“And mortals descend from a Primal and a draken,” I finished for him.
“From Eythos, the first Primal of Life—also known as your great-grandfather.” He pointed at me, and my eyes went wide. “What? Did you think Nyktos was hatched from an egg? He wasn’t.”
I hadn’t thought that. I just hadn’t realized there was another before him.
“Anyway, Eythos had a habit of creating things. Some would say it was out of curiosity and a thirst for learning, but I imagine it came from boredom. Who really knows? He’s been dead for a very long time. Anyway, he was close to Nektas, even before we were given mortal forms. One day, for whatever reason—and I’m still going with boredom—they decided to create a new species. Eythos lent his flesh, and Nektas gave his fire. The result was the very first mortal. Of course, they ended up creating more, and those, and the ones spawned by them, are, for the most part, ordinary. But what Eythos and Nektas did meant that an ember of essence exists in all mortals. It’s…dormant, for the most part.”
Reaver leaned forward. “Except for in the third sons and daughters. The ember is not always dormant then. Why? I don’t know. Perhaps it’s just a pure-numbers game that, after so many births, the ember would be stronger. Who knows? It doesn’t matter.”
Perry appeared as if it mattered a lot to him.
“Either way, those mortals often have unique talents, much like your gift of sensing emotions. It wouldn’t be as strong as yours. Most wouldn’t even realize they were different. They’re not immortal. They don’t need to feed. They live and die like mortals.”
My assumptions on what I had seen in the ledgers were correct. “The Ascended copied the Rite, then.”
Reaver nodded, and a ripple of surprise was felt throughout. “At one time, it was an honored tradition for the third sons and daughters to enter Iliseeum to serve the gods. And because the ember was strong in them, they could be Ascended if they chose, thus earning their immortality.”
“They had a choice?” Naill asked.
“Eythos always gave a choice,” Reaver said. “But Kolis took those third sons and daughters and made them into something neither dead nor alive—something else entirely. It was his essence—his magic as your friend would say.” He nodded in Perry’s direction. “I was young then when all of this came to a head. When what Kolis had done was discovered, and the war unfolded, I was hidden among other younglings. He was dealt with, but now… Now, someone has learned how to harness his essence.”
“Isbeth,” I said, anger pumping hotly through my veins. “Both the Duke and Vessa knew about the prophecy, and Vessa said she served the True Crown—the Ascended. Isbeth must have shared the knowledge with her—knowledge she could’ve only gained from one person.”
“Malec,” Kieran surmised with a growl.
Reaver closed his eyes. “For him to share such secrets…it is a betrayal of the highest order. For he has given this Blood Queen the power to kill my brethren.” The angles of his features sharpened. “Just like she most likely killed Jade.”
I stiffened. “She may not be gone, Reaver. My mother—” I closed my eyes, correcting myself. “Coralena was the Handmaiden who tried to bring me to Atlantia when I was a child. She was a Revenant, but Isbeth said that she killed her. That means Isbeth must have had a draken then—had access to the fire of the gods. That wasn’t that long ago.”
“Yeah, I want to believe that, but the fire of the gods isn’t just talking about the fire we breathe.” A muscle ticked along his jaw. “The fire is our essence—our blood. Not even a Revenant is immune to that. All the Blood Queen would need is a drop of a draken’s blood, no matter how old it was, to kill a Revenant.”
I rocked back, my heart sinking.
Reaver’s eyes met mine. “That kind of magic, that kind of power this Blood Queen has learned? You just saw what it is capable of. It can only be used for death and decay.” Reaver’s pupils thinned and stretched vertically. “She is a far more dangerous foe than I think anyone has realized.”
Later, I sat on the bed as I held Casteel’s ring between my fingers. My head spun as I turned everything over. And it was a lot. The dream that might not have been a dream. Vessa. The loss of all those draken. The knowledge that the Blood Queen had learned how to use the essence of this Primal, Kolis. Reaver’s belief that Jadis was already gone.