Page 129 of Born of Blood and Ash

“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 tocrawl. “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 handthinned, revealing a hint of crimson underneath. “But she was in there. Hersoul, that is.”

I showed nothing, even as unease festered.

“That’s what my brother did, right? He placed her soul withthe embers into your bloodline? But I imagine he intended for you to be rebornas Sotoria. That didn’t happen. But her soul wasin you.”

“Her soul is where you cannot reach it,” I said. “In me.”

My lie was smooth enough that Callum stepped back, bumpinginto 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 thatis where you have placed hers.”

Fuck.

“We released Eythos’s soul andthen destroyed The Star.” My thoughts raced. I had no idea if the diamond couldbe destroyed, but I remembered how it had been created. “Nektasdid.”

“Lies.” Kolis laughed. “If you weren’t clever enough todiscover the importance of The Star, my nephew is. You have her soul in thatdiamond.”

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 youhere to make a deal, Seraphena.”

CHAPTERNINETEEN

Aydun stepped forward but remained silent. Iimagined he wasn’t supposed to speak. However, he was clearly interested inwhat Kolis had to say.

A small part of me was, too, but I doubted the deal would beanything but sadistic.

“You have nothing to say to that?” Kolis asked.

“Nope.”

His nostrils flared, but only for a moment before hisexpression smoothed out. “I will not punish you or my nephew for what you havedone.”

“What we’ve done?” A wave of disbelief surged through myvoice. “You held me against my will. You imprisoned Nyktos—”

“I imprisoned my nephew for attacking me and killing anotherPrimal,” he said. “And you claimed to want to be at my side. It is not my faultthat 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 tokill him when I attacked him. I just wanted to make him bleed.

“Thank the Fates you were wrong,” he said, and my eyesnearly rolled out of the back of my head. “But as I was saying, I will not seekto punish you or my nephew. Those who conspired with you, however, will needto be punished. They cannot go without justice.”

As if he knew anything about justice.

“But you may live out your existence as aPrimal of Life,” he sneered, “with my nephew. Ensuring the balanceremains.”

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