A Shadow in the Ember

“I do have the authority. Over you. Over everyone here and every mortal in and outside of this realm, but that is not why I have these conditions. They are in place to help keep you safe.”

“That is why I am called the Blessed One. No one knows how I survived that kind of birth. Love caused their deaths long before either had taken their final breaths. Before my father even met my mother. Love is a beautiful weapon, often wielded as a means to control another. It shouldn’t be a weakness, but that is what it becomes. And those most innocent always pay for it. I’ve never seen anything good come from love.”

“Touch me, and I will break every bone in your hand. And then I will make sure the Princess has no reason to fear her wedding night or any night she is doomed to spend at your side.”

“All I think about when I’m trying to sleep or eat or am doing anything is how I was the Maiden and found unworthy by the Primal of Death.”

“Friendship? Even if I considered such a thing, I would never think of you. There is no way I could ever trust you. That I would not doubt or question every thought or action. Not when you were shaped and groomed to be whatever it is you believed I wanted. Not when you are just a vessel that would be empty if not for the ember of life you carry within you.”

“I am known as the Asher. The One who is Blessed. I am the Guardian of Souls and the Primal God of Common Men and Endings. I am Nyktos, ruler of the Shadowlands, the Primal of Death.”

“There are many ways you can be taken out. Thousands. And I’m well acquainted with all of them. Your options are endless. Some painless. Some quick. This way won’t be either.”

“I know one thing, liessa. A monster wouldn’t care if they were one.”

“You are sitting next to me, gloriously naked, and I am intentionally staring.”

“One day, that mouth of yours is going to get you in the kind of trouble you won’t be able to talk your way out of.”

“My interest in you is a very real, very potent need. It’s almost as if it’s become its own thing. A tangible entity. I find myself thinking about it at the most inconvenient moments. I find myself recalling the taste of you on my fingers a little too frequently.”

“That what you just did is nothing short of a blessing. You’re a blessing, Sera. No matter what anyone says or believes, you are a blessing. You always have been. You need to know that.”

“So, keep that in mind the next time you doubt the realness of my interest. Because I won’t have you up against a wall. I will have you on your back, under me, and neither of us will remember our fucking names. Are we clear, liessa?”

“Do you really think I wanted to do this to you? To anyone? It was the only way we believed we could save our people. It was all I’d been taught. For my entire life. It’s all I’ve ever known. I would say I’m sorry, but you wouldn’t believe me. I don’t blame you for that, but don’t you dare insinuate that what I’ve done with you was purely an act or that what I’m feeling is fake when I’ve spent my entire godsdamn life not being allowed to want or even feel anything for myself! Not when I spent the last three years hating myself for the relief I felt when you didn’t take me because it meant I didn’t have to do what was expected of me.”

“I think it’s all the wicked, indecent bones in my body guiding my thoughtfulness.”

“Once you are introduced as my Consort, only the most foolish of gods would go after your family, as they would become an extension of mine.”

“Look, it was clear—to me at least—that you didn’t want to do what you believed you had to. That doesn’t mean I agree with your actions or that I’m not disappointed. You seemed to make him…Anyway, it’s not like we don’t have explicit experience in carrying out terrible deeds because we believed we had no other choice.”

“My father loved my mother more than anything in these realms. More than he should have. And still, he could not keep her safe. That is why I have these conditions. These rules as you like to call them. It’s not about me attempting to exert authority over you or control you. It’s about trying to do what my father failed at. It’s about making sure you do not meet the same fate as my mother.”