I LOVED Nektas and how absolutely amazing he was with Sera. I saw their friendship and admiration for each other the way I wished Jennifer had kept Kieran and Poppy. The contrast between the two is massive in my eyes. I’d finally had a taste of being something other than a means to an end, a weapon to be used and then discarded. I’d had a taste of realness. I’d finally felt like a fully formed person, not a specter soaked in blood. Not a liar and a monster who could kill without all that much remorse. The problem with Nyktos' plan is that he expects Sera to value her life more than she actually does, for her to stay still and to not run into battle any chance she gets and to not be willing to still fulfill her duty, "make him fall in love with her and then kill him." But "him" it's not Nyktos, it has never been. It's Kolis. The fake Primal of Life. Even though I was a little annoyed near the end by Sera’s unending inner talks about her feelings for Nyktos, I still like her as the main character. She is still strong and determined to do whatever it takes to help the mortal realm, and also the Shadowlands because she came to care for the people she met there. The author did a splendid job with her, and I will be happy to read another book with her as the main character, as long as the long inner monologues are toned down a bit.

I understand the sentiment,” Penellaphe said with a bemused expression. “Prophecies can often be confusing, even to those who receive them. And, sometimes, only bits and pieces of a prophecy are known by one—the beginning or the end—while the middle is known to another and vice versa. But some visions have come to pass, both in Iliseeum and in the mortal realm. It’s hard to see this since the destruction of the Gods of Divination and the passing of the last of the oracles.” He speaks the truth.” The goddess Penellaphe drew closer, coming to stand beneath the open ceiling. The star-strewn sky cast a soft glow over her warm, light brown skin. “Denying it isn’t a luxury which can be afforded.” You have never been just a mortal, Seraphena.” Holland stepped in smoothly, just as he’d done dozens of times in the past whenever I’d descended into a rant spiral. “You are the possibility of a future for all.” I actually don’t know,” he said. “Fates don’t know the inner workings of one’s mind.” Fates also weren’t at all helpful. The eather stirred once more in Nyktos’s eyes at the mention of the Primal Kolis, who every mortal—including myself until recently—believed to be the Primal of Life and the King of Gods. But Kolis was the true Primal of Death. The one who’d impaled gods on the Rise surrounding the House of Haides just to remind Nyktos that all life was easily extinguished—or so I assumed. And it was a logical assumption. Nyktos’s father had been the true Primal of Life, and Kolis had stolen Eythos’s embers.

It’s the truth,” she said, turning to him. “You cannot hide that from her. You may not be able to even try to do so.” I was warned by a friend that Sera was going to remind me so much of Poppy from FBAA that I would feel like I was reading the same book, and that was absolutely correct. However, I felt that Seraphina had some additional nuances that weren’t found in Poppy’s character. While I can’t say that I like Sera more than Poppy, I can say that I related to her more. Nyktos also has such depth and darkness, more so than Casteel in my opinion, that even though the characters and plot mirror each other in many ways, I still found myself captivated by this story.

Frustration surged through me. “What does Kolis even want? What is his goal with these creations of his?” It was as if he’d compelled the very air itself to enter my body, and it tasted of his scent— citrus and fresh air. The darts of lights cleared, and my lungs expanded with breath. The shaking continued in my hands as his thumb swept across my pulse, now racing for entirely different reasons. He stood so close to me that there was no stopping the flood of memories—the feel of his mouth against my throat, and his hands on my bare skin. The pain-tinged pleasure of his bite as he fed from me. Him moving inside me, creating the kind of pleasure that wouldn’t be forgotten and warmed my blood even now.

She is sort of spiraling and the only ways she can cope with the knowledge that Nyktos was the wrong primal, she is the reincarnation of Kolis' human obsession, she might perish before she turns 21 (which is coming up in just a few months) and that Nyktos can never actually fall in love with her, is by being a bit... destructive. He looked like he was about to go full Primal again. “Sotoria didn’t belong to him then, and Seraphena doesn’t belong to him now.” Now, I love Poppy and Cas, but there is something about Ash and Sera that just makes me melt and go feral at the same time. I love them and the supporting cast so much. And I love that it becomes so much clearer how everything across the two series interconnects. Especially after reading The War of Two Queens. Kolis has known about the embers for ages. He knows she has them and he knows how to get them. He has known all along; he knew when he summoned them to get permission for the coronation. He also revealed that Ash's mother loved Kolis and that's why Eythos hated him. WTF? I thought they had a great love and now I don't know what to think. Also, all of this means everything Ash did to protect Sera was for NOTHING. There would be no stopping such a being,” Holland added. “There could be no balance. Therefore, the Fates ensured long ago that such power must be split and that an absence of either ember would cause a collapse of all the realms. It wouldn’t be like the Rot—a slow death. It would be sudden and absolute for all. Kolis cannot Ascend another Primal to take the place of a fallen. By killing Nyktos, he’d doom himself. He understands that much, at least.”