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“I swear I will not betray what you’ve done today, meyaah Liessa.” “That’s really not necessary,” I said. “The my-Queen part. I’m not your Queen.”
“I know that we could be wrong and that what I just did could come back to bite us. But I had to…fix that.” “I know,” he said. “Just because the rest of us have lived that way, it shouldn’t be…it shouldn’t be how it is.”
“I didn’t do it because of you. Kolis gets that honor. I did it for you. There’s a world of difference.” Nyktos drew back as if I’d slapped him. “Again, I ask…why would you do that for me? I don’t deserve that. Not after I’ve hurt you. Not even before then.”
“I don’t know how or why, but I know. I felt it.” I placed a hand on my chest. “Her anger. I could feel her looking through my eyes. Sotoria.”
“I think Holland was wrong. I think a lot of us were wrong, and you were right.” His gaze swept over me. “You’re not Sotoria. You have two souls. Yours. And hers.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. Reaver made a soft chattering sound as he lifted his head, placing it on my shoulder. I squeezed my eyes shut as emotion—sorrow and anger and so much guilt—burned the back of my throat. I cried.
Just like the legends said happened to Primals when struck by deep sorrow. I’d cried tears of blood
“It was my turn to be confused. You see, I saw you when you were here last. I saw how beautiful you are. But all he has said about you is that you’re the worst sort.” “Did he say that?” Gravel replaced the velvet in her voice. “He did.” And he had at one time, so it wasn’t a lie. Her lips thinned. “Nyktos does have a poetic way of speaking of the women in his life, doesn’t he?” A short, dry laugh escaped me. “That he does.”
“How dare you speak to me with such disrespect—?” “It’s kind of hard to speak to you with respect when you have earned no such thing, Your Highness.” Two pink splotches appeared on her cheeks as she stepped toward me—
A veil of red slipped over me. There was no time to think. It was just like when I spied the gods in the Luxe, and they’d tossed that poor babe to the ground as if it were nothing more than trash to be discarded. I reacted out of pure, vengeful fury.
“Perhaps you and Nyktos are well suited for one another since he has a habit of doing the most illogical things. After all, he took you as his Consort. I tried to stop him. Sent my favorite draken and guard to retrieve you. And, well, we all know how that turned out—rather pointless considering you’re charmed.”
“Oh, I’ve had his blood.” I smiled at her. “I’ve had all of him.” Her one eye widened.
Reaver’s side. “You do realize who she is, right?” Bele jerked her chin at me. “That’s Nyktos’s Consort. You have to know that. And that’s one of his draken—one of Nektas’s draken.”
“She didn’t want to tell Kolis. She wanted to kill me once she realized what I could do.” My back throbbed as I leaned forward. I winced. “That doesn’t make sense, right? But she…she was afraid once she realized what I could do.”
“Thank you,” I whispered, feeling a little out of it. “Thank you for coming when you did.” “No need to thank me.” Bele lifted the slumbering youngling in her arms. “I’ve been waiting for ages to get my hands on that bitch.”
“I can’t. I won’t,” he panted, dropping his forehead to my shoulder. “I do not deserve this. And I sure as hell don’t deserve that from you.”
bastards have to know just about everything,” he said, his lips pursing. “She only learned of the deal—not everything Eythos did on the side. But learning about you was all she needed.” A chill of knowing swept up the back of my neck. “She?” “Veses.” He laughed, but it was dry and rough. “Yeah, she found out a couple of years back. Threatened to tell Kolis that Nyktos had a Consort in the mortal realm—something she knew Kolis would be very intrigued by. And by intrigued, I mean Kolis would’ve taken you from the mortal realm and used you to get to Nyktos.”
“And, lucky for you, I guess, Veses’ obsession with Nyktos is greater than her loyalty to Kolis,” Rhain said, and unease exploded in my gut. “Nyktos was able to bargain with her. Got her to stay quiet.” He stared at the floor, his lips twisting into a sneer. “For a price.” I went cold. Suddenly, I didn’t want to know.
“I’m going to kill her.” Rhain’s eyes widened in alarm. “You can’t kill a Primal, Sera.” “Watch me try,” I promised.
Rhain tilted his head back. “I…I think I was wrong about you.”
My chest felt warm and like it was swelling, and it wasn’t the embers. 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?
“It’s hard to explain, and I don’t think it feels the same for everyone,” she started. “But to me, it felt like…like being home, even in an unfamiliar place.”
“And it feels like you’re being seen for the first time,” she continued, a soft smile appearing on her lips while my stomach plummeted. “Like you’re being heard. I know that probably doesn’t make sense, but it’s like being…known in a way you haven’t felt before.”
I was in love with him.
“Breathe, liessa
“I want to tell you that you look beautiful,” he said, his voice as soft as the shadows moving around us, warm against my cheek. “But beautiful doesn’t adequately capture what I see. I don’t know if there is a word that does. You have taken my breath with yours.”
“I mean, when I told you before that I wanted to be your Consort, that still holds true. I want this, Ash.”
Ash lowered himself to one knee, bowing to me.
“Now that’s a man who knows his place.” A smooth voice I recognized cracked the stunned silence.
The Primal God of Accord and War winked as a dimple appeared in his right cheek.
“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.
“Rise for the Consort of the Shadowlands.”
My gaze swung to our joined hands as silvery-white light swirled around our palms and down our arms as the embers in my chest hummed fiercely in response. The glow of the eather reflected off Ash’s face as his eyes widened slightly. The crowd went silent. “Is that you?” I whispered. “No,” he rasped, features sharpening, skin thinning until a hint of shadow was visible beneath his skin. Disbelief filled his eyes as his gaze met mine. “Imprimen,” he said, clearing his throat. “Suu opor va id Arae. Idi habe datu ida benada.” “W-what?” I only recognized one word spoken in the Primal language. Ash
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This Primal gave me a small smile and pressed a hand free of jewels to the center of her chest before nodding.
My husband.
A series of luminous golden swirls swept over the top of my hand and between my thumb and pointer finger, sweeping in several whirls along the lines of my palm. I looked at Ash’s hand. He bore the same mark as I did.
No one has been blessed upon their union in many centuries.”
“Are others with the imprint still alive?” Ash shook his head. “Those my father blessed no longer live.” A chill crawled down my spine. I didn’t have to ask. I knew. Kolis. Killing those his brother had favored for whatever reason sounded like Kolis’s particular brand of childish cruelty for the sake of cruelty.
“Keella.” The Primal of Rebirth, who had helped Eythos.
“She tries to be good.” “Sounds like she is good.”
“The crown suits you, Consort.” I smiled. “Thank you.” “As does the imprint,” he added. “That was an…unexpected development.”
“I…I guess I’m not used to being included in discussions of importance, even ones that involve me, so I was surprised to be included.” “And then satisfied with knowing that you were?”
You are seen and heard, liessa.”
The Primal of Rebirth faced us once more, and that smile returned. An old smile. Knowing. Clever. The embers in my chest hummed. She inclined her head and then looked at Ash. “Your father would be so proud of you.”
“Thank you, Ash.” He tensed against me. My eyes opened as my stomach tumbled. “Do you…do you mind that I call you that?”
“Do you know what took first place in occupying my thoughts?” “No,” I rasped in a rush of liquid heat. “Hearing you call me Ash,” he murmured. “When you come.”
“I think Keella knows it’s me—that I’m the one she helped place Sotoria’s soul in. It’s hard to explain, but it’s the way…I don’t know. How she smiled at me.”
“Really, liessa?” “No,”
Then there was nothing more than his arms around me, holding me. Me holding him. Nothing but this moment. Us. It was all that mattered.
His warm hand. “I wish…” Voice thickening, he trailed off into the darkness, never finishing what he’d been about to say. Telling me what he wished for.
