A fire in the flash

Oh.

Oh, no.

My lips parted as he confirmed my worst fears.

“Every time I was conscious, I felt you. Your pain. Your fear. The panic. The fucking desperation.” The walls rattled as that frosted whisper circled the chamber, falling against the floor like hail and sleet. I knew it wasn’t Nektas or any other draken doing that. “Your anger? I felt it all. Tasted everything you were feeling until I was drowning in it. Until I tore at my flesh to get to you.” His voice cracked then, and so did the wall behind him. “And I could do nothing—fucking nothing—to protect you. To take away any of the horror you were experiencing.”

Pressure clamped down on my chest. Oh, gods, I hadn’t wanted him to feel that—any of it. It was the one thing I’d believed the stasis had prevented. My skin suddenly felt too tight, and I wanted to close my eyes and crawl inside myself. But I couldn’t look away from Ash.

I stared at him, realizing I’d been wrong when I believed I’d seen those Primal embers of death come out in him before. I really hadn’t. Not until now. I’d seen glimpses of them when he killed Tavius’s guards and the gods who came into the Shadowlands for me. I’d seen hints of it when he battled the entombed gods in the Red Woods. And later as he struck the draken, Davon, from the sky and laughed. I’d seen some of it when he killed Hanan and fought Kolis, but I truly saw it now.

Ash didn’t do that freaky turn-to-a-skeleton thing that Kolis did. He didn’t need the dramatics because each word he spoke carried the weight of a thousand cold, empty graves and the promise of endless death in the Abyss.

Once more, I realized there was a good chance Sotoria wasn’t needed. Ash could take out Kolis, but without there being a true Primal of Death? Whether or not Ash took the embers, the balance Kolis had harped about would be upset in ways that would result in unfathomable destruction.

So even though I wanted nothing more than to cave to the pressure and desire to get up and run, putting as much distance between what Ash possibly knew and me, I couldn’t.

This was bigger than me. More important. I had to pull it together because we didn’t have much time. I could feel that, despite doing my level best to ignore it. I counted as I’d done before.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five.

I lifted a trembling hand from Ash’s shoulder and touched his cheek. Nothing of the golden-bronze flesh was visible now, and his jaw was hard as granite beneath my palm. “I want nothing more than his death,” I said. “But he can’t die. You have to know that, right? This whole time, you had to know he couldn’t be killed. Not by anyone. Not even Sotoria.”

Ash said nothing as the wings behind him thickened, but I knew I was right. He had to know the Primal of Death must always be. Just as the Primal of Life must.

“I know you care about the realms,” I told him. “Even if you didn’t, I do. I care about my sister and Marisol. The people of Lasania, and the rest of the mortal realm. Even my mother.”

His head straightened. “Your mother?” he snarled. “Fuck her.”

My lips twitched, but I stopped myself from smiling. I didn’t think that would help things at the moment. “We need to get out of here, Ash.” I swallowed again, but it did little to end the soreness in my throat. I glanced at Kolis’s still body.

There were many reasons we needed to leave, starting with Ash’s wrath toward his uncle. It was so intense it would lead to nothing but ruin, and if he let himself cave to it, he would regret it. He didn’t think that now, but I knew he would, and I couldn’t let that happen. I refused to allow another regret to stain his soul.

But that wasn’t the only reason.

“We need to get somewhere safe,” I continued. “And you need to take the embers before it’s too late.”

The muscle along his jaw throbbed under my palm. A long, tense moment passed, and then the shadows began to break apart, scattering to disappear beneath his flesh. Something I’d said must have gotten through to him.

“Okay?” I said.

Ash nodded as the shadow wings faded away, but his gaze left mine and returned to Kolis. I thought I heard something then. Footsteps? Before I could look, Ash’s arms clamped down on me. One second, I was sitting on the floor, loosely held in his embrace. The next, I was on my feet, his arms holding me up and close to him. The movement had my stomach turning as his head cut toward the door. A low growl rumbled from his chest.

“Your Majesty?” came a voice it took me a moment to recognize. Elias.

Willing my stomach to stop rolling, I twisted toward the doors as they swung open, one side falling half off damaged hinges.

Elias drew up short, his golden eyes flipping from Kolis to Ash, then to me. “Is she okay?”

All that rage directed toward Kolis shifted to the god in the entranceway. A low rumble of warning came from him. “What did you ask?”

“I mean her no harm,” Elias insisted, stepping back. But based on what I’d seen Ash do in the halls of the sanctuary, I knew that would do the god no good.

Shadows spilled from Ash, slipping over me harmlessly as they rose, preparing to strike at Elias. The god would not survive that. One of the tendrils snaked across the floor. I didn’t think Ash intended for Elias to survive, but…

“Don’t.” My fingers pressed into Ash’s chest. “Don’t harm him.”

Ash pulled the smoky eather back, but he didn’t take his attention off the god. “Do you make this request because you wish to have the honor of doing so?”

“That’s actually kind of sweet of you to think,” I said, patting his chest.

The painted wings above Elias’s brows seemed to lift.

“But, no.” I stared at the god. The shadowstone sword he held was slick with shimmery blood. My gaze lifted to his painted face. I thought of the advice he’d offered instead of how he’d knocked me out.

Before any of us could respond, I saw a flash of deep gray scales, and the entire chamber trembled as Nektas landed outside. At the other end of the breezeway, guards spilled out from the doors to Kolis’s chamber. The one spiked tail whipped across the breezeway as only half of Nektas’s horned head came into view, his massive jaws opening.

A fu

“Or perhaps you’d prefer that Nektas burn him?” Ash suggested, his frozen-over stare still focused on Elias.

“Uh, no to that, too.” I cringed as one of the gods flailed about, swallowed by the silver flames. “At least, not yet.”

“And what is your reasoning for this, liessa?” Streaks of eather lit up the veins of his cheeks. “The realms will not suffer the loss of one more god.”

Damn.

I glanced at Ash, feeling an almost unfamiliar rush of heat. He was…savage when angry, and I found it, even amidst all of this, really arousing.

For once, I didn’t think that should disturb me as Ash finally pulled his attention from Elias. He looked down at me. One of his brows rose as warm wisps of eather stirred in his eyes. Realizing he likely sensed my desire, I found I wasn’t embarrassed. I was…gods, I was so relieved to feel that warmth swamping my veins. So damn ecstatic. Because in this moment, as I stared up at him, I felt normal.

Well, as normal as I’d ever felt. And it was because of him… Ash helped me feel that way. My chest swelled with emotion, momentarily filling the gnawing hollowness growing there.

“I love you,” I whispered.

The change in Ash was swift. His features softened as his chest rose against mine. “Liessa…”

Eyes stinging, I looked away before I started sobbing all over him. There was no time for that. I refocused on Elias, who looked slightly confused and also a little relieved. I then looked past him to Nektas. There had to be a reason he wasn’t charbroiling the god. “Do you…do you serve Kolis, Elias?”