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

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

That everything done to prevent what was coming had only ensured that it would. Without the capability to love and hate, rejoice and mourn, gain and lose, there could be no balance. For every hardship, there must be prosperity. Hate could not exist without love. There could be no joy without knowing grief.

I 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.

Two daughters. Two Kings. And the Great Conspirator. It was inevitable. The end would come.

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.

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.

“You should ask yourself why she asked me to make such a promise,” Kieran said. I closed my eyes. But it did nothing to prevent him from landing a blow that hurt worse than any fists could. “And not you.”

“You remind me of someone I once knew.” The other side of the lips tipped up. “He, too, loved her.”

Shock rippled through me as I stood there, wondering if I was so damn tired, I hadn’t heard him correctly. Because what was being implied was impossible. Only draken blood killed a Revenant. So, how did I kill one?

Even from the very start, when I asked him to kiss me under the willow tree. I’d said please, and he’d told me I didn’t have to ask twice and never had to beg. With only the touch of his lips to mine, I’d been lost in him. In the beginning of us.

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