Become his weakness.
Make him fall in love.
End him.
Kolis.
Not Ash.
And here I was, with him, yet fulfilling my duty was the furthest thing from my mind as I fought the urge to take several steps back from the false King. He was dressed as he had been when I saw him in Dalos. Loose linen pants. No shirt or boots. He bore no crown tonight as Callum faced him, bowing deeply.
“I’m glad to see you’re finally awake,” Kolis noted.
Breathe in.The embers remained silent as Kolis strode forward, but there was still a burning in my chest. Terror and fury that wereonlypartly mine. A sense similar to déjà vu swept through me. I hadn’t been here before, caged and chained.
But Sotoria had. When Kolis brought her back to life.
I wanted to run. I wanted to rage, but a lifetime of beingtaught to never show fear—to never showanyemotion—filled me. The veil settled over me as I held Kolis’s stare.
Kolis inclined his chin. “You do not kneel?”
“No,” I bit out. “I do not.”
Kolis laughed, low and soft, as Callum stepped to the side of the gilded cage. “Still incredibly brave, I see. Just as you were when you took the dagger handed to you.” He placed his fingers on the bars. “Then again, how brave were you when you planned to betray me the moment you left? Using what does not belong to you to snatch away the life owed me?”
I clenched my jaw shut to stop myself from saying something incredibly foolish and keep my teeth from chattering. “Blood and ash?” I repeated. “What does that mean?”
Kolis trailed his hand over the bars as he laughed again. A look akin to respect flickered over his too-perfect features, and then his gaze lowered. I could only be grateful for my loose hair hanging in tangled curls over my chest. “It is the name of the prophecy.”
My thoughts immediately went to the one Penellaphe had shared. “A prophecy?”
“No. I speak oftheprophecy. The last dreamt by the Ancients. Apromiseonly known by a few. Dared to be spoken of by even fewer.” His fingers danced over the bars as he began to walk, to prowl. “And only repeated by the descendant of the Gods of Divination,” he said.Penellaphe. He spoke of her. “And by the last oracle to be born.”
The god, Delfai, had mentioned the last oracle, too, hadn’t he? An oracle born of the Balfour bloodline. What were the chances that it was a coincidence that Delfai had mentioned this oracle?
None.
Kolis’s grin was slow and cold. “But my dear Penellaphe didn’t receive a complete vision,” he said.
I tensed.
“Lucky for her, Penellaphe believed I had no knowledge of the vision. Those who do seem to meet untimely deaths,” he said, and Callum chuckled. “My brother knew.” He gestured at me. “Obviously.”
I turned, following him as he stalked the length of the cage.
He stopped directly across from me. “Prophecies oftencome in threes. Each part seemingly unrelated until they’re all pieced together.”
The nape of my neck tingled. Penellaphe…she had said that. That they often had a beginning, a middle, and an end, and they weren’t always received in order or completely.
Kolis’s golden-flecked gaze shifted to Callum.
He stepped forward. “‘From the desperation of golden crowns and born of mortal flesh, a great primal power rises as the heir to the lands and seas, to the skies and all the realms. A shadow in the ember, a light in the flame, to become a fire in the flesh,’”he recited. “‘When the stars fall from the night, the great mountains crumble into the seas, and old bones raise their swords beside the gods, the false one will be stripped from glory until two born of the same misdeeds, born of the same great and Primal power in the mortal realm. A first daughter, with blood full of fire, fated for the once-promised King. And the second daughter, with blood full of ash and ice, the other half of the future King. Together, they will remake the realms as they usher in the end.’”
“‘And so it will begin with the last Chosen blood spilled, the great conspirator birthed from the flesh and fire of the Primals will awaken as the Harbinger and the Bringer of Death and Destruction to the lands gifted by the gods,’”Kolis continued for Callum.“‘Beware, for the end will come from the west to destroy the east and lay waste to all which lies between.’”
Kolis pressed his forehead against the bars. “I’m sure you’ve heard that before.”
The fact that he’d known Penellaphe had spoken to us unsettled me greatly.