A Fire in the Flesh (Flesh and Fire, #3)

I jerked back, starting to close my eyes. I could fight this, couldn’t I? I had Primal embers in me. I could fight this with…with— “Look at me,” Kolis demanded, and a wave of power hit me hard. “Now.”

I tried…gods, I tried to resist. My muscles spasmed painfully. Air punched out of my lungs, and my eyes lifted past his mouth. His nostrils were flared with irritation. My gaze locked on his, and I felt it then, the compulsion seeping into my muscles, relaxing them. His power wrapped around my mind. I wanted to scream, but I couldn’t.

I could do nothing but obey.

Golden flecks whirled in his eyes, slipping under and over the wisps of silvery eather. “You will sit, and you will not attempt to fight Ione. Do you understand?”

My lips moved, forming one word. “Yes.”

“That’s a good girl,” he murmured, running his thumb beneath my bottom lip, avoiding the healing skin there as I…

I stood still, unable to even shudder.

“Sit,” he repeated.

Like a puppet, I sat.

Kolis turned to the goddess. “Do what needs to be done.” He was silent as Ione moved closer. “And do it as quickly as possible.” He glanced at me and then away. “I do not want her to feel any unnecessary pain.”

He said as much now, but that would soon change.

“Of course, Your Majesty.” Ione knelt before me. Dark eyes lit with eather met mine. “You seem to be aware of this, but to be clear, I will need to take your blood.”

I did know that. I fucking remembered that part clearly.

Ione blinked, seeming to remember only then that I could not respond. She picked up my right hand, her touch cool. She halted, her brows lifting as her gaze flew to mine.

“Is there a problem?” Kolis demanded from where he lingered a foot—if that—behind the goddess.

Ione cleared her throat. “No.”

“Then get on with it.”

She hunched her shoulders and carefully lowered my right hand to my lap and lifted my left. I thought that was strange, but I couldn’t really focus on that. My mind filled with what was to come. Would I have to react? To summon the embers and at least attempt to get free? I didn’t know.

Ione’s warm breath against the inside of my wrist was my only warning. A second later, the sharp tips of her fangs pierced my skin. I jerked, not even the compulsion able to prevent that.

The burning sting traveled up my arm, causing every muscle in my body to clench. Ione drew deeply on the wound, and that sting hit my neck. I wanted to tear my arm free from her light grasp, but I couldn’t move. I couldn’t—

Then I felt it.

A scratching like fingers against my mind, slowly sinking in instead of digging in with claws like Taric had done. The tendons in my neck cramped, and I felt my mind open.

Ione was inside me, in my mind, slipping in easily. It wasn’t painless as she delved into my thoughts and memories. The supper I’d eaten was peeled back, revealing the dreamless sleep, the conversation with Kolis, and my lies—all my lies. She kept searching. Images of a sky full of stars but no moon flashed, then small waves crashing beneath the House of Haides. Those quickly blended into others. I saw the woods and heard myself telling Ash that I loved him. The flashes came in rapid succession as Ione saw what I’d seen. Heard what I’d said. She saw the truths. All of them. She saw the lies, too. Sweat broke out on my brow. A tremor rolled through me as sharp, stabbing pain shot through my head and ran down my spine.

I felt myself shaking on the inside, tears filling my eyes as the ebbing agony became a fire. My skin felt like it stretched, thinned. My vision blurred.

Not as painful? Ione had lied. I felt like I was burning from the inside, and there was no retreat. Nowhere to hide. Pressure built in my skull, sparking a fiery pain that settled there and took root. I shook, and a metallic taste gathered in my mouth.

Oh, gods, could Ash feel this, even in stasis? I didn’t want him to be aware and unable to do anything.

I couldn’t allow that.

I wouldn’t.

The embers swelled beneath the pain, and I latched on to them. Stop. I focused on Ione, forcing her features to clear. Stop, I screamed as I…pushed. I pushed with my mind.

The goddess’s head snapped back. There was a brief glimpse of wide, dark eyes, and then she was skidding backward on her knees across the shadowstone. She caught herself before she hit the cage bars, her chin jerking up. Blood trickled from the corner of her lip.

“Well.” Callum sighed from outside the cage as I slumped forward, breathing raggedly. “That was inappropriate.”

Trembling, I smacked my hand over the bite as my muscles twitched and contracted, over and over. The fire was slow to leave, just as before.

“What did you see?” Kolis demanded, his voice close. Too close.

“Much,” Ione rasped, rising unsteadily to her feet. I tried to push through the lingering agony. “The embers in her are powerful.”

“I already know that,” Kolis stated. “Is she my graeca?”

My neck felt weak and loose as I lifted my head and saw Callum’s eager face. I called on the embers, and they fluttered much like my heart. Godsdamnit, I didn’t have time for them to weaken on me. I would have seconds, if that—”

“She carries the soul of the one called Sotoria,” Ione answered, smoothly wiping the trickle of blood from her chin. “She is her.”

I froze.

Everything froze.

Even Callum’s stupid face.

“Truly?” whispered Kolis.

“Yes.” Ione nodded, clasping her hands together. “It is her.”

But that…that wasn’t true. And Ione knew it.

Callum pushed back from the cage, his head swaying to and fro.

“And does she…does she love Nyktos?” Kolis’s voice faltered and then steadied. “Is she in love with him?”

“She cares for him,” Ione answered, her eyes locked on mine. “But she has never truly loved…nor been loved in return.” Ione broke eye contact and turned from me. “She wants to, though. She will do anything for that.”

My gods, the goddess was truly lying about everything. Well, except for that last part. I did want to be loved by Ash, and I would do anything for that. But the rest? Straight-up lies.

Stunned, I watched her walk to the table. While she filled a slender glass with the bubbly water, I tried to wrap my head around the fact that this stranger had just saved my life.

“It’s really you.” Kolis’s voice was a gruff whisper, tearing me from my thoughts.

My gaze shot to the Primal. He looked at me as he had when I’d first said I was her, when he likely heard her voice in mine. I realized then that it was the only time I’d seen him show any real emotion beyond anger. Everything else had been a reproduction. A copy of what he’d seen in others. But like then, his features came alive with a tangible sense of wonderment, his eyes widening with awe.

“I didn’t…” Kolis trailed off, not allowing himself to finish whatever it was he had been about to say.

The pain was almost gone from my head, but my body tensed with each passing second that Kolis’s stifling stare remained on me. It was clear to me that he hadn’t been a hundred percent convinced.