Born of Blood and Ash

A stream of bright eather slammed into Thrax. The draken reared back, spraying shimmery blood. I darted out of its path, but Attes was close, continuing to slam the draken with eather. The armor protected his chest, but the sleeves of his tunic burned off, and his flesh smoked.

Thrax went for Attes, releasing a stream of silvery fire. Attes lurched to the side, throwing a bolt of eather that hit the draken in the face. Thrax shot back—

Icy fingers trailed down my spine. I sucked in a shrill breath, catching the scent of stale lilacs—death. The hairs along the back of my neck rose. Everything inside me stopped except for my heart. It beat steadily. Calmly, even. I turned around and saw Attes and the draken spill over the edge where the glass walls had stood, falling over the cliff. There was a shout of pain, but all I saw was the figure in the center of a whirling mass of crimson-streaked shadows in the sky.

“Kolis,” I hissed, feeling a violent rush of energy surge through me. Fury sank its claws into me, climbing my spine and filling my limbs. It filled my heart and wrapped itself around my fingers. So, I seized it. I stalked forward, the marble tile cracking under my steps. Throwing out my hand, golden-silver light rippled down my arm.

Seeing my family’s faces and the horror forever etched into their features, feral rage fueled me, and eather exploded from my palm, racing through the sky. A savage smile lit up my face when the essence struck Kolis, scattering the shadows around him. His head kicked back, and the eather raced across his bare chest, singeing his crimson pants. I lifted my left arm, wanting to cause him pain, wanting to destroy him—

A dark, cold laugh slithered through the air and over my flesh. Kolis’s chin lowered. Crimson-streaked tendrils rose once more in the ink-black sky, writhing and swirling, his eyes gleaming like ruby jewels. All along the cliffs, great elms and pines bent back as if to escape the weight of his power and presence.

A reddish-silver pulse of light rippled across the realm, revealing the draken that had taken flight from the palace. I saw them when the sky growled, a deep rumble building in intensity until it reached a deafening crescendo. Bright bolts of crimson-laced eather erupted from Kolis and danced across the horizon, splitting into multiple veins that streaked through the clouds like writhing serpents.

From the valley below, a draken’s panicked call sent dread cascading through me. The draken in the sky veered sharply and dove to the ground—to safety.

“No,” I whispered. I had no idea if the draken were now loyal to Penellaphe or not, but I didn’t want to see what I knew was coming.

A scream lodged in my throat. The eather struck draken after draken. Horror swamped me as they twisted and writhed in the sky, their wings crumbling and then disappearing. Essence flared in me, one, two, three…eight times as the draken shifted into their mortal forms, their bodies limp as they fell…

I couldn’t believe what I’d just seen. Shock paralyzed me when the draken on the ground let out anguished wails. Kolis had nearly wiped out all the draken of the Court in less than a minute. I didn’t think I would be capable of something like that even if I wasn’t a fledgling Primal. The kind of power it took to kill a draken…

His laughter ceased. Then, he began to sing, his voice traveling through the air like a sinister requiem that became a somber song. My entire being recoiled instinctually as the very realm shuddered, and the haunting hymn rose…

Something fell from above too fast for me to tell what it was, but it was too small to be another draken. I jerked, something else plummeting from above. Warmth flared in my chest. I looked up, the heat quickly returning as another object fell, then another, and another…

I saw things climbing out of windows and over balcony rails on the upper floors of the sweeping ivory palace, opening their arms wide and embracing the call of death.

Oh, my gods.

Horror rose. Gods and godlings, mortals and servants, embraced death. The fall from Mount Lotho would kill a god. It would likely even do serious damage to a Primal.

“You sick bastard!” I screamed, willing the eather to the surface to try to catch the ones I could, but the essence merely sparked and flickered. The delay was costly, and the fall was too quick. “Stop!”

The chilling song ceased.

My furious glare fixed on Kolis as another echo of death haunted me. “Why? Why would you do that?” I shouted. I didn’t know if I was asking about those he’d called to their deaths or if I was demanding to know why he’d taken my family. I wasn’t sure why I was asking either. I knew the answer. He was a walking nightmare. Still, I screamed, “Why?”

“You should know,” Kolis said, his voice no longer carrying the winds of summer. Now, it brought with it the nothingness of death.

“Other than you being absolutely demented,” I seethed, “do you even know why you are this way?”

A heartbeat passed, and then Kolis was directly in front of me. I didn’t even see the blow coming. His fist slammed into my jaw, the force cranking my head back.

Pain erupted, and blood filled my mouth, but I somehow managed to keep my footing.

“Did you really think that would hurt me? A Primal a mille

Head ringing, I straightened and faced him, spitting a mouthful of blood directly in his face.

Kolis smiled, and there was nothing fake about it. He licked the blood from his lips. “Tasty.” Crimson shadows blossomed under the flesh of his chest. “I should thank you for Ascending a Primal to take Embris’s place. I would’ve chosen someone different, but she…” His smile spread, and red swirled in his eyes. “She will be so lovely when she kneels before me and pledges her allegiance. Not as fulfilling as when you do, but still enjoyable.”

It was almost like his words were a different sort of siren’s call to me. Common sense jumped right off the cliff, along with Holland’s advice. Rage was an unending fire in my blood, even as instinct warned me that I needed to be careful. I had to put space between us. Kolis was old. He was stronger and faster. I had been weakened substantially, and the pain from my numerous injuries was no longer so dull. Tiny stings and sharp pricks joined the throbbing in my jaw, but all the drowning anger and sorrow was far greater, as was the knowledge that I was no longer afraid of him.

The palace trembled under my wrath, and I launched myself at Kolis, summoning the eather.

All he did was lift his arm, and it was like I fucking jumped throat-first into his palm. “As much as it pains me even to admit this, Seraphena,”—his grip on my throat tightened—“I admire your tenacity. If things were different, you would’ve sat at my right hand as my most vicious ally.”

“Thanks,” I bit out, grasping his wrist. “My life is complete hearing that—”

He squeezed, silencing me and cutting off my next breath. “Your mouth, however, is a different story.”

I managed a smirk and lifted my left hand, extending my middle finger.

Kolis sighed. “I shouldn’t be surprised that you’d throw yourself at me. That’s what whores do.”

Then he threw me down with enough force to knock the trapped air out of my lungs again. The impact hurt, but I could still breathe. Wheezing and coughing, I rolled onto my side.

“And that is all you are. A whore with stolen power.” He stood over me, planting one foot on either side of me. He grabbed my hair, wrapping the strands around his fist. Jerking my head back, he forced me to meet his stare “A mortal pretending to be a Primal, who doesn’t know her place.”

“Or doesn’t know when to shut up?”

“Acknowledging the problem is half the battle, isn’t it?” He smirked. “You thought yourself so much better than me, didn’t you? Just like Eythos. But look at what you’ve done.”

I flinched.

“You killed tonight, Sera. You murdered coldly and without thought or care,” he said. “You’re no better than me.”

I couldn’t think about that right now: the truth in his words. I grabbed his arm, my nails breaking off as they dug into his flesh. I summoned the eather, but…it only pulsed weakly. My heart stuttered, and my gaze flew to his. Fuck.

“What? Come on, Seraphena. Lash out at me,” he goaded, an achingly frigid smile playing on his lips. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw guards beyond the interior archway leveling their bows. “Fight me like the Primal you think you are,” he pouted. “Or can’t you get it up?”

“That sounds more like your problem.” I gave him a bloody smile.

His nostrils flared. “You fucking—”

Holding on to his arm, I kicked out hard, slamming the heel of my boot into his stomach. He bent over just as a high-pitched whistle hit the air—several of them.

Kolis looked at them.

That was all he did.

The arrows shattered into dust, and the guards’ heads snapped abruptly.

I briefly closed my eyes against the pulse of death.

“How quickly loyalties change,” Kolis remarked with a shrug. “Embris would be rolling in his grave, as they say.” He twisted the hair in his grip, sending a fiery wave of pain across my skull. “Still nothing?”

My pulse pounded, and I could feel the eather struggling to ignite inside me.

Kolis chuckled darkly. “That’s what I thought. Pitiful.” He yanked my head back until sharp, stabbing pain shot down my spine. “I want you to know one thing, Seraphena.” The dull gleam of red bone appeared along his jaw. “It was neither Kyn nor Embris who entered Wayfair. Who listened to the pleas for mercy. Nor was it they who killed the Queen of Lasania. It was me.”

Everything inside me stopped once more as a tempest of fury surged through my veins, and pulsating rage roared in my ears.

“I was the last face they saw. The last voice they heard.” His head lowered to mine, and I shuddered, feeling his lips against my cheek. “And it felt so good to place my hands on them and hear their necks snap.” His tongue snaked along my cheek to my ear. “You brought this on yourself.”

My mind clicked off. There was nothing Primal or mortal about what I did next. It was pure, animalistic, unbridled rage. I snapped my head forward, not even feeling the strands of hair I tore out in the process, and went for the closest part of him, sinking my fangs into the side of his throat.

Kolis roared and jerked his head back. His flesh ripped, spilling even more blood. It coursed down his neck and my chin. I didn’t even have a chance to swallow it.

Suddenly, I was flying.

The floor was up, and the sky was down for a few brief seconds. I crashed into a pillar and fell forward, stu

Get up.

I needed to get up and breathe. I flattened my palms, and lightning streaked the sky, momentarily turning night to day. Breathe in. I needed to get up because this was the true Primal of Death. I may have thought I’d faced him before, but I hadn’t. I’d squared off with a weaker version of him.