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CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Standing on the balcony outside the chamber co
I walked into the antechamber as the main doors opened, stopping at the side of the oval table. An aura of power flooded the space, and the room seemed to shudder in the heartbeats before Ash entered.
Thin wisps of shadowy eather swirled around his leather-encased legs as he stalked forward, his chin down. Strands of thick hair brushed the hard line of his jaw.
“I’m okay,” I was quick to assure him.
Ash said nothing, just stepped onto the dais. He crossed the distance between us, clasping my cheeks and tilting my head back. “That is not true.”
“It is—”
His flesh began to thin. “There are red marks on your left cheek that weren’t there before.”
I jolted, not having noticed that when I washed my face earlier. It had to be from when Veses’ eather had skimmed my face. “They don’t hurt.”
“I’m relieved to hear that.”
Tiny bumps broke out all over my skin in response to the chill. “You sure about that?”
“Yes.” Eather lit up the veins in his jaw.
I folded my hands over his forearms. “I’m completely fine.”
“There is blood in your hair, Sera.”
“Shit,” I muttered. “I thought I got it all out.” Shadows appeared beneath his skin, and I hastily added, “It’s not my blood. It’s Veses’.”
Ash’s eyes flashed pure silver as the shadows deepened and moved faster. “So, that was the cause of what you felt?”
“What exactly did you feel?”
“Anger,” he growled as the room’s temperature dropped even more. “I tasted hot, acidic anger.”
My stomach churned. “That doesn’t sound pleasant.”
“What was she doing here?”
“She wanted to see you.” Little misty puffs punctuated my words. I slid my hands to his chest, hoping to ease his anger. “Obviously, I didn’t take too kindly to that, but…” I glanced at the wall beside us and did a double-take. A fine layer of glittering ice spread across the sleek shadowstone. “Is that frost?” My gaze shifted back to Ash. Little of his bronze flesh was visible now. I grabbed his dark gray tunic. “I’m completely okay. I promise. Veses, on the other hand… Not so much.”
His eather-drenched eyes searched mine. “Honestly?”
“Yes.” I rose on tiptoe and kissed his icy lips. “There is no need to worry.”
A shudder went through him. “I feared it was…”
My heart cracked. “You had to know it wasn’t Kolis.”
“It wasn’t him I was thinking of.”
I started to ask who, but then I knew. Kyn. Veses’ taunt slithered through my thoughts. “You don’t need to worry about him either. I don’t want you to worry at all.”
Ash’s arms went around me, and he lifted me clear off my feet, holding me tightly to him. “I will never not worry about you, liessa.”
Looping my arms around his shoulders, I buried my face in his neck. His hand cradled the back of my head as he turned, leaning against the iced-over wall. He slid down until his ass was on the floor, and I was facing him, my knees pressed against the wall.
“Tell me what happened.”
“Do you promise not to freeze us if I do?”
His fingers curled into my hair, loosening the braid. “I’ll do my best.”
I kissed the space above his pulse. “I was with Jadis and Reaver when I felt a Primal arrive. I knew it wasn’t you or Attes, and I wanted to see who it was.”
“You knew it wasn’t Attes?” Surprise filled his tone.
“Mm-hmm,” I murmured against his throat.
“Your Primal senses are really kicking in. Soon, you’ll be able to tell which Primal it is before they arrive.”
My brows knitted. “Really? How?”
“I’ll explain, but you need to tell me what happened first.”
I was half-tempted to give my intuition time to answer for me, but the room was only begi
“You were likely blocking her. She would have to be closer to tell if I was here or not,” he answered, confirming my theory. “It can happen when the true Primal of Death is near, too. You and Kolis would be the only ones unaffected by it.” His palm smoothed up my back. “What led to the blood in your hair?”
I cringed a little against his neck. “When I heard her say she wanted to see you, I sort of…you know, had one of those knee-jerk reactions.”
A rough chuckle shook both of us. “I am not surprised to hear that.”
“You probably also won’t be surprised to hear that Veses was being a bitch,” I said and then told him what’d happened.
Well, I told him everything except her taunts about how Rhain had been freed, despite Rhain’s advice. It wasn’t like I didn’t understand what he had been trying to tell me, but what would Ash do with that knowledge? Other than be enraged. “She was ru
Another short laugh rumbled from Ash. “I assume with your fist?”
“More like my knee.” I rubbed my nose along the still-cold skin of his neck.
“Nice technique.”
“And I threw her down onto the road,” I continued. “By her hair.”
Ash fell silent.
“Then I kicked her, and I think I grabbed her by the hair again.”
He was still quiet, but I detected faint tremors along his shoulders and chest. He was…laughing.
I plopped my forehead on his shoulder. “And then—”
“There’s more?” he cut in.
“There is,” I muttered. “I broke her wrist.”
“Okay.”
I closed my eyes. “And I also bit her.”
The hand on my back stilled.
My hands fell to my thighs. I didn’t think he was angry since my knees were damp from where the frost had melted away. Or at least he wasn’t as angry as before. “That’s probably how I got her blood in my hair. I wasn’t exactly…precise when I did it. I kind of tore her throat open. Her blood tastes gross, by the way.”
Silence.
I squeezed my already closed eyes shut tighter. “Anyway, I then spit the blood in her face.”
Another beat of silence passed.
“Is that all?”
“Yeah?” Unease swirled.
Ash’s hand swept back down my back. “You aren’t confident in that answer.” As his hand moved back up, it curled around my braid. He gently tugged my face out of his shoulder, and his eyes met mine. Only faint streaks of eather were visible. “What are you not telling me?”
I slumped a little. “I wanted to kill her.”
His brows shot up. “That’s what you were holding back?”
“I mean, I would’ve killed her if Nektas hadn’t shown up—even after Rhain tried to talk sense into me, reminding me that I didn’t want war.” I shook my head. “And I really would have, Ash. I was that”—I held up my thumb and pointer finger, spacing them less than an inch apart—“close.”
“But you didn’t.”
“Only because Nektas was there. So, I’m not sure that counts.”
“It does.” His other hand ran along my jaw. “I wouldn’t have blamed you if you had.”
My mouth dropped open.
“I held back with Kyn, but it seems you’ve forgotten that I killed a Primal in anger. And I don’t regret doing it,” he continued. “I can tell you right now that Nektas wouldn’t have been able to stay my hand. Not when Hanan was standing between you and me.” He ran his thumb across my lower lip. “But he was able to reach you. So don’t feel too bad about it.”
I let what he said sink in. Ash hadn’t walked that line between vengeance and justice as well as I believed. And that made me feel a little better about what had almost happened, as messed up as that was.
So, I let go of the guilt and shifted my focus to what had preyed upon my mind as I stood out on the balcony. “As much as I hate to admit this, I think Veses was telling the truth about coming here to get you to talk me into taking Kolis’s deal.”
He tucked a shorter strand of my hair back behind an ear. “What makes you think that?”
I fixed the collar of his tunic. “Like I said before, she…cares about you—in her own twisted, messed-up way.” I quickly moved past that point before I slipped into a rage spiral. “She said I would regret not taking the deal.”
His jaw flexed. “Did she say this before or after you handed her ass to her?”
My lips twitched as I glanced down at my hands. “After I…” I frowned, staring at my nails. I had thought I’d gotten all the blood out from under them, but a tiny speck of dark red remained. It wasn’t that which caused my spine to straighten, though. “My nails grew.”
He looked down at my hands. “They look normal to me.”
“I know, but they lengthened and sharpened.” My eyes widened as I remembered what had happened when Aydun first showed. What had Nektas said then? Something about the…claws coming out. “Today wasn’t the first time that happened. I wonder if that means I’ll be able to shift sooner than you could.”
Lifting my left hand, he kissed the center of my palm. “Wouldn’t that make you special?”
“More special than you. Yes.”
He chuckled. “That’s okay. My fangs are still substantially more impressive than yours.”
I gri
A wide, likely half-crazed-looking smile spread across my lips, and I didn’t care about how I looked because this was us. Who we had been when we were strangers, then friends, enemies, and now…lovers. This was simply who we were when we were together. And if he was reading my emotions now, he would taste nothing but the sweetest, chocolate-dipped strawberries.
Nothing but love.
Veses’ warning followed me as the day progressed. It was hard not to think about it, even as Ash and I spent the better part of the day in the courtyard training alongside the guards.