Total pages in book: 247
Estimated words: 231436 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1157(@200wpm)___ 926(@250wpm)___ 771(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 231436 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1157(@200wpm)___ 926(@250wpm)___ 771(@300wpm)
Suddenly, Sera becomes unsteady on her feet, her face and head hurting terribly. She gets dizzy and tells them she gets migraines like her mother but adds in the bit about her teeth bleeding lately. Nyktos brings her some healing tea—the same she had with Sir Holland—and they recount when things started. They tell her she’s going through the Culling and why.
Nyktos keeps her at arm’s length and tells her she’ll be his Consort, though in name only. He adds that she’s merely a vessel for the ember she carries—no friendship or love will be involved.
Low blow, Nyktos. But given what I saw sometime after this, I understand what you’re trying to do here…
After breakfast, Sera sees Gemma and finds that her touch removes all wounds. She tells the girl that Nyktos won’t hold her accountable for Hamid’s actions because she didn’t tell him to attack Sera. Then things get complicated. She learns that she is who Kolis is looking for. His graeca—his love or life. She also learns what Kolis is doing with the missing Chosen—turning them into Revenants.
We know he’s actually turning them into Ascended and Revenants.
Compelled to do so, Sera apologizes to Gemma for bringing her back to life and then tells Bele and Aios what Odetta said about her being touched by life and death. She asks them if they can seek out the Fates, then insists they find Nyktos immediately and tell him what Gemma and Odetta said.
Cressa, Madis, and Taric show up. Sera gets knocked around, and Taric takes her blood, doing something else that Sera can’t pin down. She stabs him in the chest with the butter knife she hid from her morning meal. In the skirmish, he attempts to use compulsion on her, but it doesn’t work.
Saion checks on Sera, and she tells him to go to Bele, who got injured in the fight. She feels a flare in her chest that chills her to the bone, knowing it’s the goddess. She watches the murderous gods die, and then Nyktos appears. She explains that Taric did something to her.
He tells her to remember that she may feel fear but she’s never afraid and gives her back her dagger. She asks if she can try to save Bele and is told the ember in her isn’t strong enough to bring back a god. When she insists that the goddess died because of her and again asks to be allowed to try, Nyktos tells her not to take on that guilt but allows her to go to Bele anyway. She brings the goddess back to life and finds that isn’t all she did. She also Ascended her.
Afterward, she waits with Saion and Ector in Nyktos’s office and asks them if they’re afraid of her. She doesn’t know what Ascension means for a god, so Ector and Saion tell her. Nyktos walks in and thanks her for saving Bele. He takes care of her wounds and tells her he summoned the Fates, saying that Kolis will back off until he figures out what exactly he’s dealing with. She’s also told that not every god she brings back will Ascend—they have to be fated to do so.
This made me wonder about the history. If the Primals took to ground because the gods were Ascending so rapidly, how and why did that happen? Hopefully, I’ll be able to fill in that puzzle piece at some point.
After dozing for a bit, Sera wakes and is told the Fates have answered. Nektas is waiting for her and Nyktos in the throne room. Nyktos seems concerned about Sera’s wellbeing, and she tells him that if she lost too much blood, it’s on Taric, not him. He kisses her, and his lips are warm. After, he tells her that the kiss changes nothing. Still, she feels hopeful.
And she should. It changes nothing because he already knows she’s it for him.
When Sera walks into the throne room, she’s shocked to find Sir Holland. She’s instantly relieved to see that he wasn’t sent to the Vodina Isles, but then realizes why he never seemed to age in all the years she knew him. She learns that the Arae cannot affect her fate anymore and learns from Holland what Eythos did—she has the essence of his power in her.
Sera also learns that she and Nyktos are soulmates. It explains why they feel so right together. She confesses to feeling that and says she’s had a hard time walking away from him. It makes her wonder if that’s why he seems to find her so interesting. The soulmates thing isn’t the only reason. She’s drawn to who he is.
Sera and Nyktos try to tease out the prophecy and imagine it means that Kolis will destroy all the lands. Holland tells her she has many possible paths, but they all end the same. She says she wants to know more and learns that she is fated to die before the age of twenty-one. It’ll either be at the hands of a god, a misinformed mortal, Kolis, or even Nyktos himself—though one could possibly be an accident.