Page 178 of Born of Blood and Ash

Concern grew as we neared the main hall, and it didn’t helpthe churning in my stomach since I’d finished eating. There was no way Attes had finished with the Primalsalready. As Ash and I saw Rhain and Saion, he squeezed my hand. Just that smallgesture calmed some of the worry.

“He’s in the throne room,” Rhain announced.

Ash sighed as we turned left. “What is he doing in there?”

“I have no idea,” Saion said. “But he’s not alone. Thierran is with him.”

Ash stopped abruptly, his head cutting toward the gods.“What the fuck?”

Saion laughed. “That was pretty much my response.”

“Who is Thierran?” I asked.

A faint grin appeared on Ash’s lips. “A walking nightmare,in both the literal and physical senses. He’s an oneirou.”

I wasn’t expecting that to be the answer. At all.

“Thierran has a lot of sway overthe remaining oneirou, even thoughthey tend to stay out of Court politics,” Ash quickly explained. “Which isnormally a good thing. But it also begs the question of why he is herewith Attes.”

“Maybe Attes came upon him when hewent to Lotho,” I suggested. “I assume he can betrusted?”

“Trusted in the general sense? Absolutely fucking not,” Ashsaid as we began walking again. “But when it comes to Kolis? Thierran’s never been a loyalist.”

I wasn’t exactly reassured by that, but I didn’t think Attes would bring the god here if he believed he wasdangerous.

We walked through the open double doors between two pillarsand entered the throne room.

Thousands of candles jutted from the smooth, black walls ofthe vast, circular chamber, and hundreds more hovered above the main floor,scattered throughout despite the sunlight pouring in from the open ceiling.

My gaze immediately landed on the oneirou.Hair as dark as the shadowstone around us layagainst his chin, shielding his face. He stood to the left of the center aisle,between the rows of benches, and was almost as tall as Ash. What held myattention was the sword strapped to his back, the daggers sheathed to his upperarms, and the hilt of another blade I saw tucked into the shaft of his boot.

Good gods, this god carried a small arsenal on him—one Belewould be impressed by.

He looked up then, turning his head slightly toward us, andmy back straightened. The man appeared to be in his twenties—there wasn’t asingle crease or line in his skin, which was a color somewhere betweensun-kissed and olive. His features looked like they’d been carved from somefine stone by a master sculptor. Every feature was perfectly symmetrical—theangular cheekbones and jaw, the blade-straight nose, and the dark, arched browsmatching his sculpted lips and framing the most beautiful eyes I’d ever seen.They tapered upward at the outer corners and tipped down toward the bridge ofhis nose at the inner. The irises were a shade of bluish-purple so deep anddark it bordered on amethyst, and he looked like he’d come very close to losingboth eyes.

Two eerily straight lines had been gouged into his skin,starting at the center of his forehead and slicing through his eyebrows justbefore the arch, then running down his cheeks to end at the corners of hislips.

I could feel it happening—what I’d done when I looked intoVikter’s eyes. I was trying—albeit failing—not to do it whenever I pleased. Mysenses stretched out. In the back of my mind, I knew I shouldn’t be doing whatI was—it was a huge invasion of privacy. But my curiosity got the better of me.Focusing on him, I tried to read him as I had with the viktor and…

Saw and felt nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

But I had the distinct impression that if I pushed,I could discover what I wanted to know.

One side of those almost-too-perfect lips curved up,creating a dimple that partly disappeared into a scar. I suddenly had thedistinct impression that this stranger would like to see me try.

There was a challenge in his blue-purple eyes and he wore agrin bordering on a smirk.

He bowed gracefully at the waist and folded a black-glovedhand over his heart. “Meyaah Liessa.” He spoke in a velvety voice I was sure hadled many down a path of very bad, yet fun, decisions.

I acknowledged his greeting with a nod as Attes looked over his shoulder.

“I’m trying to think of the last time I stood in this spaceand saw sunlight reflected off the thrones.” Attesstood in the center aisle, his back to us. “It was so long ago I can’tremember.”

My gaze followed Attes’s to thehauntingly beautiful thrones carved from blocks of shadowstone,their backs stretching into wings that touched at the tips.

“It’s been a little over two decades since the sun rosehere,” Ash replied as Saion and Rhain closed the doors to the space.

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