“By the way,” he said as he pulled on loose-fitting linen pants. “The clothing Erlina made for you is hanging in the wardrobe.” He faced me, showing off all his stunning scenery. And then he grinned. “Forget what I said about the clothing in the wardrobe. I want you like this. Always. It is the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.”

I raised a brow and glanced down at myself. The soft shirt was so long on me that it could double as a nightgown—a shapeless, baggy one. “Me wearing one of your shirts?”

“Yes,” he said, the word a vibrating purr.

I looked up at him, and whatever I had been about to say vanished off the tip of my tongue when my gaze swept over Ash. He’d finished pulling his hair back into a low knot at the nape of his neck, showcasing the striking angles and planes of his face. There had always been an innate grace to how he moved, but now, even the fluidity seemed more apparent as he prowled toward the bed. It was like he was a part of the very environment around us.

My gaze lowered. The lines of his chest and the tightly packed muscles of his abdomen were more defined. I tracked the inked blood drops that appeared on either side of his waist and disappeared beneath his waistband.

“Liessa, you shouldn’t look at me like that.” The change in his tone drew my gaze to his. His voice had become richer, taking on a velvety resonance that caressed each word like a symphony of arousal.

I inhaled sharply, catching an increase in his citrusy scent. Was I imagining that? No, I knew I was really sensing his arousal. Not in the same way he could, by reading emotions, but there was no denying the newly discovered sense of awareness. I could feel his arousal in the echo of each heartbeat. This had to be one of those other developing senses Ash had mentioned. “Are you sure about that?”

“Unfortunately. Because you need to eat.” He bent and curved his hand around my cheek. “I’ll only be gone for a couple of minutes.”

“Okay.”

His eyes met mine as he tilted my head back. He moved closer, and when he next spoke, his lips brushed mine. “I love you.”

My breath snagged on those three words. They should be impossible.

He tilted his head. The press of his cool lips was gentle at first but became fierce and hard.

My pulse was thrumming when he finally lifted his mouth from mine. “I—”

The balcony doors suddenly flung open, sending the thick curtains snapping toward the walls.

“What the…?” I trailed off. White mist rippled over the floor and began to rise. A strange scent reached me. Musky. Almost sweet. Eather throbbed intensely in the center of my chest, and every instinct in me told me this—whatever it was—had nothing to do with Kolis.

The change that came over Ash was swift. Shadows erupted beneath his flesh, swirling up his arms and across his chest as he whirled around.

Wisps of dark eather whipped out from his back, taking the shape of wings. I stared into the mist. Something was taking form. A guttural growl of warning rumbled from Ash, and he bared his fangs.

The skin along the nape of my neck tingled. I sensed something… “Ancient.”

I lurched from the bed and reached for Ash. My fingers grazed his skin as a charge of energy rolled through the chamber. “Ash!”

Darkness descended.

CHAPTER TWO

I woke on a hard, damp surface to a humming sound and a scent much like leather being tanned over a flame, but this smell was far too sweet and putrid. Way worse than the scent of stale lilacs. Where was…?

The white mist.

The darkness.

Ash.

I jerked upright, and my eyes flew open to a void of complete darkness.

“Ash!” I shouted, wincing as my voice echoed, mingling with what no longer sounded like humming but moans resembling a haunting chorus of hungry spirits.

A shiver tiptoed down my spine, causing tiny bumps to flood my skin, and that was all I felt. I pressed my palm to my chest, feeling the softness of Ash’s linen shirt.

“Oh, damn,” I whispered. There was no buzz of eather. No underlying thread of power just under my flesh.

I had to be dreaming.

Except…

Except the damp, cold stone beneath me felt too real, and that stench was so thick and rich I could practically taste it.

Suddenly, I remembered what I’d sensed before the darkness came. Something ancient.

My stomach churned, and I shifted onto my knees. Where was Ash? Panic knotted in my chest as I tried to make sense of what was happening. My throat constricted, making it even more difficult to breathe. I saw absolutely nothing around me as I started pushing to my feet. Just pitch-blackness.

Two pinpricks of silver light appeared. I halted in a crouch, my heart racing. The twin spheres seemed to double in size. Another set flickered into existence, and then a third, each growing as the one before them had. My lips parted, and I stared at the lights. I…I didn’t think they were orbs.

They looked like eyes glowing with eather.

I slowly straightened, my already pounding heart speeding up. My fingers tingled with how fast the blood pumped through me. I may not be able to feel the essence inside me or that uncanny intuition, but all my other senses were firing. Sudden, icy dread seized me, turning my voice hoarse. I croaked, “Hello?”

The lights vanished.

A heartbeat passed. Other than the moaning, there was only silence. I took a step forward. A rush of charged air stopped me. Golden embers sparked in multiple places, igniting all around me. Flames erupted, casting a shining light onto the iron sconces. My gaze instinctively tracked the glow as it spread across dull, gray stone walls in some sort of cavern, bearing markings I’d seen in the Shadow Temples and on the Pillars of Asphodel—circles with vertical lines through them. The skin behind my left ear tickled. My Primal intuition kicked in then, and I continued following the light. Those marks were the symbol of Death. Of true Death—

I wasn’t alone.

Every muscle tensed as my body flashed hot and then cold. Three figures sat before me on horseback, their heads bowed and cloaked, bodies hidden in robes of white that rippled. Three horses that were nothing but bones and tendons were also covered by pale shrouds.

I’d seen them before. At the Pillars. I remembered their names. I could even hear Nektas speaking them now.

Polemus. Peinea. Loimus.

War. Pestilence. Hunger.

They were the riders of the end of everything, only summonable by the true Primal of Life.

Every instinct I possessed, both the old and the new, screamed at me to run because these beings had never been mortal or god. They were primordial. Not Ancients, but created by them. That was why they felt like them.

But an innate knowledge warned me that if I ran, I would fail. I had no idea at what, so I held myself rigid.

The rider in the middle moved an arm, reaching inside the folds of its cloak. It withdrew a sword with a dull ivory hilt and a blade the color of blood.

“Prove yourself,” a voice rasped through the air, rattling like old, dry bones.

My eyes widened when the rider turned the sword, holding it toward me, hilt first. I had a feeling this was Polemus. War.

Having no idea what the rider meant, I didn’t dare move to take the sword. “W-where is Ash?”

Silence.

Maybe they didn’t know him by that name? Seemed unlikely, but I cleared my throat anyway. “Where is Nyktos?”

“The Primal of Death is safe,” the rider replied, its voice causing my skin to prickle. “Prove yourself.”

“I want to see him.”

“Prove yourself.”

Chest thudding, I hopscotched between fear and anger. “I want to see him,” I repeated. “Now.”

“You must prove yourself, Primal.”