Total pages in book: 401
Estimated words: 390373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1952(@200wpm)___ 1561(@250wpm)___ 1301(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 390373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1952(@200wpm)___ 1561(@250wpm)___ 1301(@300wpm)
He didn’t respond immediately. “Do you feel different?”
“I…” I poked at my fang with my tongue. “Yes, and no.”
His brows rose.
“I mean, I feel like myself, but…I don’t know. I do feel different, though I can’t explain how.” I let out a self-conscious laugh. “I’m not making sense.”
“You are.”
“Really?” I took a sip from the chalice. “Then can you tell me what I’m feeling?”
“I can’t tell you what you’re feeling,” he said, running a hand over the back of a chair, “but I can tell you that after I completed the Culling, I was myself but wasn’t. My senses were heightened—smell, taste, and sight—and I was stronger and faster. At first, all of that made it seem like the realm had changed in all these little ways. But in reality, what changed was how I interacted with everything. And that made me feel different.”
I nodded slowly. That made sense.
“You have changed,” he continued. “On a cellular level. Just as I did after my Culling and when you Ascended me.”
“I didn’t Ascend you. Not technically.”
“Well, it sounds better than saying you created me.” He walked forward.
I laughed. “True.”
His smile faded when he stopped in front of me. “I don’t want to argue with you. Not like that,” he said, clasping my neck.
There was a difference between what had just happened and our ordinary nitpicking at each other. “Me, neither.”
“Gods, Poppy. I…” He closed his eyes and fell quiet. “I love you. I fucking love you, Poppy.”
“I know.” His words reached right inside my chest, relieving some of the heaviness there—powerful words that meant everything to me. “I love you, Cas.”
Tilting his head, he pressed his lips to mine in a slow, sweet kiss. “That’s all that matters.”
I wanted nothing more than to believe that love was all that mattered. That it could somehow erase the suspicion that he was keeping something from me. That I could just believe. But I would be fooling myself.
And I had stopped doing that the moment I tossed the veil aside.
Breathing in his scent as I cupped his cheek, I pulled back and met his stare. “We—”
“Poppy?” Tawny’s voice rang out from the Solar.
Casteel sighed. “I don’t think it’s been a few minutes.”
My lips curved into a small smile as I lowered my hand. “It’s been longer than a few minutes.”
“I wonder if Delano still has his balls and all associated appendages.”
I laughed and slipped away. “For Perry’s sake, let’s hope so.” I drew in a shallow breath and took a long drink. “Coming,” I called.
Somehow, Casteel ended up in front of me. I wasn’t even sure how.
Tawny came to an abrupt halt. “Not this again,” she muttered. “Are you going to try to throw me out?”
I started to frown.
“I’m considering it.” Casteel remained in front of me for a few minutes. “But, no,” he said, stepping aside.
I took a breath—
The first thing I saw was a blur of white curls that’d once been honey-brown rushing forward.
“No need to run,” Casteel muttered.
“No need to guard Poppy,” she retorted, scanning the chamber.
Her gaze landed on me then, and she jerked to a halt, going completely still. Only the burnt-gold skirt of her gown swayed as white eyes—everything but the pupils—that were once a warm brown locked with mine.
Suddenly, I understood why I had been filled with dread when I thought of her. There was no faint tingling along my neck that I had begun to associate with the vadentia, but I still knew why I was so uneasy. It wasn’t anything she had done.
It was what I had done to her.
Tawny shrieked, startling me, the sound close to that of a large bird of prey.
“Gods,” Casteel breathed.
She sprang forward, arms opening wide. A smile broke out across her pretty face, and my lips started to mirror hers despite what I’d done—
Casteel’s features sharpened with wariness, his posture stiffening with coiled tension as Tawny lunged.
She’s okay, I assured him quickly, understanding his reaction—knowing why Kieran and the others had reacted so strangely to Tawny when she first arrived in Oak Ambler.
Tears clogged my throat as I stared at her. They’d sensed the…wrongness. What went against the fundamental balance of life and death. Without even understanding why.
“Poppy!” she yelled a second before she all but threw herself at me.
When she wrapped her arms around me, holding on like a tree bear, I didn’t think about what I was doing or if I should. I simply returned her embrace. And that was all we needed for a few moments. I didn’t even think about what I had done to her anymore.
“I feel like I keep saying this,” she said, her voice hoarse, “but I’ve missed you.”
I drew in a stuttered breath and caught the faint scent of…stale lilacs.
Death.
A shudder ran through me, and I held on to her tighter. I didn’t even know why I tried—I already knew what I would find—but I opened my senses to see if I could pick up anything from her.