Total pages in book: 401
Estimated words: 390373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1952(@200wpm)___ 1561(@250wpm)___ 1301(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 390373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1952(@200wpm)___ 1561(@250wpm)___ 1301(@300wpm)
But they had.
Lirian sighed, folding his arms over his broad chest. “You were right earlier when you said an Ancient is capable of destroying a realm. They can do so with one hand and create a new one with the other. Those of us who became the Arae can no longer harness that type of power. But you were also wrong. You can.”
My jaw hit the floor.
“Eventually,” Holland tacked on. “You are like us. Like those you saw Awaken today. Which is why you were drawn there.”
“That’s…” I shook my head, my heart thudding. “You’re saying I’m a…” I almost couldn’t bring myself to say it. “A Fate?”
“I said you are like us,” he stressed. “You are blood and bone, able to wield power over life and death. And as you grow stronger and older, as your powers mature, I suspect you will develop more abilities.”
“More abilities?” Curiosity rose. “Like what?”
“That’s neither here nor there,” Holland said, picking up the carafe and pouring himself more of the strangely colored liquid.
“But—”
“You will have to live long enough for that to happen,” Lirian snapped.
I closed my mouth.
Holland’s stare moved to the other Ancient, and he said, “Poppy, you’re like an Ancient born, which was impossible until you.”
“None of this makes any sense.” Running my fingers over the buttons on the robe, I gripped the sash I’d left undone and began twisting it. I remembered what Nektas had told me, and it sounded like he’d left a whole lot out. “I know there was some sort of cosmic restart when Seraphena Ascended to the true Primal of Life, but only once a female descendant was born and had Ascended.”
Holland idly ran a finger along the rim of his glass while Thorne remained quiet beside him. “That is true.”
“So, that doesn’t explain how I’m like an Ancient born.”
“What Nektas told you was partially correct,” Holland shared, and a shiver curled down my spine at the reminder of just how much they knew and saw. “You are the result of a…perfect storm of several variables that alone are one thing but combined become something else entirely.”
“That explains nothing.”
“You are descended from Seraphena, who was born of the bloodline of the first mortal,” Holland said.
“Seriously?” I whispered.
“He wouldn’t have said it if he wasn’t,” Lirian retorted, voice thin with a distinctive note of impatience. “But you were also born of a demis—a false god, yes, but a tragically powerful one. That’s a variable. Another is that you were also born of a direct descendant of two Primals, one being the true Primal of Life and another who is a Primal of Death—second only to his Queen and Kolis in terms of power.”
“A third variable is that you are a second daughter,” Lirian added.
Holland huffed as he took a drink, and I looked at him.
“The reasoning for that is roughly the same as why the Ascended covet second sons and daughters,” Lirian continued as Holland’s gaze met mine. “Is there something you want to add, Holland?”
Lowering his glass, he smiled tightly. “Only that her situation is…a little more complicated.”
I laughed then. “A little more complicated?”
“And unexpected,” Holland said. “It was not just your birth that made you what you are today. It was also the choices you and others made—choices born of all the emotions one can feel.”
“Careful,” Lirian warned softly.
“The Joining,” I whispered, feeling my cheeks heat. Did they know what had transpired during the—?
Thorne’s gaze caught mine, and I caught the slow curl of his lips.
Nope.
Wasn’t going to think about that.
Besides, what Holland had said—a single word, actually—caused my thoughts to flash to what I had seen while in stasis.
Unexpected.
It wasn’t the dreams of the ten Ancients I searched through. It was the… I sucked in a sharp breath. “When Eythos created the draken, he didn’t know the—”
“Dragons,” Thorne interrupted. “They were called dragons.”
“Okay.” I drew out the word. “Thanks for the input. But the dragons had emotions and intelligence. That’s what gave mortals the ability to feel.”
“Duality always carries uncertainty,” Holland remarked.
I moved toward the window. “And the Joining… That included one of dual life.” As soon as the words left me, instinct told me I was right. “That’s another variable. A big one.”
Holland nodded. “Those of dual life are not just closely tied to the gods. They are tied to the Primals—to a true Primal of Life. Like the first Primals and those who created them, they are beings of pure essence, able to change forms at will.”
A dull throb in my finger suddenly drew my attention. I looked down to see that I’d wound the robe’s sash around my finger so tightly that it had turned white. I unwound the sash and thought about my mother. How Isbeth had commented on my relationship—Casteel’s and my relationship—with Kieran. I’d thought she was just being crude. Had she been seeking to know if we’d completed the Joining?