any of what he’d said, a charge of energy swept through the chamber, dancing over my skin before I could even formulate a response. Tiny bumps broke out across my skin. The breath I exhaled formed a faint, misty cloud. Gripping the arm across my waist, I stiffened as every part of my being reacted to the power pouring into the air. “Relax,” Nyktos murmured in my ear as his hand settled against my hip, squeezing gently. “What you’re feeling is me. I’m basically showing

off.”

I wasn’t sure if that was supposed to make me feel better, but I forced the air out of my lungs and my fingers to relax.

The doors to his office swung open, and a tall figure filled the entryway. The sword at the hip was a wicked, curved one, the kind crafted for beheading. Light, blondish-brown hair framed high cheekbones and a chiseled jaw as hard as the thin layer of shadowstone armor worn over a broad chest and shoulders. A shallow scar ran from his hairline and across the bridge of his straight nose, then down his left cheek, the healed wound a shade of pale pink.

What in the world could leave that kind of scar on a Primal?

My fingers pressed into Nyktos’s arm as the Primal came to an abrupt stop, armored boots in line with the breadth of his shoulders. The way he stood there—the frenetic, violent energy brimming just beneath his flesh and the glow of essence pulsing behind his pupils said one thing.

He was a warrior.

The Primal’s silver gaze slowly drifted over us as the corners of his lips tipped up. A deep divot in his right cheek appeared first, and then an identical one in his left. “Am I interrupting?”

Nyktos’s chin grazed the top of my head, startling me enough that I jumped a little. “What does it look like, Attes?”

Every muscle in my body locked as I realized who stood before us. I’d been right on the mark, but he wasn’t just a warrior. He was the warrior—

the Primal of Accord and War. The one people prayed to on the eve of any battle to not only grant armies his deadly skill but also the cleverness to outwit all who tried to outmaneuver them. A Primal who could incite agreement between warring kingdoms or all-out, bloody violence with his mere presence.

Nyktos’s fingers suddenly moved along my hip, sliding out and into his palm, pulling me from the downward spiral of my thoughts.

“It sure looks like I am.” Attes’s gaze came back to me. His unblinking stare was nearly as intense as Nyktos’s could be, drilling into me until I was sure he could rattle all my secrets out into the open.

It took everything in me to hold still and not squirm or react. Instinct told me that if I showed discomfort or fear, he would do what any predator would when they scented blood—attack.

“And yet you still stand here,” Nyktos said. “Without invitation, I might add.”

A faint curve of the lips appeared as Attes’s gaze remained fixed on me. He glanced at my arms, sensing the charm. “So, this is her? The mortal who has so many of the Courts abuzz with gossip.”

“I didn’t realize you were the type to entertain gossip,” Nyktos replied, his tone one of chilly indifference as he slowly slid his hand over my lower stomach. I tensed. His hand made its way to my thigh, leaving a path of tiny shivers in its wake. “But, yes, this is my Consort.”

Nyktos’s touch had thrown me. I had no idea what had gotten into him, and, for a moment, I wasn’t sure what he expected of me. Was I to be quiet and meek? Or do the normal thing when introduced to someone? I decided on the latter and managed a steady, “Hello, Your—” My breath snagged as Nyktos’s hand slipped under the panel of the skirt, his fingers spreading wide across the bare flesh of my upper thigh. There was no way Attes missed the possessive placement of Nyktos’s hand. I cleared my throat. “Your Highness.”

Attes inclined his head in greeting as he continued studying me, his smile returning. “Soon-to-be Consort,” he corrected Nyktos softly.

“I also haven’t missed that she’s no mere mortal.” His gaze dropped to the swell of my breasts above the too-tight bodice. “She carries a…mark. An aura.”

My eyes narrowed slightly. I had no idea exactly what type of mark he thought he saw in the general vicinity of my breasts. I twitched as Nyktos’s

finger began moving along the skin of my leg, back and forth in a straight, slow line. And I didn’t know what to think of his sudden affection—sudden sensual affection. I wasn’t used to being touched so casually or so openly.

“She’s a godling on the cusp of her Culling,” Nyktos stated so smoothly that I was impressed. His finger stilled on my skin. “And if you keep looking at her like that, I’ll cut your eyes from their sockets and feed them to Setti.”

My eyes went wide.

Attes laughed deeply, and the sound was nice—not as nice as Nyktos’s, but deep and throaty. “My steed prefers alfalfa and sugar cubes over eyes.” He brushed his fingers across the silver band on his biceps. “But he appreciates the offer.”

“I’m sure he does.” Nyktos’s finger returned to tracing that line.

Attes adjusted his sword as he helped himself to the seat in front of the desk. “Is she a godling who already called Lethe home?”

Irritation burned on my tongue. To sit and be spoken about as if I were not in the room was the height of infuriating.

“No,” Nyktos said.

Attes raised an eyebrow. “Then where did you find her?”

I’d just told Nyktos that I knew when to be reserved. This was one of those moments. A Primal sat before us. That alone was a precarious position to be in. So, I kept reminding myself of that as I searched for the veil of emptiness inside me, the one that allowed me to feel nothing—not even anger—and to just exist. I’d worn it so often that it almost felt like it had truly become who I was. But I struggled to find it.

I had a feeling it had to do with the hand on my leg. “I found her in a lake.”

Attes’s brows snapped together. “I’m really hoping you’ll elaborate on that.”

“In my lake.” I spoke then, unable to stop myself. “He was—” I inhaled sharply as Nyktos shifted his legs, drawing my backside more fully against his lower stomach. Nyktos’s finger began to move, drawing a short line along my inner thigh now.

“He was…?” Attes prodded, his gaze lowering to where Nyktos’s hand had disappeared. Suddenly, I knew why Nyktos had felt the need to apologize ahead of time for his behavior. Everything he was doing was in plain sight of Attes. Nyktos was making it very clear that I was his.

The problem was, I didn’t entirely mind it.

Which presented another problem since my lack of disgust over this meant there was truly something wrong with me, and I would really need to think long and hard about that later.

“He was trespassing while I was swimming,” I managed.

A brow rose as Attes glanced between us. “I think I need to visit more lakes in the mortal realm.”

“You should,” Nyktos suggested. “Though I doubt you will find such unexpected treasure as I did.”

Treasure? There was a silly jump in my chest that happened before I could remind myself that if I took away the embers, a treasure was the very last thing Nyktos thought I was.

“Sadly, I think you may be right,” Attes said after a moment. “I doubt I shall find a treasure as…unique.”

Nyktos’s finger halted. There was something in Attes’s tone and the slight, almost secretive smile that graced his lips—something that caused tiny balls of unease to form in the pit of my chest.

“What’s your name?” Attes asked, his thumb tapping the arm of the chair.

Nyktos said nothing behind me, so I took that as permission to answer. “Sera.”

“Sera,” he repeated in a low voice. “No last name?”

It was doubtful that he could find many in the mortal realm who would recognize my first name. The last would be an entirely different story. I gave a coy shrug.

“Intriguing,” he remarked. “I think the others will understand why you’ve taken a Consort once they see her.” The Primal gave a slow grin, showing off that dimple in his right cheek. He winked at me. “I have a feeling many of them will find themselves wishing to adorn themselves with such an alluring accessory.”

Anger gathered in my chest for a second before Nyktos’s arms gave a warning squeeze. I’d likely projected that emotion right down his throat. Because…an accessory? There wasn’t enough common sense in the entire realm of Iliseeum for me to keep my mouth shut. “I doubt you prefer the taste of eyes more than your steed, but refer to me as an accessory again, and it will be you who feeds on them.”

The moment those words left my mouth, I almost regretted them. The Primal of Accord and War went impossibly still in the same way Nyktos often did. His glowing, silver eyes fixed on me. Icy, dark energy ramped up, brushing against my skin as it built from behind me. I was suddenly unsure which Primal I’d angered more.

Attes smiled, revealing straight teeth and fangs. “This one has bite.”

“You have no idea,” Nyktos murmured, and my head whipped toward him. His eyes briefly met mine as that damn hand slipped deeper between my thighs. His thumb gave a swipe, nearly brushing the thin undergarment there. “Behave.”

I drew back, my restraint cracking again. “Has Veses seen her yet?”

Veses. My attention snapped back to Attes as the memory of the Primal touching Nyktos filled my thoughts.

“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 not

exquisitely 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 of War.

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.”

“Those who do not likely won’t live long enough to wallow in their insult,” Nyktos responded before I could.

“Because you’ll make sure they’re dead before they can?”

Nyktos laughed darkly. “Because my Consort will likely plunge a dagger into their hearts before I’m even aware of what has occurred.”

His words shocked me and sent my heart thumping. He’d made it clear that I was no damsel to be protected, and I liked that—maybe too much.

“So, I should take the earlier threat to feed my eyes to me more seriously?”

I smiled at the Primal.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Attes refocused on Nyktos. “You going to tell me how in the holy fuck a god Ascended here in the Shadowlands?”

My heart stuttered at the blatant callout, but Nyktos didn’t react. Nothing except for the swipe of his finger coming shockingly close to my thin undergarment once more. I bit the inside of my lip as a rush of slick heat answered the indecent touch. Attes’s gaze lowered again, and I knew from where he sat and from how Nyktos held me, he could see precisely what Nyktos’s hand was up to. With the Primals’ increased senses, it was also likely he could tell how much it affected me. Heat scalded my skin, but not from shame. It should’ve been. Or, at the very least, anger. And there was a little bit of that—just enough to clear some of the languid warmth invading my senses. Nyktos was putting on a show. Not for me, but for Attes.

“It had to be Kolis.”

Attes snorted. “Come the fuck on, Nyktos.” “I don’t know who else it could’ve been.”

“If it was Kolis, why would he have finally chosen to Ascend a god?

Here, in the Shadowlands.”

“You’d have to ask him that.” “I guess I will have to.”

I didn’t think Attes planned to do that, because it didn’t seem like he believed Kolis was capable of such a thing.

“I know it was a god from Hanan’s Court,” Attes said after a moment. “The only one I know who is often found in the Shadowlands is Bele.”

“She is often here,” Nyktos confirmed while I willed my heart to calm.

“Well, Hanan is having a godsdamn fit right now at Dalos, convinced that you, the Primal of Death, have somehow managed to Ascend a god. The other Primals are worried. That if one god can Ascend to challenge their position, then so can another.”

“You don’t look all that worried,” Nyktos pointed out, and he didn’t. “That’s because I don’t fear someone taking my place.” He sat back,

dropping his hand to his knee. “None of us has forgotten who your father was.” Attes held Nyktos’s stare, and my stomach dipped at the insinuation. “Or who you were meant to be.”

“You think there are embers of life in me?” Nyktos laughed, stirring the hair along the back of my neck. “That it was not Kolis but me who did it?”

Oh, gods, what if they did? What if Kolis believed that? Pressure clamped down on my chest, and I held my breath as my heart started to race. Nyktos gently squeezed my thigh.

“If it wasn’t Kolis, then there would have to be embers of life here,” Attes replied. “And you haven’t denied that.”

“Nor have I confirmed anything,” Nyktos countered, and I heard the smoky smile in his words. “I’m beginning to wonder if you’re here because of your curiosity or if you came on Kolis’s behalf.”

Attes went still once more. “Both would be true.”

My insides went cold as Nyktos leaned into my back. That dark energy rose again. “Is that so?”

“It is. I am curious about what has been occurring here.” The aura in Attes’s eyes brightened. “And Kolis has tasked me with delivering a message to you.”

“I didn’t know that he was now using you for such things.”

“I believe he chose me because I’m the closest.” Attes paused. “And one of the few you’d be less likely to toss into the Abyss once you hear the message.”

“I wouldn’t put a lot of confidence behind that belief.” Nyktos’s voice had dropped. “What is the message?”

“Kolis is aware that you’ve taken a Consort.” A muscle flexed in his jaw. “And His Majesty has decided to deny your right to a coronation.”