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

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

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

Nyktos was bowing to me. I recoiled from him. “What are you doing?” “The Primal of Life is the most powerful being in all the realms, usurping all other Primals and gods,”

“You are the true Primal of Life, just as my father was. As Holland said, it’s a show of respect.”

I’d been Nyktos’s first. And he…he would be my last, no matter what happened from this point forward.

“Craven?” Nyktos’s eyes narrowed as he recognized whatever Holland had said. The Fate nodded. “It is what becomes of a mortal when their life force—their blood—is stolen from them, and the loss isn’t replenished. It does not matter who the mortal was before. The act rots them, in body and in mind, turning them into amoral creatures driven by an insatiable need for blood. Craven.”

“What he means to say is that such a thing, a Primal of both Life and Death, is not meant to exist,” Nyktos said. “It would be unthinkable for the embers of both to thrive in one being. But if they could?” He gave a short laugh with a raise of his dark brows. “The kind of power they’d wield? It would be truly absolute. They could unravel realms in the same breath they created new ones.”

“Maia,” he said, speaking of the Primal of Love, Beauty, and Fertility. “I had her remove my kardia.” Penellaphe gasped, her eyes widening with shock. “Good Fates,” she whispered. “I have known none who’ve done that.” I was obviously missing something and also getting tired of asking questions. “What is a kardia?” “It’s the piece of the soul—the spark—that all living creatures are born and die with. It allows them to love another not of their blood irrevocably, selflessly.” Penellaphe swallowed. “It must have been terribly painful to have that torn from you. To truly be unable to love.”

E por que parece que ele gosta dela?

Become his weakness. Make him fall in love. End him. Not Nyktos. Kolis.

“Does the idea of your death not bother you at all?” “Why don’t you just read my emotions and find out?” I shot back.

What I carried inside me. The embers were important. Not me. Never me.

“I can sense your need. Feel it. Taste it. You’re drowning in it.” His eyes slammed shut. “I’m fucking drowning in it.” A sharp dart of desire sliced through me. “Then drown with me.”

“I will gladly suffer anything Kolis dishes out as long as my blood is spilled instead of yours.” I pressed into the ground, stunned. “Why? Why would you do that for me?”

“Promise me,” he rasped. “Promise me you’ll never go after Kolis again.” My heart stuttered as I sucked in a shallow breath. “Promise me, Sera. Never again.” I squeezed my eyes shut against the sudden dampness gathering in them and spoke two words I shouldn’t. “I promise.”

“Heartmates usually only occur between two people whose unions are linked to some great purpose.”

“How much do you know about what Eythos did?” “Everything.” “Then you know I wasn’t being foolish last night. If I can make it to Kolis, I could be successful.” “Maybe. But at what cost?” “Does the price matter when we’re talking about stopping Kolis?” “The price should always matter when it comes at the cost of a life,” he said. The crack that had formed trembled deep in my chest. “But that’s a price I will pay either way.” “You don’t know that.”

“I will go right now and end your miserable excuse of a mother’s life and take her soul into the Abyss, placing it beside Tavius’s, where it belongs.” My eyes snapped open. “You can’t mean that.” “I have never meant anything more in my entire life,” he swore. “All you have to do is say yes, and it will be done.”

The nape of my neck burned. “If I’d known you were going to insult the gown that doesn’t even belong to me, I would’ve chosen to visit what’s left of the entombed gods instead.” Nyktos’s eyes flashed to me, narrowing. “I believe she’s saying she’d prefer their company over yours,” Nektas added helpfully.

“I do hope so,” Attes replied. “I also hope you’re more careful with your tone. I may find your boldness refreshing. Alluring, even. Others will not.” “Those who do not likely won’t live long enough to wallow in their insult,” Nyktos responded before I could.

“Because you’ll make sure they’re dead before they can?” Nyktos laughed darkly. “Because my Consort will likely plunge a dagger into their hearts before I’m even aware of what has occurred.”

“So, I should take the earlier threat to feed my eyes to me more seriously?” I smiled at the Primal. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Nyktos’s gaze caught mine. “Only a Primal is immune to another Primal’s presence.”

Nektas stretched his arm over my head, pulling it open before I could. “You carry the only true embers of life in you, Sera. You’re the Queen.”

“For him to introduce himself as such to you meant something,” Nektas added. “Maybe it did before.” Sighing, I leaned against the column. “But he’s not Ash to me any longer.” His head tilted, the vertical slits of his pupils expanding until they were almost more commonly shaped. “He is how you wish him to be,” he said. “As you are what you wish to be to those of the Shadowlands and beyond. That is up to you. No one else.”

“But I’m only flesh and blood, and you are…” “What am I?” “You are flesh and fire.”

“And I know you are trying to keep the embers safe—” “Not just the embers.” He deflected my blow. “You.”

“And I sat here, looking at you and all your loveliness—wanting you so fucking badly.” His voice was the silk whisper of midnight as he lifted his head, bringing his mouth to the skin below my navel. “Trying to remind myself of all the reasons—and they are vast—why I cannot acknowledge what you do to me. Why I cannot afford for you to be anything more than a distraction.”

“But instead, all I seem to be able to think about is how I actually look forward to you doing the exact opposite of what I’ve asked. Or how much I enjoy your teasing and your boldness. I think about how much that fucking mouth of yours amuses me.”

“Beautiful,” Nyktos murmured. “What?” My eyes opened as I lifted my head. He stood by the tub, a towel knotted around his waist. “You. Your smile,” he said. “You’re beautiful, Sera.”

“Sera.” I thought I heard Nyktos whisper my name as I began to doze off. “You were never a ghost to me.”

“And if Ash didn’t understand and accept your past actions, you would not be where you are right now. You would not carry his scent on your body, and I would’ve never sensed what I did when I found him with you.” “What did you sense?” I whispered, my heart stomping in my chest. “What I sensed before.” That odd little half-grin returned. “Peace.”

“Your…handling of me isn’t the only reason I know you’re good,” I countered. “You didn’t want to enjoy those killings, and you stepped away before it could change you. I know because you feel the marks those deaths left behind, and you carry them on your skin. I know because despite not having the ability to love, you are still kind and care deeply—more than most.”

“You had to know that your stepson was capable of harming your daughter, and yet…you did nothing to prevent it.” Eather crackled from his eyes. “His death was not the only one owed that day. The fact that you still breathe is due to a grace you do not deserve.”

“Do not thank me. It was not I who saved your life. I wanted to take it. To put you where you belong, beside that bastard of a mortal you would’ve crowned King,” Nyktos said, essence rippling over his skin. “It was your daughter. For reasons unbeknownst to me, she told me no. That is who you should spend the rest of your undeserved life thanking.”

“But that doesn’t really answer why it being my lake mattered when you had this.” I nodded at the pool. “Coming here has to be far easier than entering the mortal realm, even if you can do the shadowstepping thing.” “I don’t know. The lake is different, and I…” He frowned, scratching his jaw. “I just felt drawn to it. Drawn to you.”

“One day, I’m going to shadowstep my fist into your face,” I warned. Nyktos laughed. “Does that mean you don’t actually plan to throw your life away then?”

“You are always safe with me, liessa.”

“Either way, you’re not weak, Sera. Not physically, but more importantly, not mentally. You are one of the strongest people I’ve ever met, mortal or not.” The tips of his fingers grazed the curve of my arm. “With or without the embers.”

“None of the draken sleep in their mortal form unless they feel safe.” Aios brushed a wine-red lock of hair back from her face as she crossed her legs. I noticed the shadows had faded a little from her eyes. “Especially as younglings. So, it just means she feels comfortable with you.”

Nyktos. I repeated his name over and over in my mind, and no matter how many times I said it, the name didn’t sit right. I knew why, and it was all Nek’s fault.

And thinking of him as Ash felt too much like endless possibilities. Ash felt like more, and there could never be more with him.

Nektas had been right. Nyktos did understand my actions. He accepted them. Two things even I knew were far more important than forgiveness. Nyktos knew me. Heard me. And he made sure I understood that a part of me was good.

I wanted more. I wanted to be his wife. His partner. His Queen. I wanted to be Nyktos’s Consort.

“This is all your fault,” I muttered under my breath. Nektas’s hands halted. “What is?” “Everything,” I grumbled. “Except the current situation with Jadis and my hair.”

Then his mouth was on mine. Nyktos kissed me, and he—gods—he kissed like his very life depended on it, and this was one of those moments. There was no checked or banked passion. He went for it. Lips. Tongue. Fangs scraping, teasing. When his mouth left mine, my knees actually felt weak. “You were projecting,” he whispered against my throbbing lips. “Desire.” His tongue flicked over my lower lip, drawing a gasp from me. “Smoky and thick. If you keep thinking about whatever you have in your mind, we’ll never make it to the Vale.”

“What Penellaphe saw in her vision? She made it seem like Kolis had gone to sleep.” “Or was entombed.”

isso é importante!!

“Those poppies are the hope of life. The power of those embers. Proof that life cannot be defeated, not even in death.”

“You’re stronger than you realize, meyaah Liessa.” Nektas smirked as I shot him a glare. “The embers, you mean,” I corrected him. “He didn’t misspeak.” Nyktos’s thumb swept back and forth. “He speaks of you. Not the embers.”

“Of the end,” Nyktos said, and I stiffened. “Their names mean war, pestilence, and hunger. And when they ride, they bring about the end to wherever they travel because death always follows them.”

“She’s very important to me, Nektas.” “I know,” the draken responded. I thought that was a strange thing for Nyktos to say, but he’d said that I was very important. To him. Not the embers. Me. And maybe that was why I blurted out what I did. “I want to be your Consort, Nyktos.”

His thumb drew that line over my chin, just below my lip, and my heart was beating too fast for someone who was sitting. Because the way he stared at me, the wisps of eather beginning to spread out from behind his pupils, it felt like…more. Which I knew was impossible, yet…