Page 119 of The Primal of Blood and Bone (Blood and Ash #6)

I summoned the eather, but it sputtered weakly. I tried again, horror shaking my breath.

The tentacle exploded the ship, flinging wood and steel beams in every direction. Eather pulsed weakly in my chest, responding to the sudden deaths—

The creature—a leviathan—came aground, its bony tentacles crashing through the tin roofs of warehouses, sending brick and boards flying.

Poppy . Delano’s fresh, springy imprint brushed against my thoughts as slivers of something I rarely felt from the wolven scraped at my skin.

Bitter fear.

I tore my gaze from the remains of the ship to see the horizon bulge—no, it wasn’t the horizon. It was the towering wall of water rising as high as the city’s Rise.

I’d never seen anything like it.

A deep, thunderous roar filled the air as the wave surged, racing toward the shore—toward us.

“Run,” I whispered to Delano. It was a desperate plea, one I knew wouldn’t matter. No one could outrun that.

“You need to run,” I told him anyway.

Never .

“Delano,” I gasped, my heart twisting as I tried to summon the eather to shadowstep us, but it only flared and then faded.

Terror wrapped itself around my heart as I willed myself to move. To get up. My muscles trembling, all I was able to do was grab a fistful of fur and hold on to Delano. Even that caused me to pant for breath.

“Please,” I whispered, my vision blurring as I twisted my head to the side, searching for Casteel and Kieran. Both were scrambling toward us as Delano sank low, pressing his body against mine.

“Poppy!” Casteel shouted, his figure blurring as he started to shadowstep.

It was too late.

Even if they made it to my side, it wouldn’t matter.

It was too late.

CASTEEL

A sudden burst of silver light lit up the wharf.

The draken—the female, Aurelia.

She dove over Wayfair’s inner Rise, her greenish-brown wings grazing the tops of roofs as she released another stream of silver-tinged flames at what I knew was a leviathan—a kraken—but my brain refused to accept it.

The creature roared, shaking the ground as it turned, slamming its limbs down.

The deafening crack of another building exploding thundered through the air.

The fiery eather seemed to do little to nothing to the beast.

“Fuck,” Kieran gasped. I caught a flash of gold—pure golden light.

My head snapped toward him. Gold eather swirled along his neck and cheeks. I followed his stare, and my gut clenched.

“Run!” Kieran shouted, twisting toward Sage. The wolven was on the wharf, frozen. “Godsdamn it, run!”

Sage jerked, letting out a pained howl as she turned and darted down an alley, dodging debris flying through the air.

I’d seen that kind of wave before as a young boy. The ground had shaken, and then a massive wave came inland, washing away the small city between Aegea and Evaemon. There had been no escaping it. Nothing to be done.

I knew the only chance we had was to shadowstep, but I had no idea if I could pull it off—carry the three of them. I didn’t know if I could be fast enough to come back for my brother. For Emil and Naill.

But fucking gods, I would do it.

Somehow.

I wouldn’t lose anyone.

Without thinking, I grabbed Kieran’s arm and shadowstepped to Poppy and Delano’s side. Still holding on to his arm, I kept him from toppling forward. Poppy was clutching Delano, her eyes wide and pupils dilated, the glow of essence dull.

“Get him out of here,” she bit out through a clenched jaw. “I will survive—”

“I’m not leaving you,” I snarled.

“You have to!” she yelled—or tried to. It was more of a whisper. “Take him.”

Delano’s head whipped around as he pressed down on Poppy, ears flattening as he snapped at me.

“Take him!” she screamed this time.

“Shut up,” I roared, grabbing her arm as the essence rose within me, dark and cold—

“Cas!” My brother’s voice rang out, jerking my gaze around.

Malik raced down the wharf toward us—closer to the wave that would crush him.

“Idiot,” I rasped, heart pounding. “Fucking idiot.”

“I’ll get him.” Kieran pulled free, straightening as the shadow of the wave fell over us. “I’ll—”

My eyes locked with his, and I knew he felt it when I did.

A heavy throb of awareness that sent energy dancing across my flesh and caused the eather inside me to thrum.

Some instinctual part of me knew what I was feeling, what had the eather pulsing and flaring in warning, in response to the sudden Primal power drenching the air.

It felt similar to what I’d picked up from Poppy when she went… full Primal.

“Cas,” Kieran rasped.

Poppy’s arm stiffened beneath my hand as I saw Malik suddenly pull hard on his horse’s reins. I turned my head to the bay.

The wave was suspended in air, its foamy white crest frozen in place, refusing to fall as if time had stopped.

That alone was enough to send a shockwave through anyone, but that wasn’t what we sensed. And it wasn’t what held my stare.

It was what was in the motionless wave. The silhouette of a figure taller than any mortal. That was what we sensed.

A Primal of Sky and Soil. Of Earth, Wind, and Water.

“Saion,” Kieran uttered, his voice raspy with shock.

The god emerged from the wave, the rippling cloth of his white pants untouched by the sea. His skin was a dark brown, his eyes pure silver orbs. He lifted his hand, and a veil of shimmering silver washed over the wave.

It collapsed, returning to the exposed earth as the eather in me began humming, throbbing—

I jerked Poppy—and, by extension, Delano—closer to me, preparing for the wave to rush the shore.

A flash of sudden, bright light streaked through the realm. When it faded, another god with skin the same shade as Saion’s stood with his back to us.

The sea rolled toward the wharf but seemed to hit an invisible wall—no, not a wall.

It was the god standing before us. He felt like a Primal, but…not.

With a swipe of his hand, the water obeyed and settled into the bay.

“Do you have any idea,” I asked, “who that is?”

“Rhahar,” Poppy whispered.

“He’s not a God of Sky and Soil,” Kieran said, slowly crouching behind Poppy and Delano. “He’s the Eternal God.”

“He’s also Saion’s cousin,” she said, and I knew the fact that she knew that would hit her later.

Rhahar turned, the pure silver of his eyes locking on us—on Poppy.

Delano rose, his chest vibrating in a low growl as I shifted forward so we both blocked her.

Rhahar lifted a brow, one side of his lips tipping as he started toward us.

I shot upright, moving so I stood in front of Delano. “Do not come one step closer.”

The smile spread and then faltered as his eather pressed against my skin. “Holy…” Rhahar’s head cocked to the side. “Fuck.”

“Did he just say fuck?” whispered Poppy.

“I did,” he replied. There was a pause, and when he spoke again, I picked up on an accent I hadn’t heard before—a cadence that rolled and lifted with each word. “Is there something wrong with that?”

“No. Not really,” she said, sounding a little breathless as I felt her trying to move. I wished she would stop doing that. I could feel her exhaustion bearing down on me. “It was just unexpected. You’re a Primal god and all.”

“And?” he asked as I tried to get a read on him. I picked up absolutely fucking nothing.

“Kind of seems inappropriate,” she said. “That’s all.”

That eyebrow rose again. “Do you say fuck?”

“Yes,” was her response.

“Poppy,” Kieran said under his breath, “it’s probably best to stop talking.”

Rhahar’s gaze flicked to him, and his head tilted again. “Attes was telling the truth.”

I stiffened at the name, but before I could respond to that, the bay erupted.

“Oh, no,” Poppy muttered, her worry pressing down on me. “Not again.”

The funnels started to spin, generating streaks of essence that shimmered.

“It’s okay,” Rhahar assured us.

None of us was reassured.

Except for Delano.

The fluff of fur had stopped growling and was eyeing the Primal god with curiosity instead of hostility.

The funnels crackled, turning into pure eather as the ground shook. I had no idea what the fuck the kraken was up to, but by the sounds of it, another warehouse had bitten the dust.

Eather whirled through the form of Saion as the clouds above him thickened once more. With a sweeping motion, the essence surged across the bay, hissing and spitting through the air. I didn’t take my eyes off the Primal god before us, but the essence had done something . The kraken roared.

“That’s close enough,” I warned, feeling the essence pressing harder against my flesh.

“We’re here to help.” Rhahar’s steps slowed. “We would’ve been here earlier, but…we had our own issues to deal with.”

“What issues?” Poppy asked.

I could feel Kieran’s sigh. I could hear the exhaustion in her quiet voice as the wharf shook. From the edge of my vision, the kraken lurched backward, fighting against the pull as it was dragged back toward the bay.

“That thing over there was freed from the Abyss,” he explained, nodding toward the kraken. “We’ve had our hands—” He lifted a hand as a thrashing tentacle swung in our direction, flinging it back.

“Sorry,” Saion called from the bay. Whatever else he’d said got lost in the kraken’s screeching.

“We had our hands full,” Rhahar continued, his gaze lifting to the city. “As did you.” He leaned to the side, trying to see Poppy. He failed. I blocked him.

The eather dimmed to a bright glow behind his pupils. “I mean no harm.”

“I don’t give a fuck what you mean,” I stated. “We don’t know you.”

His stare locked onto mine. A long, tense moment passed. A muscle flexed in his jaw. “You look like him.”

“Attes?” Poppy said as Delano sniffed at the air.

“Kyn.”

I had no idea who the fuck that was, and I didn’t care. Maybe this Primal god was a friendly. They were helping—

The kraken reared, snapping a tentacle free and smashing it into the side of a ship.

Maybe.

But Poppy was weakened, and I could sense her energy waning even more.

“Do you all need help with that?” Kieran asked, his voice tight.

“He has it under control.”