A light in the flame

Hanan stiffened. “That mouth of yours will get you into trouble one day.”

“I believe it already has, but here I am.”

“And here…” Hanan’s gaze settled on me. “She is.”

Ice pressed against my spine. I placed my whiskey on the side table just in case I needed both hands. The smirk settling onto Hanan’s lips concerned me, as did the frigid power ramping up behind me.

“She is not what I expected,” Hanan said.

Nyktos trailed his fingers up my waist to the band of my bodice. “And what did you expect?”

The Primal of the Hunt and Divine Justice raised a brow. “Anything but a diamond that will inevitably be shattered into tiny pieces.”

I sucked in a sharp breath, surprised by what might actually be a compliment…and a veiled threat. “I am not the type of diamond easily broken,” I said before I could remind myself of Attes’s warning. “After all, diamonds do not crack.”

Hanan tilted his head. “But they do break.”

“Careful, Hanan,” Nyktos warned softly as Hanan knelt at our feet, bringing himself to eye level with me.

The other Primal ignored Nyktos as he inhaled deeply, sniffing at…at the air much like a predator would upon scenting its prey. “You are but…what? A godling? Or so I’m told. On the cusp of her Ascension,” he said, and I couldn’t have been more grateful for his apparent lack of senses. “But as of now, you are just a mortal.” He smiled, revealing two sharp fangs. The embers hummed in my chest, threatening to loose violent anger. “And there is nothing more breakable than that.”

“You know what else is breakable?” Nyktos asked, his thumb swiping beneath the swell of my breast. “Your bones.”

Hanan’s lips parted, but before he could respond, he was scooting backward over the marble. His eyes flared wide, bright with essence as he smacked a hand on the floor, stopping himself. If I could taste anger like Nyktos, I imagined I’d be drowning in it.

“I warned you once, purely out of amusement,” Nyktos drawled, tone soft and at complete odds with the words he spoke. “I will not warn you again. Speak to her one more time? Look at her? And I will shatter every bone in your cowardly body and then drag you into the Abyss to bury you so deep in the pits that it will take you a hundred years to claw your way out. Do you understand me?”

It was now my lips that parted. A hot, heady flush swept through me, pooling low in my stomach. No part of me should’ve been anything but terrified or disturbed by Nyktos’s words, especially since I didn’t doubt them for one second. But a whole lot of me was…aroused. And I didn’t think any of those parts were the Primal embers, even though they seemed to throb in agreement with Nyktos’s words.

Hanan rose, tension bracketing his mouth. “You think it wise to threaten me?”

“I think it’s fucking unwise of you to even dare to speak to me after you sent your guards to my Rise to make demands,” Nyktos replied. “And baseless accusations.”

“Baseless?” Hanan laughed as streaks of eather whipped through his eyes. “A god from my Court Ascended into Primalhood within your Court. All you had to do was turn her over to me, and we could’ve possibly avoided what is surely to come.”

“Her?” Nyktos said, and that was all he said.

“Bele.”

I kept my face blank even as my heart sped up. I hated even hearing her name on the Primal’s lips.

“I haven’t seen Bele in many moons. Nor would I know where she is, as she is not a member of my Court.” Nyktos lied so smoothly I almost believed him. “You should keep a closer eye on your vassals.”

“You’re really going to go this route? Pretend you have no knowledge of a god Ascending in your Court? Or whom it was?”

Nyktos’s thumb swept back and forth, creating the only warmth in the entire atrium. “And are you really insinuating that it couldn’t have been Kolis to have done it? Maybe you’ve fallen out of favor with him and he’s setting you up. Or perhaps you don’t believe he’s able to do such a thing? Is that it?” Nyktos laughed. “Then I would be really careful. Because I don’t think you want Kolis to know you have such little faith in his…strength.”

Hanan blanched. “That is not what I’m saying.”

“It’s not?”

“No. But I do believe we will see just how quickly this one breaks,” Hanan spat, the eather pulling back from his eyes even as the embers hummed in my chest. “Sooner rather than later, I imagine, since His Majesty is about to arrive. And I have a feeling he will have more questions about how exactly a god Ascended than he will about your would-be Consort. I will have what I want before the day is over, and you will…well, likely return to rule over your Court of the Dead with nothing, per usual.”

Nyktos’s fingers stilled as he leaned forward, then stopped. The air left the atrium with the breath I took. Goose bumps spread over my flesh, and my chest tightened.

Smirking, Hanan backed up as a flurry of painted guards filled the atrium, doors leading to the dais opened, and…

Kolis, the false King and true Primal of Death, entered.

Chapter 35

An enormous presence poured into the atrium, settling upon my skin as the scent of stale lilacs choked me. My eyes stung as golden-laced eather churned along the floor and spilled over the edge of the dais, sparking off the marble and licking over the pillars of the dais, stirring the curtains. My bones felt as if they would crumble under the power flooding the chamber. The eather spread like whirling fog kissed by sunlight, but there was something in that light.

Something…wrong.

Nyktos’s chest pressed against my back. I barely heard him whisper “breathe,” but I obeyed as the mass of swirling, throbbing power began to recede. A roar of rushing blood filled my head as the essence collapsed to the floor at his bare feet, where it coiled like a pit viper against his white linen pants, waiting to strike.

I became aware of Nyktos standing—of me standing. His hands were on my hips, guiding me to my knee. It felt wrong, in every part of me, to kneel, but I placed one trembling hand on the floor and the other over my heart as I bowed.

Because if Nyktos could, I sure as fuck could.

The back of my neck prickled. Awareness rose. I could feel Kolis’s stare, and the embers inside me throbbed. Panic threatened to take root as I bowed to the monster who had ruled my life before I was born.

Ruled all the lives I couldn’t remember.

Calling on that veil of nothingness, I slipped it on, snuffing out my fear and anger as I counted the seconds between each breath. I would not crack here. I would not break. I would not. I would not. I would not. Not today. My hands steadied. My chest loosened. My heart beat. I breathed.

I was nothing once more.

“Rise” came the voice drenched in warmth and sunlight. A voice that, if listened to closely enough, carried a blade-sharp, bitter edge to it.

The crimson gown slid across the floor like a puddle of blood racing toward me as I rose. Nyktos had positioned himself so he stood partially in front of me, and only then did I realize that Attes had returned with his brother, who had slightly darker hair but was of the same height and breadth of shoulder.

He wavered slightly on his feet and was half-undressed.

“And sit,” Kolis ordered. “Before this jackass falls on his face.”

At any other time, I would’ve laughed because Kyn did appear as if he were seconds from doing just that.

Nyktos turned, his iron-hued eyes meeting mine as Attes all but shoved his brother into a nearby chair. He took my hand with a small nod, guiding me back to where we’d been seated.

“Not her.”

I went stiff.

The skin tightened at the corners of Nyktos’s mouth as his nostrils flared. Wisps of eather spread out from behind his pupils.