Total pages in book: 247
Estimated words: 231436 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1157(@200wpm)___ 926(@250wpm)___ 771(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 231436 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1157(@200wpm)___ 926(@250wpm)___ 771(@300wpm)
Aios brings Sera breakfast and eats with her in her chambers before they go for a walk and help Reaver with his flying. The goddess tells her that Ash has never had any sexual or romantic interest in anyone before Sera. She then meets Bele and Rhahar. Bele is the first to bow to her and tells her why it’s so important that everyone does it. She also shares that the other Courts are taking bets on how long she’ll live.
Later, a seamstress arrives to do a fitting and talk revolves around the coronation, the Chosen, and the Ascension. Ash checks on her and reveals that no mortal has Ascended for several hundred years, then tells Sera the truth about the fate of the Chosen and that Kolis knows and doesn’t care. He also explains how some Chosen are simply disappearing. She demands they find a way to stop the Rites and learns that Ash has been hiding the Chosen away, though he prefers it appear as if he’s doing nothing. She has to steel herself. Lasania is all that matters. She can’t worry about the mortals. The Chosen aren’t her problem.
That night, unable to sleep, she goes out onto the balcony and finds Ash. She tells him she’s dealing with what she learned, and they discuss the difficulties of their positions, and the way death has affected them both. He says she’s not a monster and touches her, causing another jolt of energy to pass between them. He then goes on to say that a monster wouldn’t care if they were one. She kisses him.
Seeing that he’s struggling, too, she tells him that he isn’t responsible for the actions of others and moves to explore. Enjoying the playfulness she has with Ash—something she’s never had with another—she pleasures him, delighting in making the Primal of Death shake. After, they spoon, and she falls asleep, thinking over all the new things she’s experienced in the short time she’s been with Ash.
The next morning, she realizes she felt something shift the night before when they fell asleep, like something growing between them that was more than mutual lust. She feels connected to him in a way that goes beyond the deal, and it warms her chest. She’s shocked to find Nektas with her, and even more surprised when he tells her he’s never seen Ash sleep so peacefully before and claims her as one of his.
Denied going to court because of the risk and with nothing to do but think about things, she’s happy to be able to walk with Ector, despite her thoughts spiraling about how Ash lifts the darkness from her and the growing feelings between them. She learns more about the god and finds out he knew Ash’s parents and knows about the deal.
She and the draken follow him to see what’s going on at the southern gate, and she feels warmth in her chest when she sees Gemma, realizing the mortal is dead. The heat in her chest vibrates, striking against an instinct she’s never felt so powerfully before. She wonders if the draken can sense what’s building inside her.
She starts to glow a faint, silvery-white, and the scent of freshly bloomed lilacs rises. Humming grows in her ears, awakening a calling in her that overrides all thought. Eather swirls around her fingertips, her throat goes dry, and her pulse races as light flares along Gemma’s skin, and the girl revives. Ash remarks with astonishment that Sera carries an ember of life.
Sera’s thoughts flash back to Sir Holland telling her that she carries an ember of life, hope, and the possibility of a future. As she thinks on that, she’s told the gods and draken in attendance felt the power ripple, and it’s likely that everyone in Iliseeum felt it. She learns that many will come looking for the source and that could be a very bad thing.
And it is. A very bad thing. Even though most who were the real threats already knew.
Ash tells her that he’s felt it before and asks her how many other times she’s used her gift. He reveals that the Hunters and the murderous gods were likely looking for her, and if he’d been closer, it would have drawn him out, too. She reveals how she healed the hawk in the woods and brought back Marisol before she left the mortal realm. He tells her that her gift is from the Primal of Life, but not Kolis. The real one: Ash’s father. She learns that Eythos was the true Primal of Life, and that the ember was his—and Ash’s once upon a time—until Kolis, Eythos’s twin, stole it.
Sera learns the story of Eythos, Kolis, and Sotoria. She admits that she’d never used her gift on a mortal before Mari because she didn’t want the power or the ability to decide someone’s fate or use the power anytime the choice was presented. She thinks that makes her weak, but Nektas tells her otherwise. She wonders—with some horror—if she and Ash are related and is happy to find out they are not, but she still questions how her gift can help. She then learns that Kolis has Eythos’s soul. And given the poppies started blooming once she arrived after being dormant for hundreds of years, Nektas insists her mere presence is bringing life back to the realm.