Her lips curled up. “I should talk you out of whatever you’re thinking.”
“But you’re not going to,” Reaver cast over his shoulder.
Her smile widened. “Nope.”
Now,mybrows shot up. “Really? You’re the true Primal of Life.”
“I’m also extremely petty and prone to acts of violence when angered,” she replied.
“Well, now we know where you got that from,” Casteel murmured.
I shot him a glare as we neared the end of the hall.
Seraphena’s eyes glimmered as long, icy-blond hair fell across her shoulder. “No, I’m not the one to go to if you need to be talked out of committing violence. Ash, on the other hand? He is far more…”
“Calm? Thoughtful?” Reaver suggested. “Less vindictive?”
Seraphena’s lips pursed. “Thank you for all the helpful examples, Reaver. But yes, Ash is more likely to talk you out of it.”
“That seems backward,” I admitted.
She snorted. “I can’t argue with that. But I don’t know the answer to the question either.”
Damn it.
“By the way,” she said to Reaver, “I’m notthatvindictive.”
“Uh-huh,” Reaver hummed.
Casteel’s mark brushed against my mind like a gentle caress of pine and winter.We will be talking more about this interest in the Fates later.
I didn’t answer. I’d hoped he’d forget about that interest, as I doubted even he would be on board with me wanting to kill a Fate.
“Earlier,” Seraphena said, “when I spoke of my sons, you felt my emotions.”
“I did.”
“And you wanted to…ease them?”
“Yes.” Wind rattled the windows. “It’s an urge that’s hard for me to ignore.”
She nodded. “You got that from Ash’s side of the family,” she told me, and my curiosity piqued. “He can sense emotions. As could his mother. She could also do more.”
Captivated by the little details, a smile spread across my face. There was so much I didn’t know about where I came from. “I can…taste emotions—well, now I kind of just sense them,” I told her. “Is it like that for him? The tasting part?”
“Taste them?” Her nose scrunched. “Now, I’m curious to know what something tastes like. But no, he can just read what another is feeling.”
“That’s probably why they changed,” Casteel noted.
“You’re likely to see an increase in your abilities as time passes,” Seraphena said. “A sharpening of your senses. It doesn’t happen all at once.”
“You said Nyktos’s mother could also do more?” I asked.
“She passed long before I came to be,” she said, “but from what I know, she could influence someone’s emotions.”
I thought about what I’d done at the Chamber of Nyktos and how Alastir had claimed the Atlantians would see me as a Soul Eater.It used to bother me to even consider that. Now? I didn’t worry if some out there still believed that. I had bigger things to be concerned with.
“She shared lineage with the Gods of Sleep,” Seraphena continued. “They can do something similar—invade one’s dreams to discover their secrets and manipulate what they see.”
