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November 24 - December 10, 2023
“What truly ails you goes deeper than blood loss and cannot be circumvented, Consort. It can only be delayed, no matter how steep the price or how often it is paid.”
“I’m not that worried about Nektas,” Kyn replied, taking a drink. Unable to stop myself, I laughed. Kyn lowered his glass. “Did I make a joke?” “It sounded like one to me,” I replied. “No one in their right mind wouldn’t be worried about Nektas.”
“I…I didn’t know he had removed the last embers from himself. If I had—” “If you had, you wouldn’t have…what? Killed him by accident?” A heavy breath shuddered from Kolis. “I…I didn’t mean to.” His eyes were so wide, so full of gold, that for a moment he didn’t look like the false King of Gods, but a man who had made many mistakes. “Because how could he love me?”
“Liessa,” Ash spoke, his rough voice a balm. “I’ve got you. Everything will be all right now. I’ve got you.”
“I don’t think you understand what the word argue means.” “I don’t think you understand what it—” “He bit you!” Ash roared, causing my body to jolt as the shadow wings slammed down onto the floor, shaking the entire chamber. I sucked in a sharp breath, resisting the urge to touch my neck. “He didn’t. I stopped him this—” I stopped myself before I said more and made things worse. “I stopped him.” “This time?” Ash’s voice dropped to a whisper of such cold death that even I shivered. “That is what you meant to say.” “No.” “Do not lie to me.” “I’m not lying,” I lied. Shadows spread up his throat,
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“He is coming—” The center of my chest lit up as Ash tensed beside me. “I think he’s already here.” Elias sighed. “Of course, I’m already here,” came the Primal’s voice from outside.
His fingers halted their movements. “I just want to take care of you,” he repeated. “That is all, Sera. Nothing, absolutely nothing, is expected of you.”
In blood and in ash… In life and death, forevermore.
“Please,” he pleaded. “Fucking Fates, I can’t lose you. I can’t…I love you. I do. Fates, I do. I fucking love you. How can I not? How can this not be love?” He screamed to the elms, or at least I thought he did. I wasn’t sure if it was him or if it only came from my mind. “I love you, even if I cannot. I’m in love with you.” Then I wasn’t there. I wasn’t anywhere but in death… I love you. Death wasn’t silent. Or peaceful. It sounded full of feral rage. I love you, even if I cannot. Death was a roar of fury and agony, the sound of a soul shattering. Of a heart breaking. I’m in love with you.
“Sera?” came a ragged whisper. His whisper. The Asher. I knew that voice. I’d heard it in the darkness, hadn’t I? The One who is Blessed. The Guardian of Souls. The Primal God of Common Men and Endings. The End to my Beginning. My eyes flew open, fixing on the night sky—the stars and the moon. “Sera,” he gasped. That name. That name. That name.
But even when it began to feel like a chore one had to force themselves to complete, life was still worth living. Even when it was unfair and heartbreaking, dark and full of the unknown, life was still worth living. Because rewards could be found among the chores. Little pieces of enjoyment that would come to mean something. Darkness always gave way to the light if given time, and while some heartbreaks may never completely heal, living allowed there to be space for new sources of happiness and pleasure. Life was worth living even when it was full of unfairness and injustice. When the heart
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My heartmate.”
Was it possible that I wouldn’t have remembered him? The mere thought caused my heart to ache. “I will always know you, Ash.”
“I will always stand at your side, your command my will.” He nipped my jaw as he went deeper. “I will never let harm come to you.”
“And I will lay waste to Primals, gods, Kings, and men if they even try to hurt you, and I will feel no remorse for doing so.” His tongue soothed the skin he’d scraped. “I will give my life for yours.”
“You’re my everything,” he said, cheek pressed to mine as his hips pounded. “My world. My salvation. My redemption.”
His eyes were full of brilliant pulses of eather. “Fates, Sera, I…” Ash’s chest rose sharply as he cupped my cheek. “I love you.”
I was the Primal of Life—the true Primal of Life. The…the Queen of the Gods.
I grasped the back of his neck, my heart aching at where I suspected this was headed—the story of what he’d done to himself. I wished more than anything that my suspicions weren’t true because if I was right,