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“Listen to me,” he said, shouting over the wind.
“Fuck you.” I pitched back—or fell back—kicking out. My foot glanced off his chest.
Attes halted, raising his brows. “You really need to conserve your energy, Sera. And listen to me.”
Yeah, that wasn’t happening. “You betrayed…us,” I forced out, feeling dizzy. “After I helped Thad, you…betrayed—”
The ground shook as Ash and Kolis hit somewhere to our right, their bodies digging up tile and sending marble flying in every direction.
Cursing, Attes twisted and pulled me toward him, shifting us away from the rain of debris. I reached up, digging my fingers into his hair and yanking hard. It was a bitch move. I knew it, but it was the best I could manage at the moment.
Attes snarled through bared teeth—fangs. He jerked his head, and I felt a savage burst of satisfaction when I saw strands of golden-brown hair between my fingers.
“Damn it,” he growled. “Stop—”
Fingers clawed, I aimed for that fucking dimple.
“I know what I’ve done.” He caught my wrist, eather snapping in his eyes as Ash and Kolis returned to the sky. “There isn’t time to discuss that or for you to seek revenge.”
My mouth opened.
“Kolis will kill Ash,” Attes said, our faces inches apart. “He won’t mean to, and that’s not because he doesn’t want to. It’s because of what will happen if he does.” Something wet hit my cheek and then my arm. “Ash is not powerful enough to defeat Kolis and his draken, which will come this way the moment they sense that Kolis is truly in danger. Ash will die.”
Panting, I stared at the Primal who’d strolled into Ash’s office, seemingly without a care. The one who had flirted while delivering Kolis’s message and teased as he asked about the movements of the Shadowlands’ forces toward the borders of the Court he shared with his brother, Kyn. Ash hadn’t trusted him completely, but there had been something between them. Not exactly a friendship but maybe a kinship.
And he’d fucked us.
He’d likely been in on Kolis ordering me to slaughter that poor draken, and had probably told Kolis that I brought Thad back.
The act the false King had been waiting for me to complete, as it was proof that the embers had matured enough to be transferred.
Something splashed off the hand Attes held between us. The drop was a shimmery reddish-blue color.
It was Primal blood.
I sucked in a startled breath.
“They need to stop,” Attes insisted. “And the only person either of them will listen to is you.”
I wasn’t sure about that. Kolis didn’t seem like the type to listen to anyone. And Ash was likely beyond listening. He was caught in a cyclone of fury that had been building for centuries. This wasn’t only about me. It was about his mother, whom Kolis had slaughtered while Ash was still in her womb. It was about his father, whom Kolis had killed—whose soul he still held. It was for all the lives inked into Ash’s skin that Kolis had taken from him or forced Ash to take.
But Attes, bastard or not, spoke the truth.
Kolis would kill Ash.
And the death of either Kolis or Ash would destroy not only the mortal realm but also Iliseeum and every Primal. Completely. I wasn’t sure if the draken could even survive. Perhaps only the Arae—the Fates—would remain.
But I didn’t care about any of them. Only Ash mattered to me. So, I had to try. But how? They were still going at it, trading blasts of eather. The glow swallowing Kolis had faded, making it so he was no longer painful to look at. The shadows had grown thinner around Ash. I didn’t even know what I planned to do if I made it to one of the swords.
My gaze flew to the daggers at Attes’s hips, and I thought… I thought maybe I knew how to get Kolis to stop.
I started to push up with legs that felt like the jelly my stepsister Ezra liked to smother her rolls in. “Help…help me stand.” My cheeks warmed with embarrassment, which was so godsdamn stupid considering the situation. “I…I can’t do it.”
Features tense, Attes hesitated. It was clear he didn’t trust me. And he shouldn’t. Because if I lived longer than tonight, I would find a way to do terrible things to the fucker.
But also because I had lied—well, partially. I could stand, but I also knew the effort it would take, and that would wipe me out. I was doing what Attes had suggested: conserving my energy.
After a heartbeat, he tipped closer and shifted his hold from my wrist to my shoulders. He rose, bringing me with him. “You steady?”
