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Kolis leaned forward. “That’s exactly what happened, so’lis. You filled in what I did not share. You chose to act upon that information and what you already believed. That was your choice.” His smile returned. “Perhaps you won’t be so trusting of what your eyes and mind tell you next time.”

As I stood there, I remembered the shock on Keella’s face. No. No. I looked around, not seeing her in the crowd. “What…whose Court did Evander—?” My voice cracked. “Where did he serve?”

Kolis dragged the edges of his fangs over his lower lip, and I knew. I fucking knew then. “He served in the Thyia Plains.”

Evander had been one of Keella’s gods.

My body flashed hot and then cold as the motivation behind what had just gone down became all too clear. It wasn’t about proving some twisted version of reality to me. It was Kolis striking back at Keella, who he likely knew didn’t believe a single thing he’d said about the coronation or my answer. And he’d proven it through me.

Just as he’d done with Kyn.

Callum went to Kolis’s side, bending to speak quietly to the Primal. I…

I just stood there.

I couldn’t believe what he’d just said. I knew what I’d heard. What I’d seen. Kolis may not have said that Jacinta was being forced, but he had implied it. He hadn’t insinuated that she was enjoying herself or that she derived pleasure from receiving pain. He’d told me what he believed I wanted to hear. What I…

What I would have easily assumed and had assumed moments before when I saw Malka and Orval. He’d known what I would do and had goaded me into it.

Into killing a possibly innocent god.

Into punishing Keella for daring to ask about me.

The weight of the dagger I still held felt even heavier then. I looked down. Blood no longer dripped, but it still smeared the midnight-hued blade. My knuckles around the hilt were as white as Jacinta’s had been.

Slowly, I lifted my gaze to Kolis. He still spoke to Callum, one hand relaxed on the arm of the throne that glittered like his crown, the other holding the chalice by his fingertips, letting it dangle. His legs were spread, knees loosely bent. He lifted an arm, brushing some hair back from his face. Warm light glinted off that band around his biceps. The false King was entirely at ease, the smile on his face slippery and smug.

In an instant, my memories took me back to when I’d stood before Thad. When the young draken had asked me to get it over with. I saw in Kolis now what I’d seen then.

What was in that golden essence of his—his power and beauty. A darkness that had nothing to do with death. It was the same thing I saw in his smile. The kind that was just as real as the lopsided, uncertain ones.

Something tainted.

Vile.

Corrupt.

It smudged the aura beneath his flesh and shaded the gold in the lifeless gray of the Rot.

The embers in my chest started thrumming violently. And like before, I was there, but I wasn’t alone.

I felt Sotoria.

I could feel the ancient power of the embers awakening and stretching. I felt the same entity I did before, entrenching itself deep in my bones. And I heard that voice in my thoughts that started as a whisper and became a scream. Mine. His stolen power. It was mine. The crown. Mine. His pain. It would be mine. Vengeance. Retribution. Blood. Mine. All of it would be mine.

But this time, I knew the entity was what the embers had shaped me into from birth. The voice wasn’t a spirit nor the ghosts of many lives.

It was my voice.

The entity was me.

Who I truly was.

And I was full of pure and primal rage. As my lips curved into a smile, I took a quiet and quick step toward Kolis.

“Your Majesty,” Attes called, his deep voice like a crack of thunder.

Kolis looked up, though not at me. He looked straight to where Attes stood at the foot of the dais. “Yes?”