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

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

“He’s not dead,” Kolis shared. “Not yet. Not until I want him to be.” That was a relief. A sick one. Feeling had returned to my legs, the muscles there twitching painfully. “Unlike you, I made promises I intend to keep.”

“I can’t believe you actually stabbed me.” The spasms in my calves and thighs settled. “I wasn’t expecting that.” Kolis let out a laugh that was soft and disgustingly pleasant. His fingers slid over my lips, tugging on the lower one. “I know. I know. I should have. But I will admit, you caught me off guard. I didn’t expect the attitude mixed with the offer of submission.” Each breath I took became easier. “It was possibly the most contradictory spectacle I’ve seen in a long time.”

I gasped as the sick bastard’s palm pressed into my injured shoulder. Kolis’s hand stilled. “Gods, it has been so long since I’ve heard that breathy sound coming from your lips.” The edges of his hair tickled my forehead. “It still makes me hard.” My body went cold. “Maybe I stopped loving you long before now because I don’t think causing you pain should elicit such a response,” he mused as I gritted my teeth. “But I did love you, so’lis. You ruined that.”

“You have tells. A slight squint of the eyes, a twitch of the fingers, a shallow swallow, a too-quick inhale.”

Kolis smirked. “I had plans for you. For him.” Streaks of midnight eather lashed across the crimson of his eyes. “I wanted to fuck you while I drained you, and I wanted him to watch.” My eyes didn’t squint. “That’s what I wanted him to see before I ended your life.” His lips parted, revealing the tips of large fangs. “I wanted the last thing he saw to be my cock slamming into you while I tore your throat out.”

“And then, after your heart stops and I take your essence within me, I will take your soul. You know what that means, don’t you? I can bring you back. And I will.” He twisted my head to the side, baring my throat. “This won’t be the end of you, so’lis. So, you’d better not displease me. And give me what I want.”

I just needed to fuck Kolis up enough that it would give Casteel and Kieran time to fight and save themselves and as many as they could. That was all that mattered now. I drove the dagger down with a scream, burying the dagger in his chest. Kolis grunted, his body jerking. Blood sprayed across my hands as I yanked the blade out and slammed it back down. I stabbed him over and over as a raw, hoarse sound filled my ears, and shimmering crimson coated my hands and dripped down my face. My throat ached, and that sound—the pained screaming—was coming from me as I lifted the bone dagger high once mo—

That was all I could see as some soul-deep tugging motion started in my chest. It felt like hot claws digging in, but I kept the image of Casteel in my mind—one of him reclining against the headboard, his chest bare and dotted with faded scars, his skin flawed but perfect, nonetheless. His head was tilted to the side, his full lips curved in a half-grin, revealing that infuriating dimple in his right cheek. His eyes were the color of heated honey under dark lashes. He was beautiful. He was… My heart. My soul. My King. Casteel Da’Neer was my everything, and I would never stop loving him. Not in this life, whether it be my last, or if I was brought back. I would always love him. I held on to that image for as long as I could, my lips moving soundlessly, speaking three words…I love you. I love you. Over and over I spoke them as I began to shake, as the air around us charged and hissed. I love you. I love you—

someone standing, tall and broad-shouldered, face obscured by a helmet made of black stone. And there was also a scent I vaguely recognized. Fresh air... And citrus.

“There was an earthquake.” “It was…a large one,” Hisa said. “I don’t know the damage yet. None of us wanted to leave you.” An earthquake? I refocused on the dome. There were splinters in the glass. My gaze slid over the walls, and I saw fissures there, as well. “It felt like when Rhahar died,”

“I…” It didn’t make sense. The imprint was there. Kieran and I still breathed. And he didn’t seem to feel anything. Poppy had to be okay, but the dizziness, the aching hollowness… I looked at the marriage imprint swirled across my hand, ending just below my missing finger. It was still there… But it didn’t shimmer like usual. It had dulled.

The presence bore down on me at the exact moment Kieran stiffened. Soul-deep, unending coldness settled on my shoulders, stirring the embers of eather. The presence felt heavy and thick, coarse and wrong against my flesh, like cold fingers trailing down my spine. It left a slick feeling behind.

responding to the…call of Death. To Kolis’s will. What had Poppy said? My father jumped as another crashed through the dome. It affected mortals and those of—

I didn’t hesitate. I didn’t think. I shot forward as I shouted for my father, knowing I could only make it to one of them. Knowing I was making a choice. I slammed into Kieran

Kolis’s head turned to my right. Delano stiffened, then shuddered. Crimson poured from his eyes and nose. His mouth opened, and blood—gods, blood gushed from it as his knees collapsed and his head fell back. My father caught him as he shouted.

“I promised both of you,” Kolis hissed. “That I would kill everyone you held dear in front of you.” Valyn Da’Neer didn’t make a sound as he held my gaze. He didn’t scream. He didn’t groan. My flesh went taut. My insides cold. The last thing he did was move his eyes from mine to Kolis. The last words he spoke sounded wet and broken. “He will kill you.” Kolis laughed. He laughed as my father fell beside Delano in an unrecognizable heap of blood and bone.

Maybe even Attes. Perhaps even whoever had intervened and fell, causing the ground to tremble.

Kolis stared at where my hand was now buried below his sternum and then lifted his gaze to mine. “My Queen,” I spoke, my voice filling with shadows and smoke, “gave me more than just parlor tricks.” Tearing out ropey tissue, I gripped a fistful of his hair and pulled him back from the wall. My head snapped down, lips peeling back. I sank my fangs deep into his throat and didn’t release them.

Blood covered my palm. Heart thumping, I wiped at it with my other hand, over and over— Bone. All I saw was flesh fading into silver bone. I couldn’t see the imprint. I couldn’t feel her.

Marble and gold exploded as patches of my flesh faded along my arms, replaced by the gleam of bone. Inky black vines burst from the holes beneath my hands, slipping past my fists and rapidly spreading across the bloody floor. Thinner branches broke off, slipping over the bodies as I turned my head to Kieran.

Pain—soul-deep pain—entrenched itself deep inside me, and there was this snapping motion. A coming undone as…something shifted inside me. All the desperation and sorrow carved ruin into my bones. Panic and rage collapsed into ashes of wrath. I tipped forward, unused muscles along my shoulder blades twitching as wings slammed down on either side of me—wings with silver feathers tinged in dark gray and threaded with crimson. The fluttering of smaller wings came, flapping wildly as snow began to fall. I suddenly understood Aydun’s words about our union because something was rising from within me. It was a thing—a powerful thing that had always been there. Waiting. Watching. Caged. And it was cold. Unending. And it tasted of ruin and wrath. It promised death and destruction. And I would unleash it, from the west to the east, laying waste to all in between.

“Father.” He didn’t hesitate. Didn’t stop to ask about the differences in me that he must sense. Knowing him, he probably already knew, even though I hadn’t said a word to him about it in the letter I’d sent. He pulled me to him, folding a hand that always seemed larger than life around the back of my head. “It’s going to be okay.” A shudder hit me, and for the first time since I was a pup, I almost believed the power of my father’s words alone could make everything okay.

I opened my mouth, closed it, and then tried again until I could speak what I hadn’t been able to before. “When Poppy learns about Delano…” “You’ll be there for her.” He squeezed my shoulder and then dropped his hand. I would.

They slithered across the ceiling, their knotted limbs seeking and finding every crack like the fingers of something hungry. And maybe they were. If you looked at them long enough, you could see the heartbeat echoing the one in my chest.

A thin layer of frost encased the flowers, freezing them in time. Beneath the glittering ice, you could see the vivid orange-red hue of the petals and the lush green of the leaves. Somehow, the poppies lived beneath the ice.

“He is why I’ve been gone.” Millicent knelt and untied the rope at the top of the sack. Pulling the burlap back, she revealed matted, blood-streaked golden hair and— “Callum,” I spat.

He sat on a throne crafted by a dark rage.

And what sat on the throne was a being I barely recognized and couldn’t connect to through the notam. Couldn’t even get a read on it. It wore his clothes, and the fingers that idly tapped on an armrest constructed from what I guessed were the bones of actual arms moved like his. But what sat there wasn’t the man I’d known my whole life and loved deeper than a bond forged in blood.

Cas—saw the face that was part shadow and part silver bone and flesh. Saw the golden eyes pierced by strands of dark crimson.

Poppy was the Harbinger, just as we’d believed. And Kolis was the Great Conspirator. But the death and destruction Poppy would bring to the realms was not what Kolis would unleash. It was the choices and actions of Kolis and of old gods long forgotten. Of the three of us. The Ancients had seen this but hadn’t understood. It could never be clearer than it was now. What the prophecy had foretold… What it had always warned would come… It had never been Poppy. Or even Kolis. It had always been him. Casteel.

The wings were not visible, but a crown the color of the darkest night and shaped like jagged bone antlers rested upon his head. He sat upon the remnants of ruin and wrath, a throne of bone and ash. The Primal God of Death and Destruction.