Total pages in book: 222
Estimated words: 213974 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1070(@200wpm)___ 856(@250wpm)___ 713(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 213974 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1070(@200wpm)___ 856(@250wpm)___ 713(@300wpm)
“Is that a rhetorical question?”
“It shouldn’t be a question at all,” I pointed out. “He helped us escape, and he helped me before.”
“When did he do that?” Ash eyed me as I started to step back. He cupped my elbow. “Not yet.”
“I know you two haven’t had your little chat yet—wait, why do I need to stand still?”
Ash arched a brow as he reached on either side of my neck, slipping his hands under my hair.
“Oh.” I stood motionless as he began gently working my hair from where it was stuck beneath the shirt. “Anyway, Kyn was ordered to destroy the Shadowlands to send a message and then take me. Attes intervened.”
“By taking you himself.” The air charged in the cavern. “To Kolis.”
“It was the only way to stop Kyn from destroying the Shadowlands,” I reasoned.
The look Ash gave me made it clear what he thought of Attes’s interference.
“Look, your father trusted Attes,” I said, trying another tactic. “Trusted him well enough that Eythos told him what he planned to do with Sotoria’s soul and the embers.”
Ash halted again.
“Attes has known this whole time, Ash. Wouldn’t he have told Kolis about Sotoria’s soul if he were loyal to him?” I said. “Wouldn’t he have said I wasn’t Sotoria? Because Attes also knew that whatever your father attempted did not entirely work. He knew I wasn’t Sotoria, and he had no reason to keep that information from Kolis, who likely would’ve come to the same conclusion I did. That if The Star is powerful enough to hold and transfer embers, it would be strong enough to do the same with a soul.”
That muscle running along his jaw ticked harder. “If Attes knew this entire time, why didn’t he tell me?”
“That’s a good question. I asked that myself.”
Ash had managed to get all but a few strands of hair out from under the shirt. “I’m sure he had an answer.”
“The Fates. They demanded that you never know of the plan. It was one of their ways to keep their precious balance. And, yes, that is really dumb, but Attes and Eythos feared that if they told you, it would end up turning back on you somehow.”
That muscle in his jaw worked overtime as he scooped a curl from where it was plastered to my neck.
“And he didn’t trust you.”
“That is the first easily believable thing I’ve heard.”
I sighed. “He didn’t trust you entirely. He never knew what you really thought of Kolis, which sounds hard to believe.”
“It’s not.” He moved on to the other side of my neck. “I told you. Even if I didn’t always fool Kolis, I could be very convincing.” He looked at me. “None of that means I trust Attes in this.”
Frustration rose. “I sort of want to knock some sense into you right now.”
“You can try.” He flashed me a grin.
I ignored it. “Attes hates Kolis, and you have to know why—what Kolis did to him. To his children.”
Ash’s nostrils flared as he draped the last of my hair over my shoulder. “I know.”
“Then do you think Attes doesn’t want to see Kolis dealt with as badly as you do?”
His thick lashes lowered, shielding his gaze.
“And Attes did what Elias did,” I tossed out.
The skin at the corners of his eyes creased. “He swore his allegiance to you?”
“Yeah, even did the whole kneeling and speech thing.”
Some of the hardness left his features. “That’s…interesting.”
Rolling my eyes, I threw up my arms. “Attes has only done what Keella has, what you have. Survived while doing his best to prevent Kolis from getting what he wants,” I said. “And that is not just Sotoria. It’s the embers, too. He wants—or needs,” I corrected myself, “those embers.”
“So he can become a crazed, unstoppable monster?”
“Well, besides that. It’s the whole balance thing. Life has to be created to keep the realms stable, and what he’s doing to accomplish that is creating what he calls—”
“I know what he’s created. The Ascended,” he said, and surprise flickered through me. “The Revenants. He couldn’t shut the fuck up about them when he came to tell me about the…” Tendons stood out along his throat. “When he came to tell me that I would be set free once my anger was under control.”
I knew that wasn’t what he’d been about to say. It was when Kolis went to tell him about the deal. “Why did he even bring that up?”
“Because my uncle is a boastful fuck who takes his inability to create life like my father did personally and to the extreme.”
I nodded slowly, remembering how he’d reacted when he sensed that I didn’t believe he could create life. “Anyway, it won’t always work. He knows that. So does Kyn.”
Shadows pressed against Ash’s cheeks.
I quickly continued. “Kolis didn’t know he couldn’t Ascend me, but he still believed the whole thing would be dangerous. So, he planned to wait until I was in my Culling to take the embers. He didn’t know that I had already started my Ascension. And the only reason I can figure that it didn’t completely happen was because of what Kolis had Phanos do.”