Total pages in book: 362
Estimated words: 347293 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1736(@200wpm)___ 1389(@250wpm)___ 1158(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 347293 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1736(@200wpm)___ 1389(@250wpm)___ 1158(@300wpm)
“And the true Primal of Life,” I replied. “Whose temper is currently worsening by the second. So how about you shut the fuck up?”
The Revenant turned his head to me. “Rude.”
I moved to put Callum on the floor again, but a soft cry from the woman in Kyn’s lap stopped me. Her eyes were squeezed shut, and her brow was tensed in pain. Kyn wasn’t feeding. He was still staring at me with the fucking idiotic smirk on his face. My gaze dropped to where his hand was. He was hurting her.
I moved before I realized what I was doing.
“Seraphena,” snapped Aydun.
I crossed the atrium. The woman’s eyes had opened, and her lashes were wet as she ducked her chin.
Kyn’s smile grew. “You changed your mind?”
I stopped in front of them, taking hold of the woman’s chin. She gasped, her gaze flying to mine, and I knew. Perhaps it was because the vadentia was already growing stronger, or maybe it was just normal instinct. Either way, I knew the moment her eyes locked with mine.
I dropped her chin and then took her hand. It was limp in my grasp for only a heartbeat, then it firmed. I pulled her from Kyn’s lap.
“Return to your home,” I told her. “Now.”
The godling didn’t hesitate. She scurried across the chamber, and I hoped she listened to me and fled Dalos.
Kyn, the fucker, adjusted his crotch as he leaned back. “And here I thought I’d have to break you in.” He patted a knee. “But don’t be too willing. That takes the fun out of it.”
It took everything in me to step back and not rip his dick off and shove it down his throat. It took everything and even more to turn away.
“Don’t turn your back on me, por-na.” The air stirred as Kyn shot to his feet.
I kept walking.
“You fucking bitch,” Kyn snarled.
I couldn’t see him, but I felt him grab for me. I spun back, but Kyn was faster. He caught my forearm, and his grip was cruel. The contact of his flesh against mine was worse than the pain, though. It turned my stomach with disgust.
Kyn said something repulsive about how he’d make Ash watch while he committed some hideous act of defilement, but I barely heard him. Eather-rich blood pounded in my ears as I lifted my gaze from his white-knuckled grip on my arm and met his.
Fuck the rules.
I smiled as the eather rose. Silvery light crept through the corners of my eyes as wisps of gold-laced eather seeped from my skin.
Kyn dropped my arm, jerking his hand back with a hiss of pain. Smoke wafted from his fingers, and the scent of charred flesh rose. His irises disappeared in a flash of silvery eather. “You fucking—”
“Enough!” Aydun threw out his hand.
Kyn’s eyes widened, and then the space before me was empty.
What the…?
Kyn had simply been there one second and gone the next.
Confused, I looked around the chamber as the eather settled. I didn’t see him anywhere. I turned back to the Ancient. “Um…”
“I put him in a time-out,” Aydun bit out.
I blinked. “Would’ve been great if you’d done that earlier, like when…” I trailed off as the center of my chest throbbed intensely.
A sensation akin to thick oil coated my skin. The tiny hairs on the nape of my neck rose as eather stirred restlessly, pressing against my skin. I turned to the dais as Callum strode past me.
The true Primal of Death was here.
I was suddenly rooted to where I stood as the gold banners hanging between the two doors framing the back of the dais wall parted.
Guards in gold armor lined both sides of the wide hall I hadn’t known was even there. They turned in unison, facing one another as they lifted gleaming swords to create an arch.
“Bow,” Callum announced from the dais, his voice loud and chin held high. “Bow for the Great Protector, the Keeper of Common Men, and the Warden of the Gods. The true King of Men and Gods.”
That was not his title. That belonged to Ash. These were just words strung together to inflate an already oversized ego, and it sounded ridiculous to me. Protector? Warden? It had to be a joke. A laugh bubbled up in my throat, but it didn’t escape my lips as Kolis appeared in the hall and those throughout the atrium, even the Ascended, who had been feeding and otherwise engaged, stopped what they were doing and knelt. None of them had even stopped to fix their clothing.
Everyone except for the Ancient.
And me.
The swords swept down as Kolis passed beneath them, the top of his flaxen head nearly touching the ceiling—a head that bore no crown.
I didn’t know what I felt as I watched him cross the dais, but he didn’t look well.
Kolis was undeniably a beautiful man with his shaggy blond hair, cut jaw, and angular cheeks. He still was. But he appeared as a ghost of his former self. Thinner. Less…shiny. Dark shadows shaded the skin beneath his eyes and cheekbones. The Primal was still weakened.