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CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
“The sekya…” Rhain said, shattering the tense silence. “Did all of them leave the Abyss?”
“They did.” Ash looked up as two draken flew overhead, their shadows deepening the night as they landed on the Rise.
My heart lurched. “How many were there?”
His attention returned to the guard’s remains. “About a thousand, give or take a couple hundred.”
Good gods. “Do I want to know how many made it out of the Shadowlands?”
“I would say about seventy-five percent,” he answered.
“I almost regret asking,” I murmured. “I couldn’t kill them with eather.”
“No, you could not. Only a Primal of Death can kill them with eather,” Ash explained. “And I have just enough of those embers to get the job done.”
I glanced at the draken. It was Ehthawn and Crolee. “Not even the draken?”
“Not even them,” he confirmed. “The sekya would’ve swarmed any draken who came to our aid, and they’re capable of severely injuring even one as old as Nektas.”
“Gods,” I muttered.
Ash’s eather-drenched gaze locked on mine. “And they can do a lot of damage to a Primal, especially a newly Ascended one,” he said, his gaze sweeping over me. “Without a weapon.”
I tensed as my thoughts went immediately to the dagger he’d gifted me.
“She held her own and then some,” Bele spoke up. “With or without a weapon.”
Ash’s gaze slid to the Primal while I shifted from one foot to the other. I appreciated Bele coming to my defense, but the thing was, I had come out to fight without a weapon, and that was idiotic.
The essence in me swirled, responding to Ash’s. Outwardly, he appeared to be calming—the shadows weren’t as thick. But the inside was a different story, and his barely leashed anger had much more to do with what had happened here than it did with me.
These were our people strewn across the courtyard, and even if Kolis had only summoned the sekya to him without giving them orders to attack, he knew that many of them would. Because intuition told me the creatures’ bloodline was old. They had been created by the Ancients themselves. Just as the dakkais were. And their nature reflected that of their creators.
Hunger and cruelty.
This was Kolis’s fault, and I was sure that knowledge fueled Ash’s rage. It fed mine as I turned. Kolis was strengthening his defenses, likely in preparation for giving his answer to the offer I made. There was still time left in the eirini—at least a week—but he was already preparing for us.
For war.
I stood there for several moments in the moonlight, staring at the splashes of blood tainting the newly grown grass. The wildly churning essence calmed as a sudden prickling sensation erupted along the nape of my neck. Before I knew it, I was crossing the courtyard. I entered the palace, the stone cold beneath my feet. It was as if I were being urged forward. I didn’t think it was my heightened intuition. It felt more like the eather inside me. The Primal essence continued to intensify, throbbing in the pit of my chest. I walked beneath the crystal chandelier, making out the low murmur of several voices and another sound—one too muffled for me to make out.
Crossing under the wide, sharply pointed archway, I smelled the iron-rich scent of blood. I passed the empty, white marble pedestal and the closed doors on either side of the area. Reaching where the hall split in two, I went right without much thought. It was like I already knew where to go.
And I was right.
The sound of voices picked up as I entered the palace’s right wing, where the doors to the various, mostly unused chambers were closed. I kept going, reaching another branch in the hall, one where one path led outside and the other to a narrower hall with fewer but larger spaces. They had been completely empty when I’d explored the palace with Jadis and Reaver.
I went down the hall, my fingers digging into the soft velvet of my robe. Halfway down, I saw that two doors were open. I picked up my pace, the eather buzzing hotly through my veins. I jerked to a halt when I stepped into the dull light spilling out of the chamber.
I took in the horror of the space. Gods were extraordinarily hard to kill, given only a handful of things could kill them—shadowstone to the heart or the head, a blast of eather from a stronger god or Primal, draken fire.
And massive bodily damage inflicted by any creature created by the Ancients.
The dakkais and sekya were only two of them. The knowledge I’d gained during my Ascension warned me there were more—truly nightmarish things. But gods weren’t infallible.
And this room was proof of that.
The large chamber had quickly been converted into an infirmary. Those wounded from the attack were laid out on thin cots—about a dozen of them. Most of the injured were unconscious. Moans came from those who weren’t as Aios hurried between the cots, her arms full of bandages. She wasn’t alone. A tall man with a large brown satchel was crouched beside one of the unconscious guards. I needed no introduction to recognize the light-yellowish-brown-ski
Aios had likely already been here with Bele. I had no idea how the Healer had gotten here so quickly, but I was grateful to see him.
I fully entered the chamber, my attention shifting to a guard lying just beyond the doors. She wasn’t awake, but her features were still contorted in pain.
I recognized her.
It was the guard with the pretty name.
Iridessa.
Beside her shredded tunic, a pile of blood-soaked linens lay on the floor, and bright, shimmering blue-tinged red already stained the bandage across her chest.
Iridessa was alive—but barely. And I doubted whatever vial Kye had pulled from his satchel while he assisted another could reverse the damage of the sekya’s claws.
A faint series of tingles erupted behind my left ear as I knelt at Iridessa’s side, careful to avoid the mess on the floor. Like with the guard on the Rise, knowledge of her filled my thoughts.
She was a fighter. A goddess who’d originally served Hanan, having defected from his Court a few years back after guards sworn to protect the people of Sirta slaughtered her family. She was young compared to the others. Younger than even Ash. She’d seen a hard century of life.
Lifting my hand, I placed my palm on her uncovered shoulder. Her skin was damp beneath mine as I closed my eyes. Summoning the essence, I felt it rush to the surface. It came to me easier when used for this than it did when using it as a weapon or to move objects. I didn’t really have to think much about it as I cha
The reason this was easier didn’t really occur to me until Iridessa’s brow smoothed out and her breathing deepened. The eather was designed to protect life. To heal. And that had shaped Eythos and even Ash before the embers were removed from him. It wasn’t as strong as in his father, but the essence of life had played a role in who they each were at the very core of their being. Because it belonged to them. And that was why Eythos could forgive his brother. Why Ash felt each and every death so deeply.
Aware that my presence had gained attention, I rose and moved to the cot of another unconscious guard. Something else occurred to me. It was also why I hadn’t slain the monster while with the riders.
Using the eather to heal or restore life was natural to me only because it was natural to the energy itself. But it hadn’t shaped my nature.
Only I could.
If I could.
As I healed the guard beside Iridessa, I thought about what Odetta had said to me. That I had been touched by both life and death. Really, it was Sotoria’s soul that had been touched by death.
Time blurred as I healed the injuries of several more guards. While doing that, I felt Ash’s presence. He watched me as intently as one of Attes’s silver hawks. He didn’t try to stop me, simply gave me space as I moved from one cot to the next. Neither did Kye or Aios, the former flushing pinker each time I drew closer to him. When Rhahar arrived, I heard him informing Ash that the sekya hadn’t headed toward Lethe. That brought me some relief.
The arm beneath my hand trembled as I healed wounds not as deep as some of the others. This guard had awakened upon my approach. His name was Liam. He was only a little older than Iridessa, and his past was nearly the same as hers, except he’d escaped Kyn to join the Shadowlands. I didn’t speak as the pallor of death eased, revealing his olive-toned complexion. Neither did he. Not until I made to leave.
Liam clasped my hand. “Thank you,” he rasped.
I nodded, not wanting his gratitude, as I moved to the last of the unconscious guards. My skin chilled as I reached the godling’s side. Blood stained his hair to the point where I couldn’t tell if the strands were normally coppery. There had been a reason I’d been avoiding him.
He was no longer with us.
His soul had left him before I entered the chamber—possibly only seconds beforehand—because Kye and Aios still seemed unaware of his passing.
I lowered myself to my knees and swept my gaze over him. His injuries were significant. If he had been mortal, his body would’ve been in even worse condition. Still, even as a godling, it was bad. If I had to guess, I’d say he’d been one of the guards dropped from the Rise.
Eather swelled as I stared at him. My body tensed, and then I reached for him.
A cool hand caught mine, startling my heart into skipping. My gaze flew to a pair of beautiful silver eyes. Holding my stare, Ash drew his thumb over the imprint on my palm. In the silence that followed, I realized something.
“It must be hard for you,” I whispered hoarsely, thinking of his abilities. “To be around so much pain and be able to feel it.”
“It’s manageable,” he assured me, but I couldn’t see how. He had to be drowning in it.
Drawing in a shallow breath, I looked back at the man. I knew his name. The Court he originally served. How old he had been. I didn’t want to know those things. I wanted him to remain a faceless, nameless stranger. It was easier that way.
Ash’s other hand wrapped around mine, causing me to look down. A ripple of surprise went through me as he threaded his fingers through mine. I hadn’t even realized I’d lifted my left hand.
“He’s gone, liessa,” Ash stated quietly. “His soul is no longer with him.”
“I know.”
“Do you?” he asked quietly.
A knot lodged in my throat. I nodded.
Ash pressed a kiss to my left hand, then my right. “You’ve done more than enough.” He straightened, holding on to one of my hands as he helped me to my feet.
As I rose, I caught Aios’s gaze fastening on the fallen guard as she gathered some soiled linens. Her eyes glimmered with unshed tears. The knot in my throat increased as Ash and I turned to the doors.