Page 409 of Born of Blood and Ash

The corners of my lips curved up.

He frowned, and Ash sent me a questioning look.

“I’m not sure why you’re smiling,” Attesmuttered.

“Is that all?” I asked.

For a moment, the Ancient looked uncertain, and then he,too, smiled faintly. “It is.”

“Why is it now just hitting me that you are withchild?” Attes murmured from where he sat across fromAsh and me. We’d come upstairs and ended up in what appeared to be Attes’s office.

There were no empty shelves on his walls. Just a shit ton ofweapons.

I kind of liked it.

“With two,” Attes corrected,blinking rapidly. “Congratulations—” He sat up straight, his head swingingtoward Ash. “You let her fight while pregnant?”

“While I wasn’t entirely thrilled with her doing so,” Ashreplied, taking a drink of the whiskey Attes hadpoured for him, “I do not control what she does.”

I raised my brows at Attes.

“Fates,” the Primal muttered, rubbing his hand over hisface. “Neither of you is thinking about listening to that fuck of a Fate and…”He swallowed the whiskey, lips peeling back. “Ending their lives before theybegin, are you?”

“No,” Ash said.

“Good. You two deserve the joy of parenthood and itshorrors.” A brief dimple appeared in a flash of a grin, and I thought about hischildren. Would he ever have more? “Besides, there are other ways toprevent…fuck, to prevent Sotoria from being reborn.”

“I’m sorry.” I leaned forward, resting my elbows on myknees. “Maybe we should’ve risked releasing her sooner.”

“You know what would’ve happened if we had.” He lowered hisglass.

“At least she is safe for now.” Ash rubbed my back. “She’snot really conscious while in The Star, right?”

I steepled my fingers under my chin. “Not always.”

“Then, to her, it will be as if she is sleeping,” he said.

“Yeah.” I closed my eyes, absolutely hating that Sotoria was trapped in The Star, aware or not. It wasn’tfair. “We should still try to find it.”

“The Fates could’ve hidden it anywhere,” Attessaid.

“Or given it to someone.” I thought about what I’d seenaround Callum’s remains. “We need to find Callum.”

Ash’s eyes narrowed. “You think the Fates gave it to him?The last I saw of him, he was in pieces.”

“He’s her brother.” And my…well, whatever. I told them whatI’d seen before the Temple collapsed.

Ash cursed. “Fucking Fates.”

“Ditto,” I murmured, looking across at Attes.“You were right about there being other ways to prevent her from being reborn.We’re having sons.”

Attes nodded.

Beside me, Ash sighed heavily and tilted his head back, theglass of whiskey resting on his knee. “I know what you are thinking.”

I pressed my lips together. Ash had envisioned our sonsscrambling over benches in the throne room, playing with Reaver and Jadis, andthen our grandchildren doing the same.

There would be no grandchildren.

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