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When Kolis orders her to apologize again, Veses does, but with scathing venom. Then she grits out that she’s happy for Kolis. Before she leaves, Kolis summons her back and says that she still disappointed him and must be punished. He calls Kyn over, and Sera knows what’s about to happen. She watches in horror as the events start to play out, and just as it’s about to get really bad, she cries out. Veses tells her she doesn’t need her to interfere, and the embers within Sera start to hum.
Kolis asks her what she’s doing, and Sera says what he’s doing isn’t right and asks him to stop. He pushes back, and she tells him it’s the right thing to do. Seething, he rises and says they’re returning to her quarters. Before they leave, Phanos tells Kolis he needs to talk to him. Kolis says he’ll be back shortly.
They return to the cage, and Kolis chastises Sera, reminding her that he told her not to question him or use the embers, yet she did both. He details what he’s done for her and says she isn’t appreciative. He tells her that he wanted to show her what he’s risking for her, confusing Sera. He calls her his soul again but tells her he’s her King and will be obeyed.
He chains her, stretching her painfully, then says he wants to hate her for making him do this to her, but he can only love her. She scoffs. He tells her that she still lives. Nobody else would. That’s proof of his love. Then he weeps.
After Kolis leaves, Callum gloats, thinking aloud how much pain she must be in. He says he almost feels sorry for her. She doesn’t give him the satisfaction of responding. He goes on about her not really being his sister, and she tells him the fact that he thinks what is being done is wrong only if she’s his sister makes her feel justified in her disdain.
He admits that the Hall punishment was wrong and below Kolis, then insists he’s better than that. She asks when he was better. Callum says he was before Eythos died. He tells her that Kolis loved his brother.
She thinks things over and knows the display was all about Kolis exerting power. Callum says everything changed after Eythos’s death and asks if Sera believes she’s better than everyone after she gives details that she was the only one willing to step in at the Hall. She agrees with him and says she is better—anyone who would at least try is.
She calls Callum a loyal lapdog, and he says he’ll always be loyal. Kolis forgave him for not keeping Sotoria safe and gave him eternal life. Plus, he’s keeping the realms together.
It irks Sera. She wonders if Callum was ever good but calls him delusional. Like Kolis. Callum says he’ll be happy to share that with the King. In response, she threatens to tell Kolis how his firstborn shared how to kill a Primal with Calliphe. They bicker about Kolis’s motives and whether Sera is who she claims to be. She slips up and calls Sotoria her, and Callum catches it. Sera backtracks, only for Callum to reveal that Eythos was the one who killed Sotoria the second time. Sera can’t believe it. She goes over all the questions and her plight.
Finally, Kolis enters and releases the shackles. Sera cries out and can’t do much but sag into his arms. Kolis apologizes repeatedly.
The Chosen bring in stuff for a bath, and Kolis tells her to bathe, rest, and all will be well. She barely keeps herself from laughing. Before he leaves, he mentions that he stopped Veses’ punishment. She does laugh then.
And can’t stop.
This time when she sleeps, Sera doesn’t dream. Callum is in the room on the sofa again when she wakes, and she feels a Culling headache coming on. Kolis enters, and she realizes she needs to act like nothing has happened. He tells her she looks lovely, and she plays her part and apologizes, shocking both Kolis and Callum. Kolis says he understands, and she lays it on even thicker.
Callum seethes, and Sera tries to contain her glee.
Kolis tells her to come for a walk with him, Callum and Elias trailing along after them. He takes her somewhere, then calls for Iason and Dyses. The Revenant and draken walk in with a Chosen. Suddenly, Sera knows exactly what’s going on.
She tells him he doesn’t have to prove anything, and he insists he must show her what he can do. She tries to talk him out of it, and he simply instructs the Chosen to unveil himself. Kolis asks the Chosen—who she finds out is named Jove—how he is and says he’ll be blessed.
Jove says it’s an honor, and Sera tries again to stop Kolis, knowing it’s anything but. When she moves to stop him, he tells her she’s always had a kind heart, making both her and Sotoria shudder.
He tells her she needs to know why it’s so important and leaves how it’s done up to her—Jove can be remade or used as sustenance. Balance is necessary.
She asks if he can at least make it so it doesn’t hurt. He does, and then Sera realizes she may have turned pain into forced pleasure. She’s not sure which is worse. It makes her sick.
Kolis explains the process of what he’s doing and calls Elias over to give Jove his blood. Sera realizes Kolis can’t use his blood because he’s the true Primal of Death. He tells her that without the embers of life, the Chosen become the Ascended. Then says he’s been working on the drawbacks, like their sun intolerance and bloodlust.
Sera wonders what happens if they can’t control their hunger, and he says they’re put down. He tells her that gluttonous gods were killed under Eythos’s rule, as well, and he was used as the weapon to do it.
Kolis appears to truly believe that he’s creating life and cares about it besides. She asks about the difference between the Ascended and the Craven, and he tells her that the Craven are dead, revealing more about them. Sera thinks about Andreia.
He tells her that newly made Ascended are watched, and the one she encountered would have been too if she hadn’t tried to escape and pulled the guards from their posts.
She asks what happens if an Ascended chooses not to feed, and he tells her they will weaken, and their bodies will eventually give out. She asks why an Ascended would decide that, then guesses it’s maybe so they don’t become an indiscriminate killer. Kolis says that everything created or born has the potential to be a murderer.
Sera gets frustrated when Kolis just isn’t getting her points about choice and consent, and he brings up balance again. He goes on to say that the Primal of Death is supposed to remain distant from anyone they may have to judge—all but the other Primals and the draken. He complains that it isn’t the same for the Primal of Life. He goes on to say that it made sense to the Arae, and all comes back to the balance established when the Ancients created the realms.
Sera chimes in that she thought Eythos created the realms, and Kolis tells her that he created some but not the realms. The Ancients were not the first Primals, nor can any Primal become an Ancient. He tells her there must always be a true Primal of Life and a true Primal of Death.
Sera realizes that means Kolis can never be killed.
She feels disheartened and wonders about Holland, Eythos, and Keella. Why did they do what they did if he can’t be killed?
Later in the cage, she thinks about The Star and wonders if it could hold embers and a soul simultaneously. Callum asks her what she’s doing, and she tells him she’s praying. When the embers respond to a Primal nearing, Callum says it’s strange because Kolis is occupied.
Veses blows in, nailing Callum in the face with the door. He tells her Kolis isn’t around, and she says she’s not there for him. Callum says it’s unwise to go against His Majesty’s edicts, and Veses says she doesn’t intend for him to find out she came.
