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Maybe he wasn’t really okay. Concern ate away at the relief. Still on my knees, I started to inch forward. “Nyktos?”
Silence.
Nektas had finally stopped growling. He stretched forward, gently nudging Nyktos’s shoulder.
“I’m fine,” Nyktos said hoarsely, reaching up and flattening a hand against the side of Nektas’s broad jaw. “I just need a minute.”
Nektas withdrew but didn’t take his eyes off him, and that minute felt like an hour.
Slowly, Nyktos lifted his head. Essence-filled eyes met mine. “That was…” He cleared his throat, and when he spoke again, his voice was steadier, stronger. “That was unexpected.”
“I…” Tears pricked my eyes as I shook my head and looked down at my hands. “I didn’t mean to do that. I swear. I don’t even know how I did that.”
“It has to be the Culling. I didn’t think it would happen—figured it would be more like a godling with you. But those embers in you—they’re strong. They’re making you stronger…” He trailed off, that damn awe in his voice returning and lingering in the silence. “When a god enters the Culling, their essence increases and grows stronger. And as they get closer to completing the Culling, they can have…outbursts. It’s usually tied to heightened emotion, but that doesn’t happen with a godling. Not when they go through the Culling. Many of them can’t even harness the essence like that, even if they Ascend. They simply don’t have enough eather in them for that.”
Curling my hands against my chest, I looked up at him.
Nyktos had gotten closer. I hadn’t heard him move. He was still on his knees. Nektas hadn’t made a sound, but Nyktos was now under the shelter of Nektas’s wing, too. “You were definitely feeling heightened emotions when it happened.”
A shaky, weak laugh rattled out of me as the backs of my eyes burned. I quickly looked away, closing my eyes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do it. I really didn’t.”
“I know,” he whispered, and I jerked at the touch of his fingers against my cheek. His fingers—
“Your skin is cold again.”
“It’s okay.”
“How is this okay?” I tried to lean back, but his hand followed, curving around my cheek. His skin was cool like it had been before. “I did that without even meaning to. I hurt you.”
“You didn’t.”
“I think I did.” I reached up, touching the hand on my cheek. Had the eather somehow undone what my blood had done for him? I dropped my hand. “Do you need to feed—?”
“That’s not something you need to worry about.”
I didn’t understand how he could even suggest that. Or why he wasn’t more disturbed by what I’d done. “What if I do that again? And I hurt someone else who’s not okay afterward?”
His eyes closed briefly, his features softening. “We’ll make sure that doesn’t happen, Sera.”
That sounded easier said than done. “How—?” I jerked back, this time falling on my ass as I remembered what I’d done before Nyktos had found me. “I touched a Shade.”
“You shouldn’t have been anywhere near them.”
“That’s not the point.”
The gentling of his demeanor vanished as his jaw hardened. “That’s the actual entirety of the point.”
“You’re not listening. I touched it, and it started to come back to life.”
“What?” His hand lowered then as Nektas turned his head toward us.
“I didn’t mean to do it. I didn’t try. But I saw its…its veins and its muscles form. Its heart. The heart started beating,” I said. “Right before you killed it, its heart was beating, and it spoke to me.”
Nyktos drew back, his eyes widening. “That’s not possible.” He twisted toward Nektas. “Is it? I didn’t feel it.”
The draken…
Nektas shifted forms, right there beside us. A dazzling explosion of a thousand tiny silver stars appeared all over his body and above us where his wing had been. My mouth dropped open as the shimmery spectacle faded, and fingers took the place of talons, wings sank in, and flesh replaced scales. Red and black hair slid over lots of hard, faintly ridged, coppery flesh.
“You’re naked,” I whispered.
“Does that bother you?” Nektas asked.
“Maybe?”
Nyktos turned his head to me. “Perhaps you shouldn’t continue staring then.”
“How can I not?” I mumbled.
Nektas smirked as he waved a hand. There was a brief, faint burst of light, and then only his upper body was exposed. Loose, linen pants covered the rest. “Better?”
“I guess…” I blinked. Was I hallucinating?
“I wasn’t asking you.” Nektas turned a pointed stare on Nyktos.
The Primal’s eyes narrowed as the corners of his lips pointed downward.
“How did you do that?” I asked.
“Magic,” Nektas answered. I frowned as he knelt beside Nyktos. “You sure the Shade spoke?”
I nodded, letting the whole magic-pants thing go for the time being. “It said meyaah Liessa.”
“My Queen,” Nyktos repeated.
“Fuck.” A slow grin spread across Nektas’s face. “It’s the embers.”
I was getting really sick of hearing about the embers, but that did confirm that Nektas knew there were two embers in me and not one. Nyktos had obviously confided in him, but had he told the draken the whole Sotoria part?
“Eythos could do it,” Nektas continued. “He could raise the bones of the dead. It was rare. I can only remember him doing it once. It’s not the same as restoring life to the recently dead. That’s why nobody felt it.” He tilted his head as he eyed me. “Those embers are really strong in you.”
“So I’ve been told,” I muttered.
Nyktos frowned. “I didn’t know my father could do that.”
“I don’t think even Kolis knew.” He brushed a stripe of red hair back over his shoulder. “You should probably avoid touching anything dead until you get a handle on those embers.”
My hands fell into my lap. “I’ll definitely try to avoid doing that. It’ll be hard because I do like to touch dead things.”
Nektas’s smile spread, and then he looked over his shoulder. “You level?”
Nyktos nodded, his attention fixed on me.
“You two should head back to the palace. The Shades won’t be scared off much longer.” Nektas rose, clasping Nyktos’s shoulder before walking off into the maze of dead trees. A few moments later, branches rattled violently, and Nektas rose into the sky in his draken form once more.
“So…draken can conjure clothing out of thin air?” I asked. “Can Primals do the same?”
“Only clothing we’ve worn. It becomes an extension of us.”
“Oh. That makes sense, I guess.” Slowly, I met his stare as bone-deep exhaustion set in. So many things went through my head. “You’re not going to let me go, are you?”
“Never,” he swore.
Disbelief and frustration clashed. “So, you’re going to hold me captive here, then? Against my will?”
Eather flared in his eyes again. “How you remain here, as my Consort or my prisoner, will be your choice.”
“That’s not really a choice when it’s the same thing.”
“If you choose to see it that way, then so be it.” He rose fluidly, showing no sign that I had injured him. “Your destiny is not to die at the hands of Kolis.”
My chest rose and fell sharply as the finality of my failed attempt and what it meant settled over me. This had been my one chance. There would be no more, not when he now expected it from me. “Then what is my destiny?”
“To be my Consort,” he said. “Whether you like it or not.”
Anger rose as I stared up at the Primal of Death. I latched onto it because it was far better than desperation and hopelessness. “You mean it’s my destiny to die as your Consort?”
A muscle ticked in his temple as he glared. “There may be another way to prevent your death.”
“Really?” I laughed. “Like what?”
“If I had five seconds of peace and didn’t have to worry about you getting yourself killed, I might be able to think of one.”
I rolled my eyes. “Okay. Sure.”
He made a noise that sounded like he was choking on a scream of frustration. I smirked, my gaze falling on the dagger. I reached for it.