Page 111 of Born of Blood and Ash

Old.

Something Ancient.

Sucking in a sharp breath, I spun toward the doors. Nosooner had the thought finished than the air between the two shadowstone pillars warped.

Ash curled his arm around my waist and hauled me back as asphere of eather materialized, rapidly swelling andelongating as it unfurled. But this was no random ball of eather.Instinct told me it was a tear in the very realm itself. An opening.

A portal.

The first thing I saw was skin. A whole lot of bare fleshand honed muscle in the shape of a tall, broad man with shoulder-length brownhair and skin a shade somewhere between the bronze of Ash’s and the copper of Nektas’s. The man casually walked out of theportal like he was merely taking a stroll in a park.

That was if one walked in the park only wearingloose-fitting, white linen pants and absolutely nothing else.

Well, he was wearing something else. Small goldrings in both of his brown nipples. I supposed that counted as some sort ofattire.

I really needed to stop looking at his nipples.

I lifted my gaze. Scrolling vines similar to what adornedthe throne room doors were tattooed up the sides of his throat, stopping at thecurve of a jaw that could’ve been carved from granite. Except I didn’t thinkthat design was made of ink. It was a shade or two darker than his flesh andappeared to churn from within his skin, like the shadows often did inAsh’s. I looked past sculpted lips, a chiseled nose, and arched cheekbones,momentarily distracted by the asymmetric features. And then I saw his eyes.

My lips parted. They were a kaleidoscope of colors: a warmshade of brown, the dewy green of the newly grown patches of grass outside, andthe blue of the Stroud Sea. Bursts of silver were sprinkled throughout thecolors like stars.

I’d seen those eyes before.

During my Ascension, when I’d seen how the realms werecreated.

“What the fuck?” Ash snarled, his flesh thinning. Shadowsappeared along his throat.

The being’s strange eyes flicked to Ash, his head moving ina way that sent a chill of unease down my spine. There was something utterlyinhuman in that simple movement. Almost as if the entire realm shifted aroundhim to accommodate the gesture. One side of his lips curled up, and instinctwarned me that smile was not a good thing.

“It’s okay.” I stepped around Ash—or tried to. Hesidestepped me. “He’s an…” I trailed off as the being’s gaze shifted to me. Hewaited to hear what I said. What I would reveal. My throat dried. “He’s aFate—an Arae.”

The other side of the Ancient’s lips rose then in aclose-lipped smile. It reminded me of Kolis’s smiles—the ones that werepracticed and shallow as if he didn’t understand the emotions behind smilingand was simply copying others’ expressions.

How could Holland be an Ancient? He was nothing like thisbeing standing in front of us.

“I don’t give a fuck what he is,” Ash fumed, the shadowsdeepening as they spread up his throat in nearly the same pattern as the one onthe Ancient’s skin. “I only know he had better have one good fucking reason forarriving unannounced and uninvited in our home.”

Our home.

It was just two words, but they suddenly made me feel allwarm inside—

The Ancient laughed.

Okay. Now was not the time to focus on how those words mademe feel all ooey-gooey. Like, at all. Because the Ancient’s laugh was even morecreepy than his smile.

Dark tendrils of eather gatheredon the floor, wrapping themselves around our legs. “I’m not sure what you findfunny.”

“Many things,” the Ancient replied, his voice carrying alilt I’d never heard before, one with a melodic quality.

The power growing around Ash caused the air to crackle andstirred the eather inside me. “You want to key us inon those things?” Ash said.

“You want to tell me why you speak for the true Primal ofLife?” the Ancient countered.

I stiffened. “He doesn’t speak for me.”

The Ancient’s head moved again, tilting to the side as hefocused on me. “I suppose I should be relieved to hear that.” He paused, hisgaze moving over me in a way that said he was sizing up my worth and wasn’texactly impressed with the end result. My eyes narrowed. “But that is yet to beseen.”

Between the tone that dripped disapproval and that look, itwas like the Ancient had reached inside me and shattered any self-restraint I’ddeveloped after my Ascension.

---