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I tensed, the back of my neck prickling. There was a sound, a distant murmur. I started to turn my head.
Ash stopped me. “I need you to listen to me, okay? Have you told Kolis about what will happen once you begin the Ascension? That only I can Ascend you?”
I frowned. “No, I haven’t.”
“He believes you’re Sotoria.”
How did he…?
“You need to tell him that you will die without me,” Ash said. “You are his weakness. He will do anything to keep Sotoria alive—to keep you alive. Even release you to me to prevent that.”
“What?” I laughed. “Kolis will think it’s a trap. He won’t believe that. I wouldn’t believe it.”
“But he will believe the Fates,” Ash insisted. “He knows they cannot lie.”
I wasn’t so sure about them not being able to lie. They had a knack for stretching the truth.
“Listen to me, Sera. I cannot summon the Arae. Neither can Kolis.” Ash lowered his head so our eyes met. “Only the Primal of Life can. And for all—”
“For all intents and purposes, that is me,” I finished for him. “Ash…”
“He’s going to release me, Sera. Once that happens, summon the Fates.” His features had sharpened, becoming more hollow. Shadows blossomed under his eyes, and those murmurs…
They were voices that didn’t come from my lake but elsewhere.
I would wake soon. I wasn’t ready. I wanted to stay here.
“Do you understand?” Ash implored. “Promise me you will do this. That you will tell Kolis the truth and then summon the Fates. All you have to do is call for them. They will answer.”
“I…I promise.” Confusion rose as I clasped his wrists. “But how will I know you’ve been released? Kolis could lie to me. He—”
“You will know. Trust me. He’ll make a grand show of it,” Ash said with a faint grimace.
“What I’m about to say next doesn’t change what I told you before.” The eather swirled in his eyes. “You’re brave, strong, and resilient. You don’t need anyone to fight your battles. You never have. You don’t now.”
My chest rose and fell rapidly as I listened to him.
“But I will fight for you. I will free you. And if that takes me laying waste to everything and everyone in Dalos, then so be it,” he swore as my heart stuttered. “Nothing will stop me.”
If he did that, there would be a war. “Ash—”
His mouth closed over mine in a hard, fierce kiss that was its own kind of oath. I felt it all the way to my bones.
“I’m nothing without you, liessa,” he whispered as he started to slip away, and the embers hummed in my chest. “And there will be nothing without you.”
I awoke with a start, and much like I had the last time I’d dreamt of Ash, I couldn’t believe the interaction wasn’t real.
The feel of him. His voice. Eyes remaining closed, I dragged in a deep breath. I could still smell my lake and him, citrus and fresh—
“Who were you dreaming of?”
Sucking in a gasp at the sound of Kolis’s voice, I jerked upright and nearly knocked into him.
Kolis knelt by the divan.
Heart pounding, I pressed my hand to my chest. Good gods, had he been watching while I’d dreamt of being in Ash’s arms? Anger and disbelief crashed together, forming a combustible mix. “You were watching me sleep? Again?”
His brow furrowed. “I can see the knowledge of me watching you still bothers you.”
