Nya Evva.
She almost answered aloud before realizing no one in the cave had spoken her name aloud. Tentatively, she reached out down the unfamiliar mental pathway.Who are you?
My name is Veeron. Your brother is my rider, which is why I am making this concession to speak to you.
Sol turned to face her, and she kept her expression flat even as Veeron added,You need to leave the cave the god Sol took you to. It is heavily warded. Varax is in the mountains, but neither she nor her other rider will be able to find you if you remain there. You cannot remain there, Nya Evva. They intend to do terrible things to you.
The pathway went dark, and the pain in her chest and head had eased considerably, replaced with a dizzying surge of fear and adrenaline.
Bella and Sol were still bickering when Imeria approached, eyes shining and wide. Nya lifted her head, her jaw set. “Why are you here?” she rasped.
Imeria’s gaze settled on a point somewhere above Nya’s head. The coward couldn’t even manage to look at her as she betrayed them.
“He told no one about you, Nya. Not even me or Carus,” she began, and Nya knew she was talking about Morgen. “For so long, I thought if I just waited long enough, he would come around. I have immortal blood, and I knew once he was king, he would need someone to provide an heir, even if he refused to marry. But then, he brought you here, married you within hours…” She trailed off, shaking her head. “I couldn’t bring myself to defy him, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t try to protect him from his own poor choices.”
“How noble of you.” Nya laughed hollowly. “So you went to Sol, of all gods?”
“I will do my duty,” Imeria whispered, even as silent tears tracked down her cheeks. “I wish it did not mean harming you. It would have been better if this had ended when I sent the assassins.”
“So that was you?”
Imeria glanced over to where Sol now watched, his conversation with Bella over. “I will do my duty,” she repeated.“Sol promises to ensure it is I who gives Morgen an heir. You are too corrupted.”
Nya blinked a few times, a dull headache forming at her temple, making it hard to think. “Either Sol is tricking you, or he is unaware,” she told Imeria, not even sure why she bothered explaining it to her. “For your sake, I hope he wasn’t lying to you, though I doubt it.”
“What do you?—”
“Morgen will never have an heir. He’s too afraid of hurting anyone. Even if you somehow managed to convince him to touch you, he won’t risk the embers killing anyone like they killed his mother.”
Nya knew he was more likely to rip Imeria’s head off than bed her after today, even if Sol did not harm her in this cave. But perhaps she felt some small seed of pity for Imeria, pining all these years for someone who would never be hers.
It didn’t matter if Imeria believed her or not, though; Nya doubted she would live long enough to know what happened to her. Heavy boots stopped directly in front of her, and Sol lifted her chin with his fingers, his touch unnerving delicate. Imeria scrambled away, retaking her place with the other three women in the corner, her head bowed in submission.
Sol smiled, eyes on Nya. “Bella. Let us see if we can get our old friend to say hello, shall we?”
Bella knelt, examining Nya as if she were some sort of specimen, not a person. “You’re sure about this?”
Sol sighed, tipping his head back. “Now, now, don’t tell me you’ve gone soft?”
She shrugged. “The last time we fucked with Sora, it didnotgo well.”
“We bounced back, and we always will, because I have something they do not.”
Nya laughed, spitting blood on the stone floor. She was vaguely aware she might be unraveling, but she didn’t pay that fact any mind. She was too angry to care.
“You think because you stole a few of the embers, you have some kind of upper hand?” she said, smiling and tasting the iron tang of blood on her teeth.
Sol raised a brow. “Perhaps I would not, had Morgen not made the idiotic decision to bind his life to yours. I always had a hunch he would fail in this role, and so did Kronos. They do say no one knows a son better than his father.”
“You knew about Morgen,” she breathed. “Youknew,and you did nothing to stop what Kronos was doing to him.”
“Of course, I knew.” He laughed, and the sound was as cold as her skin suddenly felt. “And when your mother destroyed Kronos, I left him for dead, which is exactly what Kronos would have wanted. It’s a shame he escaped before the rest of the council arrived.”
“He wastwelve,” she snarled. “What kind of monster decides an abused twelve-year-old boy deserves to die because he hasn’t checked off all your preferred qualities for a king?”
Bella opened her mouth, but Sol knelt next to her, putting a casual hand on the goddess’ wrist. “A practical monster. Morgen was weak and soft, even as a child.”
“Evenas a child? Do you hear yourself right now?”
