I stilled. My hair was down, but it had fallen over my shoulder, baring the side of my neck with the fading bite.
“Perhaps whore is more to your liking?”
Grip tightening on the pitcher’s handle, I carefully placed it back on the table. “Do you remember what I promised you the other day?”
“Probably not,” he said after a beat of silence. “You’re as insignificant to me as you claim I am to you.”
Glass in hand, I faced him. “I promised to kill you.”
“Oh.” Callum laughed, the sound light and airy. “Sure, Sera.”
I walked back to the bars, a storm of anger building inside me just as it had when Kolis held me in his arms. “I will. One day, I will discover how you can be killed, and I will make your death the thing of nightmares,” I swore, and this time, I zeroed in on the hum in my chest, and I didn’t shove it back.
Summoning the embers as I had before, I let them come to the surface. Silvery essence sparked from the skin on my arms as the chandelier above Callum began to sway. And then…then, something else happened.
It was almost as if the embers took control, or maybe the knowledge held within them did—ancient wisdom that I tapped into on some unconscious level, like when the lightning bolt had briefly appeared for me.
My chin dipped, and my lips curled as a white mist seeped in at the windows. It flowed across the ceiling, thickening and spreading, becoming clouds—rapidly darkening, ominous clouds.
A storm.
A storm to mirror what I felt inside.
Lightning streaked from cloud to cloud, charging the air. A clap of thunder followed, causing Callum to jump. He whipped back around.
The storm I had created quickly dissipated, leaving a dull throbbing in my temples and my heart pounding. Closing my eyes, I took a sip of the fruity water.
Tapping into that power probably wasn’t wise, especially after Kolis’s feeding. I didn’t know exactly how much essence I could use before I weakened myself, or exactly what the embers would decide to do. But when I opened my eyes, I saw that I’d accomplished what I wanted.
Callum had stopped smiling. The skin below the golden mask was pale. Our gazes locked, and I felt the embers hum.
The doors swung open. Neither of us turned, even though my stomach suddenly shifted unsteadily. We both knew who’d entered.
“Why,” Kolis began, “is it that you two look as if you’re seconds from committing some atrocious act upon each other every time I enter this chamber?”
That had to be the most accurate observation I’d ever heard.
As Callum turned to him and opened his mouth, I beat him to it this time. “He still doesn’t believe I’m Sotoria.”
Callum’s jaw tightened, and he took a step back as Kolis strode forward. Making sure I felt nothing, I looked at the Primal and then focused on the important things. I searched for any sign that he’d been around Ash. There was none. He looked just as he had when he’d been here before. Then again, what kind of sign would there be? Still, a tempest of disappointment brewed within me, much like the storm clouds I’d summoned moments earlier.
“He’s just in denial,” Kolis answered, approaching the cage. I sipped the water.
Watching Kolis unlock the door with a wave of his hand, I could almost feel the oppressive weight of his arms around me. My hand trembled slightly as I lifted my glass, and my back stiffened.
Kolis stopped at the cage door. “It’s not every day that one learns their sister has truly returned to them.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Sister?
Choking on the water, I spit some out as I coughed, staring wide-eyed at the false King.
Kolis’s mouth spread into an untried, lopsided smile. “Are you all right?”
“No,” I wheezed, flapping my hand in front of my wide, stinging eyes. There was no way I’d heard him correctly. No way. “What did you just say?”
Kolis’s forehead creased and then smoothed out. “Ah, you don’t remember. He is your brother, your younger brother.”
My stare remained fixed on the false King, so paralyzed by the shock of his revelation that I wasn’t even thinking of that thing he’d done to me. “You can’t be serious. He’s not…” I couldn’t even bring myself to say it. The fact that Callum was Sotoria’s brother and not mine didn’t matter.
“I’m not what?” Callum demanded.
“Sane?” I snapped. “Likable? Reasonable? Not vomit-inducing or the opposite of a murderer?”
“Charming yet again,” Callum retorted. “She’s Sotoria but doesn’t know I’m her brother?” His lips pursed. “She recognized me the last time we met.”
“She does not remember those lives,” Kolis told him as he entered the cage, his eyes…gods, his eyes fucking twinkled. “Souls reborn don’t have memories.”
“She did last time,” Callum countered.
“That was different, and you know it,” Kolis said. “Her life was restored. She was not reborn.”
“Whatever,” Callum muttered, glaring at the opposite wall. And, man, if looks could kill, that wall would be, well…it’d still be a wall, but the Revenant looked…
He looked as disturbed as I felt.
Dear gods, could this really be Sotoria’s brother?
That palpable unease in the center of my chest near the embers that wasn’t entirely mine told me he was.
“Holy shit,” I whispered, taking a step back. I placed the glass on the table before I dropped it. “You really are…” I still couldn’t say it. “Good gods, what is up with there being such an abundance of terrible brothers?”
“What is that supposed to mean?” The golden strands of Callum’s hair whipped out as his head cut toward me. A faint twitch in his nostrils hinted at his rising annoyance. “Wait. Do you think to compare me to the mortal trash known as Tavius?”
“I can’t argue with that descriptor,” I said. “But if the shoe fits, lace that bitch up and wear it.”
Callum’s mouth dropped open, and he looked positively aghast.
“You’re siblings,” Kolis remarked dryly. “You two argue just like Eythos and I once did.”
We both fell silent as we turned to him.
Kolis smiled broadly.
“And look how that turned out,” I murmured under my breath, needing liquor. Hard, mind-numbing, and memory-destroying alcohol. But something occurred to me then. I turned back to where Callum stood. “I asked if you were Chosen. You lied.”
His chin went up a notch. “I didn’t lie.”
“Bullshit.” I stepped forward. “How else—?”
“He was not lying,” Kolis interrupted, drawing my gaze to him. He was less than a foot from me.
I couldn’t stop myself from taking half a step back from him. I hated the reaction. I hated how my heart started pounding, and I especially hated how he frowned. It was as if he had no idea why I’d do such a thing.
As if he’d forgotten how he’d shamed himself.
“You had two siblings. An older sister named Anthea, and a brother.” He nodded in Callum’s direction. “When you left me, I visited your family.”
Pushing the incident as far as I could to the back of my mind, I refocused. I assumed he meant when Sotoria died the first time after being frightened by him. But she hadn’t left him. She’d run from him.
“I wanted to apologize,” Kolis shared, a distant look creeping into his features. “And to explain to them that I petitioned my brother to return their daughter to the realm of the living.” His jaw flexed. “But that was as fruitful as speaking with Eythos. Your parents…” He sighed, his eyes narrowing on the bars. “They were frightened of me, too. It didn’t matter how many times I said I wasn’t there to cause harm, they cowered in the corner of their small home, shrieking and wailing in their mourning clothes.” A muscle throbbed in his temple. “Only your brother wasn’t afraid.”