---
"Whoever (Blood sovereign) consumes you will rise in power. Not merely in strength. In standing." Her voice lowered. "A sovereign who gains what is in your blood becomes more than the others. They will become stronger. Closer to the old throne. Closer to what Blood (here it meant a name) once was before it vanished."
Natasha added, "Every true blood sovereign would kill half their children for what is inside you."
"Every one?" Sekhmet asked.
Sofia held his gaze. "Yes."
The Void Land felt colder. Not because the air changed. Because the future had.
Sekhmet finally eased the ring's pressure by a degree. It was not mercy. It was a calculation.
He had what he came for. Or at least enough to understand the size of the danger now hunting him.
He looked down at them, at the two sealed half-gods broken low enough to speak, and realized the simplicity of his earlier mistake.
He had thought secrecy meant no one knew.
