Total pages in book: 362
Estimated words: 347293 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1736(@200wpm)___ 1389(@250wpm)___ 1158(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 347293 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1736(@200wpm)___ 1389(@250wpm)___ 1158(@300wpm)
Essence thrummed hotly through my veins. I doubted that any of them would have a change of heart upon Awakening. Why risk the chance of another Primal attempting to free them, but for vastly different reasons than causing a distraction this time?
All were users of some sort, destined for an eternity in the Abyss. So, why delay it?
Power gathered in me, pooling in my chest. The eather throbbed there as my grip tightened on the railing. I could end them before they had a chance to become a threat.
And I should.
Not because I wanted to but because it made sense tactically. I knew it did because, out of all the racing, scattered pieces of knowledge, there was one rapid, fleeting line of thought that warned me that Kolis could summon those loyal to him just as I could call upon the riders. Perhaps his pull would be strong enough to free those entombed.
That was something I would not allow.
Eather pressed against my skin. The corners of my vision turned silver. My muscles tensed—
I jerked myself back with a gasp. “My gods…”
Blinking, I pressed my palms to my stomach. Had I been seconds away from freeing the entombed gods just to kill them?
Yes. The answer was yes.
I shook my head, irritated with how quickly I’d proven that I’d only wounded that wild, reckless part of me. Gods, that was really concerning.
Okay. Maybe only slightly concerning because I needed to get real. It wasn’t like anyone would be all that mad about ending those gods, but was that really how I wanted to start my reign? With what felt like an abuse of power?
Something monstrous?
Something Kolis would do?
Frustrated with myself, I let out a heavy breath as my gaze settled on a guard patrolling the Rise surrounding the House of Haides. While I watched him walk the wall, something…bizarre happened.
I heard a name.
Eamon.
Eamon Icarion.
And I heard more than just a name. Details whispered among my thoughts. Eamon was a god who’d seen three centuries. I knew he’d been in the courtyard when I challenged Ash to train with me, even though the sandy-skinned man was too far away for my improved vision to recognize any of his features. I also knew he was born in Lotho, the Court belonging to Embris, the Primal God of Wisdom, Loyalty, and Duty, and the mountainous home of the so-called Fates. Instinct prodded to me to push, and then push harder to follow the invisible thread connecting us. He’d been in the Shadowlands since Ash began his rule, having lost his family when they expressed dismay over Eythos’s murder. He loved a godling he’d met in Lethe, and I felt—no, I knew—that Eamon was a good man, with the blood he’d spilled marking his soul.
I sucked in a sharp breath as awareness coursed through me. I turned to the bedchamber, sensing a draken, but I also felt the dual throbbing awareness of a Primal. And then another. It was strange because I knew the first was Ash because he felt different. Some innate part of me recognized that he was closer now. Was it because we were heartmates? I had to think so as I heard the interior chamber doors open.
Ash walked out, dressed as he’d been when he left this morning, having donned an ivory shirt. He’d left the collar laces undone, and had the sleeves rolled halfway up his forearms.
I would fight anyone who disagreed that no one else looked as good as he did with or without a shirt.
As he stepped to the side, a purplish-black-scaled draken flew out from the open doors, gliding smoothly through the air.
Reaver landed on the railing, but unlike with Nektas, my heart dropped. We were several stories up. If he fell… “Is there not a better place for you to sit?”
Tucking his wings close to his sides, his head tilted. He let out a series of low chirps that I understood—not so much heard but sensed. It was strange.
“I know you can fly, Reaver-butt,” I responded. “But that doesn’t mean there aren’t other, more suitable resting places.” I gestured around the balcony. “Literally any place else that doesn’t make me feel like I’m about to have a heart attack.”
He nudged my arm with his head and then hopped off, landing on the balcony. He sat at my side, his head just above my knee. “There is a daybed, like…right there.”
Reaver leaned against my leg in response.
“He wants to be close to you,” Ash explained as he stopped by the doors. “Jadis, on the other hand, is currently terrorizing Bele.”
I glanced up with a grin and then looked closer at Reaver. “Have you gotten bigger?” I asked. Nubs of what I suspected would one day become horns had sprouted from the middle of the flattened bridge of his nose to run up the center of his diamond-shaped head where they split into a vee-shape.