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)
They were a multitude of colors—the green was familiar, and the silver wasn’t entirely new either, but the blue and brown were. And instead of the luminous sheen forming an aura behind my pupils or even streaks, they were scattered throughout the green, almost like tiny starbursts. There were also streaks in my irises—ribbons of gold and thin bands of onyx eather.
“Do you see them?” I asked, my words coming out as barely more than a squeak.
“I see them.” He stepped in closer to me. The top of my head barely reached his chest. He folded his hands around my upper arms. “They are beautiful.”
“They are…” I shook my head. “They are just like…”
“Like what?”
Whatever I was about to say faded. It was almost like I’d seen eyes like this before. But surely, if I had, it wouldn’t be something I’d forget.
“They’re weird,” I said, leaning forward to get a better look.
“They are uniquely beautiful,” he said.
I looked over my shoulder at him with an arched brow.
“I’m telling the truth.” He ran his palms up and down my arms as he turned me so I faced him. “Yes, they are different, but they are beautiful.”
“They are distractingly—”
He dipped his head and kissed me. “Beautiful.”
“I was going to go with bizarre,” I said when his lips left mine.
“Bizarrely beautiful, perhaps,” he replied without missing a beat. “You finished in here?”
“Yeah.”
Taking my hand, he led me out of the bathing chamber. I was still thinking about my eyes as he led me back to the bed, resisting the urge to rub at them—as if that would somehow change how they appeared.
“Are you going to tell me about the eather I saw and felt in you?” I asked, sitting on the edge of the bed.
“It started while you were in stasis—don’t.” He caught my hand halfway to my face. “Do not prod at your eye, Poppy.”
“I wasn’t going to,” I denied.
The corners of his lips quirked as his brow rose.
“Whatever,” I muttered. “You were saying?”
Cas hesitated as if he believed I’d have my fingers in my eyes the moment he let go. He gave me a look of warning before finally letting go. I folded my hands in my lap.
“As I was saying,” he said, “it started while you were in stasis.”
I watched him turn, my gaze roaming over the corded muscles of his back and down his long legs to his bare feet. He looked a little leaner. I suspected he hadn’t taken care of himself while I was in stasis, and I was betting neither had Kieran. My heart felt heavy at the thought of them being more concerned about me than themselves. I glanced at the door.
Where was Kieran?
“Actually, I think it started even before that,” he continued as he walked to a small, oval dining table. There were pitchers and covered plates scattered across the top. “But it really kicked off right after the Rev attack. You woke up briefly.” He glanced over at me. “You don’t remember that?”
“No.” I frowned. “And this was after the Revenant stabbed you?”
“A little bit after, but yes. The whole damn castle shook,” he said as my gaze fell to the fissure in the stone floor. “You lit up with eather and then opened your eyes. We—Kieran and I—thought you were waking up, but that’s not what happened. Eather flowed out of you and slammed into both of us, knocking our asses out.”
I drew my lower lip between my teeth. “That sounds painful.”
“It was…” His fingers hovered between a white decanter and a pitcher. “Intense.”
I knew that word was an understatement. “What you’re describing is like what happened to me in the Bone Temple.”
“Except when it happened to you, it was far more badass,” he remarked, and I grinned at that. “Before we passed out and entered what I guess was our own mini-stasis, I saw the essence swirling around Kieran and inside him.” He paused, picking up a pitcher. “His was gold and silver.”
My lips parted as my heart skipped a beat. “And yours?”
“Silver,” he said, glancing over at me. “Silver and shadows.”
I leaned back, my mouth agape as words failed to escape. Shock seemed to have paralyzed my tongue briefly while my thoughts raced. “What you’re saying sounds like my abilities split between you.”
Casteel poured liquid into a glass as he said, “I think we can safely assume that a Joining with a Primal is…vastly different than a normal one.”
“You don’t say,” I murmured, rubbing my palms against my knees. “I wonder if you two have, like, full access to those abilities. If Kieran can heal with his touch or even give life. And if you…”
He arched a brow as he set the pitcher down. “Can kill with a touch? That wouldn’t be that much different than normal.”
“Except it takes much less physical effort,” I pointed out.