The cartilage along his jaw began to give way as he forced out, “You…will.”

  “Hmm.” Cocking my head to the side, I reached inside his mouth, grabbed his tongue, and ripped it out. His muffled scream ended on a choked gurgle. “I don’t think so.”

  I ended Ashwood, letting his body turn to ash as eather throbbed within me, responding to another. I tilted my head, picking up the distant sound of shouting. Shadowstepping into the smoke-filled hallway, I came face-to-face with a brown-skinned male god. Blood trickled from the corner of his lips and his shoulder, where a wound smoked. He wore crimson, and that was all I needed to see to know which side he was on.

  The soon-to-be-dead one.

  The male jerked back several steps, blue eyes with eather glowing behind the pupils widening as they swept over me. “What the—?”

  I snapped forward, grabbing the god by the throat. “Where is she?”

  Eather crackled over his knuckles as he returned the favor, wrapping his hand around my throat. “Who?”

  Irritation flared, far more potent than the sting of his essence. Turning, I slammed the god into the wall. Plaster cracked. “Where is my Queen?”

  Understanding flickered across his features as he glanced down at where his hand was against my flesh. His dark brows drew together as the essence burned my throat. “What…?” His eyes shot back to mine. “What are you?”

  “Answer,” I growled, lifting him from the wall and then slamming him back against it, “my question.”

  “Gone,” he spat, the pulse of eather flaring as his touch heated. “Likely dead by now.”

  The knot of ice expanded in my chest.

  Sliding my hand to his chin, I jerked his head back and struck, sinking my fangs into his vein. The god shouted, kicked, and twisted as he tried to escape, but I held on. I drank fast and hard, taking his essence into me. His blows barely registered as I heard voices rising, shouting that they needed to leave, that there was nothing to be done here. They became clearer, one of them standing out.

  “Let me go!” a female voice seethed. “I will kill them all.”

  “I don’t think that’s going to be necessary,” a male voice argued as the god’s fist banged against the side of my head.

  Whatever else was said faded off as something like a hot poker struck my back. Eather. The pain rippled out in a scorching wave, something akin to touching a live wire.

  Swallowing the last mouthful of blood, I pushed my essence through the god. The flesh beneath my hand shriveled and cracked, as fragile as a dry flower. The god shattered into dust as I lifted my head and was utterly no more by the time I faced the god behind me.

  A bare-chested male stood before me, eather spinning down his arm.

  “Where is she?” I demanded.

  The god snarled, his arm rearing back.

  Snapping forward, I drove my hand through the god’s chest, rending skin and crushing bone as I tore into his throat. He roared, grabbing my hair. I drank greedily before ripping his heart free. Crushing the useless organ in my hand, I then grabbed the side of his head and forced it through the wall, destroying the skull and what little was hidden inside it.

  Another god appeared. Then another. I asked the same question to each. They all responded the same. So, they all died roughly the same. I fed. I killed, leaving a path of destruction behind me as I tracked the essence and her scent. They were all leading me to the same place.

  And those voices, they were louder now.

  “We need to go,” a male demanded, his voice tight with anger. “We need—where the fuck are you going?”

  “I have to see this,” another voice—a deeper, raspier one—answered.

  As I neared an intersection, flashes of silver lit up the hall. A god ran out, her long, blond hair streaming behind her like a white flag. She didn’t make it very far.

  I arched a brow as an intense bolt of eather slammed into her back. The spitting, silver wave of light swallowed her whole. Nothing remained when the glow receded.

  The Primal.

  My lips curled up in a tight smile as I walked out into the space where the hall veered and turned right. The passageway was narrower and painted with destruction.

  Blood sprayed the walls that still stood. A good portion of the left side was missing large chunks, as if something large had punched through it. Bodies and piles of ash were scattered about, some lying across the broken stone. But one still stood. At the end, behind them, where only half of the wall remained intact, and a single door hung from a beam, creaking as it swayed in the wind, was a Great Hall bathed in muted sunlight.

  I wanted to be in there.

  Needed to get in there. Because that was where her scent was the strongest.

  But the god before me stood in the way.

  My attention shifted to her as I gave her a cursory glance. She was unremarkable, but she was different.

  The god didn’t stumble back in shock upon seeing me. Her eyes didn’t widen. But those eyes… They were black and threaded with crimson essence as the realm split open behind her.

  Death.

  And her scent? It smelled like him: stale lilacs.

  I prowled toward her, eather ramping up.

  The god smirked as she stepped back. I shot forward, but she slipped through the opening. Icy fury pounded through my veins—

  “Holy shit.”

  My head shot toward the Great Hall. A god stood a few feet inside the chamber. I could see nothing of his features beyond the hood of the fitted black coat he wore, but he was old, and the essence in him was different. It didn’t carry the mark of death.

  “Fuck my life,” another voice muttered—the one that had been demanding that they leave.

  My gaze shifted behind the hooded god as he started backing up. Two stood inside. I saw the female in white armor first. Tall and striking, with rich-brown skin and tightly braided hair, I knew immediately that she was the Primal I’d felt. I didn’t even need to see the silver eyes to know I was right, but I did look, noticing the tears glistening against the eather lighting up the veins beneath those eyes.

  My gaze flicked to the one who had an arm shoved out in front of her. He was half a head taller, with auburn hair and golden eyes. I eyed him, sensing something dark and shadowy in his essence, reminding me of when we stood outside of the City of the Gods, and Nyktos briefly made an appearance. He wasn’t a Primal, but he was very, very old.

  I quickly scanned the Hall—or what was left of it—as I walked forward. The domed ceiling was gone, several pillars supporting the alcove had been broken, and half the second level had collapsed to the main floor. Red was smeared along the cracked marble tiles.

  “What are you?” the faceless god spoke as I stalked forward.

  “Not really important,” the auburn-haired one bit out as the Primal stared, the god’s chest heaving behind the armor.

  “Disagree,” the other replied, remaining rooted where he stood.

  I focused on him, inhaling as my senses reached out. My chest vibrated with a low, rumbling growl. It wasn’t his essence that caused the ice in my chest to harden. It was the scent that soaked him.

  Blood that wasn’t his.

  Blood that smelled of jasmine.

  My chin lowered, and my upper lip curled.

  “Thierran,” the Primal uttered, voice low and urgent.

  The god’s head cocked. “What are you?” he repeated.

  “Death.”

  The two behind him stiffened. The auburn-haired one called for Thierran again, and he started to move then. But I was fast—faster than I’d ever been.

  In a breath, I had my hand on the hooded god’s throat. “I can smell her on you.” I breathed in, gaze dropping to the chest of his coat. It was smeared with dried blood. The eather throbbed as it swelled. “You’re covered in her scent.”

  “Her…? Shit,” the god choked out. He lifted a hand but didn’t summon the essence. “Don’t.”

  I had no idea who he spoke to—if it was me or them. I didn’t care. Another growl clawed its way out of me.

  “It’s the King,” he managed to breathe. “Her King.”

  I barely heard him. The icy knot in my chest was expanding, becoming a cold, insatiable void. “Where is she?”

  “Don’t,” he repeated.

  That wasn’t an answer, and I was done asking. My grip on his throat tightened, cutting off whatever he had been about to say next. I turned, lifting him from the floor—

  Eather struck the back of my shoulder, spinning me away from the hooded god as searing pain shot through every nerve. Cold fury flooded my system, igniting a primal instinct.

  Shadows blossomed under my skin, and the flesh along my hands, on my upper arms, and patches along my chest thinned once more, revealing silver, gleaming bone. The skin between my shoulder blades prickled. Muscles deep beneath them rippled, tugging at the wings tucked along my spine. They slid free as I whirled toward the gods.

  Shock poured into the Primal’s eyes, overshadowing the grief in them as her gaze swept over me. “Oh, my Fates,” she whispered. “Oh, my fucking Fates.”

  The corners of my eyes filled with crimson-streaked shadows. My head twisted toward the hooded god as my wings snapped open.

  “Whoa,” he murmured.

  The auburn-haired god lurched forward, grabbing the hooded god’s arm as the Primal gave a quick shake of her head, sending braids smacking against her cheeks. The air was charged with eather, and an orb of crackling light appeared as the male dragged the one who smelled of her backward.

  They were about to shadowstep.

  And I would not allow that to happen.

  I lifted my arm, and the hooded god jerked back as if pulled by invisible hands.

  “Fuck,” the Primal spat, the tear in the realm widening as the auburn-haired god made to grab for the hooded one.

  My gaze flicked to him, and a heartbeat later, he was flying backward as my hand shot out and snatched the hooded god out of the air. He grunted as I held him off the floor.

  “Go,” the Primal urged. “Go now, Rhain.”

  The auburn-haired god cursed. “I’m not leaving you—”

  She threw out her arm, not giving the other god a choice as she sent him skidding across the floor, right through the hissing current of eather. The tear pulsed and then shrank.

  “Put him down,” the Primal warned. “Now.”

  Ignoring her, I turned my attention to the hooded god. “Why do you smell of her blood?”

  He grabbed my wrist, then jerked his hand away as the skin there gave way to bone. “Because she bled on me—”

  “Really,” gasped the Primal. “For fuck’s sake, Thierran.”

  “I didn’t hurt her,” he quickly added. “I helped—”

  “Where?” The single word rose from the depths of my being, dark and full of wrath that shook the air. “Where is she?”

  “Put him down, now,” the Primal repeated.

  I slowly turned my head to her. “Or what?”

  The vibrating tear in the realm thrummed behind her. She widened her stance. “Or I will make you,” she said, eather streaking through her silver eyes. “I don’t want to hurt you, but I will.”

  My lips curled into a smile as the icy knot in my chest swelled. With a push of my arm, I threw the hooded god into a nearby column. He hit the floor and remained there. The crack of his head when it hit the pillar told me he would be out for at least a few moments.

  “That wasn’t wise,” the Primal spat, briefly shooting a glance at the unmoving god. “You will regret that. He’s the wrong person to get on the bad side of.”

  I wondered what about me gave her the impression that I would regret even a second of that.

  “I’m going to give you one more chance,” the Primal said, eather lighting up her veins. “Because if you’re her King, then I don’t want to upset her. But you take one more step, and I won’t hold back.”

  Primal mist streamed from me, spilling out around me and rising into the air. Crimson laced the whirling shadows as unease flashed across the Primal’s face.

  “That’s…impossible,” she gasped. “What are you?”

  I did what she’d warned against and took a step toward—

  The presence of another filled the Hall without warning, soaking the atmosphere in raw power.

  “What he is,” an oddly familiar voice boomed from nowhere and everywhere, “is what we feared. The Bringer of Ruin.”

  Before I had a chance to register the presence or the words, a blinding flash of light crashed into me. The force hit me like an out-of-control carriage, lifting my body into the air and throwing me back.

  Before I hit the wall, instinct took over once more. My wings swept up and out, muscles straining as they caught the rush of wind from the force of the blow. The action wrenched me upward, and for a moment, I was suspended, weightless in the air, and then I started to dip. I fell several feet before I willed my wings to move. With a powerful sweep, I soared toward the remnants of the destroyed dome as the searing glow faded. Breathing hard and heart pounding, I spun around.

  The Primal was gone.

  So was the hooded god who’d had her blood on him.

  Fury pounded through me as I spread my wings wide and angled them so I descended. I whirled toward the dais, searching—

  I halted.

  Her scent.

  It was stronger.

  I breathed in, scanning the Hall until my eyes landed on the half-sunken dais and the splash of dark red along the floor there.

  Somewhere in my chest, my heart stopped.

  I flew forward, halting when I was about a foot from the platform. The wings swept up, pulling me down. I landed with a thud that cracked the tile and took a step. The only thing I saw was the dark-crimson marks.

  Blood.

  Her blood.

  I hit my knees, chest constricting.

  There was a lot of it.

  Too much of it.

  Pitching forward, I planted my hands on the floor, inches from the stains, as awareness throbbed when more gods arrived. My nails scraped over the tile as pain hit hard. Grief choked me, causing the essence to throb as I knelt there, half-bent over. I couldn’t breathe around it, but that wasn’t what caused the essence to churn. It wasn’t what started the quake somewhere deep inside me. It was the rage that had the strongest hold on me, burning through me with icy flames as my thoughts spun chaotically into one another. There were so many what-ifs. What if I had convinced her that I could handle myself? What if I had left the moment she demanded that I stay back and rode to Pensdurth? What if I had listened to him and talked to her? And there were so many should haves. She never should’ve come here without me. I should’ve done more to stop her. I should’ve found a way to be at her side. I should’ve told Poppy—

  Poppy.

  A shudder went through me, and then I went completely still, but only on the outside. What was inside was moving, churning, and twisting. Anger and grief crashed together over and over, mixing with the essence—with guilt. And there was so much of it. Pressure built, straining at my flesh. My entire body shook, and my jaw tightened as I tried to hold it in, to stop myself from letting it out. To keep from screaming. From snapping and tearing the realm apart.

  But there was no stopping it.

  Not the scream. Not the lashing out. Not the rage, sorrow, guilt, and all that power whirling through me. It crashed together, and there was no holding it in.

  Throwing my head back, I roared, the sound deep and guttural. The moment it hit the air, it destroyed. Everything around me warped and recoiled as if the very realm itself sought to get away, but there was no escape.

  Not for me.

  Not from me.

  The power within me exploded in an icy, devastating wave. The remaining walls of Seacliffe Manor, the floors, the many rooms, the gods who’d just arrived, and the Ascended who moved belowground, were simply gone in an instant.

  All of it.

  Disintegrated.

  The rolling blast swept out with brutal, crushing force, stretching beyond where Seacliffe had once stood. The air distorted as the power spread down the bluff. Ships cracked, then shattered. Trees ignited and burned with an unholy intensity, leaving nothing but smoking embers within seconds. Roofs blew off and broke apart into tiny shards. Walls crumbled to ash. Street after street, throughout the entirety of Pensdurth, anything standing was leveled. Turned to dust.

  The burst of power washed over the Rise, finding the many cracks and fissures that had appeared when the earth shook. The essence took the great wall down from within, every block stacked upon one another, disintegrating.

  All that rage, grief, guilt, it all consumed me until there was nothing left but the ruin I unleashed and the wrath that followed.

  BROTHERS

  Poppy

  I found myself standing among a cluster of pines.

  I didn’t know how I got there. The last thing I remembered was…

  Pain.

  I remembered deep, tearing pain in my throat that tugged at my chest, and the burning, stinging agony all along my skin. But I didn’t feel any pain now. Toes curling against the damp moss and grass, I lifted my hand to my neck. The skin there felt smooth, but I had the sense that it had not been, and what tasted like bitter, acidic shame crawled up my throat.

  I didn’t want to remember what had come before.

  Exhaling slowly, I lowered my hand and looked around as birds sang, filling the air with high-pitched chirps and sharp, trilling calls. My eyes snagged on a flash of red beyond a curtain of needled branches. Curious, I walked forward, the thick moss feeling like lush carpet beneath my feet.

  A warm breeze lifted the strands of my hair as I stepped out of the tall, sweeping pines and into a sun-drenched meadow, carrying the scents of fresh soil and rain. The flash of red turned out to be bright, vibrant red wildflowers.

  Fingers grazing the soft petals, I passed rocks smothered in clinging ivy. My steps slowed as I came to the edge of a craggy hill along a cliff and looked down. There was so much color. Blooms of pink and white flowers mingled with clusters of lilac and yarrow spilled down the hill to a village below, where the rising sun cast shadows over shaggy, golden-brown thatched roofs and cobblestone paths.