A Light in the Flame (Flesh and Fire, #2)

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

There was only one reason I’d react in such a way. I stared down at the hand pressed to my chest—to the space above my heart. My heart. I…I loved him. I loved Nyktos?

“Rise,” Ash’s voice was deeper, louder. A powerful thunder. “Rise for the One who is born of Blood and Ash, the Light and the Fire, and the Brightest Moon,” he said, and my eyes cut to him as my breath caught. My title.

Veses’ guard had said something similar after he scented my blood. He’d said— “Blood and ash.”

“Blood and ash?” I repeated. “What does that mean?” Kolis trailed his hand over the bars as he laughed again. A look akin to respect flickered over his too-perfect features, and then his gaze lowered. I could only be grateful for my loose hair hanging in tangled curls over my chest. “It is the name of the prophecy.”

He stepped forward. “‘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,’” he recited.

“Blood. The strength of life. Ash. The bravery of death. Life and Death, if taken literally.”

Kolis shook. He rocked as my gaze drifted to the open doors and the shadowy leaves swaying in the balmy breeze. To the— To a wolf. A wolf crouched at the trunks of the trees. A wolf more silver than white. A silver beast. Bathed in the brightest moonlight. Ash.