My brows shot up. “Really?”

The wind swirled across the balcony again, carrying with it the scent of rich, damp soil. Chin tipping back, he closed his eyes. “It feels good to have the fresh wind against my flesh.” He inhaled deeply, his lashes lifting. “All because of you.”

“Me?” I squeaked. “I really didn’t do anything.”

“All because of you and him.” He looked past me to the bedchamber. “This breeze I can feel? The life that has returned to the Shadowlands? My daughter touched a blade of grass today and will soon see clean water coursing through the lands.” His vivid blue gaze, luminous with eather, returned to mine. “That is what your strength of will and his love has given my child. That would not be possible without the two of you. You survived. He persisted.”

A knot clogged my throat. I turned my stare to the stars as I worked it free. “We didn’t know it would work. All Ash wanted to do was save me.”

“If either of you had faltered, if you were not as brave as you are or willing to love without condition or expectation? If he hadn’t been so determined to save you or refused to believe that what he felt for you this whole time was love?” Nektas said. “You would’ve died, Liessa. And his pain would’ve turned the realms to ruin. That is not nothing. That is everything.” He fell silent for a moment. “You didn’t give up. Neither did he.”

Swallowing around that tangle of emotion, I ignored the prick of pain as my fang scraped the inside of my lip. “I didn’t want to die when he brought me to my lake. I…I stopped wanting that once I knew what it felt like to really live. Knowing that I’d finally be able to become something other than what my duty symbolized,” I admitted, my voice hoarse. “It wasn’t falling in love that changed that. It was that I could feel such an emotion when all I’d ever really felt was either anger or nothing at all. It was the realization that I could become someone—” The breath I exhaled was ragged. “Someone who mattered.”

Nektas listened quietly as I continued, curling my fingers around my hair. “But I was prepared to die. I’d accepted it. I didn’t give up. I gave in.”

“So did Ash. You both gave in.”

I thought about that. “I suppose that’s one way of looking at it.”

“It is the only way.” Nektas watched me closely. “I don’t think it’s possible for anyone to be as uncomfortable when being praised as you are. Accept the praise. You have earned it.”

I let out a short laugh. “Yes, sir.” I peeked over at him. His bemused smile tugged at my lips, and it made me think of something. “Did you know? That Ash and I were heartmates?”

“There was no way for me to know that,” he said, lowering himself from the railing in one fluid step. “But I knew he felt more than what he believed was possible when he had his kardia removed.” Starlight glanced off his broad cheek. “I saw that in the way he spoke about you. How he cared for you. So, I began to suspect such, even with mates of the heart being so rare. Or perhaps I hoped for that since I didn’t want to lose either of you.”

It took me several moments to speak around the rising knot of emotion. “You know, you didn’t even ask if I passed the riders’ test.”

“I don’t need to ask.” Angling his body toward mine, he propped his hip against the railing. “I know you did. You are worthy, Liessa.”

“I’m beginning to think you’re just trying to make me uncomfortable now,” I muttered.

“I would never.”

“Uh-huh.” Something occurred to me. “Do you remember what Eythos’s abilities of intuition were like?”

“I do.” He turned toward me as the wind tossed his hair across his chest again. “I assume the ability is also developing in you?”

I nodded.

“What do you want to know?”

“Everything.” I laughed, loosening my grip on the railing. “But mostly, I wanted to know if you knew how it works. Because it’s like…one second, I feel this strange sensation and just know something. And the next, I have no idea, especially if it has anything to do with me.”

“I don’t know all the fine details.” Nektas rubbed his chin. “But I do know that the vadentia became stronger as time passed. Eythos could look at a person and know nearly everything about them.”

I frowned. “I don’t think I can do that.”

“It took Eythos several years before he could.” The skin between Nektas’s brows creased. “But the embers were already maturing in you long before your Ascension. It wasn’t like that for Eythos. It may develop sooner in you.”

I mulled that over. “Possibly. I mean, those embers had matured in Eythos and even in Ash to some extent before they were placed in my bloodline.”

Nektas nodded. “But the intuition never worked regarding him either.”

A measure of relief hit me. “So, it’s not just me being broken or something?”

The furrow in the skin between Nektas’s brows deepened. “No, I think it’s more likely that it has something to do with balance.”

“That’s what Eythos believed?”

“Yes. It wouldn’t be fair if one knew how every action and choice affected them, now would it?” Nektas offered up. “It would upset the balance.”

“I guess.” I wasn’t sure what the Fates—the Ancients—had in mind when it came to restoring balance or if it actually helped. Their actions often seemed rather counterproductive.

“Ah, I just remembered something else.” Nektas’s brow smoothed out. “Usually, he had to think about what he wanted to know. Give himself time to, as he put it, listen to what the realm was telling him. That was hard for him.”

I grinned, knowing exactly what he meant. Sometimes, I didn’t allow a thought to finish before I spoke or another thought came.

“I know he was able to sense unrest within Iliseeum and eventually the mortal realm. I’m not sure if that was the vadentia or because he was the true Primal of Life, but he could feel the unrest in Iliseeum before sensing something happening in the mortal realm,” he told me, the furrow between his brow deepening. “But there was something else. Sometimes, a feeling hit him—usually out of nowhere. It was like an urge, guiding him to either a place or a person. Even sometimes an object. When it came, he couldn’t ignore it. It would drive him mad at times, especially when it hit in the middle of the night.” Nektas brushed his hair back from his face. “And he didn’t like not knowing where it was leading him or why.”

That hadn’t happened to me. Yet. “What were some of the reasons he was led to something?”

“It really varied.” Nektas squinted, seemingly looking back through time. I wondered how he could remember all of this. “Sometimes, it was because he needed to see something. Other times, it led him to someone with something he needed to be told. I know there were even random items he came upon. Things that made no sense at the time but did later.”

Curiosity rose. “Like what?”

“One I can think of off the top of my head was an old diamond necklace he was led to. Come to find out, it belonged to Keella and held some sort of personal value to her,” Nektas shared. “She was always fond of Eythos before, but even more so afterward.”

“Which probably made her even more willing to aid him when it came to Sotoria’s soul,” I surmised. “That’s crazy.”

He nodded. “There were other things. A sharpened edge of shadowstone. It was how he discovered its uses.” He looked back at me. “I know I haven’t told you much, but I hope it helped.”

“It did. Thank you.” I smiled, but it faded as my thoughts returned to the test. “I don’t know why I passed the riders’ test.”

He folded his arms across his chest. “What do you mean?”

“I was supposed to slay the monster, and I did. Sort of.” As I explained what had gone down, I pulled my hand from my hair and placed it on the railing. “They said I only wounded it. So, I’m not sure how I passed.”