The War of Two Queens (Blood and Ash 4)

I stiffened, my head jerking to the Rise where I saw Aurelia and Nithe perched beside Thad. I didn’t see— “Reaver?”

“He took Malec to Iliseeum.”

My heart lurched at the voice I’d heard once before, in Iliseeum. Kieran rocked back, and then I saw Nektas crouched before the altar, his long, black-and-silver-streaked hair falling across bare shoulders and over the distinct pattern of scales in his warm, copper skin.

“How are you wearing pants?” I blurted out.

A silent laugh went through Casteel as he held me tighter. “How, out of everything, is that what you question?”

“If you’d seen Reaver naked as many times as we have,” Kieran muttered, “you’d think that was a valid question, too.”

Nektas’s eyes, with their thin, vertical pupils, fixed on me. “I can manifest clothing if I choose to do so. Reaver is not nearly old enough for that.”

My brows lifted. “He’s not?”

“He may be older than everything you know, but he is still a youngling,” Nektas explained, and my heart twisted, because I thought of his youngling. Jadis. “And to many, he is still Reaver-Butt.”

Reaver-Butt? Casteel stiffened behind me.

“Wait.” Kieran blinked. “What?”

“It was a nickname he liked when he was very young.” Nektas shrugged. “The point is, he’s not powerful enough to manifest clothing.”

I had to let that nickname go for the time being. “I’m sorry about Jadis. I…” I fell silent, wishing there was more to say but knowing there was nothing.

Nektas’s eyes briefly slammed shut, the skin around them tightening. “She has not passed.”

I glanced between Kieran and Casteel. “What? Reaver believed that she had been—” I didn’t want to say killed. “How do you know?”

“I can feel her. She is here, in this realm.” Nektas’s eyes opened to the sky. “I am her father. Reaver would not be able to sense her as I can. She lives.”

Shocked by the revelation, I told myself that this was good news. And it was. It was just…where was she? And why hadn’t Isbeth used her? “We’ll find her.”

Nektas nodded. “We will.”

“Reaver took Malec to Iliseeum?” I asked, glancing at where the casket lay in pieces upon the altar. “That means Malec lives?”

“For now,” Nektas said.

Well, that wasn’t exactly reassuring, but relief washed over me anyway. I leaned into Casteel. “Thank the gods,” I murmured, looking back at Hisa and Emil as Delano lowered to his haunches, pressing against my legs. Wait. I twisted, searching for… “Where’s Malik?” My heart skipped. “Millicent?”

“Millicent ran off,” Casteel explained. “Malik went after her.”

The knowledge that both were alive brought me some comfort. But had Millicent run off because she had witnessed the death of our mother? At my hands? I didn’t think that it was only me who had done that, but did she fear the same would happen to her? Was she upset? Angry?

Swallowing, I shut those thoughts down until I had time to figure them out. “How did I bring everyone…?” It had been my will. I remembered. I’d let my will sweep out from me as the mist cradled their bodies, but I wasn’t the Primal of Life.

“It wasn’t just you who brought them back. You’re not that powerful yet. You had help,” Nektas said, and my gaze shot back to him. “The Primal of Life aided you, and Nyktos captured their souls before they could enter the Vale or the Abyss and then released them.”

“Probably could do without the guards and all of them coming back,” Kieran muttered.

The draken eyed him. “Balance. There must always be balance,” he said. “Especially when the Primal of Life granted such an act as this.”

A shiver rolled through me. “Seraphena—the Consort. She’s the true Primal of Life.”

“She is the heir to the lands and seas, skies and realms,” Nektas said, speaking softly. But the words…they were full of respect, and they reverberated like thunder in my chest. “The fire in the flesh, the Primal of Life, and the Queen of Gods. The most powerful Primal.” He paused. “For now.”

For now?

“How is that possible?” Casteel asked.

“It is a complicated journey to how the Consort became the Primal,” Nektas said, looking at me. “But it started with your great-grandfather, Eythos, when he was the Primal of Life. And his brother, Kolis, the true Primal of Death.”

“Kolis is my great-uncle?” I exclaimed, forgetting the whole for-now part.

Nektas nodded as Emil and Naill drew closer, giving the ancient draken a wide berth as they listened.

“Your family ancestry is even more interesting than I originally believed,” Casteel murmured, and Kieran snorted. “What does he have to do with this?”

“To make a long story short, Kolis fell in love with a mortal. Scared her while she was picking flowers for a wedding. When she ran from him, she fell from—”

“The Cliffs of Sorrow.” My eyes went wide. “Her name was Sotoria, right? That was real? Ian…” I glanced back at Casteel. “Ian told me that story after he Ascended. I thought it was just something he made up.”