Born of Blood and Ash

“There is no Primal more infinite than true Death,” Kolis boasted, crimson-streaked darkness spi

A low growl came from Ash. He rose, nearly solid wings appearing from the mist gathering around him. “You are and have always been nothing.”

Kolis looked down. “I was going to keep you alive, chained at the foot of my throne until I released her from her misery. Oh, how I looked so forward to it. Seeing every pain I inflicted on her mirrored in your features.” Crimson throbbed in the air, and the scent of death filled the chamber. “But I see now that I will just have to settle for your death and her endless suffering.”

Ash sneered. “Are you done talking, for fuck’s sake?”

A hiss slithered from Kolis, and the mist around him whipped out, spreading across the length of the chamber and billowing against the ceiling. “It is you who will become nothing,” Kolis seethed, his gaze shooting to me. “And so shall…” He trailed off as his head cocked. “I see your soul. I see…” He inhaled sharply with a shout of rage. “I see their souls!”

Oh, fuck.

Ash flew off the floor, sending a blast of eather into Kolis.

The true Primal of Death flew back, stopping in midair. “She’s pregnant!” His laugh was coarse—and crazed. “She will get to have children?”

Panic threatened to explode through me, but I fought it back. The pain finally retracted, giving me control over my body. I sat up. My hands were empty. I had no idea where I’d dropped the sword.

“I will carve them from her womb and feed them to my dakkais,” he swore.

“The fuck you will.” Ash crashed into Kolis with the force of a tempest.

“No. Better yet, she will birth them.” He grabbed Ash’s cheeks, his voice filling with a sinister glee. “And I will raise them as mine. They will be my gift to Sotoria—”

Ash’s head snapped forward, and he tore into Kolis’s throat.

Kolis laughed, grabbed Ash by the hair, and tossed him aside.

I gathered my legs under me just as Varus hopped over the half-standing wall. Eather tinged in red sparked from his fingertips. He smirked.

“Kolis says I ca

The pillars behind Varus exploded under the strength of a black-and-gray-spiked tail.

Nektas.

His tail rushed across the floor, ramming into Varus. The god shrieked—actually shrieked—going airborne. My gaze tracked him as he flew across the Temple and out another opening.

I laughed.

Pushing through any lingering pain, I leapt to my feet, watching Ash and Kolis crash into the floor toward the back of the Temple, causing the entire structure to tremble. I started toward them, begi

I sucked in a sharp breath and felt a wrenching motion deep in my chest.

I froze. It was the same as I’d felt before, but not quite so intense. The sensation flowed through me, and the sky beyond the Temple lit up with silvery fireworks.

A Primal had fallen.

From the back of the chamber, Kolis roared in anger. It hadn’t been one of ours.

Phanos.

High-pitched, mournful calls split the air in a song of death. It was the ceeren, crying out in anguish.

As wrong as it was, a smile crossed my lips. I lifted my head—

The space around me stirred as Ash’s roar thundered. I spun, catching a brief glimpse of Kolis skidding across the ruined floor before my gaze locked with the pale blue eyes of a Revenant.

Callum smiled. “Miss me?”

I stepped to the side, fast but not fast enough. Air punched from my lungs in a fiery burst of pain.

Shadows peeled away from the sides of the Temple, rippling and racing across the floor. I looked down.

A bone dagger jutted out of me, the hilt reverberating from the impact of the thrust. The ungodly heat of the bone blade started to burn my flesh. I staggered back. “Were you aiming for my heart?”

“I was.”

I lifted my gaze, and a metallic taste filled my mouth again. “Guess what?” I gritted out, grabbing the hilt. “You missed.”

Callum sighed, shoulders slumping. “Shit.”

Behind him, a violent, churning mass of shadows pulsed and throbbed. In the center, two silvery eyes glowed with feral rage.

“And you’ve really pissed off my husband.” I smiled through the burn of pain. “Fucker.”

Callum started to turn, but the shadows snaked out, slamming into him. Twin streams of smoky eather burst through his shoulders, throwing him back several feet behind me and into a hall. Another sliced through his stomach. Screaming, he flailed wildly as he was sucked into the air.

Jaw clenched, I yanked the bone dagger free. It hadn’t been in there long. I would heal. At some point. “Gods,” I hissed, taking a deep breath, then looked… I could no longer see Callum—well, I saw pieces of him falling and splattering off the floor, but I didn’t think that counted.

He’d come back.

I started to turn but stopped. My eyes narrowed on the air distorting around Callum’s remains. “What the—?”

But right now, that wasn’t the biggest problem, nor was the pain in my chest.

Kolis had released Naberius.

The draken formed from crimson-and-black mist in a wave of scales and bared teeth. A meaty foreleg swept out, his talons as sharp as daggers.

“Watch out!” I screamed, but it was too late.

Naberius raked his talons across Ash’s back, cutting through his wings. He stumbled, pain flashing across his features for the briefest moment when his wings evaporated in a shower of sparks. The scent of his blood ignited a fury in my chest, hotter and brighter than the flames of a thousand suns. The ceiling overhead suddenly shook. Something large and heavy had landed on the roof. A crack immediately appeared.

The ceiling peeled back, and Nektas descended into the chamber, sinking his forelegs into Naberius’s back.

The other draken roared in agony as Nektas lifted, carrying Nab upward.

“Return to me!” Kolis shouted, brushing his hand over the cuff on his upper arm. “Now.”

Naberius shuddered, turning into a shimmery red-and-silver mist as Kolis landed on the floor. Stone and debris slid across the floor when he stalked toward Ash.

“I will strip the flesh from your bones, nephew.” Eather spun from his hands. “She will be cloaked in your skin—” His words ended in a shout of anger as Thierran appeared behind him like a hooded wraith, clasping the sides of Kolis’s head.

Kolis’s body bowed, and his arms went rigid. A low murmur came, like a whisper of wind rolling through the chamber. Thierran reached deep into Kolis’s mind and took his worst fears, amplifying them. Behind the painted red wings, his eyes went wide. The mist around Kolis evaporated as Ash straightened, exhaling heavily and shaking off the pain. The eather slowed, and Kolis’s mouth dropped open. His pupils dilated as the murmurs increased, feeding the waking nightmare.

“No,” rasped Kolis. He began to tremble. Streaks of dampness cut through the red paint under his eyes. “No. I love you. I’ve always loved you.”

“Sick fuck,” Ash growled.

Thierran’s gaze met mine. “You need to knock him out. Now.”

“Gladly,” I spat.

I extended my hand, palm upturned toward the sky, and drew upon the ancient power coursing through my veins. The air crackled with energy, every particle vibrating with the force of my will.

“Sotoria—no,” Kolis begged—sobbed. “Please.”

Eather crackled across my palm. I unleashed the bolt of pure power, a torrent of light so intense it seemed to tear the very fabric of the realm.

The bolt struck true, hitting Kolis in the chest. He let out an ear-splitting scream when the energy coursed through him, throwing Thierran back. The eather seared Kolis’s flesh and bones, making him convulse. Blood poured from his mouth as he dropped to his knees and fell forward.

“He shut the fuck up.” Ash kicked the Primal onto his back. “Finally.”

“Does the wound still burn?” Ash asked, he and Attes carefully lifting a section of bone chain.

“Barely,” I admitted, eyeing the back of Ash’s shredded tunic. The jagged tears Naberius had delivered had stopped bleeding by the time we arrived in Oak Ambler.

“Get ready,” Attes said with a hiss of pain. He looked as ragged as we did. His clothing was torn and bloodied, and it looked like a dakkai or draken had gotten ahold of his arm. The deep gouge in his flesh had closed but was still a bright pink. “He’s starting to twitch.”

My gaze went back to Kolis. Attes had stripped his chest bare. The trapped arm jerked.

Ash dropped his side of the chains over a very sensitive part of Kolis, drawing a snort from me. Both of them stepped back. Faint smoke had begun rising from the chains resting against flesh. Attes handed Ash a sharpened bone with one end wrapped in a thick cloth.

Really should’ve considered wearing gloves.

Kolis came awake all at once. The name he bellowed rattled over the cavernous walls. Sotoria.

Gods.

I unsheathed the bone dagger from my thigh.

His wild gaze darted around, landing on Ash and then me, his chest rising fast beneath the chains. “What in the…?” His head fell back against the slab of mineral and stone. A look of relief skittered across his face. “Sotoria wasn’t… It wasn’t real.”

He smiled.

The fucker smiled, and it was real, transforming his too-perfect features beneath the streaked wings painted on his face.

Gods.

I snapped forward, dragging the bone over Kolis’s left wrist as Ash sliced into his right. Blue-tinted blood spilled over his flesh, spreading down his wide-stretched arms. The relief quickly vanished when Kolis’s surroundings finally sank in.

He cursed, hurling various insults in both the mortal tongue and the ancient Primal language. We ignored him, slashing the arteries ru

“I will fuck your corpses,” Kolis raged.

The blood wasn’t draining from Kolis quickly enough, in my opinion.

Ash raised a brow and moved away, reaching for the bone chains. “I’m not sure what is more perverse,” Ash remarked, moving toward the bone chains. “The necrophilia or the incest.”

“Do we have to pick one?” I asked.

Ash laughed.

“You aren’t doing shit,” I said to Kolis, kneeling over him. He glared at Ash as if he could will him into nonexistence. “You will be right here. If you do wake up at some point, I imagine you will fall into madness before you lose consciousness again.”

“Fall into madness.” Attes huffed. “I think that’s already water under the bridge.”