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)
“I’ll take him,” he said. “And I will ensure he’s given our best accommodations.”
Knowing he was talking about the dungeon, I snorted.
Ash left my side and raised a hand. The table flipped over, revealing a sprawled but no-longer-leaking Callum.
The Revenant was already healing.
Ash gripped him by the back of the neck as his silvery gaze briefly met mine. He then looked past me to where my mother remained kneeling. “Remember what I said.”
My mother’s head rose. She didn’t look at Ash. Her gaze was fastened on me. “I will.”
“Sorry about the table,” I said. Ash had returned to the Shadowlands with Callum, and we’d moved to one of the nearby sitting chambers. “I hope you all at least finished supper.”
Ezra arched a brow and lowered herself onto a forest-green settee. Marisol had accompanied her parents to a separate chamber in an attempt to calm them.
“And for the new cracks in the walls,” I added.
Nektas snorted from where he stood by the doors. I didn’t have to look at him to know he was eyeing my mother.
“We had just finished supper, and I suppose the dining hall was in need of a remodel.” Ezra smoothed the front of her waistcoat. There was nothing wrong with it. What she was doing was a nervous habit—the only sign she was disquieted by, well…everything. “So, you’re the Primal of Life? How is that even possible?”
The simple bluntness of her question made me grin. I didn’t think anyone would be able to handle this kind of news as well as she was, but then again, she’d known I had the power to restore life. As she had said in the dining hall, it made sense to her.
“It’s kind of a long story, and I don’t have much time,” I said.
“Can you not make some?” Ezra countered.
I laughed dryly. “There isn’t enough time in the realms for me to tell you everything. But I…” I sat on the edge of the chair across from her. “But I’ll tell you as much as I can.”
And I did, skipping over a lot, like how I’d been held captive, as well as Sotoria and her soul. I glossed over how close I’d come to dying. I also had to silence Ezra’s understandable questions regarding the part about who Kolis really was.
By the time I got to my Ascension and awakening as the true Primal of Life, Marisol had returned and sat next to her wife. She stared at me like she had never seen me before.
I couldn’t quite blame her for that as I smoothed my hands down my thighs. “So, yeah. That’s it.”
Ezra blinked and cleared her throat. “I am positive that is not it.”
I smiled. “It is for now—”
“I believed you had died,” Mother said.
My breath snagged as my gaze flew to where she sat. She hadn’t spoken—not once until now—but I kept hearing what she’d said to Ash.
Nektas unfolded his arms, but my mother continued.
“The Rot disappeared in a flash. It was just gone.” Her hands were still in her lap, but her knuckles were as white as Ezra’s had been. “Only one thing could’ve done that. I figured you’d somehow fulfilled what we believed to be your duty—”
“If I had succeeded in killing who we believed to be the true Primal of Death, it would have been a catastrophe,” I interrupted.
“I understand,” my mother replied. “But we didn’t know there was another way for the Rot to end. We’d only ever been told that the Rot would not lift until you killed the Primal of Death.”
“I thought the same,” Ezra said, drawing my attention back to her. “That you had succeeded by killing…” Her brows furrowed. “The correct one.” She gave a small shake of her head. “And we knew…”
“I wouldn’t have survived that,” I murmured. “I get it.”
“And Kolis?” Marisol asked, tucking a short strand of dark hair behind her ear. “He’s the true Primal of Death?”
“Yes. And he’s still alive. That’s why I came here today. But I need to know what Callum was doing here.” I cleared my throat. “And what he said.”
“He arrived two days ago, I believe. We’d just returned from Massene, where we celebrated the Rite with Princess Kayleigh and her family,” she said, and I tried not to think about the fate of the Chosen. Marisol’s fingers dropped to her cream-colored blouse. “I didn’t speak very much with him.” She glanced at Ezra.
“Neither did I,” Ezra told me. “He joined us for supper each night and mostly kept to himself outside of that.”
Which meant…
I twisted in my seat. “He is the one who told you how a Primal can be killed.”
My mother nodded curtly. “He arrived a few years after you were born and claimed he wanted to help us,” she said, staring at the gold and mauve wallpaper. “He knew about the deal, so I…I believed him.”