Page 127 of Born of Blood and Ash

I kept walking.

“You fucking bitch,” Kyn snarled.

I couldn’t see him, but I felt him grab for me. I spun back,but Kyn was faster. He caught my forearm, and his grip was cruel. The contactof his flesh against mine was worse than the pain, though. It turned my stomachwith disgust.

Kyn said something repulsive about how he’d make Ash watchwhile he committed some hideous act of defilement, but I barely heard him.Eather-rich blood pounded in my ears as I lifted my gaze from hiswhite-knuckled grip on my arm and met his.

Fuck the rules.

I smiled as the eather rose.Silvery light crept through the corners of my eyes as wisps of gold-laced eather seeped from my skin.

Kyn dropped my arm, jerking his hand back with a hiss ofpain. Smoke wafted from his fingers, and the scent of charred flesh rose. Hisirises disappeared in a flash of silvery eather. “Youfucking—”

“Enough!” Aydun threw out his hand.

Kyn’s eyes widened, and then the space before me was empty.

What the…?

Kyn had simply been there one second and gone the next.

Confused, I looked around the chamber as the eather settled. I didn’t see him anywhere. I turned back tothe Ancient. “Um…”

“I put him in a time-out,” Aydun bit out.

I blinked. “Would’ve been great if you’d done that earlier,like when…” I trailed off as the center of my chest throbbed intensely.

A sensation akin to thick oil coated my skin. The tiny hairson the nape of my neck rose as eather stirredrestlessly, pressing against my skin. I turned to the dais as Callum strodepast me.

The true Primal of Death was here.

I was suddenly rooted to where I stood as the gold bannershanging between the two doors framing the back of the dais wall parted.

Guards in gold armor lined both sides of the wide hall Ihadn’t known was even there. They turned in unison, facing one another as theylifted gleaming swords to create an arch.

“Bow,” Callum announced from the dais, his voice loud andchin held high. “Bow for the Great Protector, the Keeper of Common Men, and theWarden of the Gods. The true King of Men and Gods.”

That was not his title. That belonged to Ash. Thesewere just words strung together to inflate an already oversized ego, and itsounded ridiculous to me. Protector? Warden? It had to be a joke. A laughbubbled up in my throat, but it didn’t escape my lips as Kolis appeared in thehall and those throughout the atrium, even the Ascended, who had been feedingand otherwise engaged, stopped what they were doing and knelt. None of them hadeven stopped to fix their clothing.

Everyone except for the Ancient.

And me.

The swords swept down as Kolis passed beneath them, the topof his flaxen head nearly touching the ceiling—a head that bore no crown.

I didn’t know what I felt as I watched him cross the dais,but he didn’t look well.

Kolis was undeniably a beautiful man with his shaggy blondhair, cut jaw, and angular cheeks. He still was. But he appeared as a ghost ofhis former self. Thinner. Less…shiny. Dark shadows shaded the skinbeneath his eyes and cheekbones. The Primal was still weakened.

That wasn’t the only thing.

There was no hint of golden life in him now—no flecks ofgold in his eyes or beneath his skin. Instead, there were slivers of deep, darkred in his silver eyes and churning slowly beneath his flesh. He even wore thetrue shade of death. Crimson.

The color of blood.

Kolis smiled down at me with one of those well-practiced,fake smiles that never ceased to make my skin crawl.

I didn’t flinch, but I could feel his touch. Ididn’t wince, but I could feel the scrape of his fangs against mythroat. I didn’t move an inch, but I could feel his arms around me,his embrace too tight. At that very moment, I knew exactly what I felt. Itwasn’t nothing. It was a ruinous everything. I had to check myselfagain. I had to shut all of it down. No fear. No panic. No fury. And I did. Ipushed it all down until I felt nothing but a simmering rage.

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