Aios nodded, grabbed fistfuls of her skirt, and without hesitation, took off in the direction I’d come from just as a horn blew at the entrance of the Rise, snapping my head around. My hands fisted. The Primal was at the gates. I started for them but stopped as Kars and Rhahar poured out the door.

“Do you know who it is?” Bele asked.

I shook my head. “I want to see them before they see me.” I pivoted back to the side of the Rise that faced the Dying Woods. “Go to the gates and ensure that no one gets past them,” I ordered.

A savage smile appeared as eather lit up the veins under her eyes. “You got it.”

Bele was a blur of black and gray as I turned to Rhahar and Kars. “The same—”

“Nyktos is at the Pillars,” Rhahar cut in. “He’s bound to them until he finishes. That means we back you up whether you like it or not,” Rhahar cut in. “That is our duty.”

“Fine,” I bit out. “Stay below and behind the Rise, at least.”

I didn’t wait for their answer, knowing they would obey. Quickly climbing the steep staircase, I reached the top and started running again, heading for the gates. The hair Ash had braided this morning thumped off my back as I rounded the corner of the Rise, Rhahar and Kars keeping pace with me on the ground below. I spotted archers already in their nests, shadowstone-tipped arrowheads pointed down.

Fuck.

Whoever had arrived was definitely not someone like Keella.

Gods, if it was Kyn returning for his payment again…

It would be bad.

Because while Ash had been able to stop himself yesterday, I wasn’t sure I could.

The front of the courtyard came into view as the area between my shoulder blades twinged. Several guards stood at the ready at the closed gates, their swords glinting in the sunlight. Bele was with them. My gaze flicked up as an auburn-haired god ascended the steep stairs.

Rhain didn’t look in my direction as he walked toward the lower wall above the gate, but he lifted a hand as if to warn me off. I slowed, hidden behind the narrow wall of the battlement. But if I felt this Primal?

They felt me.

Several guards bowed as I passed. I wanted to tell them to stop, but I kept my mouth shut for once.

Rhain moved to the battlement, where it curved out, and exposed himself from the waist up. He placed his hands on the ledge before him as the not-too-distant rumble of warning came from the sky. “Veses.”

I jerked to a stop so fast I nearly lost my balance, my body flashing cold and then hot—red-hot. Something was wrong with my ears because there was no way I had heard that name. There was no way she would come here.

I would’ve preferred fucking Kyn over her.

“I want to see Nyktos.”

At the sound of the sultry, raspy voice, whatever restraint I had snapped.

The world around me blurred in a haze of gold and silver as I headed down the Rise, moving so fast I ended up shadowstepping to the battlement.

Rhain staggered to the side in surprise. “Fates,” he muttered.

The Primal Goddess of Rites and Prosperity came into view as I stalked to the ledge.

Veses stood below, her head tipped back, and her long, blond ringlets cascading down. The golden sunlight only heightened the beauty of her delicate features.

“You’re not Nyktos,” Veses stated.

“No shit.” I pressed my palms to the ledge, letting the warmth of the stone seep into me as I saw a deep shadow coasting through the scattered clouds above the road. It struck me then that Veses couldn’t sense that Ash wasn’t at the palace. My mind raced over the different times Ash had sensed another Primal’s arrival. He knew the moment they entered the Shadowlands. Either that meant Ash was more powerful than Veses, even though she was significantly older, or my presence somehow blocked that. There was no time to allow for my intuition to kick in as I stared down at the Primal goddess. “You must be out of your mind to come here, Veses.”

Her full lips, painted to match her crimson gown, thinned.

“What?” I challenged. “No bitchy retort?”

“Sera,” Rhain warned under his breath. Then he spoke louder to Veses. “What do you want?”

“I already told you.” Her chin lifted a notch, and my muscles tensed. “I am here for Nyktos.”

Hearing her say that twice? When all I saw was her in Ash’s lap, feeding from him? Using him? Fury seized control. I shifted my weight forward and drew my legs up. Rhain cursed, and I felt his fingers graze my arm, but I was so very fast now.

I launched myself off the battlement of the Rise. Cool air reached me, catching the sleeves of my blouse in a rush. There were only a few heartbeats of weightlessness as the hard ground raced up to greet me.

Instinct took over. My body relaxed, even as my knees bent. I landed with my feet shoulder-width apart, sinking into a crouch as the jarring impact traveled up my spine. Air punched out of my lungs. Dull pain flared in my hips but quickly faded. My gaze locked with Veses’ as I straightened.

Her eyes widened for a fraction of a second, then her expression smoothed out into bland indifference. “Impressive,” she purred.

I smirked. “I know.”

A large shadow broke free of the rapidly gathering clouds, its widespread wings casting a foreboding silhouette over the road leading to the Rise.

Several guards scattered as the onyx-hued draken landed beside me, Ehthawn’s sword-sharp talons digging into the newly grown grass beside the road. His long, sinuous tail coiled, whipping across dirt and stone as he stretched his thick neck past me. His horned head was only a few feet from Veses as he let out a body-shaking roar, exposing large, bone-crunching teeth. Sparks of silver fire danced in the space between him and the Primal goddess.

Her chest rose sharply, straining the thin material of her gown as the glow of eather pulsed behind her pupils.

“You’re not welcome here,” I told her.

Her gaze lowered, tracking over the vest and pants I wore. One side of her lip curled in distaste. “Nyktos has welcomed me here many, many times in the past.”

I took a step forward, smiling as she retreated. “The keywords there are in the past.”

She huffed. “That could change, especially when Nyktos grows tired—”

“That won’t happen,” I cut her off. “I know that seems foreign to you since you have no idea what it feels like to have someone love you.”

Her lips thinned, and the eather pulsed brightly, proving I’d struck a nerve with my admittedly nasty barb.

But fuck her.

For real.

“You know what I know?” Veses’ expression smoothed out.

“Can’t wait to hear it.”

She smiled. “I know how fickle the heart is.”

“That should tell you something, shouldn’t it? That a fickle heart is what you know?” I sighed. “Gods, I do feel sorry for you, Veses.”

She flinched as if I’d slapped her. “You’re a fool if you do. There is no reason—”

“There are several reasons to feel empathy for you, Veses.” I eyed the Primal goddess, remembering our conversation after I’d intervened on her behalf in Dalos. “And you know each one of them.”

Some of the color drained from her face.

“But let me make one thing clear. Even though I feel sorry for you, I still want to kill you, and you know exactly why.”

The skin above her eyebrow twitched as her eyes rose to mine.

“And you also know I’m fully capable of doing so,” I tacked on as the gates opened behind me. “I’m the Queen, Veses. No one would stop me, yet you came here to speak to my husband. So, who is the fool?”

She stiffened. “You are no Queen.”

“I’m the true Primal of Life.” The essence rippled through me as Ehthawn reared his head back. Silver embers fell to the stone. “Look around you. How can you deny that?”

Her gaze darted left and right, passing over the land now ripe with life. “You redecorated. How lovely. It means nothing.”