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)
Bending slightly, I placed the cup on a nearby nightstand as I thought about that. There were brief, muddled images of places and people and more—I knew there was more. And a feeling that I needed to remember something, but nothing was clear. “I think I dreamed, but sometimes, I was just there…in the darkness.” A tiny ball of coldness settled in my chest. I’d heard another voice when I was in the nothingness. “Was anyone else in here?”
“Delano. Emil a few times.” Casteel drew his hand down the side of my neck.
He seemed to relax as he did, folding his fingers over mine and drawing my gaze.
“Tawny spent some time in here,” he added, sending a jolt of surprise through me. “I thought her presence would help.”
“She traveled from Padonia?” That wasn’t exactly a safe journey, even if the kingdom wasn’t at war. One had to pass through the Blood Forest.
“Gianna and a few others escorted her.” Reaching over, he gently squeezed my arm. “She got here safely.”
I nodded slowly, still shocked that she had made that trip, even with at least one wolven accompanying her. She hadn’t trained to protect herself like I had—still did—and she’d been afraid to make the trip to Carsodonia for her Ascension—and that was before either of us knew the truth about the Ascended.
But Tawny wasn’t the same.
That I remembered.
I shifted, dragging my toes against the floor as I prodded at a fang with my tongue. I didn’t remember hearing Tawny, though.
“Millicent also spent some time with you.”
“Really?” Another bolt of surprise pierced me. I hadn’t expected to hear that. Millicent was…well, she was a bit odd. She was also my sister.
I had a sister.
Gods, there really hadn’t been time to wrap my head around that.
I drank deeply, thinking about how Millicent had been brought into this world by the same machinations as I had. Did that knowledge bother her? I had no idea. The only thing I really knew about her, other than the fact that she was a Revenant partly due to Casteel’s blood—and gods, that was as messed up as knowing that Isbeth planned for Malik to Ascend me—and her inability to sit in a chair like a normal person.
Well, those things and the fact that she was Malik’s heartmate.
But it wasn’t her I’d heard either. The other voice had been a colder, drier whisper that was…masculine. Familiar.
Casteel touched my cheek with his other hand, pulling me from my thoughts. “You okay?”
Clearing my throat, I nodded and attempted to focus. I’d been in stasis for a long time, and I needed to know what had happened while I was. “How are things with the capital—the kingdom?”
His thumb moved over the top of my hand. “We’ve ensured that things are calm while you’ve been in stasis.”
“How did you do that?” I asked, thinking that couldn’t have been easy.
“We put the capital on lockdown at first,” he explained. “That’s been lifted, but we still have a curfew in place.”
“How has—?” Tiny bumps broke out all over my skin as the breath I took got stuck.
“Poppy?” Cas said, sounding like he was in another chamber even though he sat beside me.
Unease settled in the pit of my stomach like a creeping chill, causing my chest to tighten. My hands shook, spasming open.
Cas lurched forward, catching the glass before it hit the floor. Water sloshed over the rim, splashing off the stone as I jerked to my feet. An unseen weight pressed down on me until I felt like I would fall through the floor, choking me with dread, with the knowledge that…something had changed in the realms.
That something was becoming aware.
Awakening.
CHAPTER 11
POPPY
Trembling, I stood there as the suffocating sense of dread shifted, becoming a pull. A need. A call just as suffocating—
Strong hands clasped my arms, the contact sending a jolt of energy through me and snapping me back into the now. My wide eyes swung up, locking on bright gold ones.
Casteel.
It was him.
His hands.
“Poppy?” He guided me until I was sitting once more. “What’s going on?”
“I…” The tension around my chest loosened.
“Talk to me, sweetheart.”
I jerked back, blinking his features into focus. “Sweetheart?” I whispered, a different feeling sweeping through me. This time, it was one of familiarity, nearly identical to what I’d felt when I saw the tub. “You’ve never called me that before, but…”
Eather pulsed behind his pupils as he stared down at me. “But what?”
I shook my head. “But it feels like you have—like I remember you calling me that.”
“I did while you were in stasis,” he said, a muscle flexing along his jaw. “What just happened?”
“I don’t know.” I pressed my hand to my chest, feeling my fast heartbeat. “I got a sudden cold chill, and it felt like…something shifted.”
“Shifted?” he repeated.
“Like something shifted in the realm—the realms,” I tried to explain. “I know that doesn’t make sense, but I got this feeling of…”