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)
When Kolis stabs Ash in the chest, Nyktos tells Sera to run. Attes reminds her that Ash is still alive and then yells at Kolis that Sotoria needs his help, hoping to stop the false King from wounding Ash worse. He finally lets up and comes to Sera, lifting her.
Inside Sera, Sotoria whispers that it isn’t fair, speaking of dying again.
Sera comes to in Kolis’s arms, thinking about Ash. The false King tells her that she’ll live as long as she is who she claims to be. He takes her into the water, and Sera sees ceeren swimming all around her.
Kolis calls to Phanos. When the Primal arrives, he says he thought Sera was Nyktos’s Consort. Kolis brushes that off and orders him to help her.
Phanos takes Sera and mentions how Nyktos took Saion and Rhahar from him as he walks. He says that he should be amused by what’s happening, but he finds no joy in it. He tells her they’re in the water off the Triton Isles near the coast of Hygeia, adding that water is the source of all life and healing.
Sera suddenly hears singing. Phanos says that what is about to happen would cure most, but with the embers inside her, that’s impossible for Sera—it’s merely a temporary solution. He mentions a steep price and tells her to remember the gifts she’s about to be given.
He breathes into her mouth and then sends her into the water, where the ceeren do the same, dying as they give their lives for hers.
It’s utterly tragic, and nearly broke my heart when I saw it.
Sera asks Kolis why he did what he did, and he tells her that he won’t allow her to die. Sera tells him she doesn’t want anyone dying for her, and he tells her she has no choice, then taunts her that if she were Sotoria, she’d know that.
He says that if he looks and listens hard enough, he can see Sotoria in her.
She runs for the guards and grabs a sword. Kolis orders her not to be touched and tells the guards to leave, remarking that he expected her to run. He demands she put down the weapon, and she tells him to make her, then stabs him in the chest. He says he’s not amused and tells her how she could have done better.
She starts to run, and he stops her by her hair, saying he’s more accustomed to this—her running. They fight. Kolis hits Sera, then feels bad about it. She mouths off, and Kolis says he never wanted to be a villain, blaming Eythos for that.
Sera asks him if there’s anything he doesn’t blame his brother for. Kolis tells her not to push him and calls her so’lis.
The false King threatens Ash, and Sera threatens him. He grabs her by the throat, and she gasps that he’s killing her again.
When he says they’re going home, she tells him off. That really angers him, and he shifts into his deathly form, scaring her, then compels her.
Once the compulsion lifts, Sera finds herself wet and in another grander gilded cage. She thinks about Aios and her captivity and falls into despair. Eather cracks the cell. She tries to calm herself and looks the space over, seeing what appears to be a cluster of diamonds at the top of the cage, the throne, and the layout of the sitting areas. Her rage flares again, and it cracks the shadowstone.
She knows she needs to calm and taps into a memory of Ash’s voice telling her to breathe. As she does, she weeps, noticing she’s crying the blood tears of a Primal.
Sera thinks about how Eythos’s plan was not well thought out at all. Sotoria has woken up, and Sera doesn’t like the idea of her being trapped. She laments everything that’s happened so far.
Knowing she needs a weapon, she begins looking around. She searches through some chests in the cage and finds one full of glass cocks. Taking one, she breaks it, turning it into a fairly decent—albeit unusual—weapon.
When she touches the bars of the cage, she feels pain and realizes it won’t be easy to get out of her predicament.
Needing to shed her wet clothes, she searches for something else to wear and finds herself disgusted by the choices. Without options, she picks a gown and changes, then feigns sleep when Callum enters the room.
As he nears her, she repeatedly stabs him with the makeshift dagger, then takes his key. She’s about to take off with it, then decides it’d be smarter to leave it in case she’s captured and returned. She tosses it far under the bed and runs. On her way out, she encounters a guard and stabs him, then sees some Chosen. She tells them she won’t hurt them, but one calls the guards.