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)
“Reaver already told us that none of you knew what would happen.” Seraphena closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then reopened them. “We love our sons, both of them. Even when they anger us. That love, though, doesn’t blind us to their faults.” Shaking her head, she appeared to struggle with what to say next. “Malec…he has always been independent, needing to forge his own path despite the risks,” she said. Reaver whistled softly under his breath, and her lips pursed as she seemed to prepare herself. “We understand why what was done had to be done.”
Shock rippled through me, mirrored in Casteel and Kieran.
Seraphena’s gaze lifted to Casteel. “That doesn’t mean we were happy about it.”
“I wouldn’t expect you to be,” he said, his thumb swiping across my waist. “Neither would my mother.”
The fresh, springy breeze of a wolven’s imprint brushed against my mind. Poppy? came Delano’s voice. Is everything okay?
Focusing on his mark, I opened the singular pathway to him. Yes.
“Eloana,” Seraphena said. “She loved him.”
Another dose of shock swept through me, momentarily severing my connection with Delano.
“How—?” Casteel paused, his thumb stilling. “How do you know that?”
Delano’s voice reached me once more. We’re being…pulled to Wayfair, but I don’t know why. We feel something…unexpected.
I almost laughed. Something unexpected?
“Neither Nyktos nor I were asleep at the time,” Seraphena explained as I glanced at Kieran. His jaw was tight as he pulled his gaze from the Solar and met mine.
I knew what was happening. It was the Primal notam. And as I’d told Casteel, since she was the true Primal of Life, her presence in the mortal realm was strengthening the original notam.
Everything is okay, I told Delano. I think you’ve been called here because the true Primal of Life is here.
There was a beat of silence, and then, The fuck?
I managed not to laugh. Yeah.
“We never met her, but we…checked in on them—in the least creepy way possible,” she said. “Malec…he did love your mother.”
Casteel’s laugh was short and cutting. “He had an interesting way of showing it.”
The skin at the corners of her mouth pulled taut, but then she nodded curtly. “He treated your mother like the Queen she was until…”
“Until he didn’t,” Casteel finished.
“Until he met her.”
I knew at once that she meant Isbeth, and I had a hard time holding her gaze.
“That doesn’t absolve him of responsibility,” she was quick to say. “Malec made many choices.”
“They really were heartmates?” Casteel asked. “Isbeth and Malec?”
Her gaze flitted away. “They were.”
Casteel tensed behind me. “Then why did you all refuse the heartmate trials?”
“The answer to that question is complicated,” Seraphena said.
I’d always wondered why they’d refuse something like that for one of their sons, but then I realized something. It was partly the timeline surrounding everything, and also instinct. “When did you go to ground?”
“Before the War of Two Kings,” Kieran answered.
Watching her, I shook my head. “That’s not true.”
Seraphena’s gaze returned to mine, and a moment passed before she sighed. “Vadentia?”
I nodded.
“Well…fuck me,” she muttered. I almost laughed. “It was nice being the only one with foresight.”
“You didn’t go to rest before the war. Right?”
“We went to ground after the end of it.”
“You all…you were awake during the war?” Casteel asked, his voice pitched low. His arms fell to his sides, and Kieran stiffened.
“Yes,” Seraphena said.
“And you did nothing?” he demanded. I turned sideways to keep an eye on him. “You did nothing when entire bloodlines were eradicated?”
Her shoulders drew back. “You don’t understand.”
“Damn right, I don’t,” Casteel shot back, the ripple of eather in his voice snapping me from my thoughts.
I placed a hand on his chest as Reaver’s attention shifted to him. Cas. I reached out to him. He took a deep breath, and the eather dimmed.
“We are not to interfere in the mortal realm unless it is to prevent a great catastrophe,” she explained.
Kieran’s eyes widened. “A war isn’t a big enough catastrophe?”
Oh, gods, now he was doing this? The calm, logical one?
The tension returned to the corners of Seraphena’s mouth. “There are rules,” she began, and I nearly groaned. “Rules I don’t personally agree with and do my level best to skirt.”
Casteel laughed, and I stiffened. The sound was low and…shadowy. And I wasn’t the only one who’d picked up on it. Kieran inched closer to him. “Your level best clearly wasn’t good enough.”
Eather pulsed from Seraphena, hot and intense. “Your father would disagree with that.”
Casteel jerked back. “What?”
“All I can say is that we weren’t as uninvolved as the histories will have you believe.” Seraphena’s shoulders relaxed as she calmed the essence in her. “We went to ground shortly after the end of the war.”
“What convenient timing,” Casteel remarked coolly. I was still stuck on the whole mention of Valyn. “You slept through every atrocity committed by the Ascended.”
The chamber was tomb silent, the only sound being a wolven howling outside as Seraphena stared at Casteel.