I saw things climbing out of windows and over balcony rails on the upper floors of the sweeping ivory palace, opening their arms wide and embracing the call of death.

Oh, my gods.

Horror rose. Gods and godlings, mortals and servants, embraced death. The fall from Mount Lotho would kill a god. It would likely even do serious damage to a Primal.

“You sick bastard!” I screamed, willing the eather to the surface to try to catch the ones I could, but the essence merely sparked and flickered. The delay was costly, and the fall was too quick. “Stop!”

The chilling song ceased.

My furious glare fixed on Kolis as another echo of death haunted me. “Why? Why would you do that?” I shouted. I didn’t know if I was asking about those he’d called to their deaths or if I was demanding to know why he’d taken my family. I wasn’t sure why I was asking either. I knew the answer. He was a walking nightmare. Still, I screamed, “Why?”

“You should know,” Kolis said, his voice no longer carrying the winds of summer. Now, it brought with it the nothingness of death.

“Other than you being absolutely demented,” I seethed, “do you even know why you are this way?”

A heartbeat passed, and then Kolis was directly in front of me. I didn’t even see the blow coming. His fist slammed into my jaw, the force cranking my head back.

Pain erupted, and blood filled my mouth, but I somehow managed to keep my footing.

“Did you really think that would hurt me? A Primal a millennium old?” Kolis’s laugh sounded like dry bones rubbing together. “You silly cunt.”

Head ringing, I straightened and faced him, spitting a mouthful of blood directly in his face.

Kolis smiled, and there was nothing fake about it. He licked the blood from his lips. “Tasty.” Crimson shadows blossomed under the flesh of his chest. “I should thank you for Ascending a Primal to take Embris’s place. I would’ve chosen someone different, but she…” His smile spread, and red swirled in his eyes. “She will be so lovely when she kneels before me and pledges her allegiance. Not as fulfilling as when you do, but still enjoyable.”

It was almost like his words were a different sort of siren’s call to me. Common sense jumped right off the cliff, along with Holland’s advice. Rage was an unending fire in my blood, even as instinct warned me that I needed to be careful. I had to put space between us. Kolis was old. He was stronger and faster. I had been weakened substantially, and the pain from my numerous injuries was no longer so dull. Tiny stings and sharp pricks joined the throbbing in my jaw, but all the drowning anger and sorrow was far greater, as was the knowledge that I was no longer afraid of him.

The palace trembled under my wrath, and I launched myself at Kolis, summoning the eather.

All he did was lift his arm, and it was like I fucking jumped throat-first into his palm. “As much as it pains me even to admit this, Seraphena,”—his grip on my throat tightened—“I admire your tenacity. If things were different, you would’ve sat at my right hand as my most vicious ally.”

“Thanks,” I bit out, grasping his wrist. “My life is complete hearing that—”

He squeezed, silencing me and cutting off my next breath. “Your mouth, however, is a different story.”

I managed a smirk and lifted my left hand, extending my middle finger.

Kolis sighed. “I shouldn’t be surprised that you’d throw yourself at me. That’s what whores do.”

Then he threw me down with enough force to knock the trapped air out of my lungs again. The impact hurt, but I could still breathe. Wheezing and coughing, I rolled onto my side.

“And that is all you are. A whore with stolen power.” He stood over me, planting one foot on either side of me. He grabbed my hair, wrapping the strands around his fist. Jerking my head back, he forced me to meet his stare “A mortal pretending to be a Primal, who doesn’t know her place.”

“Or doesn’t know when to shut up?”

“Acknowledging the problem is half the battle, isn’t it?” He smirked. “You thought yourself so much better than me, didn’t you? Just like Eythos. But look at what you’ve done.”

I flinched.

“You killed tonight, Sera. You murdered coldly and without thought or care,” he said. “You’re no better than me.”

I couldn’t think about that right now: the truth in his words. I grabbed his arm, my nails breaking off as they dug into his flesh. I summoned the eather, but…it only pulsed weakly. My heart stuttered, and my gaze flew to his. Fuck.

“What? Come on, Seraphena. Lash out at me,” he goaded, an achingly frigid smile playing on his lips. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw guards beyond the interior archway leveling their bows. “Fight me like the Primal you think you are,” he pouted. “Or can’t you get it up?”

“That sounds more like your problem.” I gave him a bloody smile.

His nostrils flared. “You fucking—”

Holding on to his arm, I kicked out hard, slamming the heel of my boot into his stomach. He bent over just as a high-pitched whistle hit the air—several of them.

Kolis looked at them.

That was all he did.

The arrows shattered into dust, and the guards’ heads snapped abruptly.

I briefly closed my eyes against the pulse of death.

“How quickly loyalties change,” Kolis remarked with a shrug. “Embris would be rolling in his grave, as they say.” He twisted the hair in his grip, sending a fiery wave of pain across my skull. “Still nothing?”

My pulse pounded, and I could feel the eather struggling to ignite inside me.

Kolis chuckled darkly. “That’s what I thought. Pitiful.” He yanked my head back until sharp, stabbing pain shot down my spine. “I want you to know one thing, Seraphena.” The dull gleam of red bone appeared along his jaw. “It was neither Kyn nor Embris who entered Wayfair. Who listened to the pleas for mercy. Nor was it they who killed the Queen of Lasania. It was me.”

Everything inside me stopped once more as a tempest of fury surged through my veins, and pulsating rage roared in my ears.

“I was the last face they saw. The last voice they heard.” His head lowered to mine, and I shuddered, feeling his lips against my cheek. “And it felt so good to place my hands on them and hear their necks snap.” His tongue snaked along my cheek to my ear. “You brought this on yourself.”

My mind clicked off. There was nothing Primal or mortal about what I did next. It was pure, animalistic, unbridled rage. I snapped my head forward, not even feeling the strands of hair I tore out in the process, and went for the closest part of him, sinking my fangs into the side of his throat.

Kolis roared and jerked his head back. His flesh ripped, spilling even more blood. It coursed down his neck and my chin. I didn’t even have a chance to swallow it.

Suddenly, I was flying.

The floor was up, and the sky was down for a few brief seconds. I crashed into a pillar and fell forward, stunned as agony radiated down the length of my body.

Get up.

I needed to get up and breathe. I flattened my palms, and lightning streaked the sky, momentarily turning night to day. Breathe in. I needed to get up because this was the true Primal of Death. I may have thought I’d faced him before, but I hadn’t. I’d squared off with a weaker version of him.

Kolis stopped, looking up as heavy thunder rolled. He laughed. “You are so incredibly easy to provoke,” he said, voice thickening. “So incredibly easy to play.”

Hold. I took the time to rest and take stock of the situation while he blabbed on. Using eather wasn’t an option, but I wasn’t weaponless. I pushed onto my knees. Breathe out. Another bolt of lightning cut through the sky. Hold. The air cooled, the temperature dropping until I could see my breath.

“Perfect,” he said. “Nyktos can feel you right now, even though he’s at the Pillars. Blood isn’t that powerful. The blessing of a heart bond, though? He can feel everything and do nothing.” He paused. “I do hope he sends his draken. I would love nothing more than to send Nektas’s body back to him.”