Born of Blood and Ash (Flesh and Fire, #4)

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

“I saw how the realms began—how they really began. The Ancients were never Primals. They were something else entirely.” I squinted, seeing in my mind what I had seen during stasis. “The essence comes from the stars—the Ancients themselves. They were stars.”

“That beings who wield control over life and death, the lands and the elements, those who hold within them such unyielding power, can never be in a position to rule,” he said, eather flashing in his pupils. “For they are blood and bone.” “The ruin and wrath of a once-great beginning,” I whispered. A fine shiver curled its way down my spine at the same moment cold fingers of dread pressed into the skin behind my left ear. I thought about what Kolis had sought to become. A Primal of Blood and Bone. Of Life and Death.

“I know what I saw. Wars yet to take place. Cities yet to fall and rise once more. I saw them hundreds of years from now. Longer. A near millennium. I saw her. The Queen of Flesh and Fire in the mortal realm, where blood trees grow.” “I remember you speaking of her and a King.” I racked my memory. “You said they…felt right.” “They felt like hope,” she whispered,

“What does Sotoria have to do with this prophecy?” Ash asked. “Everything,” Keella said in a voice barely above a whisper. “She is, after all, the Harbinger and the Bringer.”

“But that doesn’t make sense,” Ash argued. “We are not truly one. And that doesn’t explain who these two daughters are.” He frowned, dropping the parchment onto the table. “I can’t shake the feeling that the answer is right in front of us.” “Isn’t it usually?” Keella leaned forward and picked up a slice of cantaloupe. “But with prophecies, sometimes you must read between the lines.”

“What Eythos did was never just about stopping his brother. Yes, the prophecy spoke of Kolis, but also of greater dangers.” “The awakening of the Primal of Blood and Bone,” I surmised. “Yes, and what Eythos learned convinced him of who that Primal would be.” My fingers dug into my knees. “Do I even want to know?” A wan smile appeared. “Sotoria.”

“Breathe.” Ash was at my side. “Breathe through the anger.” I looked down at him—wait. Down at him? “You’re levitating again,” he said, his silvery gaze full of heat. “And you’re burning as brightly as the sun. It’s fucking making my dick hard.”

And she, the second daughter, with blood full of ash and ice, fated for the future King, summoned the true Primal of Life and then rose as Blood and Bone. And what we saw then, as old gods rose and the Primal Veils weakened, shocked even the eldest of us. We saw the future that would come, but this end was different.