The burning sting traveled up my arm, causing every muscle in my body to clench. Ione drew deeply on the wound, and that sting hit my neck. I wanted to tear my arm free from her light grasp, but I couldn’t move. I couldn’t—

Then I felt it.

A scratching like fingers against my mind, slowly sinking in instead of digging in with claws like Taric had done. The tendons in my neck cramped, and I felt my mind open.

Ione was inside me, in my mind, slipping in easily. It wasn’t painless as she delved into my thoughts and memories. The supper I’d eaten was peeled back, revealing the dreamless sleep, the conversation with Kolis, and my lies—all my lies. She kept searching. Images of a sky full of stars but no moon flashed, then small waves crashing beneath the House of Haides. Those quickly blended into others. I saw the woods and heard myself telling Ash that I loved him. The flashes came in rapid succession as Ione saw what I’d seen. Heard what I’d said. She saw the truths. All of them. She saw the lies, too. Sweat broke out on my brow. A tremor rolled through me as sharp, stabbing pain shot through my head and ran down my spine.

I felt myself shaking on the inside, tears filling my eyes as the ebbing agony became a fire. My skin felt like it stretched, thinned. My vision blurred.

Not as painful? Ione had lied. I felt like I was burning from the inside, and there was no retreat. Nowhere to hide. Pressure built in my skull, sparking a fiery pain that settled there and took root. I shook, and a metallic taste gathered in my mouth.

Oh, gods, could Ash feel this, even in stasis? I didn’t want him to be aware and unable to do anything.

I couldn’t allow that.

I wouldn’t.

The embers swelled beneath the pain, and I latched on to them. Stop. I focused on Ione, forcing her features to clear. Stop, I screamed as I…pushed. I pushed with my mind.

The goddess’s head snapped back. There was a brief glimpse of wide, dark eyes, and then she was skidding backward on her knees across the shadowstone. She caught herself before she hit the cage bars, her chin jerking up. Blood trickled from the corner of her lip.

“Well.” Callum sighed from outside the cage as I slumped forward, breathing raggedly. “That was inappropriate.”

Trembling, I smacked my hand over the bite as my muscles twitched and contracted, over and over. The fire was slow to leave, just as before.

“What did you see?” Kolis demanded, his voice close. Too close.

“Much,” Ione rasped, rising unsteadily to her feet. I tried to push through the lingering agony. “The embers in her are powerful.”

“I already know that,” Kolis stated. “Is she my graeca?”

My neck felt weak and loose as I lifted my head and saw Callum’s eager face. I called on the embers, and they fluttered much like my heart. Godsdamnit, I didn’t have time for them to weaken on me. I would have seconds, if that—”

“She carries the soul of the one called Sotoria,” Ione answered, smoothly wiping the trickle of blood from her chin. “She is her.”

I froze.

Everything froze.

Even Callum’s stupid face.

“Truly?” whispered Kolis.

“Yes.” Ione nodded, clasping her hands together. “It is her.”

But that…that wasn’t true. And Ione knew it.

Callum pushed back from the cage, his head swaying to and fro.

“And does she…does she love Nyktos?” Kolis’s voice faltered and then steadied. “Is she in love with him?”

“She cares for him,” Ione answered, her eyes locked on mine. “But she has never truly loved…nor been loved in return.” Ione broke eye contact and turned from me. “She wants to, though. She will do anything for that.”

My gods, the goddess was truly lying about everything. Well, except for that last part. I did want to be loved by Ash, and I would do anything for that. But the rest? Straight-up lies.

Stunned, I watched her walk to the table. While she filled a slender glass with the bubbly water, I tried to wrap my head around the fact that this stranger had just saved my life.

“It’s really you.” Kolis’s voice was a gruff whisper, tearing me from my thoughts.

My gaze shot to the Primal. He looked at me as he had when I’d first said I was her, when he likely heard her voice in mine. I realized then that it was the only time I’d seen him show any real emotion beyond anger. Everything else had been a reproduction. A copy of what he’d seen in others. But like then, his features came alive with a tangible sense of wonderment, his eyes widening with awe.

“I didn’t…” Kolis trailed off, not allowing himself to finish whatever it was he had been about to say.

The pain was almost gone from my head, but my body tensed with each passing second that Kolis’s stifling stare remained on me. It was clear to me that he hadn’t been a hundred percent convinced.

Now, he was.

It was yet another thing I should feel relief about—and I did. But his stare… I shifted, suddenly wishing I could put a whole realm’s-worth of distance between us.

“This has to be some sort of lie,” Callum said, sounding almost spooked.

“I do not lie,” Ione cut in, the eather pulsing in her eyes, turning them from night to day. “I have no reason to.”

Oh, but she most definitely did. I couldn’t know for sure why the goddess had done it, but I could only assume that, like the Primal she served, she was not a Kolis loyalist.

Even so, this was a huge risk for her. More so than it was for Attes. Ione had just lied straight to Kolis’s face about Sotoria, running the risk of another god coming in, reading my memories, and contradicting her.

Unless Ione and Taric were truly unique and the last of those who could do that.

“But she does not look like Sotoria,” Callum argued.

Two things occurred to me at once. The Revenant had just confirmed part of what Attes had claimed. That if I truly were Sotoria, I would look like her. But, more importantly, Callum must have known Sotoria.

“That means nothing,” Ione stated, and I had a feeling the goddess was lying again. “The rebirth of a soul is not common enough to know exactly how it will appear.”

My mind raced as the two argued. The first time Sotoria had died…gods, it had been hundreds of years ago, if not close to a thousand, back when Kolis ruled as the true Primal of Death, and his brother the Primal of Life. So exactly how old was Callum? Had Kolis created Callum even before he stole the embers from Eythos?

Or had Callum known her decades later, after she’d been ripped away from the peace of the Vale and brought back to life—after Kolis stole the embers and brought her back? No one knew exactly how long she had lived that second life. But still, even that was hundreds of years ago.

Callum was clearly old, and Kolis could have been able to create Revenants before he stole the Primal embers of life.

“You should drink.” Ione offered the glass to me. “It will help settle your mind.”

Hand trembling slightly, I reached out and took the glass from her. Our eyes met. “Thank you,” I said, hoping she knew it wasn’t just the water I was thanking her for.

A faint smile appeared on her thin lips, softening her sharper features. “You’re welcome.”

I took a sip of the fruity water and then gulped as Ione turned back to Kolis. His hands continuously opened and closed at his sides.

“I am happy that you have found your graeca,” Ione stated, and I nearly choked on my water, my eyes and throat burning. “You must be overjoyed.”

“I…I am,” Kolis murmured.

I thought maybe he should sit down since he appeared as if he were close to falling over.

“Is there anything else you need of me, Your Majesty?” Ione asked.

“No.” His hands stilled. “Your assistance is appreciated and won’t be forgotten.”

Ione nodded as she stepped back, bowing to Kolis before facing me. She smiled, the eather now a faint pulse behind her pupils. It was quick. I saw it. Kolis didn’t. His attention was fixed on me. I could feel it, like I was being suffocated in a too-heavy, coarse blanket.