Page 85 of Born of Blood and Ash

Ash nodded.

I started to ask how, but the answer occurred to me. A newhorror took root in my chest. “With it not being a true day or night in theShadowlands…”

“The lyrue remained intheir beast forms,” he answered, his jaw hardening. “They had to be hunted intoextinction, and for most of them, it was a relief—a release from a life thathad become a curse and one they never would’ve chosen for themselves.”

Good gods.

Wondering what could’ve gone so drastically wrong, I turnedmy attention back to the riverbed, unable to understand the difference betweengiving a creature a dual life and creating one from a mortal. But the linebetween them was thin. Eythos had given the dragons adual life, creating the draken. Why had—?

I stiffened, my skin tingling. “He…he didn’t give them achoice.”

Ash’s head snapped in my direction. “How did you—?” Heinhaled deeply, his chin lifting. “Foresight.”

Nodding, I swallowed hard. “Why didn’t he give them achoice?”

Ash held my stare for a moment before his gaze slid away. “Idon’t know. All of that happened long before I was born, but my father wasn’twithout flaws.”

A knot lodged in my chest. No, he was not. “Kolis believesthat everyone saw his brother as flawless.”

“And Kolis is a fucking idiot,” he snarled, shadowsappearing beneath his thinning flesh. “There were likely those who did believethat, but no one who knew my father could’ve possibly continued doing so. Hemade mistakes.”

“Like with Sotoria?” I blurtedout.

His gaze swung back to mine. “You’re talking about what hedid with her soul—the deal he made with your ancestor?”

Now, it was I who looked away. I nodded, but I wasn’tthinking about Eythos’s deal with King Roderick Mierel and how he’d placed Sotoria’ssoul along with the embers of life in my bloodline. It was what Kolis hadclaimed Eythos had done to Sotoria.What I knew was true.

Eythos had been the one to end Sotoria’s second life.

“Even though whatever he planned didn’t work as intended,what he did can’t be a mistake,” Ash said quietly, but he was closer. I couldfeel him. “If he hadn’t done that, our paths may not have crossed.”

Slowly, I turned to him. The shadows had receded from hisflesh, but the eather pulsed brightly in his eyes. Istarted to tell him that wasn’t what I’d meant, but that would open a door, andit wasn’t a good time to walk through it because that conversation would leadto another truth Kolis had spoken—albeit a partial one. The one about Ash’smother.

So, I did what Ash normally did.

I got the subject back on track. “I know you said you don’tknow why your father didn’t give them a choice, but do you have any guesses?Because it seems so out of character for him.”

Eyeing me for a moment, he shook his head. “If I had toguess? Ego. He thought he knew best.”

“And he learned quickly that he didn’t?” Sighing, I turnedback to the riverbed. “I should probably stop delaying this.”

“You know, you don’t have to try this,” Ash countered as ashadow of one of the draken fell over us. “Since theRot has lifted, it will eventually rain. Even with winter on the way.”

I nodded. “I know.”

A moment passed. “And neither of us has any idea how muchenergy something like this will take. There’s no reason to tax yourself.”

But there was.

Parts of the Shadowlands had already fallen to the Rot bythe time Ash had been born, but he’d said much of it resembled the Dark Elms ofLasania. Wild and lush. It hadn’t become this evenwhen his father died.

Nearly twenty-one years ago, all the trees lost theirleaves, and all the bodies of water, except for the Black Bay, dried up.

That had happened the night of my birth, signaling the startof the slow death of the embers.

Even though I knew it wasn’t my fault, I felt responsiblefor the final thing stolen from Ash and all those who resided in theShadowlands.

I wanted to give it back to them. Now. Not later.

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