A Fire in the Flesh (Flesh and Fire, #3)

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

“Love me,” I ordered—begged, really. “Love me.” “Always,” he rasped.

“They are nothing more than an unfortunate…side effect.” “Side effect of what, exactly?” I asked, watching Callum step aside. “Of creating the Ascended. They are the product of maintaining balance and giving life.” Kolis smiled then, ducking as he entered the cage.

I have no plans of starting a war that I would not win or one that would leave much of both realms an uninhabitable mess, which is what would happen if a war began,”

“It’s likely because most of their time is spent trying to survive.” “And as I just said, perhaps their prosperity would improve if they proved themselves worthy of it,” he countered. “As it stands, their losses and struggles are of their own making.”

“Every life I’ve ever taken, I did so because of love.”

“Because my nephew is currently unavailable for anything beyond taking up space,” Kolis said as a low-level buzz filled my ears. “He’s in stasis.”

“Dragon fire. Not the draken, but their ancestors. Shadowstone is what became of any life form burned by dragon fire—from trees to mortals, even the Ancients. Perhaps even a few Arae.”

“Only a union formed out of love can be blessed.” The wisps of eather slowed in his eyes. “You love him.”

Being in love…it doesn’t do that. It only gets stronger, and you would do anything for that person. Anything.”

“Being in love is…it’s unbreakable.”

“Because I’ve never known what it’s like to be in love and to be loved in return—” My voice cracked, as did the vessel I’d become. Closing my eyes, I turned my head and waited until the burn of the truth eased. The sting didn’t fade completely because what I’d said was true, and no matter how empty I made myself, I could still feel that agony. “I would like to know how that feels.”

“I think he was incapacitated with a weapon made of the bones of an Ancient.”

The essence tied to each of us Primals is capable of great good but also terrible malevolence.”

“Kolis is trying to save the realms.”

“It’s not every day that one learns their sister has truly returned to them.”

“Souls reborn don’t have memories.”

“I couldn’t allow him to die, and knowing Eythos would not intervene on my behalf, I did what was forbidden of Death.” A wry, humorless smile appeared on Kolis’s features. “I gave life.”

“There is no one like you, Sera.”

“I’m not being sweet.” His hand made another soothing sweep across the center of my back. “I’m only telling the truth. You’re the strongest person I know.” I smiled, snuggling closer.

“You’re brave, strong, and resilient. You don’t need anyone to fight your battles. You never have. You don’t now.”

“I’m nothing without you, liessa,” he whispered as he started to slip away, and the embers hummed in my chest. “And there will be nothing without you.”

“I know her as Seraphena, the One who is born of Blood and Ash, the Light and the Fire, and the Brightest Moon,” she answered smoothly. “Nyktos’s Consort.”

“That’s exactly what happened, so’lis. You filled in what I did not share. You chose to act upon that information and what you already believed. That was your choice.” His smile returned. “Perhaps you won’t be so trusting of what your eyes and mind tell you next time.”

“The blood must be taken from the Chosen right up to when the heart begins to falter.” He paused, catching a drop of blood from his lower lip with his tongue. “Then they must be given the blood of the gods.”

“When my brother did the Ascensions, the Chosen Ascended into godhood.” Kolis’s upper lip curled, and then his expression smoothed out. “Without the embers of life, they simply become the Ascended, as I told you before.”

“Like Eythos, I’m creating life, not death. And an Ascended left uncontrolled is exactly that: Death. I give them a chance to restrain themselves. I do,” he repeated, his shoulders rising sharply. “But if they fail? They will glut themselves on blood. And once they’ve fallen into bloodlust, they are almost always lost. They will kill indiscriminately, draining their victims, and what becomes of them then is nothing more than the living dead…” He pursed his lips. “It is not an act I enjoy, contrary to what others may believe. But I do not pawn it off on others. An Ascended who has given in to bloodlust must be killed, and it should be done by their creator.”

As long as the embers exist in some fashion, and life is created and taken, the balance is maintained.”

Kolis couldn’t be killed.

Kolis was the Primal of Death. He carried the true embers of Death. Ash was a Primal of Death. He did not carry the true embers of Death. And since Kolis had ensured that none of his Court were left to Ascend to the Primal of Death after he stole the embers from Eythos, he was it. I couldn’t believe it.

Your heart already belongs to someone else,”

“That your heart, no matter who you really are, belongs to another.

I was so glad that my love for Ash meant I’d gotten a taste of what the awe-inspiring bit felt like. I couldn’t help but feel a little smidgen of pity for both Kolis and Veses, who only knew the awful side of it.

“Callum explained to me that Revenants are not in need of food or blood,” I began. “They aren’t,” he confirmed as we passed under the palms’ broad leaves. “They have no need of anything that sustains either mortals or gods. Not even sleep.” My brows knitted. “Then what of less-tangible things? Like companionship?” “As in friendship? Love? Sex? No.”

“Their lives are no longer tethered to the needs of the flesh or the wants of the soul. They’re driven only by the desire to serve their creator.”

Kolis had called the Craven the walking dead, but in reality, the Revenants were such.

Which was why Kolis hadn’t wanted to turn me into one of them. What came back had no soul. Revenants were just reanimated flesh and bones. Gods, I felt sorry for them.

“When I create the Revenants, I feel only duty. But with Callum, I felt…I felt everything. Desperation. Anger. Sorrow. Even joy at being close to one who shares your blood.” My lip curled. “Eythos would say what I felt when returning life to Callum is why he’s different. That my emotions brought who he was back when I restored his life.”

I felt he was beyond reverting back to who he’d been. And even if he could? It wouldn’t undo what he’d done.

“Shut up!” Kolis screamed, his other hand thrusting out. Eythos jerked, his eyes flaring in disbelief. He looked down at a rod of dull white penetrating his chest, entering his heart.

knew… I knew you were capable of this.” A shudder rolled through Eythos as he lifted his gaze to his brother’s. Shimmery blood leaked from his lips. “But I…I hoped I was wrong. I always…had hope.”

But those embers… They belonged to the Primal of Life. And they now belonged to me.

“Clearly, the bones of the Ancients can be destroyed,” I’d said to Attes. “Only by two Primals.” The Primal of Death. And the Primal of Life.

Death stood before me. But I was Life.

“You didn’t believe Eythos when he said he loved you.” Kolis struggled with the bone jutting from his skin, his wild gaze darting to the one in my hand. “That is why you stabbed him. You didn’t think it would kill him.

“Always.” Eather-laced eyes swept over my features before they slammed shut. His chest rose, and then he looked at me again. “I will always find you, Sera.”

“Every time I was conscious, I felt you. Your pain. Your fear. The panic. The fucking desperation.” The walls rattled as that frosted whisper circled the chamber, falling against the floor like hail and sleet. I knew it wasn’t Nektas or any other draken doing that. “Your anger? I felt it all. Tasted everything you were feeling until I was drowning in it. Until I tore at my flesh to get to you.” His voice cracked then, and so did the wall behind him. “And I could do nothing—fucking nothing—to protect you. To take away any of the horror you were experiencing.”

Ash didn’t do that freaky turn-to-a-skeleton thing that Kolis did. He didn’t need the dramatics because each word he spoke carried the weight of a thousand cold, empty graves and the promise of endless death in the Abyss.

“I want nothing more than his death,” I said. “But he can’t die. You have to know that, right? This whole time, you had to know he couldn’t be killed. Not by anyone. Not even Sotoria.”

That using the embers would push me over the edge, completing my Ascension.

“We may not be able to kill Kolis yet, but one day, we might, and only Sotoria will be able to do it.”