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When they reach her lake, Sera discovers why she’s felt so at home there all these years—it was a way for her to get to him. They pass through to Iliseeum, and Sera is stunned to find that one of the hills she sees is actually a dragon. Well…a draken. She meets Nektas and Ash tells her to pet him. She hesitates, afraid to be swallowed whole, but does it anyway. Three other draken emerge.
Sera sees the palace and assumes that Ash impaled those she sees hanging on the wall. It makes her wary. Rhain approaches, and they meet. Ash confesses that he’d hoped there would be some time before the others realized he’d arrived with a guest. He tells her that very few know about her but asks if he can introduce her as his Consort. She agrees.
After she meets Aios, the goddess takes her to her room and has food and bath water prepared for her. Ash arrives sometime later when Sera’s in the tub and tells her that Tavius was sent to the Abyss. He offers to help her wash her hair, and she accepts. As he goes about the task, they talk, and Ash asks about her training. She lies and inquires why he never returned. He tells her that the Priests never resummoned him. He admits what he felt from her that day he came and explains why he did what he did, stunning Sera with the knowledge that he can feel and taste emotions.
Sera asks Ash why he made the deal and is told the answer is complicated. He says he’ll tell her when she’s dressed. The sexual tension ramps up between them again, and Ash tells her he knows she enjoys and wants his touch, which has nothing to do with the deal. Both of them are very interested in certain aspects of their union. He pleasures her again with his hand and admits to thinking about their time at the lake every time he takes care of himself.
He applies healing ointment to her back and reminds her that he’s the same person he was before, despite her knowing that he’s the Primal of Death. He then goes on to say that she knows more about him than most.
More than most? She knows him completely. They are heartmates, after all.
Sera wonders about the deal with King Roderick and learns that Ash didn’t make it; his father did. He goes on to explain that the deal transferred to him when his father died, along with all the power and responsibilities of the Primal of Death. Sera suddenly realizes that what he said when he brought her to Iliseeum, about her choice ending, pertains to him, as well. He didn’t choose any of this either.
She learns more about his parents. He also reveals that he’s had others watching her. When talk turns to Madis, Cressa, and Taric, Ash tells her that he doesn’t think the murders are connected to her, though he says he waited so long to come to her again out of fear of exposing her.
Sera realizes that everything she believed about the Primal of Death is wrong. He’s a good man, but it doesn’t matter because she has a duty. She returns to the subject of Lathan—the friend he had watching her that he was forced to kill—and asks why Ash had him watching over her. He explains that his enemies will now become hers. As the reality of her situation sinks in, she laments the unfairness of it and considers everything that will happen after she kills him.
Aios arrives and fills Sera in on several things she’s been wondering about. The goddess tells her how she came to be in the Shadowlands and how she and the others feel safe in Nyktos’s Court. After she leaves, Sera finds that Ector is guarding her room and realizes she isn’t allowed to leave. The god tells her that he’s there for her safety. When she calls Nyktos Ash, it stuns Ector, and he tells her that he doubts even the Primal of Death knows what to do with her.
Not many would. Sera is truly unique and wonderful.
Davina takes over maid duties and calls Sera meyaah Liessa. Sera learns that it means: my Queen. The draken tells her about the dangers surrounding the House of Haides.
Saion escorts her downstairs, and Ash returns the dagger he gifted her, now with a sheath. She immediately secures it to her right thigh before asking him some questions.
Sera learns he can’t read her mind, and that he doesn’t feed anymore. When she inquires about him being a prisoner, he tells her he has been many things and hesitates to answer. She wonders if he’d rather them get to know each other or be strangers and is stunned when he confesses that he wants them to be as close as they were at the lake once again, but that talk of his imprisonment isn’t up for discussion.
Sera meets Jadis and learns more about the draken, which she finds utterly fascinating.
When next she sees Ash, she runs into him, and he jerks and hisses. It concerns her. Even more when he urges her not to touch him. She insinuates she doubts his interest in her and says he’s all talk. He backs her against a wall and tells—plus demonstrates—how real and potent his interest is. He explains how badly he wants to be inside her and knows she wants it too without even having to read her emotions. She tells him that she doesn’t like him—a lie—and he responds that it’s better that way.
They can resist it all they want, but it’s futile. Don’t you sometimes wish you could just tell people that so they would stop wasting their time and appreciate what’s right in front of them?
Sera tours the House of Haides and learns that her coronation will happen in a fortnight. When she asks if she’ll be Ascended, she’s surprised by Ash’s response. He tells her that this was never her choice, and he won’t force an eternity of it on her. She also learns that he views love as an unnecessary risk.
With some thought, Sera realizes that Ash’s mother was likely murdered by another Primal and considers that Ash may actually be incapable of love given what happened to his parents. She also wonders how he’ll respond to her unusual gift.
Some days later, another Primal arrives, and Ector escorts Sera to safety. She chooses to be sequestered in the library instead of her chambers and ends up spying on the interaction between Veses and Ash. The feelings it rouses in her are confusing, but she chooses to push them aside for the time being.
Later, she wanders the grounds and winds up in the Red Woods. She finds a wounded silver hawk—that she later discovers was one of Attes’s chora, an extension of him in his nota form—and heals the animal, compelled by an old, powerful instinct. After, she sees the similarities between the Rot back in Lasania and what is happening to the Dying and Red Woods.
Hunters and entombed gods attack Sera, and she realizes she can’t kill them all. Ash suddenly appears and saves her, and she learns about the entombed gods and the blood trees. After the attack, Saion escorts her back to the House of Haides and realizes she’s been injured. She falls unconscious and wakes to find Nektas with her in his god form. He tells her the only reason she isn’t dead is because Ash used a rare antidote on her.
She believes that all of Ash’s decisions and actions are because of the deal. She has no idea that he already loves her, though even he doesn’t realize it yet because of his lack of kardia.
Ash arrives and asks Sera how she got so strong as she seems truly unfazed by almost dying. She says she had to be strong. Talk turns to the attack in the woods and how the gods got free, and Sera learns that the Shadowlands dying has nothing to do with the deal.
Ash tells her that he’s asked everyone to give her space and admits he’s been avoiding her too because spending more than a few minutes in her presence has his desire overwhelming his common sense. She scoffs. He kisses her and admits that he doesn’t know why he fights it since she’d let him have her. He pleasures her once more.
Randomly, he tells her that he counted her freckles and reveals that she has thirty-six, telling her there should be no doubt in her mind about his interest in her. She realizes that he found release this time, too, even though he wasn’t touched. He asks if he can lie with her, and she agrees, confessing to him that she’s had sex before and learning that Ash is a virgin. It shocks her, and she wonders aloud why. She realizes that his life is as lonely as hers, and that he’s risking everything with her because he can’t help himself—even though he thinks they’ll both end up hating him for it. He falls asleep beside her but is gone when she wakes.
Aios brings Sera breakfast and eats with her in her chambers before they go for a walk and help Reaver with his flying. The goddess tells her that Ash has never had any sexual or romantic interest in anyone before Sera. She then meets Bele and Rhahar. Bele is the first to bow to her and tells her why it’s so important that everyone does it. She also shares that the other Courts are taking bets on how long she’ll live.
Later, a seamstress arrives to do a fitting and talk revolves around the coronation, the Chosen, and the Ascension. Ash checks on her and reveals that no mortal has Ascended for several hundred years, then tells Sera the truth about the fate of the Chosen and that Kolis knows and doesn’t care. He also explains how some Chosen are simply disappearing. She demands they find a way to stop the Rites and learns that Ash has been hiding the Chosen away, though he prefers it appear as if he’s doing nothing. She has to steel herself. Lasania is all that matters. She can’t worry about the mortals. The Chosen aren’t her problem.
That night, unable to sleep, she goes out onto the balcony and finds Ash. She tells him she’s dealing with what she learned, and they discuss the difficulties of their positions, and the way death has affected them both. He says she’s not a monster and touches her, causing another jolt of energy to pass between them. He then goes on to say that a monster wouldn’t care if they were one. She kisses him.
Seeing that he’s struggling, too, she tells him that he isn’t responsible for the actions of others and moves to explore. Enjoying the playfulness she has with Ash—something she’s never had with another—she pleasures him, delighting in making the Primal of Death shake. After, they spoon, and she falls asleep, thinking over all the new things she’s experienced in the short time she’s been with Ash.
