Casteel stiffened, but I responded. “Actually, no. It wasn’t that. And I still don’t see how this relates to anything.”
Her gaze lowered as she took a rather impressive swallow of the sherry. “The three of us were seen in the dreams.”
“Of the Ancients?” I questioned. She nodded. “So, she’s also part of the prophecy?” I asked.
“Sotoriaisthe prophecy,” she corrected.
“What?” I gripped the back of a chair. “How can that be when it was said to be me?”
She hummed under her breath and ran a finger over the hilt of her dagger. “The extremely short version of how that can be is that Sotoria was always prophesied to be a great power. Eythos somehow learned that, and when one of my ancestors—our ancestors—summoned him, he saw an opportunity and seized it. He placed the embers of life with Sotoria’s soul, to be reborn united. But he could only do it because Sotoria and I share the same bloodline. He thought doing so would somehow changethe outcome because he believed Sotoria would be reborn with the embers of life and would be able to defeat Kolis.”
“This is so confusing.” I let go of the chair. “And I feel like there is way more.”
“There is so much more. But you’d have to be there to understand it fully,” she said with a brief smile. “Still, those details are quite necessary to where we stand today.”
“So, you were reborn as Sotoria,” Casteel said, that damn shirt stretching tight across his back and shoulders as he crossed his arms.
“No. I was just a vessel for her soul.” The chair moved without her touch, and she sat. “It didn’t work as Eythos planned. Either because I wasn’t a second daughter or because Fate intervened. And yes, I do mean one of those fuckers. I’m betting it was one of them.”
A short laugh escaped me, drawing her gaze. “They are…definitely fuckers.”
“I third that statement,” Casteel remarked. “What happened to her soul then?”
“When I was about to Ascend, I had her soul removed since it wouldn’t have survived the transition. She would’ve been…”
A shiver curled across the nape of my neck, my mind flashing to Tawny. “She would’ve been…trapped. A lost soul.”
Seraphena nodded. “I had her soul placed somewhere safe.” Her hold on her glass tightened. “I absolutely refused to allow her to be used as a tool. She spent far too many lives with no control.” Her gaze met mine, and my stomach curdled. “We planned to release her once Kolis was entombed. I wanted…” She swallowed and leaned back in the stiff chair. “I wanted to give her a choice. To either cross back into the Vale or be reborn without the threat of Kolis.”
“I assume that didn’t happen,” Casteel commented.
“No.” She set the glass on the table. “No one thought it was imperative to inform us before we entombed Kolis that he was connected to her since he had fed on her so many times throughout her lives. The moment she was reborn, he would have sensed her.”
I’ve always sensed you.
My hands fisted against my sides.
“We couldn’t free her and risk waking Kolis,” Seraphena continued, and Casteel turned halfway toward me. “And her soul, well, it was no longer where we placed it, thanks to one of those fucks otherwise known as the Fates.”
My heart rate was slow, but I could hear the blood pumping in my ears.
“It took me many years to find a lead for who could have ended up with it.” Anger flashed in her eyes, and her hand balled into a fist on the table. “A certain annoying-as-fuck Revenant, who seemed to be everywhere. Ca—”
“Callum?” Casteel snarled. “Please, tell me it’s not that golden fuck.”
Seraphena’s lip curled. “I wish I could.”
My lips parted. “Gods, heisold.”
“Very old,” she confirmed. “He was Kolis’s first Revenant. And his most loyal.”
“Great,” muttered Casteel.
“Wait.” I frowned. “How did Reaver not recognize Callum?”
“Reaver was a small youngling when Callum was…active and about.” She ran her fingers along the rim of her glass. “They never crossed paths.” Her gaze lifted to Casteel. “But it seems you all have.”
“Unfortunately. He was very tight with Isbeth,” he spat. “Though we don’t know for how long. He either wasn’t around a century or so ago, or Isbeth kept him hidden until recently.”
