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He asks her if the need to use the embers wears on her and knows she’s lying when she tells him it doesn’t. He confirms that having embers is enough to make Sera feel like Eythos did, and then repeats what Nektas said to her before—that she is stronger than she realizes. He adds that she is strong, not the embers.

He and Nektas tell Sera about the riders when they come upon them, explaining that their names mean war, pestilence, and hunger. When they ride, they bring about the end to wherever they travel because death always follows them. Nyktos is awed when they bow to Sera and says he’s never seen them do that before.

He gives her two swords to take with her, just in case, and tells Nektas that Sera is very important to him. She suddenly blurts out that she wants to be his Consort, freezing him to the spot. He reminds her to breathe and stay calm, then kisses her hands and tells her he’ll be waiting for her when she and Nektas return from the Pools.

Veses shows up to collect on her end of their bargain, and Nyktos finds himself on the settee in his office, white-knuckling the arm as the Primal straddles him and feeds from his throat. Unfortunately, Sera sees what’s going on and doesn’t take it well. She heads down to the pool chamber and loses it, nearly destroying the entire palace. He tries to calm her but is eventually forced to use compulsion on her, something he apologizes for.

When Sera wakes, Nyktos is at the Pillars, dealing with some nervous souls. He returns and goes to see her, apologizing again for the compulsion and what she thought she saw. He still won’t tell her what’s happening, though. When Sera lashes out, saying he was with Veses just hours after she told him she wanted to be his Consort, he flinches and apologizes again. He adds that he never wants to hurt her and reiterates that he was a virgin when they met and has never wanted anyone but her. Ever.

Sera asks him what she saw if it wasn’t what she thought, and he tells her it’s complicated. She breaks off their pleasure-for-the-sake-of-pleasure deal and tells him she wants her freedom from him once the embers are out of her.

Later, Sera comes to talk to him about Irelone and going to see Delfai where the God of Divination is with Kayleigh Balfour. Nyktos tells her she can have all the time she wants and says he’s going with her—he needs to know exactly what’s said so he can remove the embers correctly. However, he asks her to wait another day since Kyn’s draken is near.

He reveals that other Primals know he has a sizable army, though nobody knows how big it is. Grudgingly, he tells her that he realizes he needs to learn to deal with her wanting to help and needing to fight, even though he worries every second that she’ll be killed.

Nyktos informs her they’ll shadowstep to Irelone since there are no gateways near that Nyktos trusts. He brings up the nymphs she and Nektas encountered on their way back from the Vale, saying she shouldn’t have been able to kill one, and then remarks that he doesn’t like how things have become between them. She’s acting like she was trained to—empty and without emotion. He doesn’t like it at all.

Kolis summons them, a reddish black circle with a slash through it appearing in the center of Nyktos’s palm, burning and stinging and causing his eyes to fill with eather.

He tells Sera and everyone that Kolis will sense she’s not an ordinary godling like he tried to get Attes to believe. He hopes to use the excuse that she’s taken his blood to explain it away.

He reiterates that they’ll go to Delfai first and then answer the summons, but Sera insists they go to Dalos first.

Nyktos realizes that things are different now, but he tells her they need to act like they did with Attes. She tells him she was never pretending to be infatuated with him. It was never an act. He asks her if it’s too late for her wanting to be his Consort and to serve the Shadowlands and Iliseeum. He’s not sure why he brings it up, but he wants to know why she wanted something he could never give her. He then tells her she deserves someone who will love her unconditionally and irrevocably. Someone who’s brave enough to tell her how they feel.

Nyktos informs Sera there will be war if Kolis recognizes her as Sotoria and tries to keep her. He says he’ll leave Dalos in ruins if the King of Gods makes even a single move for her. Sera pleads with him not to intervene if Kolis recognizes her. He snarls and tells her the embers aren’t the only important thing. She is. He adds that she’s asking him to do what he’s had to do his whole life: leave others behind to suffer. To live and be dead inside.

He tells her that even if he had his kardia, he’d be unable to love after what he’s had to do. If he were to leave her to Kolis, any goodness remaining in him would be gone for sure, and he’d become something worse than the false Primal of Life.

He prepares her for their shadowstep and tells her what to expect, explaining that one hundred and ten of the blood drops tattooed on his flesh are from lives Kolis made him take. He reminds her she’s good and not a monster, and then they step into Dalos.

They arrive to bodies strung up, and Nyktos tries to calm Sera when she sees them, her eather running wild. She tells him to stop her, and he kisses her, calling shadows to block out her light and reaction.

Attes interrupts, and Nyktos doesn’t hide his ire, telling him he seems bound and determined to lose his eyes.

Later, talking to Dyses, he reinforces that Sera is his Consort. Dyses lashes out and tells Sera to bow. Nyktos orders her not to and tells Dyses she’ll bow to those deserving respect. He shadowsteps behind the male and rips out his heart, saying he will bow to Sera. Later, he remarks that, like Dyses, none of Kolis’s servants have felt right for a very long time. He sensed no soul in Dyses when he killed him.

They talk about random things—Nyktos’s jealousy, Dyses, the family crest, the significance of the wolf and the hawk… When Sera says she saw a silver hawk in the Dying Woods, he tells her it’s not possible, insisting that not even they would enter those woods—we know that’s not true, since it was Attes in his nota form.

Hanan riles Nyktos about the Ascension of a god in his Court and him killing those he sent to the Shadowlands, and Nyktos threatens him, then throws him across the floor. When Hanan rails about Bele’s Ascension, Nyktos plays dumb, saying it had to be Kolis, and then taunts Hanan about doubting his King’s power.

Nyktos helps Sera breathe and bow and then tells Kolis that Sera’s father is a god, and her mother is mortal, trying to throw him off about her eather. He reiterates that Kolis is only sensing Nyktos’s blood in her. When Kolis moves to touch Sera’s hair, Nyktos catches his hand and tells Kolis he’ll do to him what Kolis has done to those who touch things that belong to him, then announces that Sera is not to be touched by anyone but him.

Playing his part, Nyktos apologizes to Kolis for not seeking approval for the coronation. When questioned about what he did to Dyses, he simply says he didn’t like the male’s tone. He then tells Kolis that he, too, felt a god Ascend and searched for the source, finding nothing. He assumed it was Kolis. Hanan challenges him again, and he argues that only the Primal of Life can Ascend a god.

Dyses enters the room, alive and well, making Nyktos stiffen. Still, he tells Kolis he was surprised by the Ascension for the same reason Attes was: it’d been a long time. He states that the dakkais in the Shadowlands surprised him, as well. He’s told it was simply bad timing. The dakkais were dispatched because Nyktos didn’t seek approval to take Sera as his Consort.

I call bullshit.

Sera tries to take the blame, saying it was her fault and trying to intervene. It makes Nyktos furious. He’s told to be quiet, or it will not be he who suffers.

Kolis plays his sick little game and asks Nyktos what the penalty is for disrespect. He answers that it’s a life. Kolis explains that Sera must kill a young draken—Thad—as recompense. Nyktos tries to intervene again, but he’s told to stay silent or Kolis will rip out Sera’s heart, and then warns that if anyone else pays the price for her, she will pay with her blood.

After the horrible ordeal, and once they return to the Shadowlands, Sera asks him to take her to Vathi. He tells her that the draken are like gods; therefore, her bringing someone back to life will not result in someone else losing theirs. However, she can’t do anything to help the young draken. It would be felt.

He ends up taking her to Vathi anyway and orders Attes to retrieve Thad. Nyktos tries to comfort Sera, telling her not to thank him and explaining that Kolis was making Kyn their enemy by forcing her to take the life of a draken from his Court. When questioned, he tells Sera that it’s too late for them to wonder if they can trust Attes.

Sera goes to the young draken, and Nyktos tells Attes to never speak of what he sees, threatening that he’ll level Vathi and hunt the other Primal down if he does.