A Light in the Flame

Sera is shocked that Nyktos would willingly have his kardia removed. Her experience with him has shown her that Nyktos is capable of deeply caring about people. Nyktos reminds her that caring for someone and loving them are two different things. By removing his kardia, he has ensured that no one can be his weakness. Meanwhile, the crisis in their universe is deepening. Kolis, Nyktos’s uncle and the false King of the Gods, is creating creatures like the Craven—zombies made when a mortal is drained of blood and killed—and Revenants—vampire-like beings considered a mockery of life. He plans to overrun the mortal realm with these terrifying creatures, forcing ordinary mortals to submit to his rule. Simultaneously, both the Divine (Iliseeum, home of the Gods) and mortal realms are threatened by the Rot, a symptom of the world’s corruption, which is making soil barren and causing famine. Unless Sera kills Kolis, the Rot will continue to grow. Privately, Holland apologizes to Sera for keeping her true identity and purpose a secret. She forgives him, and Holland gives Sera an important hint about her future: She is his weakness. Sera assumes that the man in question is Kolis, as she has Sotoria’s soul. Meanwhile, Penellaphe has a complex charm drawn on Sera’s arm, which will prevent her from being taken by a living god against her will.

Sera tells Nyktos that becoming his Consort will not prevent her inevitable death. She is already in a Culling, the irreversible process that precedes her Ascension. Unless Nyktos Ascends her, she will be dead in five months. Nyktos promises to find a way to save Sera. After Nyktos leaves with Rhahar, Saion escorts Sera to her room. Sera’s bedchamber is being guarded by Orphine, a draken—a dragon-like creature—presenting as a mortal woman. When Sera goes inside, she sees that Nyktos has left her the gift of a fine dagger. Sera is touched by the gesture. Suddenly, there is an attack on the Rise by draken and entombed rogue gods pushing out of the earth. Sera tells Orphine that she will not stay idle while the fort is attacked.

Orphine and Sera join the battle. Nektas, another draken of the Rise, manages to hold off the gods, but the draken Davina is torn apart. Sera is devastated at Davina’s death and consoles herself by charging at a section of fallen gods attacking the guards. She manages to spear many gods dead before she is attacked by one, who chews through the muscles of her arm. Nyktos arrives on the Rise in his gigantic Primal form, with his wings outstretched. The battle turns, and the entombed gods are destroyed.

Nyktos carries a weak Sera in his arms to a chamber. He examines her wounds and tells her that she needs to feed on his blood to revive. As Sera is under the physically strenuous process of a Culling, she cannot afford to lose much blood. Nyktos nicks his wrist and brings it to Sera. She drinks his blood reluctantly but is soon caught up in the sensuousness of the act. The blood makes her feel warm and strong.

Sera asks Nyktos to make love to her. Nyktos counters that what she is experiencing is not true desire but an effect of the life force of his blood heating her veins. However, when Sera insists, Nyktos asks her to masturbate as he kisses her, and Sera orgasms. They are interrupted by Nektas summoning them to the war room for a meeting with the other gods. The gods suspect that a Primal orchestrated an attack on the Rise. Bele’s guess is that this was Hanan, the Primal of the Hunt and Divine Justice. Bele used to be part of Hanan’s court; Hanan may have sensed Bele’s Ascension and the threat that it represents to him (since Sera Ascended Bele to nearly Primal-like status). Bele wants to leave the Shadowlands to protect the others from the ire of Hanan. However, Sera tells Bele that the gods may also be coming after the Rise because they sense that Sera has the embers of life. It is agreed that both Bele and Sera will stay hidden at the Rise until the court figures out the god behind the attack.

Aios, the Primal Goddess of Healing, walks Sera back to her bedchamber. Sera enquires about Gemma, the mortal whom Sera brought back to life in the previous book. Aios tells her that Gemma is physically fine, but her psychological trauma will take a long time to heal (Gemma is a survivor of physical and sexual assault). Sera can sense from Aios’s tone that even she has experienced something similar. In her chambers, Sera reflects that a life of passive hiding is not for her. She is not just Nyktos’s future consort but a woman with a purpose. Sera decides to leave the Rise so that she can turn herself over to Kolis in exchange for saving Nyktos and the others. Once she is in Kolis’s court, she will figure out a way to kill him. Sera dresses in pants and boots, sneaks out of the palace, and jumps over the wall of the fort.

As Sera enters the Dying Woods, the area beyond the Red Woods, she notices large silver hawks gathering overhead. She is unsure about the motive of the hawks until one seizes a Shade that was secretly about to attack Sera. The hawks and Sera fight the Shades—malevolent smoke-like creatures with claws. When Sera wrestles a Shade to the ground, its robes open, and at Sera’s touch, the Shade begins to grow a skeleton, muscles, and veins. The Shade rasps, “Meyaah […] Liessa” (97)—the ancient words for “My Queen”—until a bolt of white light kills it. The Shades scatter. Sera looks ahead and sees Nyktos, with silver eather leaking out of his eyes and shadows gathering under his skin.

Angry that Nyktos plans to stop her, Sera runs from him. Nyktos catches her and tells her that if he had not intervened, the Shades would have torn her apart. Frustrated at what she sees as Nyktos’s overprotectiveness, Sera screams in anger, and power begins to pour out of her. She places her hands on Nyktos’s shoulders in panic.

The power flows from Sera to Nyktos, making him scream in pain. Nektas rushes to Nyktos’s side. Sera is sure that Nektas will hurt her, but the draken’s outstretched wings close around her protectively. Nektas tells her that he is guarding her from Nyktos, as he fears that the hurt god may attack her reflexively. The moment passes, and Nyktos sinks to the ground, assuming his mortal form. Nektas, too, presents as a human, covering himself in linen pants. After Nyktos recovers, he tells Sera that her surge of power was unexpected. Sera tells Nyktos about the Shade growing a skeleton under her touch. Nyktos stares at Sera in disbelief, but Nektas tells them that Ethyos had similar power.

Nektas asks Sera and Nyktos to return to the Rise, as the Shades are still lurking in the forest. Nyktos conjures up his warhorse, Odin, from the silver cuff he wears. Odin is miffed with Sera since she hit Nyktos with her powers but lets her mount him. When Sera and Nyktos return to the palace, Nyktos embraces Sera in bed and asks her to sleep, making her promise that she will never go after Kolis again. Moved by the emotion in his voice, Sera agrees.