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)
When they return to the Shadowlands, they realize something is wrong. They’re under attack. He jumps from the balcony to the ground, and Saion updates him. He checks his emotions and finds bodies in the west courtyard, stumbling back at the horror. Saion informs him where Kyn is, and Nyktos orders him to summon the armies.
He takes his true form and rises into the sky to fight Davon, the draken, becoming a storm. He notices that Sera, Rhain, Rhahar, and Saion are unable to get to the House of Haides, so he pours Primal mist out of himself, telling Sera to run in her mind.
As shadows swallow the courtyard, Ash shouts for Sera and sees Attes with her. He repeatedly roars and shouts for her, trying to get to her. He tears a Cimmerian apart. Vaporizes a dakkai with a touch. She is only yards away, her eyes locked on his, and then…she disappears, swallowed by smoke and shadows.
The next time he sees her, he waits outside of Cor Palace, crouched amid the trees.
As a silvery-white wolf.
He watches as Sera succumbs to Kolis’s sick obsession and attacks. He ends up killing Hanan and tells Kolis to get his hands off his wife. He threatens to kill his uncle and they battle, Kolis telling him that he’s started a war.
Sera compels him and Kolis to stop fighting and threatens to take her life. He pleads with her not to. Eventually, Kolis injures him enough by stabbing him repeatedly that he is taken into custody and imprisoned in the Carcers.
While in stasis, he shares dreams with Sera and tells her to make Kolis aware that only he can Ascend her. Once she does, she should then summon the Fates.
During his time in the Carcers, Kolis watches him and then incapacitates him after he wakes. He can’t blame him. Not really. He was prepared to do anything to get to Sera.
When Sera takes Kolis down, it weakens the wards. Between that and feeling what Sera is, he escapes and comes for her. He takes out any and all in his path, and then finds her nearly collapsed.
Sera can barely talk but manages to ask if she’s dreaming. He tells her it’s real. When she asks if he’s okay, he laughs, reminding her that she was also imprisoned and likely dealt with much more than just some retaliation and sleep.
They discuss Veses a bit and what to do about Kolis. They also talk about what happened to her in Dalos, and Sera has to soothe his anger. She tells him he needs to take her somewhere safe and remove the embers.
Elias comes in, and Ash almost kills him until Sera assures him that he’s a friend and the god swears his fealty to Sera.
Attes arrives and urges them to get moving. When Ash moves to attack him, Attes pleads his case, and Sera tells Ash the other Primal can be trusted—he saved her life more than once.
She gets dizzy, and notices she’d started shifting into her Primal form.
Just as they’re about to shadowstep, Sera remembers The Star and tells them they need to get it. They talk how to go about doing that, and she tells Ash that his father’s soul is in the diamond. He asks if she’s sure, and she confirms.
Ash can’t feel the soul within the diamond, but Sera assures him it’s in there. She wonders how they can put Sotoria’s soul in the stone, and Ash says Keella should know how to get a soul both in and out.
He shadowsteps them to some hot springs in the mortal realm and listens as Sera relays what she knows about his father and uncle. When he asks to hold The Star, she doesn’t let him, explaining that she doesn’t want him to see what she did.
He and Sera take some time for themselves and get lost in each other for a bit.
As they spend time together, they talk about everything that’s happened and catch one another up, talking about what things mean and what’s next. They discuss his nota and Primal forms, then he heads to the Bonelands to get them some clothes.
Talk turns to Attes, and Ash makes it clear that he still doesn’t trust the Primal, but Sera tries to make him understand why Attes could never be loyal to Kolis. Then, she tells him what Phanos did. He starts thinking of the ways he could use that to his advantage to save her, but she stops him and insists that nobody else will give their life to save hers.
He takes her to the Bonelands and tells her how the Ancients, connected to all living things, became displeased with what the mortals were doing. They concluded that mortals and the land could not coexist and chose to cleanse the land. They then created the Primals, splitting their essence between them and sharing the balance. The Primals and gods eventually joined the mortals to battle the Ancients.