Page 315 of Born of Blood and Ash

“Yes. I still believe in that.” I tucked a curl back. “Morenow than ever.”

He was quiet as he rolled up his sleeves. “Are we giving thePrimals an ultimatum? Swear allegiance to us or die?”

I turned halfway to him. “I don’t like it,” I admitted,twisting the ends of my hair. “It sounds like something Kolis would do. With Phanos, I would like to give him the chance to stand down,but…”

“You want to do that because of what the ceerendid for you.”

I nodded. “I saw his pain at their loss, Ash. It was real.”

“I’m sure it was.” He exhaled heavily. “But isn’t Koliscapable of experiencing emotional pain?”

My fingers stilled.

“Veses? Kyn?” he continued. “Thatdoesn’t change who they are at their cores, Sera. You know that.”

“I do.” I let go of my hair. “Thinking anything differentwould mean making another mistake. The same mistakes. We have to end this, andwe need to do it in a manner that lessens the impact on the mortal realm.”

He inclined his head, catching what I wasn’t saying. That Icould no longer hold back in an attempt to lessen the lives lost in Iliseeum. “That will solve our problem of acquiring enoughAncient bones. Either the Primals will give us whatthey have, or we will take it.”

That was what Attes had suggested.Take the bones from the Courts.

“You do know that we cannot just kill the Primals who refuse to join us,” he said quietly.

“I know.” I tipped my head back against the cool wall. “Icould Ascend a member of their Court just in case. We already have Aios if Maia remains loyal to Kolis. I could Ascend eitherTheon or Lailah to replace Kyn. We also have Saion and Rhahar.”

“Rhahar will not want to rule theTriton Isles,” he said.

My gaze flicked to him. “Then we will ask Saion.”

He nodded. “That leaves us with Veses’Court.”

“Rhain won’t take her Court.” I pushed away from the wall.“And there truly isn’t a single god there we can trust?”

“I do not believe so.”

I made my way back to him, my chest heavy. “Does that meanwe have to…?” I stopped searching for a less harsh word. I couldn’t pretty upthe eradication of an entire Court. My chin lifted. “Does that mean we have tokill every god there?”

“The ones old enough to become an issue.” His jaw ticked.“Yes.”

Shaking my head, I glanced up at the ceiling. There had tobe another way. Not trusting any of the gods to rule as a Primal didn’t meanthey were incapable of changing. “There will be an impact on the mortal realmif we do that. With no Primal of Rites and Prosperity, we’d plunge all thekingdoms into ruin.”

“We would.”

I stopped in front of Ash, wanting to be close to him. Therewas no reason for me not to be. Ash knew nearly everything now,and he’d held me close as I slept. And as I got ready this morning, he hadn’ttried to hide his hungry stare when I undressed. Nothing had changed—well, thatwasn’t entirely true. Everything had changed, but not in a bad way. It wasalmost like there was a new type of understanding between us. That didn’t meanI ever wanted to talk about what Kolis had done to me again, but I knew I couldif I needed to. I nudged Ash’s leg with my knee.

He looked up at me and turned his body to the side. “Yousure?”

I didn’t even have to say anything, and he knew. That wasone of the many reasons I loved him so much. I offered him my hand.

He took it at once, folding his much larger hand aroundmine, and tugged me down so I sat in his lap. There was a moment when my mindwanted to go someplace else, but I nestled against Ash’s chest instead when hewrapped an arm around me.

“This helps you think better?” he asked.

“Mm-hmm,” I murmured, wiggling until I could rest my headunder his chin. “It’s another of your hidden talents.”

He chuckled, burying a hand in my hair. “One even hidden tome.”

I smiled. “Do you remember during the last meeting when wetalked about how the true Primal of Life could take on a Court?”

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