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)
Sera touches him, but he hesitates. He confesses how badly he wants her—not her hand—around him but doesn’t want to debauch her on the ground—he shouldn’t knock a good ground shag—or have her regret anything. He admits that he doesn’t have much experience and then distracts her with more kisses.
As they lie together, he admits how he wants to count her freckles and plays with her hair. When they finally get up and finish getting dressed, he advises her to go home quickly and to be careful.
Ash sends Ector to the mortal realm with a new shadowstone dagger for Sera to replace the one he destroyed so she can keep herself safe. I love that he worries for her but realizes that she can take care of herself, as well.
Days later, Nyktos feels Sera’s emotions across the realms as Tavius tortures and whips her. He intervenes, his fury on full display. Pronouncing that he is the Asher, the One Who is Blessed, the Guardian of Souls, the Primal God of Common Men and Endings, and the Primal of Death, he seems to terrify everyone in attendance—all but Sera.
He demands to know who took part in what was done to her and kills four guards for the transgression. He then turns to Tavius and claims Sera as his Consort. As punishment for what the boy-King did, Ash pins him to the Primal statue with the whip around his throat. The Queen begs for Tavius’s life, further enraging Ash.
Sera asks him to let Tavius go, and he does as she wishes, calling her liessa again when he realizes that she wants to murder the bastard. She carries out her promise to cut off his arms, stab him in the chest, and shove the whip down her stepbrother’s throat. After some quite normal conversation, something snaps within Sera, and she attacks Nyktos. I can only imagine it’s because of everything he put her through by not claiming her before and not telling her who he was when she met him again. He reminds her that even as a Primal, he feels pain. Once again, he admits that he’s a little afraid of her.
Sera calls him Nyktos in a fit of ire, now knowing his real identity and hating that she can’t take her frustrations out on him. He tells her not to call him that; says he’s not that to her.
Ash informs her what will happen now that he’s claimed her and realizes that she honestly thought he’d leave her to the consequences of her actions regarding Tavius. He tells her he refuses to let her be executed and promises that her family will be safe, even though he doesn’t feel they deserve it.
He explains to her how he knew to come when he did, touching her, unable to stop. She remarks that his touch is cold, and he asks her what she thinks Death feels like. When she wonders why he didn’t tell her who he was before, he questions if she would still have been interested in him if she knew he was the Primal of Death. He stresses that he never lied to her. She assumed.
Heading to the lake to gain entrance to Iliseeum, Ash is amused that she feels such ownership of the body of water and remarks that there’s a reason she’s found it so calming all this time: it is how she can get to him. He admits that he could have—and probably should have—told her who he was earlier, but she was fearless, he was interested, and though he hadn’t wanted or expected everything that’d happened with them thus far, he liked that they were themselves…no deal and no obligations. She wanted him to touch her and didn’t feel she had to let him. He explains that he enjoyed it all and didn’t want it to end.
Once in the realm of the gods, Ash points out that all the hills she sees are draken and explains the difference between a dragon and a draken.
After passing a Rise full of impaled dead, people begin noticing their arrival. He tells her he’d hoped they would have some time before anyone knew she’d arrived, especially since very few know about her yet. He asks if he can introduce her as his Consort, and she agrees.
As they start meeting the gods in the Shadowlands, he gets a little miffed that Lailah brings up the so-called family tradition of kidnapping mortal girls, alluding to Kolis’s obsession with Sotoria.
Ash calls to Aios to take Sera to her room and have food sent to her. The goddess is startled when she feels a jolt from Sera as they touch and looks at Ash. He only responds with, “I know.” He tells Sera to trust Aios and promises he’ll return soon.
Later, he finds Sera bathing. When he takes in her wounds, he confesses he can’t wait to visit Tavius in the Abyss to make him suffer. He brings her something to help with the pain and healing and offers to wash her hair—a first for him. But he can’t resist her moonlit locks.