Page 407 of Born of Blood and Ash

“It was no threat,” Aydun replied calmly. “Just a statementof fact. First sons and daughters are never meant to be, well, of muchimportance in the grand scheme of things. Which is why it always amuses me thatmortals place so much emphasis on firstborns.” He shrugged. “But somehow, yourtenacious little self survived, and here we are.”

The three of us stared at him, and for some idiotic reason,I blurted out the very next thing that entered my mind. “I’m actually relatedto that fucker Callum?”

Aydun frowned. “Distantly related, but yes.”

My upper lip curled. “Ew.”

“As disturbing as that realization may be,” Ash said after amoment, pulling his gaze from me to focus on the Fate, “and as interesting asthis little history lesson has been, it doesn’t change why we summoned you. Wewant The Star.”

“Thank you for finding my history lesson interesting,” Aydunreplied. “But as I said, it is too late.”

“No, it’s not,” I snarled. “All you have to do is go and getit from wherever one of your fellow assholes stashed it.”

Aydun blinked at me. “Look, you succeeded in preventing afull-scale war between the Primals. Barely,” hetacked on. “Many gods and Primals were lost, but atrue war would’ve lasted years, if not decades or longer. So, congratulations.”

Attes snorted at that.

“You managed to stop the Ancients from being too disturbed,”Aydun went on. “But Eythos failed to stop theprophecy, as did you.”

“She did not fail shit,” Ash warned.

“Okay. Both of you failed, then. Does sharing theresponsibility make it easier to swallow?” Aydun challenged. “You could’vereleased Sotoria the moment her soul was placed inThe Star. You didn’t.”

“It was too risky,” I argued.

“True. Kolis would’ve felt her. He’s had enough of her bloodthat every time she is reborn, he senses her,” he said, and disgust sweptthrough me. “And now that he’s also had your blood, he would’ve definitelyfelt her because a tiny part of you has mingled with her and vice versa.”

I stepped back and then snapped forward when Ash movedtoward the Ancient. I grabbed his arm, holding him back.

Aydun sighed. “Why are you mad at me for once again statinga simple fact?”

“It doesn’t matter.” I wrapped my arms around Ash’s. “Whatdoes is that you also know it was too risky to release Sotoriauntil Kolis was entombed. He would’ve burned through the realms to get to herand then disappeared into some hole with her.”

“Yes, he would have,” Aydun stated, glancing at one of thenearby chests. “What’s in these?”

“That’s not important,” Attes bitout. “We didn’t know that him having her blood from her prior lives wassomething he could’ve picked up on.” His gaze found mine. “That means if we hadreleased Sotoria now and she chose to live a mortallife, Kolis would’ve felt her, even while entombed. It may have taken him awhile to get his ass free, but he would have had one big motivation to do so.”

Meaning he wouldn’t have remained entombed for thousands ofyears. Not even hundreds. Or decades. “Gods.”

Attes dragged a hand over hisface. “So, what does this mean?”

The Fate nudged a chest with his foot. “It’s pretty obviousif you would all give yourself five seconds to think about it.”

I opened my mouth, but Ash spoke. “She will be reborn fromthe Mierel bloodline.”

“She will be reborn as the second daughter of the Mierel bloodline,” Aydun corrected. “Whenever thathappens.”

Ash looked down at me. So did Attes.My entire body was tingling, and not necessarily in a good way. I placed a handon my stomach. Attes’s gaze followed my motion with afrown.

“Don’t worry.” Aydun tipped the chest, and something metalclanged around inside it. “You do not carry daughters.”

Ash’s head snapped to the Fate.

“Male twins tend to run in your bloodline,” he remarked.“Hopefully, they will turn out better than their predecessors and currentcompany.”

I gaped at him.

“Sotoria’s soul is beyond yourreach now. You all need to accept that. Now, we are left with only one way toprevent her from being reborn from the giver of blood and the bringer ofbone, the Primal of Blood and Ash.”

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