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)
“Perhaps.” Kolis shifted on the throne. A moment passed, then another. The muscle by his temple ticked. “You do look like her.”
I went rigid.
Wistfulness flashed across his features, causing my skin to crawl. “I can see parts of her in you, even now.”
“But she is not her, Your Majesty,” Callum interjected.
“I know.” The skin over the knuckles of his left hand thinned, revealing a hint of crimson underneath. “But she was in there. Her soul, that is.”
I showed nothing, even as unease festered.
“That’s what my brother did, right? He placed her soul with the embers into your bloodline? But I imagine he intended for you to be reborn as Sotoria. That didn’t happen. But her soul was in you.”
“Her soul is where you cannot reach it,” I said. “In me.”
My lie was smooth enough that Callum stepped back, bumping into the dais.
Kolis’s chin lowered as the shards of red grew in his eyes. “You took the Star diamond. I imagine my brother’s soul was released, and that is where you have placed hers.”
Fuck.
“We released Eythos’s soul and then destroyed The Star.” My thoughts raced. I had no idea if the diamond could be destroyed, but I remembered how it had been created. “Nektas did.”
“Lies.” Kolis laughed. “If you weren’t clever enough to discover the importance of The Star, my nephew is. You have her soul in that diamond.”
Fuck.
I could see I wouldn’t be able to convince him otherwise. Which meant that any protection I may have gotten from Kolis believing that Sotoria was still inside me was gone.
Kolis’s grip on the throne’s gold arms eased. “I brought you here to make a deal, Seraphena.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Aydun stepped forward but remained silent. I imagined he wasn’t supposed to speak. However, he was clearly interested in what Kolis had to say.
A small part of me was, too, but I doubted the deal would be anything but sadistic.
“You have nothing to say to that?” Kolis asked.
“Nope.”
His nostrils flared, but only for a moment before his expression smoothed out. “I will not punish you or my nephew for what you have done.”
“What we’ve done?” A wave of disbelief surged through my voice. “You held me against my will. You imprisoned Nyktos—”
“I imprisoned my nephew for attacking me and killing another Primal,” he said. “And you claimed to want to be at my side. It is not my fault that I believed you.”
I snapped my mouth shut.
“You manipulated me,” he accused. “Likely believing that, with her soul inside you, you would be able to kill me.”
Well, he was wrong about that. I knew I wouldn’t be able to kill him when I attacked him. I just wanted to make him bleed.
“Thank the Fates you were wrong,” he said, and my eyes nearly rolled out of the back of my head. “But as I was saying, I will not seek to punish you or my nephew. Those who conspired with you, however, will need to be punished. They cannot go without justice.”
As if he knew anything about justice.
“But you may live out your existence as a Primal of Life,” he sneered, “with my nephew. Ensuring the balance remains.”
I glanced at Callum. He showed no reaction to that as I’d expected. He had been all about Kolis taking the embers from me. Had he been telling the truth when he said his concern was for the balance?
“The realms will continue on as they have, except it will be under the rule of the Primal of Death as the King,” Kolis said.
My mouth dropped open. “The Primal of Death has never ruled.”
“Nor has a Queen,” he replied.
Well, fuck me, he had me there.
His smile then was a little more real. “All you have to do is give me what I want.”
Ice sloshed in my blood. He could not be serious, but he was. “Sotoria’s soul?”
Kolis nodded. “Bring me The Star.” He leaned forward. “That is all you have to do to prevent a war.”
For a moment, all I could do was stand there while Aydun faced me as if imploring me to remember what he’d said under the trees. I hadn’t forgotten. He’d told me that a war wouldn’t be won until there was blood and bone. And while that made next to no sense to me, he had said that I needed to trust my instincts. He could’ve been talking about how far I believed Kolis would go. Or maybe he meant how I felt regarding using Sotoria’s soul. How uncomfortable I was with the idea.
But what the Ancient had said or even how I felt about using her soul didn’t matter. Giving Sotoria over to Kolis sickened me. He would have her reborn and would watch her grow—
Gods, I couldn’t even finish that line of thought.
But was one soul—one life—worth hundreds? Thousands? My heart pounded erratically as I stood there.