The War of Two Queens (Blood And Ash, #4)

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

“To make a long story short, Kolis fell in love with a mortal. Scared her while she was picking flowers for a wedding. When she ran from him, she fell from—” “The Cliffs of Sorrow.” My eyes went wide. “Her name was Sotoria, right? That was real? Ian…” I glanced back at Casteel. “Ian told me that story after he Ascended. I thought it was just something he made up.” “Interesting,” Nektas murmured. “It’s real. Kolis went to Eythos, asking that he bring her back to life. Eythos refused, knowing that restoring life to the dead wasn’t something that should be done often.” His gaze centered on me, and I sort of wanted to crawl into the ground to avoid his knowing stare. “It started a bitter animosity between the brothers, which resulted in Kolis using some sort of magic to steal his brother’s essence—allowing Kolis to become the Primal of Life, and Eythos the Primal of Death. But neither were meant to rule over such things. Kolis couldn’t take all of Eythos’s essence, nor could he erase all of his. An ember of life remained in Eythos, and another ember had been passed onto Nyktos. But Eythos feared that Kolis would discover the ember within Nyktos, so he took it.” “And placed it in a mortal,” I finished. “In the Consort. That’s why she was only partially mortal.” Kieran leaned forward. “Then what is Nyktos? I thought he was the Primal of Life and Death.” “He’s a Primal of Death,” Nektas answered. “But he’s not the true Primal of Death, nor was there ever a Primal of Life and Deat...