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It took everything in me to hold back as Kolis’s soldiers burst from the shadows of the forest hugging the field’s edges, a sea of crimson sweeping across the land.
A crackling bolt of eather echoed from below, slamming into the center of the soldiers as Attes led the second line out onto the field in a clash of shadowstone and eather. It was hard to make sense of what I was seeing for a moment. The fighting was chaotic and brutal, drenching the tall grass in shimmering red.
A shout from behind us caused my heart to drop. I turned to the trees, fingers splaying wide as blades streaked against blades and armor echoed.
“They got behind us somehow.” Ash cursed. “That division must’ve split off at some point, skirting the area to come up the bluffs.”
I reached behind me and unsheathed my sword, catching quick, darting glimpses of crimson among the trees.
“Here they come,” Ash said, unhooking the short swords from his chest.
The air thrummed with tension as the ground beneath us vibrated with pounding footfalls. I couldn’t think of Bele, Rhain, or anyone flanking us. I had to focus.
Without warning, a figure leapt from one of the jagged cliffs above, his silhouette outlined against the sky for half a second. There was a glint of something dull and white.
He landed before me with a thud and rose as several more figures came over the cliff. My gaze locked with the one before me. His eyes were a pale, milky blue, framed by wings painted in crimson.
Revenants.
I had to give it to Kolis. Sending the ones who couldn’t easily be killed to the Temple was clever.
Darting to the left, I dipped under the Revenant’s swing and popped up. My sword cut through the air, cleaving the Revenant’s neck. Blood spewed as he fell forward.
“Not the head.” Ash kicked a Revenant back into the rocky wall. “We need their mouths or, at the very least, their throats intact.”
“Whoops.” My gaze went to the shard of bone the Rev had dropped. It was more like a spike. I saw then that the Revenant wore gloves.
Damn, we should’ve thought of that.
“They have Ancient bones,” I shouted as Ash withdrew his sword from a Revenant’s chest.
“I see that.” Ash grunted, sending a Revenant over his shoulder.
I picked up the fallen bone, wincing as it burned my left hand. I didn’t hold it for long. Without hesitation, I thrust it into the Revenant’s back, hoping it would keep the fucker dead until it was removed—like it incapacitated a Primal.
Ash snapped the bone of a Revenant’s arm. Its Ancient-bone spike hit the rocky soil as Ash grasped him by the throat. “Where is Kolis?”
The Revenant said nothing, and energy suddenly ramped up, causing the hairs on the back of my neck to rise.
“I will only ask you one more time.” Ash lifted the Revenant into the air. “Where the fuck is Kolis?”
Slowly, I turned toward the eastern mountains. White, puffy clouds thickened, darkening into steely gray before turning a deep charcoal. They rolled over the peaks and the forests of the Bonelands, casting an ominous shadow. The temperature started to drop, and I knew Ash was only partially responsible for it.
My heart slowed. My breathing evened out.
Awareness throbbed in my chest as eather pulsed hotly through me.
Kolis was here.
A loud rumble echoed through the skies like heavy thunder, muffling the sharp clang of blades striking against one another.
“Finally,” Ash muttered, dropping the Revenant.
Off the cliff.
Well, that was one way to get rid of a Revenant.
A dark shadow glided through the churning clouds over the field. My grip on the sword firmed. The pulse of death continued to flare from the battlefield below.
A large draken broke through the clouds, casting a foreboding shadow over the valley. I knew this draken, recognized the onyx scales that looked as if they’d been dipped in crimson.
Naberius.
I felt Nektas draw near as the draken’s battle-worn wings swept out, slowing his descent over the cliffs above. His hind legs touched down on the ridge above us, shaking the land when his forelegs lowered. Talons dug into the rocky ledge, sending soil and rock tumbling. The draken, with his crown of immense horns arching back, turned his head toward us. Snarling, his lips peeled back over sword-sharp teeth. Nab snarled and lowered himself, revealing the—wait. My mouth dropped open. There was no way, but unless I was hallucinating, the figure in crimson astride his colossal back was Kolis.
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing as I sheathed the short sword. Glancing at Ash, I saw that he didn’t look surprised to see Kolis riding the draken.
A rush of powerful air flowed up the side of the bluffs behind us as Nektas made his presence known. His wings swept over Ash’s and my heads as he landed beside us, shaking the ground and the Temple ruins. He prowled forward, wisps of smoke wafting from his nostrils when he lifted his head toward Nab, releasing a long, low rumble of warning.
Nab huffed, his eyes narrowing—his crimson eyes. I stiffened as I stared. The irises encircling the thin, vertical pupils were still red. That didn’t make any sense. All the draken—
Then it struck me, filling me with another wave of disbelief. What Ash had said about Naberius being as old as Kolis now made sense. Nab wasn’t a normal draken.
Naberius was the bastard’s version of Ash’s Odin.
The true Primal of Death and the true Primal of Life didn’t ride upon horses. I should’ve known that, but the information had been buried with all the other stuff I’d learned during my Ascension.
My eyes widened again as another realization slammed into me. That meant that when I was ready, and that cuff magically appeared, it wouldn’t be a horse I summoned—
I stopped those thoughts. Now was so not the time to focus on that.
“Nice of you to finally join us,” Ash spoke, his voice calm but each word laced with hatred.
Kolis leaned back, letting go of one of the spikes protruding from Nab’s back. His golden hair fell over his forehead, obscuring a part of the crimson wings he’d painted on his face. How cute. Now, he matched his minions. “You burned my ships.”
I snapped out of my stupor, stepping forward. “We burned Phanos’s ships.”
Eyes streaked with crimson slid to me.
“Do not look at her,” Ash growled, his flesh thi
Kolis smirked and continued staring down at me.
The shadows in Ash’s flesh darkened as tendrils of eather spilled out of him.
He’s about to lose it, Nektas warned me.
I reached over, fingers gliding through the icy eather gathering around him. Placing my hand on his arm, I squeezed gently.
Ash’s eyes flashed pure silver. I feared he would launch himself at Kolis for a moment, but then the mist around him slowed.
“Charming,” Kolis remarked. “That Fate claimed it would just be a meeting among us three.”
“And you agreed to that. But, unsurprisingly, you did not honor it,” I retorted, letting go of Ash’s arm.
He gestured idly to the fighting on the field below. “It appears to me that neither did you.”
“Of course, not,” Ash replied. I saw Bele creeping closer through the trees to our right. “We knew you wouldn’t be brave enough to show alone.”
Nab snarled at Ash as Kolis leaned forward. The curve of the Primal’s lips immediately set off warning bells.
“Do not say whatever it is you’re thinking,” I warned, eather crackling in my veins as the field below us lit up with streaks of eather. I felt Phanos’s arrival.
I wanted to turn to the fighting but didn’t dare take my eyes off Kolis.
His grin grew into a twisted smile, causing the wings painted on his face to lift. “Nephew,” he purred, and my skin crawled. “I can still taste her blood in my mouth and feel her on my fingers.”
There was no time to feel anything in response to his words. Not disgust or shame. Not even anger. Ash shifted instantly, his flesh hardening and turning as dark as the night. Eather swept out from his back in twin arcs. I grabbed his arm again.
“Don’t.” I held on. “Don’t give him what he wants.”
Frigid air poured across the bluffs, a thin layer of ice forming on the compacted soil and rock. The sound that came from Ash rumbled over the area, and I knew I needed to act quickly. Nektas drew his head back, his frills begi
Ash was begi
Kolis didn’t look away from Ash as he said, “I’m curious. What exactly made you change your mind, Seraphena?”
“I want this to end,” I answered, hearing Ash’s growl grow louder. “Too much blood has been spilled.”
“You’ve spilled far more than I,” he replied. “You’ve cost me Embris, Veses, and Kyn.”
“I have, but that is nothing compared to what you have done in all your years or what we will both do if we continue fighting.” I was relieved to see that Ash had regained some control over himself. He returned to the ground beside me, but his skin was still the hue of shadowstone. “I want to end this. Right now.”
Kolis’s chuckle turned my stomach. “What did I tell you, Seraphena? The last time we had the pleasure of being in each other’s presence?”
“I don’t know,” I gritted out. “You talk a lot and yet speak only bullshit, so it’s kind of hard to remember everything.”
His upper lip curled, and blotches of crimson appeared on his skin. “You had your chance to accept the deal I offered. That is no longer on the table. You will give me The Star, and I will have both of you in chains.”
Kolis lifted his hand. I heard them before I saw them, the rasp of their claws against rock.
They came from behind Kolis, as large as warhorses, their slick, obsidian skin as hard as shadowstone, and their heads featureless except for the thin slits above their gaping maws.
Dakkais.
Dozens of them.
Naberius rocked back, pushing off the cliff with a powerful sweep of his wings as the dakkais leaped into the air.
“Fuck,” Ash growled, pulling his swords free once more.
There was no way to keep track of Kolis as the nightmarish beasts rushed us.
I unsheathed the sword as Nektas’s head snapped forward. He caught one of the dakkais in his mouth. Turning his head sharply, he split the creature in two as one leapt toward Ash, but he was quick, plunging his sword into the creature’s chest.