Shocked by the revelation, I told myself that this was good news. And it was. It was just…where was she? And why hadn’t Isbeth used her? “We’ll find her.”
Nektas nodded. “We will.”
“Reaver took Malec to Iliseeum?” I asked, glancing at where the casket lay in pieces upon the altar. “That means Malec lives?”
“For now,” Nektas said.
Well, that wasn’t exactly reassuring, but relief washed over me anyway. I leaned into Casteel. “Thank the gods,” I murmured, looking back at Hisa and Emil as Delano lowered to his haunches, pressing against my legs. Wait. I twisted, searching for… “Where’s Malik?” My heart skipped. “Millicent?”
“Millicent ran off,” Casteel explained. “Malik went after her.”
The knowledge that both were alive brought me some comfort. But had Millicent run off because she had witnessed the death of our mother? At my hands? I didn’t think that it was only me who had done that, but did she fear the same would happen to her? Was she upset? Angry?
Swallowing, I shut those thoughts down until I had time to figure them out. “How did I bring everyone…？” It had been my will. I remembered. I’d let my will sweep out from me as the mist cradled their bodies, but I wasn’t the Primal of Life.
“It wasn’t just you who brought them back. You’re not that powerful yet. You had help,” Nektas said, and my gaze shot back to him. “The Primal of Life aided you, and Nyktos captured their souls before they could enter the Vale or the Abyss and then released them.”
“Probably could do without the guards and all of them coming back,” Kieran muttered.
The draken eyed him. “Balance. There must always be balance,” he said. “Especially when the Primal of Life granted such an act as this.”
A shiver rolled through me. “Seraphena—the Consort. She’s the true Primal of Life.”
“She is the heir to the lands and seas, skies and realms,” Nektas said, speaking softly. But the words…they were full of respect, and they reverberated like thunder in my chest. “The fire in the flesh, the Primal of Life, and the Queen of Gods. The most powerful Primal.” He paused. “For now.”
For now?
“How is that possible?” Casteel asked.
“It is a complicated journey to how the Consort became the Primal,” Nektas said, looking at me. “But it started with your great-grandfather, Eythos, when he was the Primal of Life. And his brother, Kolis, the true Primal of Death.”
“Kolis is my great-uncle?” I exclaimed, forgetting the whole for-now part.
Nektas nodded as Emil and Naill drew closer, giving the ancient draken a wide berth as they listened.
“Your family ancestry is even more interesting than I originally believed,” Casteel murmured, and Kieran snorted. “What does he have to do with this?”
“To make a long story short, Kolis fell in love with a mortal. Scared her while she was picking flowers for a wedding. When she ran from him, she fell from—”
“The Cliffs of Sorrow.” My eyes went wide. “Her name was Sotoria, right? That was real? Ian…” I glanced back at Casteel. “Ian told me that story after he Ascended. I thought it was just something he made up.”
“Interesting,” Nektas murmured. “It’s real. Kolis went to Eythos, asking that he bring her back to life. Eythos refused, knowing that restoring life to the dead wasn’t something that should be done often.” His gaze centered on me, and I sort of wanted to crawl into the ground to avoid his knowing stare. “It started a bitter animosity between the brothers, which resulted in Kolis using some sort of magic to steal his brother’s essence—allowing Kolis to become the Primal of Life, and Eythos the Primal of Death. But neither were meant to rule over such things. Kolis couldn’t take all of Eythos’s essence, nor could he erase all of his. An ember of life remained in Eythos, and another ember had been passed onto Nyktos. But Eythos feared that Kolis would discover the ember within Nyktos, so he took it.”
“And placed it in a mortal,” I finished. “In the Consort. That’s why she was only partially mortal.”
Kieran leaned forward. “Then what is Nyktos? I thought he was the Primal of Life and Death.”
“He’s a Primal of Death,” Nektas answered. “But he’s not the true Primal of Death, nor was there ever a Primal of Life and Death. That was a title given to him long after he went to sleep, and not one he would’ve ever answered to.”