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Ash nodded. “I imagine that most remained neutral, but the capability to feel emotion changed everything.”
“And everyone,” Delfai added, turning that eerie smile on Ash. “I have no knowledge of which one gave Kolis what he wanted, nor the true reason behind doing so. It could’ve been a nefarious act, or they simply fell prey to what they feared would happen to Primals if they could love. It is possible their emotions were exploited, forcing them into such an act to protect someone they loved.”
“Love,” I murmured, swallowed. “Maybe it is a weakness.”
“I believe it to be the one thing more unpredictable than even a Primal ember. Therefore, stronger,” Delfai countered, drawing my gaze to him. “Love makes anything possible. Makes anyone capable of the unexpected.”
I shifted my weight from one foot to the other, uncomfortable as the god continued staring at me. “Where is this diamond now?”
His dark eyes glimmered. “Kolis has it,” he said, and my stomach sank. “He knows what it’s capable of. He wouldn’t want anyone else to be able to access it.”
“Great,” Ash snarled with a flash of fangs.
“But you want to know how to remove the embers from her,” Delfai said. “To do so, you wouldn’t need the Star.”
My head snapped up. “Can we get a little more detail on that?”
“At this time, you are simply the mortal vessel for the embers—”
“She is not simply a vessel,” Ash growled as eather charged the air. “Not now. Not before this moment, and not going forward.”
The catch in my breath and my heart left me a little dizzy as I stared at Ash. I wanted to hug him. Kiss him.
“My apologies.” The god bowed his head. “What I meant to say is that she is the current holder of the embers, a living being allowing the embers to grow in power. Therefore, transferring them from her will not be the same as it would be to remove the embers from a Primal born and fully Ascended.” His eerie, unflinching gaze settled on me. “They would just need to be taken from you. And doing so will mean only a rather minor impact on the realms.”
I…I felt relief. Sharp and sweet. But there was also dread blossoming in my chest.
Delfai’s gaze slid to Ash. “You will become what you were once meant to be after your father entered Arcadia. The true Primal of Life, and the King of Gods.”
I thought that sounded right and just, but the embers…they hummed erratically. Almost as if they didn’t like what they were hearing. But the embers weren’t some kind of conscious entity. They were…they were responding to me. To my emotions. To what I was thinking.
To thoughts I might not even acknowledge.
Relief had eased the lines of Ash’s face as he asked, “How exactly would I take them from her?”
“Another simple process. One that could’ve occurred at any point during her Culling and before her Ascension.” Delfai was still staring at Ash in the same unsettling ma
“That’s it?” Frowning, I glanced at Ash. “But he has fed from me.”
The odd little smile faded from Delfai’s lips. “He must feed until the last drop of blood is taken. Until there is nothing but the embers left. Then, they will transfer to him. He will Ascend. But you…” He sighed. “You will not survive. You will die.”
Chapter 45
You will not survive.
I jerked as the god’s words echoed over and over.
“No. No,” Ash snarled as energy charged the air. Shadows blossomed beneath his flesh, churning rapidly. “You’re wrong.”
“You can successfully remove the embers. Any Primal could because she is, whether or not your father intended, a placeholder for them,” Delfai said quietly enough, but it sounded as if he shouted the words. “The realms are lucky no one else has learned of their existence in her,” he said, and I flinched. “But she ca
Death always finds you. Holland’s voice whispered through my thoughts. By the hands of a god or a misinformed mortal. By Kolis himself, and even by Death.
Ash.
I laughed.
As I stared at them, I laughed. I couldn’t help it. The sound was strange, too loud yet too brittle.
Ash’s head snapped to mine. His eyes were nearly pure orbs of eather. Shadows raced over his cheeks as faint tendrils spilled into the space around him. He was close to shifting, losing control, and I…
I was just there.
The floor didn’t feel as if it moved beneath me as it had the last time I’d heard someone speak about my demise so bluntly. There was no surprise. No shock. And maybe it was because I knew this. Didn’t I? I could allow myself to escape my fate for a time. But, deep down, I’d known that I wouldn’t be able to run from it.
“No,” Ash repeated as if the single word changed what Delfai had said. What an Arae had already told us. He shook his head, lines of tension bracketing his mouth as his eyes locked with mine. “There has to be something,” he rasped, turning back to Delfai. “It ca
“Your father was born a god destined to Ascend into his Primalhood, just as you. The embers belonged to him. They were hidden in her bloodline, in her mortal body. They didn’t belong to her,” he said in that same quiet, flat tone. “All it took was one drop of Primal blood for them to grow stronger in her and make it impossible for anyone to remove the embers.” He said what Holland had warned us about. “They have merged with her. Even if you had attempted to do this the moment you became aware of both embers being inside her, the end result would still be the same. It would be like cutting out her heart. There are only three options here. Either you become the true Primal of Life and restore balance to the realms. Someone else, another Primal, takes them—and I don’t think any of us wants that. Or she completes her Ascension, and you already ensured that—”
“Don’t.” My eyes flew open as the embers in my chest vibrated, pushing a flood of heat and energy through my veins. It hit the air. Glass cracked. “Do not finish that sentence.”
Delfai sat back. “I’m sorry, but you will die either way.” He sighed, and the sound was something…accepting. Resigned. “Whether the realms are saved in the process is up to—”
Ash shadowstepped, grasping the god by the throat and slamming him into the bookshelf several feet behind the settee and off the floor, rattling the furniture. Books pitched forward, falling like rain and thumping off the floor.
“Stop!” I cried, racing forward.
“Her death will not come at my hands,” Ash snarled in a guttural, barely recognizable voice. The hazy outline of wings made of eather appeared behind him. Essence sparked along his bare arms. “That is an unacceptable answer.”
My stomach lurched as I reached them, seeing that only eather filled his eyes now, and blood…blood began to drip from Delfai’s nose and the corner of his mouth. The god started to spasm, and the veins beneath his skin lit up.
Ash’s lips peeled back, revealing his fangs—
“Don’t!” I shouted. “This isn’t his fault.”
“Maybe not.” Ash’s voice dropped low, becoming nothing more than blood and shadows. “But perhaps he will become more creative in his answers once he spends some time in the Abyss.”
“That isn’t going to help. He told us what he knows. That answer isn’t going to change.” I grabbed Ash’s arm. The shock of the essence blew the wisps of hair back from my face. His skin felt like ice and stone. “Ash.”
His head snapped toward mine, and my heart stuttered. The shadows had stilled, leaving his flesh a striking mosaic of golden bronze and midnight. He was more Primal than man.