“Do you have Seraphena’s soul?” Keella asked.
“I do,” Ash confirmed, his voice rough.
I almost asked what it felt like, what it looked like, but it probably wouldn’t be wise to break anyone’s concentration.
Including mine.
“I feel her,” Keella announced with a solemn sigh. “Suu ta lene.” The essence around her flared. “Vas na sutum.”
“It is okay,” Ash translated quietly for me. “You are safe.”
“Vena ta mayah,” she urged. I knew that one. Come to me. Tendrils of eather crackled around her. “Illa vol la sutum.”
“She will…she will be safe,” Ash repeated.
That didn’t make sense, except…Keella had told her to come to her and then said she would be safe. She wasn’t talking about Sotoria. She was talking about me.
Oh, gods. Was Sotoria somehow resisting because she was worried about me?
“Illa vol ori,” Keella told her. “Illa vol…” Whatever else Keella said was lost to the sudden buzzing in my ears.
Ash inhaled sharply, and my body jerked as I felt Sotoria respond. It was like she was disentangling herself from me and suddenly moving closer to the surface. That was the only way I could describe it.
“Hold on to Seraphena,” Keella instructed.
“Always,” Ash responded. “Always.”
My heart stuttered and then sped up as I looked down, barely able to see past the aura coming off Keella. Still, I felt the sudden warmth pulsing over the skin of my chest under their hands.
A soft, silvery-white light suddenly radiated from my chest. My eyes widened as Keella replaced her hand with the one that held The Star. The hard edges pressed into my skin— I heard Sotoria then.
Heard her speaking just as her soul left me and poured into the diamond.
Keella rocked back, the essence dimming around her as she looked down at The Star. An intense, bright white light floated inside the stone.
“It is done?” Attes asked, his voice thick.
“It is.” The Primal goddess rose, turning to Attes. “We will keep her safe.”
“Until…” I cleared my throat. “Until when?”
“Until it’s best to allow her to be reborn,” she said as Attes took the diamond. He handled it with reverence, gently placing it inside the satchel. “Once we can be sure that Kolis will not be able to find her before she is ready.”
Before she is ready.
A sour taste gathered in my mouth as I placed my hand on my chest. Ash asked me if I was okay, and I nodded. I didn’t feel different, yet I did. The presence I hadn’t been aware of for most of my life was gone, but Sotoria’s parting words lingered.
We will meet again.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
We shadowstepped back to the Bonelands, leaving Keella and Attes in the Thyia Plains.
As I stared out past the ships at sea, I wished I could’ve seen more of the Court. It was beautiful.
Keella had embraced me before we left. Attes hadn’t. Likely because Ash would’ve made good on his threat to rip out the Primal’s tongue. Instead, he’d placed his hand over his heart and bowed.
I’d reminded him of his promise to me as Ash said goodbye to Keella: that he would support Ash.
“I have not forgotten, Seraphena,” he’d answered. “He will have my support.”
“Sera,” I’d corrected him.
Attes had smiled then, but his dimples didn’t appear, and his eyes looked sad. I hoped he and Ash could work things out and become more than comrades. I hoped they’d be friends like those Ash spoke with now.
We will meet again.
I hadn’t hallucinated the sound of Sotoria’s voice, but what had she meant? Once we both passed on? That would be soon, very soon for me. But her?
My stomach shifted again as I thought about her in that diamond for who knew how long, only to be reborn, grow up, and be placed right back in the hands of Kolis and his obsession. It wasn’t right. I should’ve spoken up.
I turned at the sound of footsteps, spotting Elias, who had been conscious when we returned. The golden paint had been washed from his face. It was always hard to tell a god’s age, but his square-shaped face looked younger than I expected.
“Sorry about what happened when you first arrived here,” I said.
“It’s okay. I’d rather be seen as suspicious and ask for forgiveness than end up dead.” He touched the back of his head as he glanced to where Ehthawn was now perched on the cliff Aurelia had been on before. “Though I hope I don’t have any more stones coming down on my head.”
“I suppose you’ll need to stay out from under any draken then,” I said.
Elias glanced at the sea. “Was everything a success with the diamond?”
“It was.” I took in the cut of his chin. “Are you from Attes’s Court originally?”
He nodded.
“Did he have something to do with you working your way up to being Kolis’s guard?”
“He did. Put a good word in, but I also had to put my time in to get there.” He frowned, shifting uncomfortably on his feet. “He couldn’t tell you about me, you know? It was just too much of a risk.”
“I know.”
His gaze cut to mine. “Do you?”
“I could’ve used that kind of information as a bargaining tool.”
“Would you have?”
I watched Ash as he spoke to Saion and Rhahar, the breeze stirring his hair. “Depends.”
Elias followed my gaze. “You’d do anything for him.”
“I would.”
“He’s a lucky man, then, to have even a day of such devotion.” A brief smile appeared. “And I have a feeling I’ll be a dead man if he catches me talking to you.”
My lips quirked. “You’ll be fine. Attes? Probably a different story.”
Elias chuckled. “Attes does have a way of inciting that response in others.” His eyes narrowed. “I think someone wishes to speak with you.”
I followed his gaze, finding Rhain striding toward us.
“Excuse me.” Elias bowed.
I nibbled on the inside of my lip when Elias departed, only to be quickly intercepted by Kars, then shifted my focus to Rhain.
He stopped about a foot from me. “I’d ask how you’re feeling, but…”
“Yeah,” I murmured. “Thank you for not asking.”
“And forcing you to lie?”
I nodded, now the one shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot. “Oh.” I reached up, unclasping Aios’s necklace. I offered it to him. “Can you give this back to Aios? Or give it to Bele?”
Rhain stared at the silver chain. “You should be the one returning it to her.” He took the chain.
“I would like to,” I told him, glancing down at the cracked marble floor. “By the way, that’s a nifty talent you have. Communicating telepathically.”
The apples of his cheeks matched his hair. “Yeah, it’s not something I advertise. I’m not even as good at it as Kolis believes.”
I doubted that. “I’m sorry about your father and brother.”
Squinting, he nodded. His chest rose. “I wanted…I wanted to thank you for—”