AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Sera freezes, realizing the goddess lied. Kolis asks her more questions, and she gives more half-truths. Sera realizes that Ione is lying about basically everything and wonders why.
Kolis gets all emotional, and Callum says it has to be a lie. Ione tells him she doesn’t lie and has no reason to. Sera realizes what a huge risk this is for the goddess.
They discuss how Sera doesn’t look like Sotoria, and Ione tries to explain it away. She then tells Kolis she’s glad he found his graeca, and Sera almost chokes on her water.
The goddess asks Kolis if he requires anything more of her, and he thanks her for her assistance. When she turns to leave, she addresses Sera as Consort. Kolis interjects, saying the coronation was neither recognized nor approved.
Sickened, Sera realizes that nobody can contest Kolis’s claim. Callum continues to argue, but Kolis brushes him off. When Sera snaps that she was always telling the truth, Kolis says he sees that now and dismisses Callum. He approaches her, telling her she looks more like Sotoria when she smiles. When Sera asks about Nyktos and Kolis honoring their deal, he gets angry and bites her.
Agony seizes Sera, and Sotoria screams within her. The embers swell, and Sera fights for control. She tries to employ her breathing techniques to regain calm and pictures Ash in her mind, distancing herself from the present.
Kolis finally loosens his hold, and Sera jumps to her feet. She realizes he found his release while feeding and is disgusted. He apologizes, saying he shamed both himself and her. He lost control. Sera can’t help her fight or flight response, and he insists it’ll never happen again. He begs her to say something, and all she can say is that she needs a bath.
As she bathes, she thinks over everything that happened. The violation. And hates that she feels weak over what happened.
After breakfast the next day, the silver hawk flies in again and becomes Attes. He calls her his Queen, then manifests clothes again. Sera tells him how jealous she is. He apologizes for not returning sooner but says he has news. Then he notices her bite wound. It clearly upsets him, but she tells him she’s okay. He doesn’t believe her, but she insists.
Attes tells Sera that Nyktos is being awakened from stasis and assumes she’s made progress with her plans. She tells him Kolis promised to release Nyktos and says she needs to make sure he doesn’t have a reason to go back on that word and find a loophole.
Attes confirms that he knows about the deal she made to free Rhain and asks if she made a similar deal to free Nyktos.
Sera calls Kyn a dick. Attes agrees but says he wasn’t always like that. He tells her about how the Primals deal with their long lives and what happens if they don’t rest or go to Arcadia.
Sera asks how Kyn will respond to Nyktos taking his rightful place as the King of Gods, and Attes says he hopes he will respond wisely. Then he asks if she’s okay, shocking her.
She says she is, and he begrudgingly accepts and then turns into his hawk to leave.
Later, Callum waits in the chamber wearing black, which almost disturbs Sera more than his white does. She realizes it’s been at least a day since Attes visited, and Sera worries Kolis has changed his mind. However, she reminds herself that he can’t because he made a deal.
Callum tells Sera he doesn’t believe her, and she asks him about what. He says he doesn’t believe she’s open to loving Kolis as she said and thinks she will try to escape the first chance she gets.
She tells him she doesn’t care what he thinks and calls him insignificant. He says she should care because Kolis will find out. He insists again that she’s not Sotoria, and she asks him why he’s so sure. He tells her it’s partly her appearance, and Sera realizes he must be old if he knew Sotoria before. She asks him. He says he’s old but didn’t know her.
What he really means is that he didn’t know Sera…
Callum points out that Kolis cares about her, and she insinuates Callum is worried she will replace him in Kolis’s life. He says he’s concerned about the destruction of the realms due to a charlatan.
He insists Kolis is trying to save the realms, and Sera can only stare. He amends that he was, but is now more concerned if his great love is returning to him.
Sera clarifies what’s going on and asks at what point between becoming a Primal who’s never existed and killing all who refuse to bow to him would he save the realms. Callum says that life must be created. No matter what.
Sera asks if that’s what Kolis is doing with the Chosen, and Callum waves her off, saying it doesn’t matter.
She disagrees.
He says she’s trying to change the subject—she is. He then says that Kolis has personal reasons for wanting to be the Primal of Life and Death/Blood and Bone. He tells her it’ll be bad when Kolis discovers the truth, and she shrugs it off, saying she’s been validated, and has had her truth confirmed.
Callum says Ione lied.
Sera worries about Ione if Kolis ever discovers she lied. Sera tells Callum he must be delusional if he thinks a god would risk Kolis’s wrath.
He basically calls her a whore again, and she has to hold herself back. Still, she asks him if he remembers what she promised him. He sasses, and she details how his death will be the thing of nightmares.
The embers take control and conjure a storm. It takes Callum by surprise, but he remains composed. Kolis walks in and asks them why they always look like they’re about to go at each other’s throats. Sera tells Kolis that Callum still doesn’t believe that she’s Sotoria. Kolis tells her the Rev is in denial, then drops a bomb.
Callum is Sotoria’s younger brother.
The news makes Sera choke, and she can barely get her words of disbelief out. It sinks in that he’s telling the truth, and she wonders about the overabundance of terrible brothers in the realms. She bickers with the Revenant, and Kolis comments on their fighting reminding him of how he used to quarrel with his brother, then going on to tell her how she had two siblings: an older sister and Callum, the younger brother.
