Total pages in book: 248
Estimated words: 236909 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1185(@200wpm)___ 948(@250wpm)___ 790(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 236909 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1185(@200wpm)___ 948(@250wpm)___ 790(@300wpm)
Callum eyed me. “You seem upset.”
Upset? I shuddered, seizing the anger instead of the sorrow. One strengthened me. The other would destroy me.
He shrugged once more. “It was quite clever of Eythos, though, wasn’t it? To take the last of those embers and hide them in a simple mortal, where no one would think to look—a mortal he insured would belong to his son. Very clever.”
As Callum spoke, I realized that Callum had not once mentioned Sotoria’s soul. That was something neither King Roderick—who made the deal—nor my father would’ve known about.
And neither did Kolis.
“If he knew I had Primal embers in me, why wait?” I asked, tucking the piece of knowledge about the soul away. “Why let me be taken into the Shadowlands? Why let it get to—to this point? People died and—” I sucked in a sharp breath. “He could’ve taken me at any time. Why wait?”
“Blood.” Callum inhaled deeply. “Ash.”
Something about the way he said that shook free a memory of the night the draken had freed the entombed gods. Veses’ guard had said something similar after he scented my blood. He’d said—
“Blood and ash.”
I stiffened to the point where the shackle around my neck threatened to cut into my throat. My heart fell and tumbled as I turned to the partition wall. It had opened, letting a bit of the rare hours of night seep into the chamber. I could make out the shadows of tall leafy trees behind…
Kolis.
At that very second, I realized I hadn’t thought of what I’d been groomed to do since birth. What Holland had prepared me for. Not once since waking up.
Become his weakness.
Make him fall in love.
End him.
Kolis.
Not Ash.
And here I was, with him, yet fulfilling my duty was the furthest thing from my mind as I fought the urge to take several steps back from the false King. He was dressed as he had been when I saw him in Dalos. Loose linen pants. No shirt or boots. He bore no crown tonight as Callum faced him, bowing deeply.
“I’m glad to see you’re finally awake,” Kolis noted.
Breathe in. The embers remained silent as Kolis strode forward, but there was still a burning in my chest. Terror and fury that were only partly mine. A sense similar to déjà vu swept through me. I hadn’t been here before, caged and chained.
But Sotoria had. When Kolis brought her back to life.
I wanted to run. I wanted to rage, but a lifetime of being taught to never show fear—to never show any emotion—filled me. The veil settled over me as I held Kolis’s stare.
Kolis inclined his chin. “You do not kneel?”
“No,” I bit out. “I do not.”
Kolis laughed, low and soft, as Callum stepped to the side of the gilded cage. “Still incredibly brave, I see. Just as you were when you took the dagger handed to you.” He placed his fingers on the bars. “Then again, how brave were you when you planned to betray me the moment you left? Using what does not belong to you to snatch away the life owed me?”
I clenched my jaw shut to stop myself from saying something incredibly foolish and keep my teeth from chattering. “Blood and ash?” I repeated. “What does that mean?”
Kolis trailed his hand over the bars as he laughed again. A look akin to respect flickered over his too-perfect features, and then his gaze lowered. I could only be grateful for my loose hair hanging in tangled curls over my chest. “It is the name of the prophecy.”
My thoughts immediately went to the one Penellaphe had shared. “A prophecy?”
“No. I speak of the prophecy. The last dreamt by the Ancients. A promise only known by a few. Dared to be spoken of by even fewer.” His fingers danced over the bars as he began to walk, to prowl. “And only repeated by the descendant of the Gods of Divination,” he said. Penellaphe. He spoke of her. “And by the last oracle to be born.”
The god, Delfai, had mentioned the last oracle, too, hadn’t he? An oracle born of the Balfour bloodline. What were the chances that it was a coincidence that Delfai had mentioned this oracle?
None.
Kolis’s grin was slow and cold. “But my dear Penellaphe didn’t receive a complete vision,” he said.
I tensed.
“Lucky for her, Penellaphe believed I had no knowledge of the vision. Those who do seem to meet untimely deaths,” he said, and Callum chuckled. “My brother knew.” He gestured at me. “Obviously.”
I turned, following him as he stalked the length of the cage.
He stopped directly across from me. “Prophecies often come in threes. Each part seemingly unrelated until they’re all pieced together.”
The nape of my neck tingled. Penellaphe…she had said that. That they often had a beginning, a middle, and an end, and they weren’t always received in order or completely.