Born of Blood and Ash

I focused on the woman. I saw a faint glint of eather in her eyes before her lashes swept down. She was a godling. I had no idea how she’d ended up in Dalos, but I had a sinking suspicion that she wasn’t from Vathi and also wasn’t exactly thrilled to be where she was.

I thought of Evander and Jacinta. I’d read that situation wrong and killed an i

But…

But how much control did this woman even have? Like with the Chosen? Kolis gave them a choice, but what kind of choice was it at the end of the day? What kind of choice did this woman have with such an imbalance of power between her and Kyn?

Footsteps behind me drew my gaze. A bare-chested draken with long, wavy blond hair strode in. “I knew you’d arrived,” Diaval said, “when I found him picking himself up off the floor.”

Callum followed, his lips pressed together. He stopped beside me. Not close, though. He gave me a wide berth. “Give me back my dagger.”

“No,” I said, my attention moving to Diaval. The draken had dropped onto one of the couches, distracted by the Ascended feeding beside him. Or fucking. Man, that had escalated.

Callum crossed his arms like a petulant child as another draken walked in, one with light brown skin and dark, braided hair. Sax. I watched him walk to stand near Diaval, remembering what Ash had said. This had been one of his father’s draken.

Did that mean…?

“You’re a liar and a thief,” Callum said.

“And the true Primal of Life,” I replied. “Whose temper is currently worsening by the second. So how about you shut the fuck up?”

The Revenant turned his head to me. “Rude.”

I moved to put Callum on the floor again, but a soft cry from the woman in Kyn’s lap stopped me. Her eyes were squeezed shut, and her brow was tensed in pain. Kyn wasn’t feeding. He was still staring at me with the fucking idiotic smirk on his face. My gaze dropped to where his hand was. He was hurting her.

I moved before I realized what I was doing.

“Seraphena,” snapped Aydun.

I crossed the atrium. The woman’s eyes had opened, and her lashes were wet as she ducked her chin.

Kyn’s smile grew. “You changed your mind?”

I stopped in front of them, taking hold of the woman’s chin. She gasped, her gaze flying to mine, and I knew. Perhaps it was because the vadentia was already growing stronger, or maybe it was just normal instinct. Either way, I knew the moment her eyes locked with mine.

I dropped her chin and then took her hand. It was limp in my grasp for only a heartbeat, then it firmed. I pulled her from Kyn’s lap.

“Return to your home,” I told her. “Now.”

The godling didn’t hesitate. She scurried across the chamber, and I hoped she listened to me and fled Dalos.

Kyn, the fucker, adjusted his crotch as he leaned back. “And here I thought I’d have to break you in.” He patted a knee. “But don’t be too willing. That takes the fun out of it.”

It took everything in me to step back and not rip his dick off and shove it down his throat. It took everything and even more to turn away.

“Don’t turn your back on me, por-na.” The air stirred as Kyn shot to his feet.

I kept walking.

“You fucking bitch,” Kyn snarled.

I couldn’t see him, but I felt him grab for me. I spun back, but Kyn was faster. He caught my forearm, and his grip was cruel. The contact of his flesh against mine was worse than the pain, though. It turned my stomach with disgust.

Kyn said something repulsive about how he’d make Ash watch while he committed some hideous act of defilement, but I barely heard him. Eather-rich blood pounded in my ears as I lifted my gaze from his white-knuckled grip on my arm and met his.

Fuck the rules.

I smiled as the eather rose. Silvery light crept through the corners of my eyes as wisps of gold-laced eather seeped from my skin.

Kyn dropped my arm, jerking his hand back with a hiss of pain. Smoke wafted from his fingers, and the scent of charred flesh rose. His irises disappeared in a flash of silvery eather. “You fucking—”

“Enough!” Aydun threw out his hand.

Kyn’s eyes widened, and then the space before me was empty.

What the…?

Kyn had simply been there one second and gone the next.

Confused, I looked around the chamber as the eather settled. I didn’t see him anywhere. I turned back to the Ancient. “Um…”

“I put him in a time-out,” Aydun bit out.

I blinked. “Would’ve been great if you’d done that earlier, like when…” I trailed off as the center of my chest throbbed intensely.

A sensation akin to thick oil coated my skin. The tiny hairs on the nape of my neck rose as eather stirred restlessly, pressing against my skin. I turned to the dais as Callum strode past me.

The true Primal of Death was here.

I was suddenly rooted to where I stood as the gold ba

Guards in gold armor lined both sides of the wide hall I hadn’t known was even there. They turned in unison, facing one another as they lifted gleaming swords to create an arch.

“Bow,” Callum a

That was not his title. That belonged to Ash. These were just words strung together to inflate an already oversized ego, and it sounded ridiculous to me. Protector? Warden? It had to be a joke. A laugh bubbled up in my throat, but it didn’t escape my lips as Kolis appeared in the hall and those throughout the atrium, even the Ascended, who had been feeding and otherwise engaged, stopped what they were doing and knelt. None of them had even stopped to fix their clothing.

Everyone except for the Ancient.

And me.

The swords swept down as Kolis passed beneath them, the top of his flaxen head nearly touching the ceiling—a head that bore no crown.

I didn’t know what I felt as I watched him cross the dais, but he didn’t look well.

Kolis was undeniably a beautiful man with his shaggy blond hair, cut jaw, and angular cheeks. He still was. But he appeared as a ghost of his former self. Thi

That wasn’t the only thing.

There was no hint of golden life in him now—no flecks of gold in his eyes or beneath his skin. Instead, there were slivers of deep, dark red in his silver eyes and churning slowly beneath his flesh. He even wore the true shade of death. Crimson.

The color of blood.

Kolis smiled down at me with one of those well-practiced, fake smiles that never ceased to make my skin crawl.

I didn’t flinch, but I could feel his touch. I didn’t wince, but I could feel the scrape of his fangs against my throat. I didn’t move an inch, but I could feel his arms around me, his embrace too tight. At that very moment, I knew exactly what I felt. It wasn’t nothing. It was a ruinous everything. I had to check myself again. I had to shut all of it down. No fear. No panic. No fury. And I did. I pushed it all down until I felt nothing but a simmering rage.

Until I could return his smile. “You look like shit,” I said. “I’m guessing I woke you too early from stasis.” My smile, just as skilled and fake as his, grew. “My apologies.”

Behind me, the Ancient cursed under his breath, and the atrium went utterly silent.

Kolis’s smile faltered. “And yet, you look extraordinarily well.” His gaze moved to those kneeling. “Leave.”

The Ascended and the various gods hurried from the space. The guards in the atrium and the hall, the draken, and Callum remained.

“You, too,” Kolis said to the guards, then the draken. “Go.”

Diaval grumbled as he rose. “And here I thought I would have some entertainment today.”

As the heavy curtains along the back wall behind the dais swung shut, Sax followed the alabaster draken, his gaze briefly meeting mine before he quietly left. Then, it was just Callum, the Ancient, this fucker, and me.

Kolis turned his back on me, though. He slowly walked to the throne and lowered himself into the seat, his hands settling on the arms of the chair.

Silence stretched as the seconds ticked by, and for some damn reason, an image of him flashed in my mind when he lay sprawled on the floor with a look of…relief in his features.

Remembering that caused my stomach to clench and my non-existent patience to rear its head. “You wanted to talk,” I said. “I’m here. So, talk.”

Callum hissed. “Do not speak to the King—”

Kolis raised his hand, silencing the Revenant in an instant. And, gods, I wished I had that ability when it came to Callum.

“I did summon you here.” Strands of blond hair fell against his jaw as he tilted his head. I didn’t think the Primal had blinked once since he’d walked in. “You shouldn’t have Ascended.”

I said nothing.

“Which means you lied about Nyktos’s kardia.”

“I told the truth about his kardia,” I said.

“And you continue to lie even now?” A half-grin appeared. It lacked the effort of making it look even somewhat real. “He risked dooming the realms to Ascend you. Only one in love would do such a thing, and one ca

Pettiness was the next to rear its head. I wanted to throw it in his face but speaking about something so beautiful and using it against someone like Kolis felt wrong. As if it would taint Ash and me. “I don’t think that’s what you wanted to discuss.”

“No. It isn’t.” His fingers tightened around the arm of the throne as his focus returned to me. He fell silent again.

My hands fisted at my sides. “I assume you summoned me here so you can demand that I denounce any claim to the Throne of the Gods and pledge allegiance to you.”

Kolis chuckled softly, the sound making my skin crawl. “I imagined you would demand something similar of me, except asking for me to return to my rightful place in the Shadowlands.”

I said nothing because we did not even remotely plan to allow that.

“I have no intention of doing that,” Kolis continued.

Catching the smile on Callum’s face, I said, “Not a part of me is surprised to hear that.”

“Then where does that leave us, Seraphena?” Kolis asked. “At war?”

My heart kicked against my chest as the Ancient stiffened beside me. “You don’t want war.”

Kolis was quiet yet again. Too quiet.

My heart started pounding faster. “Because you know what can happen if it comes to that.” I jerked my chin at Aydun. “There will be no wi

“Not necessarily true,” he replied. “As long as the embers of life and death remain, there will be balance.”