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During the meeting with Delfai, Sera learns about the Star diamond and realizes that Holland lied about not knowing how Kolis took the embers. She remarks that a Fate giving The Star to Kolis should be considered interference. She’s told that Kolis still has The Star, but it isn’t needed to take the embers out of her. Her process is a bit different.

Delfai refers to her as a vessel and it makes Ash furious, stunning Sera. She then learns that taking the embers from her will have little effect on the realms, making her feel both relief and dread. Until she discovers how it’s done and what it means: she’ll die.

She can’t hold back a sardonic laugh, given she had assumed she would die all along. Delfai tells her there are only three options. Either Nyktos becomes the true Primal of Life and restores balance to the realms. Someone else takes the embers on. Or Sera completes her Ascension, and…Sera snaps at him not to finish that sentence, knowing exactly what it means.

Ash can’t hold back his anger and moves to attack Delfai. Sera pleads with him not to kill the God of Divination because it isn’t his fault. And Ash doesn’t deserve another mark for another death. Delfai is shocked when Ash calms since he foresaw his end. Then he spouts some nonsense about a silver beast, the brightest moon, and two becoming one.

Oddly, Sera feels a little freer at knowing the end is truly coming for her. She tells Ash he has to do it; that he needs to take the embers and kill her. Suddenly, she realizes that he knew how to remove them from her the entire time and could have done it already but didn’t want to because he knew he’d have to end her life. She reminds him that getting the embers out of her will kill her no matter what and then confesses that she doesn’t want to die. She says she wants to live but needs a future where Kolis is defeated, and the Rot is no more. She needs the realms to be safe. That’s all that matters. Ash argues that she matters. Not the realms. Her.

She tells him he did nothing wrong and apologizes for everything. She says there was never any guarantee he would have loved her, even with his kardia. He insists he would have, that nothing would have stopped him, and that he could have saved her. Once the words are out, he lets the despondency take him.

She instructs him to kiss her, and he lets out a soul-torn groan.

They have sex, and he confesses that he wishes he’d never had his kardia removed, saying he never wanted to know love before her. She sees his eyes turn red, full of Primal tears of grief, and it breaks her heart. Still, she has to accept what needs to happen. She asks Ash to take her to her lake when the time comes, and he promises he will.

That lake is such a catalyst for change in Sera and Ash’s love story.

As they shadowstep back into Iliseeum, they find the Shadowlands under attack. Saion comes to tell them what’s going on and explains how bad it is and who is involved. When Sera goes to look at what Saion is hesitating to say, he tries to stop her. She shakes off his hold and sees, then wishes she could stop Ash from seeing what she just did—so many of his people dead.

Sera has Saion help her get Aios down from where she’s been hung on a spike. He hesitates, but she demands it as his Consort. When they finally get her down, Saion warns her what using her power will mean for the dakkais. She says, “Fuck the dakkais,” and Saion tells her he likes her. She returns the sentiment.

After helping Aios, she goes to save Ector, but Saion stops her, physically holding her back this time. He reiterates that using the eather will draw in more dakkais and she’ll be swamped and killed. The dakkais attack anyway, and all that’s left of the god is a mess. Seeing Ector like that tears something open within Sera. She screams in rage and unleashes a pulse of power that vaporizes the dakkais. Her nose bleeds, and she feels bone-deep exhaustion. She can’t even feel Rhain’s touch when he catches her, and she tries to stop herself from losing consciousness.

Sera sees Ash drawing the dakkais to him with Primal mist and feels tendrils of it on her skin. Suddenly, she hears his voice in her head telling her to run. Instead, she runs toward him, and the shadows swallow her.

If you could see me, you wouldn’t see a shocked face at Sera not following orders. She’ll likely never change. And, honestly, I hope she doesn’t.

Sera loses the sword she found and hits a wall, falling and seeing only glimpses of gold hair and clothing. She realizes she needs to find Ash and have him take the embers from her now before any more innocents die.

Feeling someone behind her, Sera swings, finding Attes. Believing he’s come to her aid, she thanks him, but he tells her not to do that quite yet. Confusing her, Attes tells her that what he’s about to do is the only way. He disarms her and hauls her against him, and she hears Ash shouting for her. Attes tells her that all they want is her and orders her to remove the charm that keeps her in the Shadowlands. He promises that if she does as he asks, no more lives will be lost.

Sera once more hears Ash roaring her name and hesitates. Attes tells her that if she refuses to come with him, Kyn will leave none but the Primal—Ash—standing. Sera sees Ash then and hears him roaring for her. She locks eyes with him for a moment and then makes Attes promise again that no one else will be harmed. He gives his word, and she agrees to leave. At those words, she feels a similar sensation to what she felt when Vikter placed the charm. Attes tells her she made the right choice, though Sera knows it was never a choice.

It wasn’t. But the reasons behind that will only become clear much later. As much as I adore Attes, I absolutely hated him in this moment when I saw these things.

Unconscious, Sera dreams of her lake and a wolf more silver than white in moonlight watching her as she swims. She feels safe, submerges herself, and then surfaces to see Ash where the wolf was. She remembers the smell of smoke and charred flesh and death from the battle. The musty smell of the ship Attes shadowstepped them to. She recalls the explosion of pain in the back of her head when Attes finally released her.

She wonders how long the Primal of War and Accord has been working with Kolis and if he kept his word to stop the attack on the Shadowlands. She worries whether their people are all right. With all her might, she wishes she could see Ash one last time and tell him she loves him.

She wakes to the scent of stale lilacs and feels a shackle around her throat—effectively chained. Someone comments that she’s awake, and she recognizes the voice. She’s told she’s been out for two days and that Attes wasn’t supposed to hit her quite so hard.

When she looks, she sees the imprint on her hand, so she knows Ash is alive. Looking around, she finds she’s in a gold cage, and the voice—Callum—reveals that they know she’s a mortal with embers in her. Sera realizes that said embers are unnervingly quiet for once.

The person speaking comes into view then, and she recognizes the Revenant. He greets her using her full name and tells her that Attes kept his promise. Kyn pulled back on the attack. That news should have brought her relief. Instead, it only makes her more aware of her current circumstances. She sees that she’s been dressed in sheer gold gossamer. Callum tells her she was covered in filth and stank of the Shadowlands and the Primal there, which had to be rectified. She tells him that the only stench on her is from where she is now. Callum warns her not to let Kolis hear her say things like that.

Sera learns that Callum told Calliphe how to kill a Primal, and that Kolis has known everything since Sera was born. Apparently, her father summoned him to try to make a new deal to replace the one King Roderick made, trying to spare Sera. The more she hears, the more she realizes that graeca, which she was told meant both love and life, has always meant life to Kolis—the embers of life. Kolis knew they were inside her the day she was born.

With sickening clarity, she realizes that everything Ash did and sacrificed was for nothing. She notices, however, that Callum never mentions Sotoria and assumes that Kolis still doesn’t know that bit. She asks why the false Primal of Life didn’t just take the embers early. Why did he wait until she was in the Shadowlands? She’s reminded of the blood and ash.

Sera sees Kolis and thinks about her true duty. All of a sudden, she feels a wash of terror and fury rush through her, but realizes the emotions are only partly hers. She knows Sotoria was in a cage like the one she’s in when Kolis brought the mortal back to life. Suddenly filled with numbness, Sera dons her veil of nothingness and refuses to kneel before the false King.

Talk of the last oracle ensues, and Sera learns that the goddess Penellaphe’s vision wasn’t quite complete, and those who know the whole thing haven’t lived to tell the tale. She learns prophecies often come in threes and seem unrelated until they’re pieced together. Callum and Kolis tell her more of the prophecy, and Sera remarks that Kolis is the great conspirator. He tells her that her attitude amuses him. They finish telling her the prophecy, and she recognizes her new title in it. Sera assumes that Delfai, Keella, and Veses likely knew the whole prophecy, just as Kolis does.

The Primal tells her she’s the bearer of two crowns, and she realizes he needed her to be coronated and to restore the draken’s life to fulfill those bits of the prophecy. He reveals that he needed to be sure the embers had reached a certain point of power for the rest of the prophecy to take place.

They finish relaying the rest of it, and Sera realizes it references a Primal of both Life and Death. When she learns more about Kolis’s plans, she laughs at him and says the prophecy will bring his death.

As more details come to light, Sera is shocked to discover that Kolis wants to kill all the Primals. She asks him why he needs more power and tells him he’s selfish. In response, he grabs her by the neck, telling her that Nyktos would have taken the embers the moment he felt he was ready. Eythos was setting up his son to become the Primal so that Nyktos could raise his father from the dead once he assumed the role. Kolis then tells her he’s going to drain her, take the embers, and complete his final Ascension, then taunts her that she knows what that means for his nephew.