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)
They spend some time in the pool, and Ash tells her more about Lathan. He admits that Sera’s one of the strongest people he knows, both mentally and physically—mortal or otherwise. Then he adds that his assertion has nothing to do with the embers. They play a bit more in the pool, and once again, Sera feels as if he and she have become…more.
She spends the rest of the day with Aios and the younglings, realizing that she’s not only been calling Nyktos Ash, she’s also started seeing him as such. Calling him Nyktos doesn’t feel right anymore. She wants to stop Kolis and the Rot and restore Ash’s rightful destiny, but she doesn’t want to do what’s needed to weaken Kolis. She wants a future of her own, and she wants it with Ash. She wants to be his Consort.
Sera decides to deal with her epiphany that she cares about Ash like she does everything else—by not dealing with it at all.
Talking to Ash later, she tells him about Nektas’s eyes flashing blue earlier, and finds out that all the draken had blue eyes until Kolis did what he did. After, they turned red. However, Nektas’s changing color may mean that Sera is closer to her Ascension than they realize.
Sera decides that Ash doesn’t need to know how she feels about him. She knows he cares about her, though she thinks the way she feels might be more. Could it be love?
They leave for the Pools of Divanash, and Nyktos shows her the poppies growing in the Red Woods. As they near the Pillars, Sera’s embers vibrate, and she sees the souls of the departed. Ash tells her about Eythos’s struggles being near the Pillars as the Primal of Death and asks if she feels the need to use the embers or if it wears on her. She lies and tells him no.
He reminds her that she’s stronger than she thinks—her, not the embers—and tells her to see if she can glean anything about the souls. She tries but then stops, deciding she doesn’t need to since the embers will be back in Nyktos soon. Still, they throb within her.
They come upon the riders, and the three bow to her. When they finally reach their destination, Ash tells Nektas to watch out for her because she’s important to him. Again, her, not the embers. Unable to help herself, she blurts out to Ash that she wants to be his Consort. He kisses her knuckles and palm and tells her he’ll be waiting for her when she returns.
Nektas and Sera enter the Vale. She confirms to the draken that she meant what she said at the crossroads: she cares about Ash. She also tells him that if she’d been able to kill Nyktos, Nektas wouldn’t have had to kill her because she would have done it herself. He says that if that’s true, he’s even more right than he thought. He expounds by saying how Ash could have messed him up in the Dying Woods after she blasted him, but he stopped himself because he cares for her. She admits that she knows he does.
The draken tells Sera that Ash had his kardia removed not so he didn’t become like his father but so he didn’t become like his uncle. Nektas implies that he thinks she loves Nyktos, and she quickly says she doesn’t, insisting she doesn’t even know what love feels like.
After encountering the Shroud and resisting the sirens’ song, they finally reach the Pools. Nektas explains what to do—she needs to reveal a deep secret. Her truth is to confess that she tried to take her life. The Pools accept her sacrifice, and she sees Delfai with Kayleigh Balfour in Irelone.
Once they’re out of the Vale, Nektas insists she can talk to him if she’s ever not okay. If she does, he’ll make sure she is.
That draken can be surly, but he, like his bonded Primal, has a heart of gold.
He halts her on their journey and says they’re about to have company, warning her not to strike first. He tells her about the nymphs, and they end up fighting them. Fury explodes from Sera, and she winds up killing them with her eather—the kind that only the Primal of Life can wield. The type that can kill another Primal.
I can only imagine hearing that made Sera wish she could kill Kolis instead of entombing him.
When they return to the House of Haides, Sera sees Veses straddling Ash and feeding from him. She flees to the pool room underground, her anger shaking the palace. Roots wrap around her in a protective gesture. Ash tries to calm her, reminding her of her breathing exercises, but he’s finally forced to compel her into falling asleep.
Sera wakes naked in Ash’s room with Bele and Rhain, shocking Rhain a bit. He tells her she’s powerful and says he’s never seen anything like what she did—not even from a Primal in their Culling. She finds out she was in stasis for three days and that it could have been weeks. She could have even died. When she asks about the roots, she finds out they were trying to protect her. Rhain goes on to tell her that if she loses it like that again, she might not wake up. They explain what she needs to do to keep herself strong.