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)
Nyktos arrives not long after, just after Jadis manages to set a chair on fire. He makes a flippant comment about Sera’s dress that annoys her and then talk turns to more important matters. She discovers that the army in wait is because Nyktos plans to go to war with Kolis. Unfortunately, she realizes that he doesn’t trust her enough to speak plainly or truthfully around her, and that bothers her greatly.
Nyktos dismisses her, but she tells him she chooses to stay with him. As he works, she asks him about the Books of the Dead. She tries to goad him, referencing others she should or could be spending time with, and he warns her that she should be selective of how she spends her time with others. They discuss the night before and their needs, and she offers him a deal: pleasure for the sake of pleasure.
Nyktos calls her reckless, but then suddenly asks if she has her dagger, saying they’re about to have company. He apologizes for what’s about to transpire, and Sera meets Attes for the first time. The Primal refers to Sera as an accessory, and she threatens him without hesitation. Nyktos tells her to behave, but Attes asks if she knows not to repeat what she hears, and she can’t hold her tongue, snapping at him again. She learns that Kolis is denying her coronation.
After hearing that Nyktos must be granted permission to take a Consort, she curses. Attes tells them that Kolis will summon them when he’s ready. After the Primal leaves, Nyktos tells her to argue with him to distract him from his anger. She kisses him instead.
Sera assumes that Kolis must think the embers are in Nyktos and that he’s the one who Ascended Bele, but she’s told the false Primal of Life knows they aren’t in his nephew. He already tested Nyktos. When she realizes what those tests likely were, she discovers that Nyktos has had to convince Kolis of a great many things.
He tells Sera that Attes was provoking her by trying to influence her with his Primal essence. When she had no reaction to it, Attes knew and realized that she’s more than what they said. Ector tells her about who is and isn’t affected by a Primal’s presence, and she realizes that Attes could know that she is the one who carries the embers.
Sera learns that Kolis could have outright forbidden Nyktos from taking a Consort, and while he can still claim her, she’d have no protection.
Thinking about how that meeting with Kolis will go, she fears she looks like Sotoria and worries. Nyktos vows not to let the Primal touch her. She argues, saying that she won’t be the reason for any more death, and he tells her she never was. She’s not so sure. However, she won’t hide, and he won’t put her in danger—even though she’s always been in danger.
Nektas follows Sera back to her chambers and calls her meyaah Liessa. She calls him meyaah draken in return, saying she’s as much his Queen as he is her draken. He asks if Ash was wrong to doubt her motivations, and she confesses that getting to Kolis never crossed her mind—at least not recently. She then learns what Nyktos has had to convince his uncle of and what Kolis will do if he learns the truth. It hits deep.
Sera argues that it isn’t personal for her like it is for Nyktos. She’s not Sotoria. Nektas asks her why she no longer calls Nyktos Ash and proceeds to tell her that his father called him that. He says it means something that he introduced himself to her as that right off, saying that he is as she wishes him to be.
She spends the remainder of the afternoon training and realizes she doesn’t want Nyktos to have to choose between the Shadowlands and her. Later, in his room to sleep, he apologizes for questioning her motives, saying he won’t hide the summons from her when it comes. Talk turns to why she holds her breath and how she manages her anxiety, and she suddenly realizes that she left her dagger in her bedchamber. She’s unprotected for the first time in her life…
The trust has been solidified.
Sera wakes on what should be her coronation day and once again thinks about fading away. Shaking herself out of it, she goes to have breakfast with Saion and Reaver and asks Saion where he’s from. He tells her the story of how Nyktos saved both him and his cousin, Rhahar.
Later, she sees others training and learns they do so every day in the morning for a few hours. She’s shocked when Saion refuses to train with her. Undeterred, she squares off with Nyktos. She ends up cutting off a lock of his hair. As they spar, Sera makes a list of demands.