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“You…”—I struggled for breath—“forgot one…thing.”

“And what is that?” he asked. “Disrespectful?”

“Sure, but…I’m also soon…to be dead,” I wheezed.

He raised a golden brow. “Is that so?”

“Yes,” I croaked. “Since you’re killing me…again.”

For a moment, Kolis didn’t move. He’d gone completely still. Then his gaze dropped to where he had me by the throat. His eyes widened in surprise. It was almost as if he’d had no idea he was choking me. He shoved me away from him.

Stumbling back, I barely managed to keep my balance. I bent at the waist, hands on my knees while I dragged in deep mouthfuls of salty air. A tremor coursed through me, and I swallowed, wincing at the soreness in my throat.

I could practically feel the bruises forming on the skin of my neck, but I learned something then. I laughed, the sound like nails against stone. It hurt, but as sick and twisted as it was, his love of Sotoria was a weakness in more ways than one.

“This conversation is over,” Kolis said. Another laugh almost snuck free. He thought this was a conversation? “We are going home, and once you’ve calmed down, we will talk then.”

“Home?” Slowly, I straightened, my disbelief, anger, and maybe a little of Sotoria’s, getting the better of me. “Go fuck yourself, you nightmarish piece of—” I tensed, seeing his hand move this time, knowing it would hurt.

The blow never landed.

Kolis gripped my chin, and my heart stuttered. It wasn’t his hold. The press of his fingers was firm but nowhere near as bruising as it had been on my throat. Still, what I saw caused my heart to continue skipping beats.

Primal essence sparked and ignited, spilling into the air around him. A bright, golden glow rose, arcing from his back like wings. The swirls of eather spread so rapidly over his flesh that, for a moment, he became as he had been when battling Ash: blinding, golden light and spitting eather that stung my skin.

But the light faded quickly, showing that his skin had thinned to the point where the bones of his arm were visible. A knot of dread twisted in my stomach as I lifted my gaze. I didn’t want to see, but I couldn’t stop from looking.

I saw the dull sheen of his cheekbones. His jawbone. The bones of his arm. And his eyes… They were just sockets filled with pools of black, swirling nothingness.

Kolis hadn’t looked like this when he battled Ash, but I knew instantly that this was what the true Primal embers of death looked like.

And it was terrifying.

The wings of eather lifted and stretched behind him, then disappeared into golden smoke. The aura in his veins faded as his skin thickened, hiding what he truly looked like. “I do hope you are far more aware and grateful of the grace I’ve shown you than Nyktos was.”

“Grace?” I exclaimed. “You—”

The whirling abyss of nothingness that had been his eyes flashed to silver and gold. “You will not speak.”

My body went rigid, the four words thundering through me. An aching pulse shot through my jaw, and my mouth clamped shut.

“You will not talk back,” Kolis said, and his voice was everywhere, both outside and inside of me. “Nor will you fight me.”

My muscles obeyed him instantly. I lowered my hands to my sides. What I’d feared in the ruined chamber as I held the dagger to my throat had come to fruition. He was using compulsion.

“That is much better.” Kolis smiled and drew me toward him with just the curl of his arm. He lowered his head, and his mouth was just an inch from mine when he spoke next. “Much, much better.”

I felt his hand on my lower back and then his chest against mine. My heart lurched. I willed my mouth to open. Wished for my arms and legs to move, but nothing happened. All I could do was stand there. He could do anything to me. Fear blossomed at the loss of control.

“There is something you need to understand, whether you’ve spoken the truth of who you are or not.” One by one, he lifted all his fingers but his thumb. “If anyone dared to speak to me as you have, I would have their flesh flayed from their bodies and fed to them.”

Kolis wiped at the blood under my lower lip and then lifted his hand to his mouth.

I was going to be sick.

Hopefully, if I did vomit, I would do it in his fucking face.

He sucked on his thumb, drawing the blood into his mouth. The eather brightened in his eyes. “You saw what happened to Nyktos for daring to strike me.” His head tilted, sending a lock of gold hair against a cheek. “So, if it turns out you are not my graeca, and this is some sort of elaborate ploy? There will be no limit to the atrocities visited upon you and everyone you’ve ever cared about before I take the embers of life.” His lips grazed mine as they curved into a smile. “That, I promise you.”