Page 254 of Born of Blood and Ash

Dark tendrils snaked out from the void of churningnothingness, streaking across the sky and the ground. Strands of thick shadowswrapped themselves around the bodies of the airborne sekya.Funnels of whirling, coal-black mist raced across the ground, and the shrieksrose to an ear-piercing volume. Threads of silvery eatherspun through the swirling darkness, slamming into the sekya.Their shrieks were cut short, one after the other, as my gaze fixed on thecenter of the shadowy mass above the Rise.

Ash lowered to the courtyard with immense widespread wingsmade of sparking eather and unrelenting shadows. Hisskin reminded me of the darkest hour of night pierced by streaks of starlight.The tunic he’d donned earlier was gone. Silver energy leapt from hiswhite-as-snow eyes and outstretched palms.

The breath I took went nowhere. I couldn’t look away as the sekya continued to fall around us, their bodiesshattering. His feet touched the ground, sending shadows billowing all aroundhim. This was Nyktos, a Primal ofDeath, in his true form.

And I was in awe.

Delicate tremors coursed up and down my body as he stalkedtoward me. Shadowy wisps bled into the air around him at his approach. Thekaleidoscope of shadows and silvery eather swirlingthrough his flesh slowed. Behind him, the last of the sekyasplintered, their feathered wings fragmenting, and half-mortal bodies becomingnothing more than faintly glowing embers. Ash’s wings dissipated. Tensionsurged in the air as a brutal harshness etched itself into his strikingfeatures.

I remained where I stood, having flashbacks of the nightsome of the entombed gods had been freed. My breath quickened as thoseunnerving silvery pools locked onto my eyes. He looked as he had then.

Terrifying.

Beautiful.

And furious.

A saner person would’ve probably tucked their tail and run.I was not a saner person. I stood there, vaguely aware of Rhain and Belebacking off.

Tendrils of shadows swirled around Ash’s legs as he stalkedtoward me. “Are you all right?”

“Yes.” My gaze swept over him, and I watched the shadows inhis flesh start to recede. “I’m fine.”

“There is blood on you.”

“It’s not mine.” I watched a muscle in his jaw flex. “Areyou okay?”

He gave me a curt nod, his attention shifting to the gorescattered about the courtyard. Static crackled, and I wasn’t so sure he was allright, even though I saw no signs of injury on him.

To our right, Bele rose from where she had crouched by afallen guard. I looked away quickly. I had to. I wasn’t sure I could walk awaywithout intervening if I saw their face.

“What in the world just happened with the sekya?” Bele asked. “They’ve always served you.”

“They have,” Ash answered as my intuition sparked,whispering what he spoke. “But I am not the true Primal of Death. Kolis is.”

And while these creatures had been content to continue as isall these years, something had changed. My eyes flew to Ash.

“Kolis summoned them.” He lifted his gaze from the fallenguard and met mine. Only a hint of his irises appeared. “He’s strengthening hisdefenses.”

CHAPTERTHIRTY-SEVEN

“The sekya…”Rhain said, shattering the tense silence. “Did all of them leave the Abyss?”

“They did.” Ash looked up as two drakenflew overhead, their shadows deepening the night as they landed on the Rise.

My heart lurched. “How many were there?”

His attention returned to the guard’s remains. “About athousand, give or take a couple hundred.”

Good gods. “Do I want to know how many made it out of theShadowlands?”

“I would say about seventy-five percent,” he answered.

“I almost regret asking,” I murmured. “I couldn’t kill themwith eather.”

“No, you could not. Only a Primal of Death can kill themwith eather,” Ash explained. “And I have just enoughof those embers to get the job done.”

I glanced at the draken. It was Ehthawn and Crolee. “Not even thedraken?”

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