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Afterward, she waits with Saion and Ector in Nyktos’s office and asks them if they’re afraid of her. She doesn’t know what Ascension means for a god, so Ector and Saion tell her. Nyktos walks in and thanks her for saving Bele. He takes care of her wounds and tells her he summoned the Fates, saying that Kolis will back off until he figures out what exactly he’s dealing with. She’s also told that not every god she brings back will Ascend—they have to be fated to do so.

This made me wonder about the history. If the Primals took to ground because the gods were Ascending so rapidly, how and why did that happen? Hopefully, I’ll be able to fill in that puzzle piece at some point.

After dozing for a bit, Sera wakes and is told the Fates have answered. Nektas is waiting for her and Nyktos in the throne room. Nyktos seems concerned about Sera’s wellbeing, and she tells him that if she lost too much blood, it’s on Taric, not him. He kisses her, and his lips are warm. After, he tells her that the kiss changes nothing. Still, she feels hopeful.

And she should. It changes nothing because he already knows she’s it for him.

When Sera walks into the throne room, she’s shocked to find Sir Holland. She’s instantly relieved to see that he wasn’t sent to the Vodina Isles, but then realizes why he never seemed to age in all the years she knew him. She learns that the Arae cannot affect her fate anymore and learns from Holland what Eythos did—she has the essence of his power in her.

Sera also learns that she and Nyktos are soulmates. It explains why they feel so right together. She confesses to feeling that and says she’s had a hard time walking away from him. It makes her wonder if that’s why he seems to find her so interesting. The soulmates thing isn’t the only reason. She’s drawn to who he is.

Sera and Nyktos try to tease out the prophecy and imagine it means that Kolis will destroy all the lands. Holland tells her she has many possible paths, but they all end the same. She says she wants to know more and learns that she is fated to die before the age of twenty-one. It’ll either be at the hands of a god, a misinformed mortal, Kolis, or even Nyktos himself—though one could possibly be an accident.

She learns that Nyktos’s blood will force her to go through the Culling, and because she’s mortal, she will not survive it. There’s also no way to stop it. Nyktos is horrified, and she assures him it’s not his fault.

Holland stresses that her recklessness and impulsivity may give whatever Eythos believed upon hearing the prophecy a chance to come to fruition and then shows her the broken thread of fate. He explains that the only thing the Fates can’t control is love. He goes on to say how she won’t survive the Culling, not without the sheer will of what is more powerful than fate or even death—not without the love of the one who would aid in her Ascension.

Sera asks if she needs the blood of a god who loves her to survive and finds out it needs to be the love of a Primal. And not just any Primal. The one the ember belonged to. Nyktos.

That is so very unfair to both of them.

She then learns something that shakes her even more. She’s had many lives and is the reincarnation of Sotoria, Kolis’s obsession. She denies it, and then things get worse. She finds out that life has only continued because of the ember in her bloodline, the one she now carries that is the only ember of life in both realms. And what that means is…if she dies, everything and everyone in both realms goes with her.

She is the Primal of Life.

Nyktos bows to her, and she asks him not to, then starts to have a panic attack. Nyktos calms her. Once she has her breath again, she remarks that the prophecies are pointless and learns more about them, the oracles, and the Gods of Divination.

They discuss Bele’s Ascension, if she looks like Sotoria, the Craven, and whether she’ll run to Kolis versus running away from him.

Sera asks what Kolis will do to Nyktos if he finds that he’s hiding her from him and learns that Kolis cannot kill his nephew. Life cannot exist without death. Which leads her to wonder about a Primal of Life and Death.

Nyktos admits to having his kardia removed. When she appears confused, Penellaphe tells Sera what that is and what it means—he’s truly unable to love. It stuns her.

Then she gets pissed that Holland didn’t tell her there was no point in her duty when they were in the mortal realm and worries about how long the realms have.

Talk turns to how to safeguard her as much as they can, and Vikter Ward, a viktor, arrives to place a charm on her arms, explaining what it will do. Holland sees her distress and tells her not to give up, reminding her of the broken thread and saying that fate is never written in bone and blood. It can be as ever-changing as one’s thoughts and heart. She reminds him that Nyktos can’t love, and he tells her that love is more powerful than the Arae can even imagine.

Before he leaves, Sera asks Holland if she’ll ever see him again, and he can’t answer. Still, he reminds her of something she already knows: All that she trained for wasn’t a waste. She is his weakness. Only the him isn’t Nyktos, it’s Kolis. She realizes that her true destiny is to be a weapon against the false Primal of Life, though she doesn’t want to seduce Kolis. The thought makes her ill.

Nyktos leads her back to his office and asks what she’s thinking. They discuss when he had his kardia removed and who knows about it, and she wonders if it hurt and why he did it. He tells her, though we find out that was only part of the truth. They decide to continue with the plan and keep her hidden.

Sera doesn’t see the point of the coronation if she’s just going to die in five months, and Nyktos asks if the idea of her death even bothers her. In answer, she lists all the things she’s currently dealing with—including death. Dealing has nothing to do with how she feels about it. When he says it’s unfair, it surprises her, and she tells him that it’s not fair to him either.

Sera tells Nyktos that whatever safety the coronation would provide isn’t worth it, and he tells her that her safety is worth everything, even the Shadowlands. However, he ruins the moment when he says that the embers are important. He doesn’t say she is.

The next time Saion escorts her to her chambers, they have a very serious discussion about where she stands now that the truth is out.

Sera meets Orphine, who also wants to kill her for even thinking about hurting Nyktos. However, she adds that Sera is special to them, too, because she’s life.

Later, Sera wakes to a deafening crack, covered in a blanket she didn’t get. Orphine rushes into the room and tells her not to go out onto the balcony. She does it anyway and sees the battle underway.

Orphine and Sera argue over Sera helping, and she learns all sorts of things about the draken. During the battle, Orphine stops her from reviving a fallen guard, and Ector keeps her from bringing Davina back to life.

A blast of eather almost hits her but gets Orphine instead. A pale-haired and light-skinned god comes to Sera, clearly looking for her. He doesn’t stop an entombed god from attacking her. In the melee, Sera is wounded in her shoulder and on her forearm.

Sera sees Nyktos take on his true Primal form and wipe out the rest of the entombed gods, ripping the last one in half. She admits to him after that she found it kind of hot.

I mean…there is something sexy about that kind of savage beauty and control.