“I think it’s fucking unwise of you to even dare to speak to me after you sent your guards to my Rise to make demands,” Nyktos replied. “And baseless accusations.”
“Baseless?” Hanan laughed as streaks of eather whipped through his eyes. “A god from my Court Ascended into Primalhood within your Court. All you had to do was turn her over to me, and we could’ve possibly avoided what is surely to come.”
“Her?” Nyktos said, and that was all he said.
“Bele.”
I kept my face blank even as my heart sped up. I hated even hearing her name on the Primal’s lips.
“I haven’t seen Bele in many moons. Nor would I know where she is, as she is not a member of my Court.” Nyktos lied so smoothly I almost believed him. “You should keep a closer eye on your vassals.”
“You’re really going to go this route? Pretend you have no knowledge of a god Ascending in your Court? Or whom it was?”
Nyktos’s thumb swept back and forth, creating the only warmth in the entire atrium. “And are you really insinuating that it couldn’t have been Kolis to have done it? Maybe you’ve fallen out of favor with him and he’s setting you up. Or perhaps you don’t believe he’s able to do such a thing? Is that it?” Nyktos laughed. “Then I would be really careful. Because I don’t think you want Kolis to know you have such little faith in his…strength.”
Hanan blanched. “That is not what I’m saying.”
“It’s not?”
“No. But I do believe we will see just how quickly this one breaks,” Hanan spat, the eather pulling back from his eyes even as the embers hummed in my chest. “Sooner rather than later, I imagine, since His Majesty is about to arrive. And I have a feeling he will have more questions about how exactly a god Ascended than he will about your would-be Consort. I will have what I want before the day is over, and you will…well, likely return to rule over your Court of the Dead with nothing, per usual.”
Nyktos’s fingers stilled as he leaned forward, then stopped. The air left the atrium with the breath I took. Goose bumps spread over my flesh, and my chest tightened.
Smirking, Hanan backed up as a flurry of painted guards filled the atrium, doors leading to the dais opened, and…
Kolis, the false King and true Primal of Death, entered.
Chapter 35
An enormous presence poured into the atrium, settling upon my skin as the scent of stale lilacs choked me. My eyes stung as golden-laced eather churned along the floor and spilled over the edge of the dais, sparking off the marble and licking over the pillars of the dais, stirring the curtains. My bones felt as if they would crumble under the power flooding the chamber. The eather spread like whirling fog kissed by sunlight, but there was something in that light.
Something…wrong.
Nyktos’s chest pressed against my back. I barely heard him whisper “breathe,” but I obeyed as the mass of swirling, throbbing power began to recede. A roar of rushing blood filled my head as the essence collapsed to the floor at his bare feet, where it coiled like a pit viper against his white linen pants, waiting to strike.
I became aware of Nyktos standing—of me standing. His hands were on my hips, guiding me to my knee. It felt wrong, in every part of me, to kneel, but I placed one trembling hand on the floor and the other over my heart as I bowed.
Because if Nyktos could, I sure as fuck could.
The back of my neck prickled. Awareness rose. I could feel Kolis’s stare, and the embers inside me throbbed. Panic threatened to take root as I bowed to the monster who had ruled my life before I was born.
Ruled all the lives I couldn’t remember.
Calling on that veil of nothingness, I slipped it on, snuffing out my fear and anger as I counted the seconds between each breath. I would not crack here. I would not break. I would not. I would not. I would not. Not today. My hands steadied. My chest loosened. My heart beat. I breathed.
I was nothing once more.
“Rise” came the voice drenched in warmth and sunlight. A voice that, if listened to closely enough, carried a blade-sharp, bitter edge to it.
The crimson gown slid across the floor like a puddle of blood racing toward me as I rose. Nyktos had positioned himself so he stood partially in front of me, and only then did I realize that Attes had returned with his brother, who had slightly darker hair but was of the same height and breadth of shoulder.
He wavered slightly on his feet and was half-undressed.
“And sit,” Kolis ordered. “Before this jackass falls on his face.”
At any other time, I would’ve laughed because Kyn did appear as if he were seconds from doing just that.
Nyktos turned, his iron-hued eyes meeting mine as Attes all but shoved his brother into a nearby chair. He took my hand with a small nod, guiding me back to where we’d been seated.
“Not her.”
I went stiff.
The skin tightened at the corners of Nyktos’s mouth as his nostrils flared. Wisps of eather spread out from behind his pupils.
“I want to see her,” Kolis added. “Get a good look at who has captured my nephew’s…attention.”
The hollows of Nyktos’s cheeks deepened as the veins beneath his eyes began to fill with a faint glow of eather, and I knew something bad was about to happen. My senses tingled with the knowledge. And I didn’t think I was the only one who felt the violent storm brewing within Nyktos. Attes had turned from his slouched brother, angling his body toward Nyktos’s.
I didn’t give myself time to think. I quickly stepped to the side, revealing myself fully. Nyktos’s swift inhale fell like ice against my skin, but I didn’t tremble as I stood there, hands at my sides. I didn’t panic as I watched that churning mass of golden light swirl around Kolis’s legs. I breathed.
“There she is,” Kolis drawled, and then he was right in front of me, having shadowstepped.
Muscles tensed all along my spine as I fought the urge to recoil from the eather that drifted over the hem of my skirt. I stared at his chest—his bare chest, keeping my gaze lowered as one would in the presence of such a Primal. There were…shimmers of gold in his bronze flesh, a pattern of sweeps and swirls.
“Lift your eyes to mine,” he whispered. Coaxed. Urged.
Muscles obeyed even as my stomach and chest hollowed. A compulsion. It was a compulsion—an unnecessary one that was nothing more than a show of power. Of force, to remind everyone in the room exactly who he was. I lifted my eyes just as he’d compelled.
The breath I took snagged in my throat as I saw Kolis. Not from a distance. Not how he was depicted in paintings or stone. There was no mistaking the similarities between him and Nyktos. Yet, somehow, even with their shared features, the differences were striking.
Nyktos’s beauty was harsh and icy, a silvery sculpture of hard angles and unyielding lines come alive in an almost terrifying manner. His beauty demanded that you look upon him and be filled with the urge to try to capture his features with charcoal or clay.
But those features, the strong curve of his jaw, the high, arched cheekbones, and the lush, wide mouth…things that were so wild and unfettered on Nyktos, were utter perfection on Kolis—golden and warm. His beauty beguiled you. Welcomed you to look closer, to stare and be comforted. Coaxed you to come near.
They were the same yet opposites, one whose beauty had been designed to be infinite in its finality, to strike fear in your heart. And the other whose beauty was nothing more than a pretense. A façade. A trap.