Page 139 of The Primal of Blood and Bone (Blood and Ash #6)

“There is so much more. But you’d have to be there to understand it fully,” she said with a brief smile. “Still, those details are quite necessary to where we stand today.”

“So, you were reborn as Sotoria,” Casteel said, that damn shirt stretching tight across his back and shoulders as he crossed his arms.

“No. I was just a vessel for her soul.” The chair moved without her touch, and she sat. “It didn’t work as Eythos planned. Either because I wasn’t a second daughter or because Fate intervened. And yes, I do mean one of those fuckers. I’m betting it was one of them.”

A short laugh escaped me, drawing her gaze. “They are…definitely fuckers.”

“I third that statement,” Casteel remarked. “What happened to her soul then?”

“When I was about to Ascend, I had her soul removed since it wouldn’t have survived the transition. She would’ve been…”

A shiver curled across the nape of my neck, my mind flashing to Tawny. “She would’ve been…trapped. A lost soul.”

Seraphena nodded. “I had her soul placed somewhere safe.” Her hold on her glass tightened.

“I absolutely refused to allow her to be used as a tool. She spent far too many lives with no control.” Her gaze met mine, and my stomach curdled.

“We planned to release her once Kolis was entombed. I wanted…” She swallowed and leaned back in the stiff chair.

“I wanted to give her a choice. To either cross back into the Vale or be reborn without the threat of Kolis.”

“I assume that didn’t happen,” Casteel commented.

“No.” She set the glass on the table. “No one thought it was imperative to inform us before we entombed Kolis that he was connected to her since he had fed on her so many times throughout her lives. The moment she was reborn, he would have sensed her.”

I’ve always sensed you.

My hands fisted against my sides.

“We couldn’t free her and risk waking Kolis,” Seraphena continued, and Casteel turned halfway toward me. “And her soul, well, it was no longer where we placed it, thanks to one of those fucks otherwise known as the Fates.”

My heart rate was slow, but I could hear the blood pumping in my ears.

“It took me many years to find a lead for who could have ended up with it.” Anger flashed in her eyes, and her hand balled into a fist on the table. “A certain annoying-as-fuck Revenant, who seemed to be everywhere. Ca—”

“Callum?” Casteel snarled. “Please, tell me it’s not that golden fuck.”

Seraphena’s lip curled. “I wish I could.”

My lips parted. “Gods, he is old.”

“Very old,” she confirmed. “He was Kolis’s first Revenant. And his most loyal.”

“Great,” muttered Casteel.

“Wait.” I frowned. “How did Reaver not recognize Callum?”

“Reaver was a small youngling when Callum was…active and about.” She ran her fingers along the rim of her glass. “They never crossed paths.” Her gaze lifted to Casteel. “But it seems you all have.”

“Unfortunately. He was very tight with Isbeth,” he spat. “Though we don’t know for how long. He either wasn’t around a century or so ago, or Isbeth kept him hidden until recently.”

“Of course,” Seraphena murmured.

“There’s something I don’t understand,” Casteel continued, the skin between his brow creasing. “How did he get her soul? How is any of that possible?”

“Souls are…as fragile as they are resilient,” she said. I frowned at the contradictory statement. “But for them to be held in what is akin to stasis, they must be stored.”

“Stored?” I repeated. “For how long?”

“A millennium. If not longer.” Seraphena winced.

“I know how it sounds, but the soul…it is like they’re asleep.

” Something about how she said that didn’t inspire confidence.

“But it would need to be kept in something nearly unbreakable—a vessel forged when the breath of a dragon met the flesh of an Ancient, creating a very special and very unique diamond.”

It felt like I lost sensation in my hands as I immediately saw the jagged, uneven diamond and heard Isbeth’s voice. “The Star?”

Seraphena’s gaze cut to mine. “The Star diamond. Yes.”

I looked at Casteel. “Isbeth had The Star—” I swung back to Seraphena. “Unless there’s more than one.”

“It is unlikely there would be,” Seraphena said. “Plus, she…had to have it. And she likely would’ve gotten it from Callum.”

“I’m not going to even ask how a soul is kept in a diamond,” Casteel muttered.

“Probably best.” She forced her hand open, allowing blood to rush to her bleached knuckles as she lifted her gaze to meet mine. “But that’s the only way it was possible.”

Why was she looking at me when she said that? Turning away, I wrapped my arms around my waist.

I thought about what Holland had said about Isbeth. “Isbeth knew a lot of stuff she shouldn’t have. We assumed it was because of Malec,” I said with a slight cringe. “Why would Callum have her soul?”

“Because he is Sotoria’s brother,” she said.

My mouth dropped open.

“Okay. So, they were siblings.” Casteel dragged his fingers across his chin. “But he was loyal to Kolis and working with Isbeth to free the sick fuck?”

“Yep.” Seraphena picked up her glass and took another long drink.

“When Sotoria died, Callum should have been with her, but he was busy sowing his wild oats with a dairy maid or something. He was beside himself with guilt. Felt responsible. So did Kolis. Kolis went to Sotoria’s family after her initial death, and of course, they knew what he was.

They were terrified. But Callum wasn’t. He wanted to see his sister.

He wanted to apologize. And when Kolis told him he couldn’t allow that, Callum… slit his own throat.”

“For fuck’s sake,” muttered Casteel, shaking his head. “So, that’s when Kolis brought him back?”

She nodded. “And don’t ask me why he would be loyal to the monster who terrorized his sister. The fuck’s head isn’t on right—not even after having it decapitated more than once.”

Obviously, she and Callum had some bad blood between them.

A muscle ticked in Casteel’s jaw. “Even more of a reason to hate the fuck.”

“But Callum isn’t like the other Revenants. He is full of wants and needs.” Her fingers tapped off the wood. “He has a soul.”

“Do you know how?” Casteel asked, and I immediately thought about Millicent. “What makes him different?”

“There’s a little bit of magic to creation, an unknown part.

But whenever life is created, and I mean true life that comes with free will, a sense of self, a lis —a soul—it is birthed from what the creator feels at the time of creation,” she explained.

“When I created the wolven, I felt joy at creating new life, knowing I would never do so again after my sons. I felt love, for the kiyou wolves always held a special place in my heart. And excitement for a new beginning. Plus…” Sounding wistful, she slowly shook her head.

“I felt relief in knowing the descendants of Iliseeum would have guides and companions in a realm unfamiliar to them. I also felt pride. All those feelings shaped the wolven.”

“Wish Kieran was here to hear that,” Casteel said. So did I.

Which made me think of something. “Everyone believes Nyktos granted them dual life. That’s bullshit, by the way,” I said, and Seraphena smiled. “How did he pull that off?”

“I was there, but only one knew my identity.”

“Elian,” murmured Casteel, clearly thinking of his ancestor.

She neither confirmed nor denied that, while I tried not to be disappointed that the answer was so…simple.

Casteel exhaled heavily. “What was Kolis feeling when he created Callum? Annoyance and general fuckery?”

Seraphena snorted. “He told me he felt sorrow and anger for the life that was lost, desperation to somehow undo what was done, and…” Her jaw tensed. “And joy for being close to one who shared Sotoria’s blood.”

“Ew,” I groaned.

“Pretty much,” she said. “However, with the rest of the Revenants, he felt only a duty to create life—which he had to. By then, the embers of life he’d stolen from his twin were losing their strength, and there was a threat to the balance.

And it worked. Though how long that facade of life would’ve continued working is anyone’s guess. ”

I turned that over in my mind. “That could explain why Millicent is different, too. I imagine Isbeth felt similar emotions. Well, that and the eather she carried in her blood.”

Casteel leaned against one of the pillars framing the platform. “How did Kolis create the Revs, though? He wasn’t creating new life like you did with the wolven.”

“He reanimated them with his blood and will,” she answered.

Casteel cast a frown in my direction. “We learned that Isbeth was creating Revs with the blood of a King or a future King.”

Seraphena’s brows snapped together. “She needed powerful blood, and my son’s would not have worked. A King or a future King of an Elemental bloodline would be powerful enough to restart a heart, but it would’ve taken more than that.”

“Magic,” I surmised.

She nodded. “Forbidden magic not even known to us.”

I looked out the window, seeing the sun start to fade. “But it is likely known to the Fates.”

“And Callum,” she said.

“Yeah,” I whispered, my throat drying as my gaze connected with Seraphena’s. There was something she wasn’t saying.

Something that complicated things.

“So.” Seraphena cleared her throat. “The only way we could prevent Sotoria from being reborn and waking Kolis was to ensure the Mierel bloodline ended with me.”

“That didn’t happen.” Casteel unfolded his arms. “Obviously.”

“I was already pregnant with the twins before we entombed Kolis.” Her gaze lowered. “If we had known…”

My blood was pounding even harder in my ears, and my stomach continued to churn as I heard that voice.

I’ve had all your firsts.

“It meant we could never allow our sons to have children. Both Malec and Ires were aware of what would happen. We didn’t hide it from them.

They fully understood the risks.” Seraphena looked up.

“So, that was why, as hard and unfair as it was, we denied the heartmate trials. Isbeth was already pregnant, proving to Ash and me that Malec would not take the necessary precautions. And it’s why I helped to entomb my son.

He could not be…trusted not to make the same mistakes. ”

With your first breath, you woke me.

“It was one of the hardest things Nyktos and I ever did.” Her voice thickened, and eather flared in her eyes. “But we had to. So Sotoria wasn’t reborn as the second daughter to become the giver of blood and the bringer of bone.”

Casteel pushed off the pillar. “The Primal of Blood and Bone.”

When your eyes first opened, I saw again.

“Born in a shroud of crimson and gold.” Eather pulsed behind her pupils. “Bearing a royal mark, the symbol of Death.”

My knees felt weak. My nostrils burned.

Seraphena swallowed. “But fate finds a way, doesn’t it?”

I’ve always been with you.

Casteel slowly turned my way, his eyes widening.

“No.” A tremor started in my legs. He moved toward me, but I kept backing up. “ No .”

Seraphena stared at me, and what she felt pierced her walls once more, flooding the chamber with threads of guilt and sympathy that wove through my hot, undeniable anger. “It’s true. You’re Sotoria.”