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 is shocked by the Arae’s appearance, and Nyktos discovers that Holland was the knight who trained Sera in the mortal realm. He accuses Holland of tampering with destiny while masquerading as a mortal and finally understands how Sir Holland knew about the healing tea.
As Holland and Sera reunite, Nyktos accuses the Arae of learning about the deal and taking the place of someone who was meant to train Sera to kill him. Holland corrects him and says it was just to kill, not to murder him specifically. Nyktos asks why Holland never informed Sera of the pointlessness of her endeavor and displays his annoyance that the Arae intervened at all.
He then asks Holland if he knew what would happen to Eythos. Holland says he didn’t, but if he had, he would have stepped in, the consequences be damned.
Nyktos asks why his father did what he did and is told the better question is what he did. Nyktos learns that Eythos took the ember he passed onto Ash to keep him safe. He also learns that he and Sera are soulmates. After Sera talks about the sense of rightness she’s felt with him since day one, he confesses he’s felt the same.
He asks what his father’s motivations could have been and learns about Penellaphe’s vision and the prophecy. He thinks the great conspirator and the bringer of death must be Kolis and reveals that he and Eythos were both in the west—in what is roughly present-day Carsodonia.
They discuss timing, and Nyktos vows he won’t let Sera die before she turns twenty-one. When he’s told he can’t stop fate, he says it can go fuck itself.
Holland reveals the threads of destiny, and Nyktos is shocked and furious to find that some of them indicate that he’ll kill Sera. There are many ways he can, but one is unintentional. He’s then floored to learn that his blood will make Sera go through her Culling, which horrifies him because he knows she won’t survive it. Sera tells him it’s not his fault.
Holland shows him the one thread that can disrupt fate—unexpected love—and tells him that he’s right, Sera will not survive the Culling without the sheer will of that which is more powerful than the Fates or even death. She needs the love of the one who aids in her Ascension.
He further learns that the only way for Sera to survive is with the blood and love of the Primal her ember belonged to. The revelation horrifies him because of things he set in motion many, many years ago.
Many more than Sera knows at this point.
Sera tells him it’s unfair, and he tells her it’s more unfair to her. Then the bomb really drops. He finds out that Sera is the reincarnation of Sotoria, Kolis’s long-lost obsession, and they find out exactly what his father did and why. No god has risen since Eythos hid the ember in the Mierel bloodline—until Sera Ascended Bele, anyway. The last bit of information they receive isn’t much better. He’s told that life has only continued because the ember is still in Sera. If she dies, everyone and everything will die right along with her.
Which can only mean one thing.
Seraphena is the Primal of Life.
Nyktos bows to Sera and relays the conclusion he just reached. She says she doesn’t deserve to be the Primal of Life, snapping at him. When she starts having a panic attack, Nyktos calms her and then asks Holland and Penellaphe if they’re positive no one else knows what Sera is. They tell him that Eythos, Embris, and Kolis knew about the prophecy, but the last two didn’t know anything more than that as far as they’re aware.
Sera makes her feelings on prophecies clear, and Nyktos agrees with her. He then tells her that Kolis’s actions killed hundreds of gods, and that the Gods of Divination were hit the hardest. No mortal has been born an oracle since.
Nyktos reminds Sera that only those present at the time it happened know that she Ascended Bele. Neither Hanan nor anyone else knows the full extent of what Eythos did when he put the ember in her bloodline.
Sera reveals that she recently saw Kolis in the mortal realm, and the news stuns Nyktos. He remarks that Sotoria didn’t belong to Kolis then, and Seraphena doesn’t belong to him now.
He tells Penellaphe and Holland that Kolis knows something is in the Shadowlands and has already sent a draken and the dakkais. He assumes that, as the Primal of Life, Kolis can’t enter the Shadowlands and asks Holland to confirm. The Arae refuses to answer.
Nyktos assures Sera that Kolis is no fool and wouldn’t make a move on her in front of others and risk blowing his façade as the fair and rightful King but promises he won’t let Kolis lay a finger on her. When she reveals that she’s not worried about herself but is worried about him, it doesn’t surprise him at all. He tells Sera that he’s more afraid of her running to Kolis than away from him.