A Fire in the Flesh

“I’ve never stood with Kolis. Not truly.”

“Primals cannot sense one another when we’re in our nota forms—when we take the shape of the animal we find ourselves most connected to. Just as Kolis didn’t sense him in his wolf form.”

“So, Sotoria’s name could be translated into my pretty…My pretty poppy?”

“It’s from the oldest of our language. Toria had a few meanings. One meant garden. Another could be loosely translated into pretty flower. But a more exact translation is poppy.”

“I knew what Eythos did before Kolis or Nyktos figured it out. Eythos and I were brothers in a way that he and Kolis never were. Friend. And I was one of the few entrusted with the knowledge of what Eythos did.”

“I have a feeling Holland really likes to push that fine line he walks between interfering and casually observing.”

“She was never yours, nephew. She has always been mine.”

“I know who you are, Sera, and what you mean to me. And that is everything because you are everything to me. And that will never change.”

“Loving someone isn’t…it isn’t less than being in love. It’s just not as strong or as irrevocable. Loving someone can change. It can grow into being in love, and it can fade. Being in love…it doesn’t do that. It only gets stronger, and you would do anything for that person. Anything. Being in love is…it’s unbreakable.”

“But if you handling it doesn’t actually handle it? And they still show you disrespect? I will fucking destroy them.”

“Wait. Do you think to compare me to the mortal trash known as Tavius?”

“It’s not every day that one learns their sister has truly returned to them.”

“What truly ails you goes deeper than blood loss and cannot be circumvented, Consort. It can only be delayed, no matter how steep the price or how often it is paid.”

“I’m nothing without you, liessa. And there will be nothing without you.”

“I am the first.”

“Because even if we weren’t mates of the heart, what you made me feel from the moment you stood in the Shadow Temple years ago to every moment between then and now, would’ve still made me fall in love with you. Your courage and strength, your beauty and utter fearlessness, your humor, and most of all, that softness of yours you share with me. It would’ve made sure my kardia somehow came back. I believe that—I know that—because you’re the first person I have ever felt has truly accepted me, no matter what I’ve done in my past or what has been done to me. You’re the first to refuse to allow any more drops of blood to be inked into my flesh. You were the first to ever make me feel anything that mattered. You’re…you’re simply my first, Sera, and you will be my last.”

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry I didn’t get to you sooner, but I’ve got you now, liessa, and I won’t let go. I’ll never let go again.”

“Because I have not seen life restored—real life, with my own eyes—since Eythos. But more than that? I never thought his plan would work. Restoring life to a hawk is one thing, but a draken? Eythos was under the impression that the embers would protect you and maybe give you some ability to restore life, but not to that extent. Even before the embers he stole from Eythos died out, Kolis couldn’t bring a draken back.”