“Kolis may send the dakkais here,” Nyktos warned. Nothing had happened yet, but I knew that didn’t mean anything. “To search for the embers.”
“We’ll be ready if he does.”
“And?” Nyktos insisted.
Attes stopped in front of him. “And they will not learn of what happened here. I swear.” He turned toward me. “To you.”
I watched the Primal lower himself to one knee, placing one hand over his heart as he flattened his other palm against the floor. “I swear I will not betray what you’ve done today,meyaah Liessa.”
“That’s really not necessary,” I said. “The my-Queen part. I’m not your Queen.”
Attes lifted his head. “But you are—”
“No, I’m not anything,” I cut him off.
The Primal of War and Accord frowned as he rose, turning to Nyktos.
Nyktos shook his head.
Attes glanced back at me. “I knew somethingwas…different about you. You didn’t feel like a godling.” He then said to Nyktos, “But I thought it was what you told Kolis. That you’d given her a lot of your blood.”
“You had to know when you left that wasn’t the case. You’re clever. You may have thought I was the source of power when you arrived, but you must have had your suspicions upon leaving.”
“I did,” Attes confirmed, his gaze sweeping over me. “I had a lot of suspicions when you didn’t respond to my presence like you should have.”
I tensed. “It was rude of you to even try.”
“There are farruderthings I could try,” he replied, but when Nyktos’s eyes narrowed, he added, “But I prefer not to be threatened for the sixteenth time today.”
“It hasn’t been sixteen times, but I’m sure we’ll get to that number soon enough,” Nyktos growled, the eather in his eyes stilling. “Why not say something to Kolis, Attes? You could’ve gone to him with your suspicions before. You could now. You’d be favored like Hanan once was, and you know what that means. You don’t have to worry about your draken or vassals being dragged to Court to be slaughtered.”
“I know. And I could’ve.” Attes faced Nyktos. “But as I said before, I remember who your father was. I remember who you were meant to be.”
Shadowy tendrils of eather settled around us as we returned to the Shadowlands. The stars were still faint, but the sky was beginning to darken as I stepped out of Nyktos’s embrace and turned to his balcony railing.
There were no snow-kissed mountains or deep green pines to look upon here, but there was a unique, eerie beauty to the crimson sea of leaves and the iron skies.
“What do you think will happen now?” I asked, folding my fingers over the cool stone railing. “With Attes? Kolis?”
“There’s really no way to know. Kolis may do nothing atthe moment, or he may send a warning just as he did with us.” Nyktos joined me, placing his hand beside mine. “But I trust Attes. At least, with this. He was shaken, and I’ve never seen him shaken. He’ll keep quiet—at least long enough for us to hold the coronation and transfer the embers.”
I nodded as the embers pulsed in my chest, pressing against my skin. I ignored the feeling. “I know that we could be wrong and that what I just did could come back to bite us. But I had to…fix that.”
“I know,” he said. “Just because the rest of us have lived that way, it shouldn’t be…it shouldn’t be how it is.”
I glanced at him, but he said no more for several moments.
Then he did.
“Why?” he asked. “Why did you speak out? You shouldn’t have done that, Sera. I could have handled whatever he would’ve dealt.”
I closed my eyes.
“I knew that he would demand a price. I knew it would be sick. Twisted. And I was prepared to do it. To carry the mark it would leave behind.” He was closer now, his voice low. “You didn’t have to speak up. You didn’t need to feel this way. And I know you still feel guilt. Fixing it only lessened a little of that. You don’t deserve this.”
“And you do?” Opening my eyes, I looked over at him. “You deserve to carry those marks?”
Wisps of eather appeared in his eyes. “I’m used to it.”