The Primal of Blood and Bone (Blood and Ash, #6)

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Ten of the Ancients. The dreamers. The protectors.

But I saw what the Primal could not. He hadn’t created them in the ways of the Ancients. He’d given the beasts a choice. And from that singular act, something unexpected happened. For the fierce beasts felt beyond the physical, and that quality was passed on to the first being of duality. Free will.

saw Ancients who had gone to ground and ones yet to Awaken claw their way free, shaking the realms. And I knew they were no longer the great givers of life and the anchors that kept the essence of the realms stable. They were the end that erupted mountains and turned days into endless nights, toppling cities of steel and drying oceans. I saw them rise, full of ruin and wrath.

Every beginning has an end. But for every end, there must be a new beginning. That’s what the ten dreamed. The fall of ruin and wrath. And the rise of blood and bone.

But only after he’d seen me in the form of what resembled a gold-spotted black cave cat. Fuck.

I knew in my bones that I wasn’t only an Elemental Atlantian anymore. And Kieran wasn’t just a wolven. We had become…something else.

It wasn’t like the Primal mist I’d seen surrounding Kieran. His had been gold and silver. Mine was silver and crimson.

The essence that had transferred from Poppy to us wasn’t the same. Somehow, the two she had within her had split between us. Life. Death. And I had no idea what that made us. Or what it meant for the future.

“They’ve been drained of blood.” I stated the obvious because it needed to be said. “Which doesn’t make sense.”

I’m gonna go ahead and assume Kolis is feeding

“I was wondering when you would realize the next utterly unexplainable event,” Emil said. “They haven’t turned. They’re not Craven.”

“Yeah. You’re right.” Emil cleared his throat and turned from the mural. “Anyway, regarding what happened here… It’s almost as if a spirit entered these homes, sight unseen.”

It’s Kolis right? It seems so obvious that I’m questioning myself. Am I being gaslit?

“The essence of any Primal is the Primal soul. The aru’lis is different from a mortal’s or another god’s. It has form, a shape, even if it appears as nothing more than a shadow to us.” He paused. “And the aru’lis can solidify for short periods of time.” Meaning, there’d be fangs.

“If you’re thinking Isbeth was actually looking for a vessel and planning to use Kolis’s great-nephew as one? Then, yes.”

I’d heard from Kieran that Reaver had located Jadis—or what he seemed to believe was her—a day ago.

Oh sweet baby Jadis. I hope she’s ok

The draken knew something—something he didn’t want me to know.

That poppy is sotoria

It is. With your first breath, you woke me. When your eyes first opened, I saw again. Your first words spoken echoed in my thoughts. Your first steps taken brought strength to mine. I’ve always been with you.

Immediate ick

“Fuck me,” Reaver muttered. “No, thank you,” Kieran retorted,

😂😂☠️☠️

her before. But she is a Primal of Death now.” “No, shit,” snapped Reaver. “But that smell? That stale yet sweet scent? That’s not coming from her.” Reaver dragged the back of his hand over his mouth. “When I felt her wake, she wasn’t the only thing I felt. I sensed that he was near.” Cold air poured into my chest. “He?” “The true Primal of Death. Kolis,” he spat.

I could hear him. And that can only mean one thing. He’s here. And somehow, he’s inside her.”

Because what was being implied was impossible. Only draken blood killed a Revenant. So, how did I kill one?

“It’s just…” He swallowed and glanced up at the low ceiling. “She looks like someone I…once knew.” My brows snapped together. Someone he once knew? “The Queen of the Gods,” Kieran surmised. Attes nodded.

I assumed he still knew the Queen of the Gods, so his statement made no sense. I wasn’t buying it. My gaze met Kieran’s. I didn’t think he was either.

“You will understand why he loathed you,” she continued, nearly flipping Kieran. “You will know why he detested her.” “You think I don’t already know? They were like mine.” He pushed down with more force than before. “You sick fuck.”

Color me confused

“Casteel?” he called. When I faced him, he stared back with eyes churning with eather. “Be good to her.”

Ok ok my memory is coming back. He loved sotoria correct? So it would make sense poppy is with one of his bloodline. Yes yes it’s alllllllllll coming together

“Me neither. I just figured he didn’t care. But…” He exhaled roughly. “I don’t know. I just got the feeling he wasn’t being honest when I spoke to him about Attes.”

“If you bring her back to me…” Eyes stinging, I did nothing to stop the tears building in them as I filled my thoughts and voice with all the love I had for Poppy. “I will do anything. Give anything. Please, Seraphena. Bring your granddaughter back to me.”

These seems like a binding deal and I DO NOT like it

“She has…knee-jerk reactions when it comes to her temper. A hair trigger,” Holland explained. “She would’ve burned the whole realm. But you would not, and that is a good thing. You will never know the horrors of the devastation giving in to your anger can inflict.” I thought about Lord Mazeen and the guards on the Oak Ambler Rise and about how I felt less mortal each day. “I don’t know about that.” “Not on the scale that she’s painfully familiar with,” he said quietly, and my gaze flew to his. “But Casteel? He would burn through the realms for you.”

“And he would do so without remorse,” Lirian added. “Which is why Vikter was incorrect. It is not your presence here that worries the other Fates. It is your husband.”

Glancing at Thorne, I couldn’t help but wonder if he’d also been like Holland or if he’d been one of the ten.

Lirian sighed, folding his arms over his broad chest. “You were right earlier when you said an Ancient is capable of destroying a realm. They can do so with one hand and create a new one with the other. Those of us who became the Arae can no longer harness that type of power. But you were also wrong. You can.” My jaw hit the floor.

“I said you are like us,” he stressed. “You are blood and bone, able to wield power over life and death. And as you grow stronger and older, as your powers mature, I suspect you will develop more abilities.”

“You are descended from Seraphena, who was born of the bloodline of the first mortal,” Holland said.

“But you were also born of a demis—a false god, yes, but a tragically powerful one. That’s a variable. Another is that you were also born of a direct descendant of two Primals, one being the true Primal of Life and another who is a Primal of Death—second only to his Queen and Kolis in terms of power.”

“Every new life, every new being, has to start somewhere and with someone,” Holland said, drawing my gaze to his. “And you are that someone. You are the start of a new pantheon.”

“They are Primals,” he said. I shot Lirian a smug look. “I wasn’t finished.” Holland glanced down at his glass as if he wished it was something stronger than whatever he was drinking. “The first Primals were created from the very essence of the realms. They were not born. Instead, they Ascended in a way similar to a vampry or a demis.” I sucked in a sharp breath as my gaze darted between him and Thorne. “You’re saying they’re false Primals.” Holland shook his head. “Lucky for them and the realm, they already had enough eather to prevent that from happening.”

“They, like you,” Holland said, “are fully Ascended Primals who belong to no Court.”

Ok so maybe start practicing with your powers???? We’re just yapping yapping yapping

“Because you and the ones you Ascended are Deminyen,” Lirian spat, lips puckering as if he’d tasted something sour. “Deminyen,” I murmured, my brows knitting. “Doesn’t that just mean the Ancient Ones?” “Deminyen is a…class of primordial beings with no anchors—not even to the essence of the realms.” Holland paused to take a sip. “It includes the Ancients, like the ones you saw earlier.”

But with Deminyen Primals? They couldn’t keep us in check, and that made us dangerous.

This info dump has my head spinning.

“But you.” Thorne stepped forward, his swirling eyes meeting mine. “Only you can liberate bone and ash. Only you can liberate death.”

“I think it was,” Casteel remarked, his voice dropping to a purr that caused the muscles low in my stomach to coil. “That’s a red flag,” Tawny murmured. “I’m a walking red flag,” he replied with a grin that brought out his dimple.

“Yeah, I see them, big boy,” Reaver said. “Mine are bigger.”

Hahahahhahahah I love Reaver

Seraphena stared at me, and what she felt pierced her walls once more, flooding the chamber with threads of guilt and sympathy that wove through my hot, undeniable anger. “It’s true. You’re Sotoria.”

“Holy fuck balls,” she whispered.

😂😂 oh Sera

voice dropped and thinned until it became a shadow against my lips. “Absolutely fucking nothing will ever change what I see when I look at you or feel when I think of you.” Words failed me as I stared up at him. “And I never see you as just Poppy,” he continued. “Not when all I can see is my everything. My world.”

“Penellaphe Da’Neer. The Queen. And the Primal of Life and Death.” Poppy lowered her hood, the air charging with the kind of eather even these fools could feel. “Who the fuck do you think you are?” I was instantaneously hard.

😂😂 he is so ridiculous

It was Poppy. Her eyes. The rage that swirled through her. But that voice? When she said she’d never belonged there—would never be there again. It hadn’t sounded like her voice.

Valyn had been keeping more secrets than previously known. Big ones.

I fucking KNEW IT

“Another Primal god will be arriving soon. An old one.” I glanced at Valyn as I drew my lip between my teeth. “A god of war.” Valyn’s knuckles had bleached white from how tightly he held the paperweight. One quick glance at Casteel and his brother revealed that both had noticed it.

Valyn’s gaze met mine, and I could tell he realized I knew. I thought back to how Seraphena had suggested Casteel speak to his father about how she had interfered in the War of Two Kings. But did that mean Seraphena knew who Valyn was? What he was? How could she not?

an Elemental, and…” “Your father?” It was almost as if he couldn’t say it. “Was—is—a god,” he admitted. Casteel’s body was so taut he practically vibrated with the tension. “My father went to sleep when the rest of the gods did.” Exhaling heavily, he reached back to rub his neck. “I imagine he’s awake now. Likely in…Vathi.” “Your father?” I shifted my weight as the air hummed with the rise of eather. A breeze picked up, stirring the jacarandas’ limbs. He nodded. “He’s Attes’s son.”