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)
Sera asks Ash what she should expect and learns that the ink on his skin is a collection of one hundred and ten tattooed drops of blood signifying the things Kolis demanded of Ash. He reminds her again that she’s good, no matter what happens, saying she’s not a monster now nor will she be when they return. He holds her close and kisses her forehead as they shadowstep.
Sera barely fades, and Ash tells her they need to get the embers out of her soon—it’s clear they’re getting even stronger. As they make their way, he tells her not to let anyone lure her away and warns her not to trust anyone. He tells her that Dalos is also called the City of the Dead, which she believes when she sees the gods strung up outside the palace. Her primal essence flares.
She begs Ash to stop her from attempting to resurrect them and tells him to use compulsion. Instead, he kisses her, using his shadows to block her sight. He calls her strong and brave.
In the presence of Attes and Dyses, Sera goes to bow, and Nyktos stops her. She learns that Dyses was testing her. Ash kills him, but she swears she sees his hand twitch. And she didn’t feel her embers respond to his death.
After talking with Attes, she remarks that the Primal finds perverse pleasure in provoking Ash and that it almost seems as if Attes is looking out for her. She wonders if he might be a friend—or at least an ally.
Nyktos helps her breathe and bow, and she slips on her veil of nothingness again. Sera is relieved when Kolis doesn’t recognize her as Sotoria. The relief is short-lived, however, when Dyses—whom she witnessed Ash kill—walks into the room. She wonders then if he’s a Revenant.
When Kolis chastises them for their faux pas of not asking for permission, she blurts that their failure to seek approval was her fault and says she feared Kolis would find her unworthy. Kolis decrees what her punishment should be, and she’s sickened when she realizes he expects her to kill a draken youngling. She asks what the boy did to deserve it and what will happen if she refuses. The young draken answers her, saying that Kolis will still kill him, then her, and then end with summoning a draken from the Shadowlands to be killed.
Sera asks Kolis why he’d use this as punishment. She wants to know what he gains from it. His reply? “Everything. It will tell me everything I need to know.” Before she goes through with it, she asks the draken his name. He tells her it doesn’t matter and that he’s not worth remembering. Suddenly, she feels something shift within her. She senses the twisted and evil bits in Kolis’s essence and feels an ancient power come to life inside her. It’s rage, pure and primal. She realizes that the power in him was hers, stolen from the Primal of Life. Then she feels Sotoria and thinks that his pain, retribution, vengeance, and blood will be hers. Sotoria, through Sera, pays the price Kolis demanded.
Sera knows the draken’s death will mark her and she’ll leave some of her goodness in the atrium. Still, she feels Sotoria and knows the woman is settling in to wait for what she’s owed.
Later, after they leave, Sera asks Ash to take her to Vathi. She even goes so far as to beg him. He tells her they should survive to honor the sacrifice the draken made, but she tells him it’s not enough. He caves and takes her, and she urges Attes to bring the youngling’s body to her. She thanks Ash for doing as she asked and explains that she has to do this. She refuses his touch and instead asks why Kolis would do something like this. He says the false Primal of Life was making Kyn their enemy.
And boy did he ever. Not that the Primal needed much help…
When Attes returns, Sera wonders if they can trust him. Ash tells her it’s too late for that now. When she brings the young draken back to life, he calls her meyaah Liessa. They exchange names—his name is Thad. After, Attes bows to Sera and vows not to betray her confidence and tell anyone what she did. He also calls her meyaah Liessa. Sera tells him not to and insists she’s not anything.
Ash asks her why she spoke out and says she doesn’t deserve what she was made to do. She argues that he doesn’t either and then goes on to say that she did it for him.
Sera asks about Dyses being what Gemma mentioned—a Revenant. Perhaps a demis. She also asks why Kolis didn’t act on the fact that he knows his nephew knows who has the power to Ascend and that it’s not Kolis. Ash tells her it’s so Kolis doesn’t expose himself as a fraud.