He deemed meworthyas Nyktos took my hand that had frozen in midair.
He dismissed us as the voices calmed, and that entity inside me settled to wait for whatshewas owed.
He left amarkthat remained as I exited the atrium.
I didn’t remember walking the hall or the courtyard. I didn’t see Attes or Kyn, and if Nyktos spoke, I didn’t hear him. We’d accomplished what we’d come for. We entered the trees of Aios with the knowledge that Kolis didn’t recognize me as Sotoria and left knowing that Gemma had been right: Kolis had figured out how to create life.
But I left a piece of myself behind in that atrium—a smallsliver of that goodness that Nyktos had spoken of. It had been carved out and now lay beside that blade on the marble scorched by the draken’s blood.
As Nyktos folded his arms around me, preparing for us to shadowstep back to the balcony of his private quarters, I knew I would never get that piece back.
An image of the draken flashed before me. “Take me to Attes and Kyn’s Court,” I rasped, feeling those tight, shallow breaths as he held me to his chest. “Take me to Vathi. I can bring him back.”
“Sera,” he whispered—pleaded, really. “You can’t do that.”
“Bringing him back won’t cause another’s death, right? The draken must be like a god.”
“Yes, but—”
I grasped the front of his tunic, keeping my voice low. “I can try. It hasn’t been that long, and we don’t know if Kolis will feel it, right? How can we be sure? I never brought a draken back. It’s not like I’ll Ascend him. I’ve brought animals back before and no one—”
“A draken is not the same thing as an animal, Sera,” Nyktos cut me off, his eyes flat as a balmy breeze stirred the golden leaves above us. “And when you did, itwasfelt. It was faint. Different. We didn’t know what we were feeling then, but we do now.”
“Okay. Then maybe he will feel something, but I have to do this. Please.” My hands shook as I tugged on his tunic. “What is the point of any of this if innocents are allowed to die? What is the point of sacrificing the few to save the many when the few become so numerous? Why is there even a balance if evil is allowed to continually upset it?” How does anyone staygoodliving like that?
Shadows bled beneath Nyktos’s flesh as he stared down at me. “We don’t. We survive instead. That is how we honor the sacrifice the draken never should’ve had to make.”
But that wasn’t enough.
Not for me.
Not forher.
“That’s not enough,” I told him. “It will never be enough.”
Nyktos’s eyes closed as he cursed. Then the shadowy eather rose around us. My heart lurched as I tried to pull away, butNyktos held me tight to his chest. Only seconds passed, and then cooler air that smelled of theseareplaced the warm air.
My eyes flew open as I jerked back. I didn’t get far. Nyktos had a hold of me, but I twisted in his embrace, realizing that we were on some sort of white stone balcony. Stunned, I sawgreen—the tips of lush, dark pines sweeping over rolling hills that swept up and up to snow-capped mountains. I turned, looking past an ivory-hued Rise as tall as what surrounded the House of Haides and then out to the pale blue waters of a sea.
“Where are we?” I whispered.
“In a place of bad life choices,” Nyktos muttered.
Wind suddenly roared across the balcony, whipping my hair as something large and black swept up. Wings. Large, leatherydrakenwings. Nyktos hauled me against his chest as a horned tail glided a hairsbreadth from where I’d stood.
“What the hell are you two doing here?” Attes demanded. “Without invitation or warning, I may add.”
Vathi.
Nyktos had brought me to Vathi.
I almost collapsed with relief as we turned to the open doors. Attes was striding toward us, patches of his tunic burned straight through to exposed, raw flesh.
“The draken,” I said in a hurry. “Where is he?”
Attes drew up short. “Kyn took him to burn—”
“Stop him! You need to stop him right now.” I lurched forward, panic blossoming. “Please. Go get him and bring him to me. Please.”