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Nyktos calls her reckless, but then suddenly asks if she has her dagger, saying they’re about to have company. He apologizes for what’s about to transpire, and Sera meets Attes for the first time. The Primal refers to Sera as an accessory, and she threatens him without hesitation. Nyktos tells her to behave, but Attes asks if she knows not to repeat what she hears, and she can’t hold her tongue, snapping at him again. She learns that Kolis is denying her coronation.

After hearing that Nyktos must be granted permission to take a Consort, she curses. Attes tells them that Kolis will summon them when he’s ready. After the Primal leaves, Nyktos tells her to argue with him to distract him from his anger. She kisses him instead.

Sera assumes that Kolis must think the embers are in Nyktos and that he’s the one who Ascended Bele, but she’s told the false Primal of Life knows they aren’t in his nephew. He already tested Nyktos. When she realizes what those tests likely were, she discovers that Nyktos has had to convince Kolis of a great many things.

He tells Sera that Attes was provoking her by trying to influence her with his Primal essence. When she had no reaction to it, Attes knew and realized that she’s more than what they said. Ector tells her about who is and isn’t affected by a Primal’s presence, and she realizes that Attes could know that she is the one who carries the embers.

Sera learns that Kolis could have outright forbidden Nyktos from taking a Consort, and while he can still claim her, she’d have no protection.

Thinking about how that meeting with Kolis will go, she fears she looks like Sotoria and worries. Nyktos vows not to let the Primal touch her. She argues, saying that she won’t be the reason for any more death, and he tells her she never was. She’s not so sure. However, she won’t hide, and he won’t put her in danger—even though she’s always been in danger.

Nektas follows Sera back to her chambers and calls her meyaah Liessa. She calls him meyaah draken in return, saying she’s as much his Queen as he is her draken. He asks if Ash was wrong to doubt her motivations, and she confesses that getting to Kolis never crossed her mind—at least not recently. She then learns what Nyktos has had to convince his uncle of and what Kolis will do if he learns the truth. It hits deep.

Sera argues that it isn’t personal for her like it is for Nyktos. She’s not Sotoria. Nektas asks her why she no longer calls Nyktos Ash and proceeds to tell her that his father called him that. He says it means something that he introduced himself to her as that right off, saying that he is as she wishes him to be.

She spends the remainder of the afternoon training and realizes she doesn’t want Nyktos to have to choose between the Shadowlands and her. Later, in his room to sleep, he apologizes for questioning her motives, saying he won’t hide the summons from her when it comes. Talk turns to why she holds her breath and how she manages her anxiety, and she suddenly realizes that she left her dagger in her bedchamber. She’s unprotected for the first time in her life…

The trust has been solidified.

Sera wakes on what should be her coronation day and once again thinks about fading away. Shaking herself out of it, she goes to have breakfast with Saion and Reaver and asks Saion where he’s from. He tells her the story of how Nyktos saved both him and his cousin, Rhahar.

Later, she sees others training and learns they do so every day in the morning for a few hours. She’s shocked when Saion refuses to train with her. Undeterred, she squares off with Nyktos. She ends up cutting off a lock of his hair. As they spar, Sera makes a list of demands.

After besting him just a little bit—I’m sure he probably let her—he says he’ll train her, totally shocking her. Needing to get in the last word, she curtsies to him and leaves.

Nyktos draws a bath for her in his chambers, and she eventually falls asleep in the tub. She wakes, and he reheats the water for her. Driven by her desire, she tells him that her want of him is a choice; one she’s at least brave enough to admit. Then, she tries to leave.

Before she can go, he admits to wanting her, too, and tells her how badly. He admits that he thinks about her all the time. She taunts him about the blowjob she gave him and asks if he wants that again or is back to just more talk.

And then it’s not just talk…

They share how each of them felt in their early lives, and Sera tells him she was basically a ghost in Lasania. He tells her to sleep and says she was never a ghost to him.

She wakes with only Nektas in the room and they talk a little. Sera remarks that there’s no way Ash has forgiven her, even if he understands and accepts why she planned what she did. He tells her that if Ash didn’t understand or accept, she wouldn’t be where she is, smelling of the Primal, and he wouldn’t have detected peace from Ash when he found them together.

Ash and Sera share dinner, and he tells her they’ll go see Ezra tomorrow in the mortal realm but makes sure she understands they can’t stay long. And they can’t say anything about Kolis.

They talk about their plans for going to the Pools of Divanash and more. She tells Nyktos she hopes his plan works because he’s good, and he should be the Primal of Life. He tells her not to mistake his handling of her as him being good. She explains that she isn’t good either. Nyktos reminds her that she’s been willing to sacrifice herself for others and thus is good, but then goes on to say that there’s no such thing as a good Primal, telling her their history. He adds that she’s neither good nor bad because of the embers.

Sera feels a shift between them and notices that his skin is warmer again. He remarks on her freckles once more, and she feels even more of a shift. It’s not desire fueled by the need for blood or sustenance, nor is it spurred on by anger. This is real. She kisses him because it’s different now, and he calls her liessa.

They head to the mortal realm, and Sera takes in how the mortals act in Ash’s presence. They meet with Ezra, and Sera tells her stepsister that killing the Primal wouldn’t have stopped the Rot. When Ezra confesses that she doubted Sera could make the Primal of Death fall for her, Sera is surprised. Ezra adds that she figured she’d end up getting killed after becoming impatient and just stabbing him, which makes Sera laugh.

On the way out, Sera and Ash run into Calliphe. Sera tries to leave, but her mom stops her, telling her she didn’t know what Tavius had planned. Ash tells her that she should count her blessings and thank her daughter, because it’s the only reason she still breathes.

Back in Iliseeum, after training with Bele and spending some pleasurable time with Ash, Sera goes to his office to see him. He takes her belowground to show her something, and she sees the cells. She realizes that she can’t tell the difference between the embers and her heart being excited around him and believes that he had his kardia removed to protect others, not himself. He tells her about the bone chains and those with dual lives and then takes her to the pool room. She’s amazed and asks him why he went to the lake if he had this. He tells her it’s because it was her lake.

Be still my heart.

Sera learns that Ash checked on her before her seventeenth birthday because he was curious—I now know it was much, much before that. Him wanting to know more about her makes her happy.

Wanting to test things, he says he plans to draw the eather out of her by goading her into using it on him, then tells her if she behaves, she can go for a swim or be fucked. She doesn’t want to do it, doesn’t want to accidentally hurt him, but he asks nicely, and she confesses to hating when he says “please.”

They fight hand-to-hand, and eather ramps up in her as she thinks about losing the fight with Taric. When Ash grabs hold of her, she distracts him with talk of sex to break away. He pins her, and she confesses that she likes to submit to him—then does. He takes her on the stone and tells her that she’s always safe with him, calling her liessa.

They spend some time in the pool, and Ash tells her more about Lathan. He admits that Sera’s one of the strongest people he knows, both mentally and physically—mortal or otherwise. Then he adds that his assertion has nothing to do with the embers. They play a bit more in the pool, and once again, Sera feels as if he and she have become…more.

She spends the rest of the day with Aios and the younglings, realizing that she’s not only been calling Nyktos Ash, she’s also started seeing him as such. Calling him Nyktos doesn’t feel right anymore. She wants to stop Kolis and the Rot and restore Ash’s rightful destiny, but she doesn’t want to do what’s needed to weaken Kolis. She wants a future of her own, and she wants it with Ash. She wants to be his Consort.