Remembering that caused my stomach to clench and my non-existent patience to rear its head. “You wanted to talk,” I said. “I’m here. So, talk.”

Callum hissed. “Do not speak to the King—”

Kolis raised his hand, silencing the Revenant in an instant. And, gods, I wished I had that ability when it came to Callum.

“I did summon you here.” Strands of blond hair fell against his jaw as he tilted his head. I didn’t think the Primal had blinked once since he’d walked in. “You shouldn’t have Ascended.”

I said nothing.

“Which means you lied about Nyktos’s kardia.”

“I told the truth about his kardia,” I said.

“And you continue to lie even now?” A half-grin appeared. It lacked the effort of making it look even somewhat real. “He risked dooming the realms to Ascend you. Only one in love would do such a thing, and one cannot be in love without a kardia, unless…” His chest rose with a sharp breath as his regard shifted to the Ancient. “Mates of the heart. Interesting.”

Pettiness was the next to rear its head. I wanted to throw it in his face but speaking about something so beautiful and using it against someone like Kolis felt wrong. As if it would taint Ash and me. “I don’t think that’s what you wanted to discuss.”

“No. It isn’t.” His fingers tightened around the arm of the throne as his focus returned to me. He fell silent again.

My hands fisted at my sides. “I assume you summoned me here so you can demand that I denounce any claim to the Throne of the Gods and pledge allegiance to you.”

Kolis chuckled softly, the sound making my skin crawl. “I imagined you would demand something similar of me, except asking for me to return to my rightful place in the Shadowlands.”

I said nothing because we did not even remotely plan to allow that.

“I have no intention of doing that,” Kolis continued.

Catching the smile on Callum’s face, I said, “Not a part of me is surprised to hear that.”

“Then where does that leave us, Seraphena?” Kolis asked. “At war?”

My heart kicked against my chest as the Ancient stiffened beside me. “You don’t want war.”

Kolis was quiet yet again. Too quiet.

My heart started pounding faster. “Because you know what can happen if it comes to that.” I jerked my chin at Aydun. “There will be no winners.”

“Not necessarily true,” he replied. “As long as the embers of life and death remain, there will be balance.”

“But a war will disturb those who have gone to ground.” I looked at Aydun for him to back me up, but the Ancient was frustratingly quiet.

“Perhaps.” Kolis shifted on the throne. A moment passed, then another. The muscle by his temple ticked. “You do look like her.”

I went rigid.

Wistfulness flashed across his features, causing my skin to crawl. “I can see parts of her in you, even now.”

“But she is not her, Your Majesty,” Callum interjected.

“I know.” The skin over the knuckles of his left hand thinned, revealing a hint of crimson underneath. “But she was in there. Her soul, that is.”

I showed nothing, even as unease festered.

“That’s what my brother did, right? He placed her soul with the embers into your bloodline? But I imagine he intended for you to be reborn as Sotoria. That didn’t happen. But her soul was in you.”

“Her soul is where you cannot reach it,” I said. “In me.”

My lie was smooth enough that Callum stepped back, bumping into the dais.

Kolis’s chin lowered as the shards of red grew in his eyes. “You took the Star diamond. I imagine my brother’s soul was released, and that is where you have placed hers.”

Fuck.

“We released Eythos’s soul and then destroyed The Star.” My thoughts raced. I had no idea if the diamond could be destroyed, but I remembered how it had been created. “Nektas did.”

“Lies.” Kolis laughed. “If you weren’t clever enough to discover the importance of The Star, my nephew is. You have her soul in that diamond.”

Fuck.

I could see I wouldn’t be able to convince him otherwise. Which meant that any protection I may have gotten from Kolis believing that Sotoria was still inside me was gone.

Kolis’s grip on the throne’s gold arms eased. “I brought you here to make a deal, Seraphena.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Aydun stepped forward but remained silent. I imagined he wasn’t supposed to speak. However, he was clearly interested in what Kolis had to say.

A small part of me was, too, but I doubted the deal would be anything but sadistic.

“You have nothing to say to that?” Kolis asked.

“Nope.”

His nostrils flared, but only for a moment before his expression smoothed out. “I will not punish you or my nephew for what you have done.”

“What we’ve done?” A wave of disbelief surged through my voice. “You held me against my will. You imprisoned Nyktos—”

“I imprisoned my nephew for attacking me and killing another Primal,” he said. “And you claimed to want to be at my side. It is not my fault that I believed you.”

I snapped my mouth shut.

“You manipulated me,” he accused. “Likely believing that, with her soul inside you, you would be able to kill me.”

Well, he was wrong about that. I knew I wouldn’t be able to kill him when I attacked him. I just wanted to make him bleed.

“Thank the Fates you were wrong,” he said, and my eyes nearly rolled out of the back of my head. “But as I was saying, I will not seek to punish you or my nephew. Those who conspired with you, however, will need to be punished. They cannot go without justice.”

As if he knew anything about justice.

“But you may live out your existence as a Primal of Life,” he sneered, “with my nephew. Ensuring the balance remains.”

I glanced at Callum. He showed no reaction to that as I’d expected. He had been all about Kolis taking the embers from me. Had he been telling the truth when he said his concern was for the balance?

“The realms will continue on as they have, except it will be under the rule of the Primal of Death as the King,” Kolis said.

My mouth dropped open. “The Primal of Death has never ruled.”

“Nor has a Queen,” he replied.

Well, fuck me, he had me there.

His smile then was a little more real. “All you have to do is give me what I want.”

Ice sloshed in my blood. He could not be serious, but he was. “Sotoria’s soul?”

Kolis nodded. “Bring me The Star.” He leaned forward. “That is all you have to do to prevent a war.”

For a moment, all I could do was stand there while Aydun faced me as if imploring me to remember what he’d said under the trees. I hadn’t forgotten. He’d told me that a war wouldn’t be won until there was blood and bone. And while that made next to no sense to me, he had said that I needed to trust my instincts. He could’ve been talking about how far I believed Kolis would go. Or maybe he meant how I felt regarding using Sotoria’s soul. How uncomfortable I was with the idea.

But what the Ancient had said or even how I felt about using her soul didn’t matter. Giving Sotoria over to Kolis sickened me. He would have her reborn and would watch her grow—

Gods, I couldn’t even finish that line of thought.

But was one soul—one life—worth hundreds? Thousands? My heart pounded erratically as I stood there.

My mouth dried. “And why should I believe you won’t go back on this deal the moment you have what you want?”

“A deal is an oath. One that cannot be broken,” Aydun advised me. “Doing so would force the realm to rectify.”

That wasn’t much of a reassurance considering Kolis had repeatedly done things that had to be rectified.

But I…gods, I could not do that to Sotoria. I couldn’t do that to anyone.

“What is your offer?” Aydun prodded.