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)
Saion escorts her downstairs, and Ash returns the dagger he gifted her, now with a sheath. She immediately secures it to her right thigh before asking him some questions.
Sera learns he can’t read her mind, and that he doesn’t feed anymore. When she inquires about him being a prisoner, he tells her he has been many things and hesitates to answer. She wonders if he’d rather them get to know each other or be strangers and is stunned when he confesses that he wants them to be as close as they were at the lake once again, but that talk of his imprisonment isn’t up for discussion.
Sera meets Jadis and learns more about the draken, which she finds utterly fascinating.
When next she sees Ash, she runs into him, and he jerks and hisses. It concerns her. Even more when he urges her not to touch him. She insinuates she doubts his interest in her and says he’s all talk. He backs her against a wall and tells—plus demonstrates—how real and potent his interest is. He explains how badly he wants to be inside her and knows she wants it too without even having to read her emotions. She tells him that she doesn’t like him—a lie—and he responds that it’s better that way.
They can resist it all they want, but it’s futile. Don’t you sometimes wish you could just tell people that so they would stop wasting their time and appreciate what’s right in front of them?
Sera tours the House of Haides and learns that her coronation will happen in a fortnight. When she asks if she’ll be Ascended, she’s surprised by Ash’s response. He tells her that this was never her choice, and he won’t force an eternity of it on her. She also learns that he views love as an unnecessary risk.
With some thought, Sera realizes that Ash’s mother was likely murdered by another Primal and considers that Ash may actually be incapable of love given what happened to his parents. She also wonders how he’ll respond to her unusual gift.
Some days later, another Primal arrives, and Ector escorts Sera to safety. She chooses to be sequestered in the library instead of her chambers and ends up spying on the interaction between Veses and Ash. The feelings it rouses in her are confusing, but she chooses to push them aside for the time being.
Later, she wanders the grounds and winds up in the Red Woods. She finds a wounded silver hawk—that she later discovers was one of Attes’s chora, an extension of him in his nota form—and heals the animal, compelled by an old, powerful instinct. After, she sees the similarities between the Rot back in Lasania and what is happening to the Dying and Red Woods.
Hunters and entombed gods attack Sera, and she realizes she can’t kill them all. Ash suddenly appears and saves her, and she learns about the entombed gods and the blood trees. After the attack, Saion escorts her back to the House of Haides and realizes she’s been injured. She falls unconscious and wakes to find Nektas with her in his god form. He tells her the only reason she isn’t dead is because Ash used a rare antidote on her.
She believes that all of Ash’s decisions and actions are because of the deal. She has no idea that he already loves her, though even he doesn’t realize it yet because of his lack of kardia.
Ash arrives and asks Sera how she got so strong as she seems truly unfazed by almost dying. She says she had to be strong. Talk turns to the attack in the woods and how the gods got free, and Sera learns that the Shadowlands dying has nothing to do with the deal.
Ash tells her that he’s asked everyone to give her space and admits he’s been avoiding her too because spending more than a few minutes in her presence has his desire overwhelming his common sense. She scoffs. He kisses her and admits that he doesn’t know why he fights it since she’d let him have her. He pleasures her once more.
Randomly, he tells her that he counted her freckles and reveals that she has thirty-six, telling her there should be no doubt in her mind about his interest in her. She realizes that he found release this time, too, even though he wasn’t touched. He asks if he can lie with her, and she agrees, confessing to him that she’s had sex before and learning that Ash is a virgin. It shocks her, and she wonders aloud why. She realizes that his life is as lonely as hers, and that he’s risking everything with her because he can’t help himself—even though he thinks they’ll both end up hating him for it. He falls asleep beside her but is gone when she wakes.