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CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
Midas, the capital of the Callasta Isles, was silent, and the air smelled of iron as I walked the center aisle of the City Hall while Nektas watched from his perch on the Hall’s colo
Bodies lined the aisle.
Hundreds of them.
“Don’t allow this to leave a mark,” Ash had said as we stood before the gods and godlings who’d refused our offer to start over with some semblance of civility. The majority had quickly accepted and pledged their loyalty to Ash and me, but it wasn’t their loyalty we sought. We wanted their genuine promise to change the way they had lived under Veses’ rule.
I had a feeling that, inevitably, more lives would join those we’d ended today. My suspicions of such were rooted in what lay just beyond the City Hall.
My gaze went to the patches of disturbed earth I saw through the colo
A goddess who went by the name of Tindra had told us what they were. Mass graves. Both Ash and I were shocked. If anything was left of a god or mortal, it was generally burned. To leave them in the ground was to allow their bodies to rot. It was a sign of disrespect.
Tindra had said each gravesite likely contained hundreds of bodies. Which meant there were thousands of decaying corpses between the six sites. Thousands. When Ash had asked why they were not given a proper burial rite, Tindra explained that Veses never performed burial rites for those executed. And the crimes committed that were so deserving of capital punishment? It ranged from refusing to carry out an order to actual murder and everything in between. But it wasn’t just the so-called criminals whose final resting place was so disgraceful. Victims who had lost their lives over a quarrel or at the hands of a jealous lover had been routinely tossed into these pits, as well.
My gaze shifted to the slender, dark-haired goddess. Her black robes rippled in the breeze as she stood silent and still, her brown-toned features somber as she stood before the fourth gravesite.
Tindra’s husband had been one of the victims tossed so carelessly into the fourth site several decades ago.
“I think many were disgusted by what was happening,” Tindra had said when asked why no one seemed to have an issue with this. “At least in the begi
I could see why Rhain had refused any claims to the Court. And what lay beyond the City Hall was why I feared that what remained of Veses’ Court would shrink in the coming months and years.
I turned to where several gods of the Court were busy wrapping the bodies of the newly dead under the watchful eye of guards brought here when I summoned Attes to assist with locating whatever Ancient bones Veses had stashed away.
Don’t let this leave a mark…
I motioned for Elias to join me. He’d come with Attes, and soon, a contingent of Attes’s forces would join the Shadowlands in securing the Callasta Isles.
The brown-haired god approached, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword. He stopped a few feet from me and bowed.
“Elias.” I sighed. “You do not need to bow.”
“Sorry. It’s a habit.” He straightened, his gaze flickering briefly to the gravesites. “What can I do for you, meyaah—?”
“Sera,” I corrected. Considering everything Elias had seen me go through while being held captive by Kolis, I believed we were well past formalities. “It’s just Sera.”
He nodded in acceptance after a moment.
I angled my body toward the gravesites. “There are thousands of bodies in those pits.”
“Fates.” Elias’s gaze followed mine, his lips parting in disbelief.
“I know their souls have already passed on,” I said, “but I would like for you to gather a team of gods from Midas to excavate the sites and give them proper burial rites. Kars will be able to assist you.”
“I can do that.” His gaze shifted. He was looking at Tindra. “She’s still out there.”
“Her husband is in that fourth gravesite,” I told him. “She said he’s been in there for decades.”
“Fucking Fates,” Elias muttered in disgust. “Some of them will be nothing but bones.”
“I know.” Chilled, I folded an arm over my lower stomach and looked at the god. “I have a feeling this isn’t the only place like this we’ll find. There may be similar ones in other Courts.”
“You wouldn’t be wrong.” Elias ran a hand through his hair. “There are three times this many on the outskirts of Dalos.”
Pressing my lips together, I closed my eyes. I wasn’t surprised to hear that, yet I didn’t know what to say.
Elias left to carry out my request. I saw him stop to speak with Tindra. Did they know each other? The answer started to come to me, but I stopped myself before I saw what was none of my business. Besides, I had already seen into the lives of enough people. It was how I knew that those we’d ended today weren’t just being foolishly arrogant when they refused our offer. They’d had no intention of even attempting to live a different kind of life.
Ash arrived with Attes, the latter informing me they’d discovered one bone spear and some bone chains. It was only one set of chains, not nearly enough to keep Kolis secured, and that included what Penellaphe had managed to locate in Lotho. However, there were still more Courts to search.
My gaze shifted to the bodies filling the City Hall. And there would be more deaths.
Don’t let this leave a mark…
Ash and I returned to the Shadowlands shortly after. We had our di
I’d told him what Keella had shared with me. Parts of it were obviously no surprise since we had come to believe beforehand that part of what had happened had been Eythos’s plan. He was disquieted by the idea of the Fates wanting to wake the Ancients as much as I was, though. In the end, it simply meant there was no room for error. Kolis had to be entombed, and Sotoria needed to be released immediately.
I watched Ash as he rooted through the bowl of sliced fruit, inspecting a strawberry before moving on to another until he found the plumpest one to offer me. He’d done the same with the melon, the chicken, and the vegetables.
“Why do you keep doing that?” I asked, biting into the sticky, sweet berry.
He glanced over at me with a raised brow as he chose a strawberry that looked deformed. “Doing what?”
“Inspecting each and every piece of food before you give it to me.” I caught a drop of juice on my lip with the tip of my tongue.
I waited. Ash didn’t answer. He was…staring at my lips.
“Ash?”
He blinked, lifting his gaze. There was no mistaking the heat in his eyes. “I’m sorry, what were you saying?”
I gri
“Oh.” He shrugged as he sat back. “I just want to make sure you have the best there is to offer.”
Now, it was my turn to blink repeatedly at him as I fought off a wave of emotion.
Ash eyed me closely. “You okay?”
I cleared my throat. “Yes.” Leaning over, I wrapped my hand around the nape of his neck and drew his mouth to mine. His kiss tasted of strawberries. “I love you.”
He returned the kiss, and for a little bit, the food was forgotten. So was everything else. It didn’t stay that way, though. Now, I lay in bed beside him, my back nestled against his chest and his leg tucked between mine. His hand rested protectively over my stomach. I loved that. I loved sleeping this way, and I wanted to rest. I needed it. Tomorrow would be another…complicated day. But I stared at the shadowstone walls, my thoughts ru
I saw Veses’ face.
Gods, Kolis would be pissed when he woke.
“Liessa,” Ash murmured. “What’s on your mind?”
I frowned. “It boggles my mind that you can appear completely asleep and yet somehow know I’m not.”
“It’s another talent of mine,” he remarked. “Talk to me.”
Those three words still made me want to squirm a little, but they didn’t incite as much unrest as they had before. “I’m just…I’m worried about the Callasta Isles—if our people are safe there,” I said, placing my hand over his. “There’s only one draken who didn’t join the attack, but we can’t even be sure he’s trustworthy.”
“Nektas seems to have taken Jarah at his word,” he said, speaking of the younger draken with gold and black scales. “I’m sure things will be calm there, at least for a little while. If not, you will sense any great unrest.”
I nodded, concentrating on the swoop of his thumb along the skin below my navel.
Ash was quiet for several minutes. “I don’t think that’s the only thing on your mind.”
It wasn’t.
“You’re thinking about what we did today.”
I was.
He pressed a kiss to my shoulder. “What did I tell you?”
“To not let it leave a mark.”
His lips brushed over the skin he’d kissed, drawing a tight shiver from me. “But it is.”
It was.
“Sera…”
“I want them to leave a mark,” I blurted out. “I need them to.”
He rose slightly, and even though I didn’t look at him, I felt his questioning gaze on me.
“It’s not like I regret what we did,” I said, tracing the tendons on his hand. “It’s what we should’ve done since the begi
“But?” he asked quietly.
“But I…I keep seeing Veses’ face,” I admitted. “She really thought I wouldn’t do it, and you wouldn’t allow it.”
“Her arrogance was only one of many self-destructive flaws.”
Normally, I would’ve agreed with that or laughed. Possibly both. But I wasn’t sure if that was why. “Deep down, Veses really did think we were…” The back of my eyes burned for some damn reason. “That we were better than that.”
“She thought we would be like Eythos,” he said, his arm tightening around me. “We are not.”
“We aren’t,” I whispered.
Ash went still for a moment and then moved, guiding me onto my back. Our eyes locked. “You’re upset.”
“You’re reading my emotions.”
“You’re projecting,” he stated, shifting his weight onto his elbow. He cupped my cheek. “Do not spend a second being sad about Veses’ fate.”
“I’m not.”
In the slivers of moonlight, I saw his eyebrow rise. “You’re such a terrible liar.”
“Whatever,” I muttered.