So did Callum.

“Everything has been quite overwhelming for me,” I began, seeing Kolis’s expression smooth out while Callum’s eyes narrowed. “A lot has happened—has been happening. All of this is so unfamiliar to me. I’m not sure what I should or shouldn’t be doing, but none of that is a good enough excuse for how I behaved yesterday.”

“Your behavior is understandable, so’lis.” His eyes shone as Callum slammed his hands onto his hips. “You have been through a lot.”

“But you have given me such leeway.” I dutifully lowered my gaze. “And I have been disrespectful. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.” His close voice was the only warning I got before I felt his palm on my cheek. He lifted my gaze to his. “Your apology is accepted.”

Behind him, Callum appeared as if he were a second away from running headfirst into a wall.

I fought a real smile. “Truly?”

“Yes. Truly.” Approval had settled into his features, causing his smile to become lopsided and more genuine. “Come. Let’s walk.”

Considering how yesterday had gone, walking anywhere with him was the last thing I wanted to do.

But it was what he wanted.

And I would become that.

So, I joined him without protest. When he looped his arm through mine, I said nothing. As we left the chamber, Callum and Elias falling into step behind us, I nodded and smiled, my actions and reactions as hollow as his.

Kolis didn’t notice, though.

He was practically vibrating with joy when we crossed the breezeway and accessed the path that led to the colonnade. We entered the sanctuary, eventually passing alcoves full of breathy, heated sounds.

Kolis led us down the maze of halls, none looking familiar to me. We ended up passing through a pillared entryway and into a large sitting chamber of sorts with many ivory tapestries hanging on the walls.

“Sit.” Kolis extended an arm toward one of the gold satin divans.

Like a very good dog, I did as he instructed and took a seat, crossing my feet at the ankles.

Callum followed, staying near the entrance. He still looked like he wanted to run headfirst into something.

“There is something I want to show you,” Kolis announced as he entered. “I’d planned on doing it yesterday, but…well, yesterday no longer matters.”

As if he could simply decree such a thing.

“Iason. Dyses?” Kolis called out.

I twisted toward what I had thought was a tapestry but was, in reality, ivory curtains shielding an archway. The dark-haired draken I’d spotted in the Council Hall came forward with the Revenant. Between them was a Chosen.

Wait. What had he said yesterday? That he’d planned to show me he was capable of more than just death?

My stomach dropped. I suddenly understood what he was about to do.

“You don’t have to prove anything.” Breaking with my dutiful hound act in a heartbeat, my overused muscles screamed in protest as I shot to my feet. “I believe you.”

With a quick twist of his neck, Kolis cast an even, empty smile at me from over his shoulder. “You lie.”

I did, but that was beside the point.

“I do not fault you for believing such,” he added. “That is why you must know.”

“You could just tell me how they’re Ascended.” My heart lurched because I knew what he was going to do: create life by nearly ending it. Because this wasn’t the same as what Eythos did. “You don’t have to go to any trouble.”

“It’s no trouble.”

Pressure clamped down on my chest as my head swung back to the three. My thoughts raced. I had a plan to free Ash: earn Kolis’s favor and trust. With my failed escape attempt and literally everything else that’d happened, I was doing a really shitty job at that. I needed to be careful and not incite Kolis’s displeasure, which I kept doing.

“This really isn’t necessary.” I tried again, hands spasming at my sides as I held myself back. The clap of Iason’s and Dyses’ boots against the stone, and the silent steps of the Chosen, were now like thunder. Dyses looked somewhat bored, but the draken…

Iason stared straight ahead, almost as if he saw no one. Once more I thought of how many draken in Dalos had been forced into bonding with Kolis. Was Iason one of those who, unlike Nektas’s cousin, would’ve chosen not to serve Kolis if given a choice?

“But it is.” Kolis turned to the Chosen. “Come,” he coaxed, beckoning warmly.

Breathe in. My body went rigid. The Chosen crossed the remaining distance, gloved hands clasped before their waist. Hold.

“Unveil yourself,” Kolis instructed.

Breathe out.

The Chosen lifted the veil, gradually revealing the fine features of a young man who couldn’t be much older than me. Hold.

“Jove,” Kolis spoke. A cowardly part of me didn’t want to learn his name. “How are you?”

“I am fine, Your Majesty.” Jove smiled, and gods, it reminded me of my smiles whenever my mother sent me to deliver her messages: practiced but empty. Just as I had been.

Breathe in.

“Today, you will be blessed,” Kolis said, cupping the man’s cheek. “Given new life.”

Jove bowed his head. “It is an honor.”

No. No it wasn’t. Because I heard his voice tremble. I saw the increasing thinness of his smile and the wideness of his deep brown eyes.

He was afraid.

I stopped with the breathing exercises and stepped forward. “Kolis.”

The false King’s head cut in my direction. “Yes?”

“You don’t have to do this,” I repeated as the embers thrummed in my chest. “I…I thought when you said you wanted to walk, it was to spend time with me. Alone.”

“We will.” Kolis stared at me for so long, I thought maybe he’d changed his mind. “But there are things I must see to. This is one of them.”

Jove stood completely still, his hands clenched tightly as dread flooded my heart.

“This is an honor,” Kolis said, and I didn’t know if he was talking to me or the Chosen. “Life can still be created, even if imperfect. And it must be. For without it, the very fabric of the realms would rip apart.”

I blinked. “W-what?”

“Close your eyes, my son.” Kolis fully shifted his attention to Jove.

The Chosen obeyed without hesitation. Kolis tilted the man’s head back, exposing the length of his neck.

He was going to bite him.

My hand went to my throat as the memory of the pain burned through me. I couldn’t stand here and allow this.

Instinct took over, and I was suddenly moving toward Kolis and the Chosen before I was even fully conscious of what I was doing. Crossing the space, the essence built inside me as I reached out—

I gasped as Kolis’s other hand snaked out, capturing my wrist. “I understand,” he said softly, his flat, cold stare locking with mine. “You’ve always had a kind heart, so’lis.”

I shuddered.

And then she shuddered.

“Even now, under this sharp, rough, and often abrasive exterior, your heart is soft,” he continued, my skin crawling from his touch. “You are a good person. I admire that. I always have.”

Kolis was wrong. I didn’t have a soft or kind heart. Nor was I a particularly good person. If I were, I wouldn’t have been able to do all the things I’d done how I’d done them. I couldn’t just stand by and watch this. There was a difference.

“You need to understand why this is important. What is and has always been at risk,” Kolis said. “He is either recreated in the image of the gods, or he gives life to another who will be. That is up to you.”

It took no leap of logic to know that giving life to another meant death for Jove.

“But make no mistake,” Kolis said, drawing me to his side with just the curl of his arm. I swallowed hard, but it did nothing to ease the rising bile of the contact with him and the knowledge of what was to come. “Balance must be maintained.”

There he was again, going on about his obsession with balance.