Page 101 of Born of Blood and Ash

A tremor went through me as I nodded. I didn’t think hecould ever know how much his words meant to me because the next breath waslighter and easier.

Ash had faith in me.

And it was time I started to have some in myself.

“I’ve got this,” I said.

Ash smiled. “Without a doubt.”

“Bow.” Rhain’s voice suddenly boomed from the City Hall.“For the One who is born of Blood and Ash, the Light and the Fire, andthe Brightest Moon, the true Primal of Life, and the Queenof the Gods and Common Man.”

“That’s a really long title,” I whispered to Ash in thesilence.

He grinned as he took the chalice from my hand and placed itbeside his.

“Bow.” Rhain’s voice came again. “For the Asher, the One whois Blessed, the Guardian of Souls, and the Primal God of Common Men andEndings.”

“Ready?” Ash asked as the silence continued from within theCity Hall.

My heart thudded. “Yes.”

Dipping his head, he kissed me once more and gently squeezedmy hand, then we shadowstepped onto the dais.

The sound of a collective gasp reverberated through thecrowd as the Primal mist receded from around us. I started to look past Rhain,but my gaze flew back to him. He had knelt. So had Saion and Rhahar. I briefly saw Bele, who knelt to our right, alongwith Lailah, and I felt Nektas drawing closer.

Everyone but Ash and I was down on one knee, their palmspressed to the floor and to their chests. Even the smallest in the crowd knelt,as did the soldiers lining the colonnade, their backs to the iron-gray bannersthat bore two crescent moons facing one another above the head of a wolf.

Ash had explained this morning what would come next. Brieflymeeting his eyes, we turned. Two thrones made of shadowstonestood adorned with intricately carved wings on their backs, much like thesoldiers’ helmets, their graceful arches meeting. The banners hanging behindthem rippled in the breeze as we approached.

My throat was incredibly dry as we stepped up to theslightly raised thrones, causing me to wish I had drunk more. At least my neckdidn’t feel tight as Ash gave my hand one last squeeze and then let go. Weturned back to the coliseum floor then sat. I could’ve sworn the sun-warmed shadowstone pulsated with energy as I flattened my palms onthe arms of the throne.

A burst of intense, silvery fire rolled across the sky abovethe Hall. I sucked in a sharp breath as the drakenlining the columns of the colonnade lifted their heads, letting out staggering,high-pitched calls. A thick shadow fell over the crowd, blotting out thesunlight. A gust of wind swept over the floor of the Hall, stirring the stringsof lights that crisscrossed the entire length of the massive circular structureand lifted the tendrils of my hair as I looked up.

With a graceful sweep of his black-and-gray wings, Nektas descended from above, landing in front of thethrones just as he had during our coronation.

This time, I was prepared for when he swept his wings backover our heads, and his front talons slammed down on the edge of the dais. Thethick frills around his head vibrated as a sound like thunder rolled from him.He prowled forward, narrowly avoiding Bele and the twins as his tail whippedacross the dais to curl at the foot of the thrones.

Nektas surveyed the crowd as helowered himself onto his belly, his horned head resting on the dais’s edge.

The draken sure did love hisimpressive arrivals.

I looked up from where Nektasremained. The draken along the colonnade loweredtheir wings and waited as those below lifted their heads. Their faces were ablur to me, and the next breath I took was a little thinner but not too bad.

Following Ash’s instructions from this morning, I cleared mythroat. Eather throbbed throughout my body, and when I spoke, I felt the rawenergy in my voice. “You may rise.”

I watched as they rose in silence all across the coliseumfloor. My gaze landed on a woman and man near the front. A young boy, maybe tenor eleven years old, stood between them. The adults’ faces were guarded, maybeeven nervous, and they each had a hand on one of the boy’s shoulders. But he…

He trembled as he stared up at the thrones, his amber eyeswide. However, he didn’t look afraid. My breath caught as I recognized theemotion on his face.

Part of me had expected to see uncertainty and unease, and Iwouldn’t have blamed them if they felt that way. Only those who had calledLethe home knew about me, but none of them expected me to rise as the truePrimal of Life. And those who’d just come to the Shadowlands had no idea whatto expect from me. They didn’t know if I would be any different. Better. Orworse.

But there was none of that in the expressions of thosebelow.

Many of the faces showed various degrees of wonder and maybeeven a little disbelief, echoing the awe I saw in the boy’s expression. The acceptance.The devotion. Seeing that stunned me because, gods, I didn’t feel likeI’d done much to earn it.

But I could change that.

We would show them.

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