“She is not awhat,” I seethed, my tenuous hold on my temper slipping. “She is a person—”
“One whose Ascension has set in motion a chain of events that I fear cannot be stopped.” Aydun leaned forward. “Do you know how important balance is?” He went on without giving me a chance to answer. “You probably don’t. The gods went to sleep long before you were born, and even the eldest of your kind has forgotten to ensure such knowledge was passed on, despite its importance.”
I didn’t say anything, hoping he’d get to the fucking point because I was more concerned about Poppy. She was in some foreign land, and I couldn’t do shit to help her if she needed it. I glanced down at the gold imprint. She was okay. She would be.
“Everything here and beyond relies on balance, Casteel.” The chair creaked as he tipped back and picked up another piece of cheese. “Where there is prosperity, there must be loss. With love, hate must exist. Life must give way to death. And so on and so forth.”
That sounded like a load of shit, but I kept that to myself. “I’ll have to take your word for it.”
“But it is more than that. There must be a balance of powers, too. When there’s not, there will be signs—ones hard to ignore.”
Immediately, a hard-to-ignore sign came to mind. “The sun?”
“That would qualify as one.”
I exhaled. “There are more?”
“Many more,” Aydun said. “Her Ascension unsettled the balance and freed Kolis. The damage from her Ascension, which so many prayed would never happen, has already been done and cannot be undone. That bell has been rung. The die cast. The bridge burned. The last chapter of the story written—”
“I get it,” I growled. “For fuck’s sake, man.”
“But what you don’t get is that her Ascension was not the only threat to the balance. Penellaphe is the Harbinger. The Bringer.” The color of the ink on the sides of Aydun’s face deepened and began churning as his eyes held mine. “Of Death and Destruction.”
“Kolis,” I bit out.
Aydun smiled faintly. “He is the Great Conspirator.”
My eyes narrowed. “And?”
“And it wasn’t understood what that meant until it was too late.”
I stared at him, waiting for him to elaborate on what sounded like nothing more than disjointed thoughts. He didn’t. “Attes was right.”
“About?”
“That you are all vague as fuck.”
His lips flattened. “We wouldn’t have to be if any of you were even half as wise as Eythos. Which isn’t saying much.”
“What does this have to do with Kolis’s brother?”
“Almost everything.” He sat back. “Either way, what your wife’s Ascension has created will continue to add to the imbalance. It’s started the clock—one that’s ticking and counting down.”
I knew what he was about to say next. The words felt tattooed into my bones. “‘For the end will come from the west—’”
“‘To destroy the east and lay waste to all which lies between,’” Aydun finished with a heavy sigh. “The end has begun. And when it comes, what happened beyond the Primal Veil will seem like a blessing compared to what will happen throughout the realms.”
CHAPTER 14
POPPY
I dreamed of blood and terror, knowing, even in sleep, that what I’d seen and felt before was nothing more than a precursor to what I saw now.
It began with a shockwave rolling down hills and across once-tranquil waters, shattering everything in its path: trees, buildings,people. Blood filled the ruined streets as a current of heat and ash raced across the landscape, igniting everything left standing and burning those who managed to survive the initial blast from the inside. The flow of death traveled wide, forcing hundreds of thousands to their knees as they clawed at their throats, choking.
Large chunks of rock fell from the sky, striking people down where they stood or walked without warning—burying villages and cities in burning ash until it looked like a fiery winter had visited the land.
The very earth itself rattled as more of the Ancients woke, sparking eruptions from other mountains, those above and below the seas. Land broke apart and sank, taking entire cities into watery graves as waves taller than the steel buildings lining the coasts crashed through them.
