A Shadow in the Ember (Flesh and Fire, #1)

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

“That is why I am called the Blessed One. No one knows how I survived that kind of birth,” he said, and pressure clamped down on my chest. “Love caused their deaths long before either had taken their final breaths. Before my father even met my mother. Love is a beautiful weapon, often wielded as a means to control another. It shouldn’t be a weakness, but that is what it becomes. And those most innocent always pay for it. I’ve never seen anything good come from love.” “You. You came from love.” “And do you truly believe I am something good? You have no knowledge of the things I’ve done. The things that are done to others because of me.” Ash turned his head to me.

Behind me, Rhain chuckled. “Are you worried Daddy Nyktos will be upset with you for allowing her in here and send you to bed without your supper?”

“There is not a single part of Nyktos that doesn’t know exactly where you are.”

And why in the whole wide world of fucks was I even thinking about any of that right now?

“About the deal. He feels…obligated.” A tight-lipped smile appeared. “I don’t think his decision had anything to do with that deal. I don’t think any of his recent decisions have.”

just never really…let anything get to that point. It seemed too much of a risk to become close to anyone.” A sharp slice of sorrow cut through my chest, unwanted but there. It could be because of the other Primals, but I thought it had a lot more to do with what’d happened to his parents. I thought of the gods on the wall. I thought of how Nektas was the only one I’d heard call him Ash. I had no idea if that symbolized anything or not, but he’d said it was a risk to become close to anyone.

His life seemed as lonely as mine. And maybe that was why I asked what I did.

“Why are you taking that risk now?” Thick lashes lifted, and steel-gray eyes pierced mine. “Because I can’t seem to stop myself, even though I know better. Even though I know I’ll probably end up hating myself for it. Even though you will probably end up hating me.”

Fucking whiskey.

“I feel like I also have to let you know that one of the reasons I can’t sleep is because I kept looking at the damn doors to your bedchambers.”

Life is important, liessa, but what comes after is an eternity. I

“I knew his parents. I called them my friends, and I call Ash one of my own,” he answered, head straightening. His gaze caught mine and held it. “I think I will call you one of my own.” I really had to be asleep. “Why?” “Because you’ve given him peace.”

“That ember of life was, in a way, protected in the bloodline. Still there, but…when you were born, the ember of life entered a mortal body—a vessel so to speak—that is vulnerable and carries an expiration date.”

I didn’t have to do what I didn’t want. And, oh gods, I didn’t want to hurt him. I didn’t want to even be capable of that. And I didn’t have to be. The relief was so all-consuming, so potent, the rush of raw emotion threatened to swallow me.

“Does your life hold no value to you at all?”

“Stop reading my fucking emotions!” I shouted, and Saion peeled away from the wall, his eyes growing wide. “Especially if you aren’t even going to believe what you’re reading, you jackass!”

“I would say I’m sorry, but you wouldn’t believe me. I don’t blame you for that, but don’t you dare insinuate that what I’ve done with you was purely an act or that what I’m feeling is fake when I’ve spent my entire godsdamn life not being allowed to want or even feel anything for myself! Not when I spent the last three years hating myself for the relief I felt when you didn’t take me because it meant I didn’t have to do what was expected of me.”

“I know what I am. I’ve always known. I am one of the worst sort. A monster,” I whispered, my voice hoarse. “But don’t you ever tell me how I feel.”

“He told me to put you somewhere safe.” Nektas opened the door and held it for me. “That is what I’m doing.”

“Yeah, well, he enjoys your kind of touching,” Ector stated.

“The Primals cannot make demands of the Arae. They cannot even touch the Arae. That’s forbidden to keep the balance.

“On your knees,” he commanded. “Now.”

“You dare to enter my Court?” Nyktos’ voice boomed through the chamber,

“And touch what is mine?”

“I won’t hurt you,” he said. “Ever.”

“Don’t forget, Sera. You are not afraid. You may feel fear, but you are never afraid.”

“We will wait for both of you.”

“The Arae can do nothing to intervene in your fate,” Penellaphe advised. “Not anymore.”

Two souls coming together. Was that why I interested Nyktos so much, despite his intentions to never fulfill the deal? Why he was able to find peace in my presence? Could it also explain why I had been drawn to him even when I believed I had to end him? For me, maybe in the beginning. But now? I didn’t think so. It was him—who he was. His strength and intelligence. His kindness, despite all that he’d seen and surely suffered. His loyalty to his people—those he cared for. It was how ending a life still affected him. It was how he made me feel. That, for the briefest moments, I wasn’t a monster. That I was someone. Me. Not whatever I had been shaped into.

“What I saw was just disjointed images. People ruling in the mortal realm that didn’t appear mortal—places I don’t think yet exist.”

“Like cities forever laid to waste. Kingdoms shattered and rebuilt. Great and…terrible wars—wars between Kings…and between Queens.” Her brows pinched. “A forest made of trees the color of blood.”

“But I also saw her. I saw them. A Chosen and a descendant of the First.” The eather burned brightly in Penellaphe’s eyes as they met mine. “A Queen of Flesh and Fire. And him, a King risen from Blood and Ash, who ruled side by side with man. And they…they felt right. They felt like hope.”

From the desperation of golden crowns and born of mortal flesh, a great primal power rises as the heir to the lands and seas, to the skies and all the realms. A shadow in the ember, a light in the flame, to become a fire in the flesh. When the stars fall from the night, the great mountains crumble into the seas, and old bones raise their swords beside the gods, the false one will be stripped from glory until two born of the same misdeeds, born of the same great and Primal power in the mortal realm. A first daughter, with blood full of fire, fated for the once-promised King. And the second daughter, with blood full of ash and ice, the other half of the future King. Together, they will remake the realms as they usher in the end.’”

The prophecy

And so it will begin with the last Chosen blood spilled, the great conspirator birthed from the flesh and fire of the Primals will awaken as the Harbinger and the Bringer of Death and Destruction to the lands gifted by the gods. Beware, for the end will come from the west to destroy the east and lay waste to all which lies between.’”

The prophecy part 2

You.” His gaze lifted to me, and I swallowed. “You have had many strings. Many different paths. But they all ended the same.” A chill skated down my spine. “How?” “Sometimes, it’s better not to know,” he answered. Penellaphe drifted closer. “But, sometimes, knowledge is power.” I nodded. “I want to know.” A brief, fond smile appeared, and then Holland said, “Your paths have always ended in your death before you even saw twenty-one years of life.”

Holland reveals Sera fate

“There are many different threads,” Penellaphe said softly, looking up at Nyktos. A great sadness had settled into her features. “Many different ways her death could come at your hands. But this one.” She lifted a finger, nearly touching one of the shimmering strands—a thread that appeared to have broken off into another shorter thread. “This was not intentional.” “What are you talking about?” Nyktos demanded. “She has your blood in her, doesn’t she?” she asked. Nyktos went so still, I wasn’t sure he even breathed. My gaze darted between them. “I don’t have his blood. He hasn’t—” I sucked in a breath. The night Nyktos had fed from me. I’d bitten his thumb and drew blood. I’d tasted it. I saw the moment Nyktos remembered. I twisted toward Holland. “It was just a drop. Barely even that.” “But it was enough,” Holland stated. “The ember of life in you is strong enough to cause you to have the symptoms of the Culling, but it wasn’t strong enough to push you into the change. The symptoms would’ve eased off, but not now. Not with the blood of a powerful Primal in you. You will go into the Culling.” “No.” Nyktos shook his head, twists of eather swirling in his eyes. “She can’t. She’s not a godling. She’s mortal—”

“Love is even more powerful than what courses through our veins, equally awe-inspiring and terrifying in its selfishness. It can extend a thread by sheer will, becoming that piece of pure magic that cannot be extinguished by biology, and it can snap a thread unexpectedly and prematurely.”

Holland’s gaze shifted to me. “You are a warrior, Seraphena. You always have been. Just like she learned to become.” Tiny bumps rose all over my skin. “No.” He shook his head. “You have had many names.” “No,” I repeated. “You have lived many lives,” he continued. “But it is that one, the first one, that Eythos remembered when he answered Roderick Mierel’s summons. He always remembered her.”

“Your father wanted to keep you safe,” Penellaphe restated. “But he wanted to save the realms. He wanted to give the mortals and the gods a chance. He wanted to give you revenge,” she said, looking at me. I shuddered. “So, this is what he did. He hid the ember of life where it could be safe and where it could grow in power until a new Primal was ready to be born—in the one being that could weaken his brother.” “I can’t be her. There’s no way. I’m not Sotoria. I’m…” My words faded as the rest of what she’d said broke through. A new Primal was ready to be born…

Holland’s eyes met mine and held. “If you were to die, there would be nothing but death in all the kingdoms and all the realms.”

“You are the heir to the lands and seas, skies and realms. A Queen instead of a King. You are the Primal of Life.”