The War of Two Queens (Blood and Ash 4)

“Not surprised to hear that…” She jerked, and she felt hotter, wetter. “I didn’t think it would feel so—” Her moan was a full-body shudder as I pressed in deeper. “I didn’t think it would feel like…”

“Like what?”

“Like this.” Her forehead fell against mine. “Hot. Wicked. Full.”

Her breath was on a loop, catching and releasing, and I didn’t think she realized that I wasn’t guiding her movements any longer. She rode me, her breath hot against my lips and her body moving in sinuous curls and plunges. She enjoyed the wickedness. Thoroughly. I heard it in those inhales. Felt it in how she tightened around my dick and my finger. When she came, she took me over the edge right with her. The release shook us both, leaving me feeling as if I’d lost control of all the muscles in my body.

It took a lot of willpower to ease myself out of her and leave her on the bed, curled on her side once more, looking thoroughly fucked in a most indecent way. I didn’t linger long in the bathing chamber, cleaning up quickly before returning to her, sitting near her hip.

Poppy was awake, though her eyes were only half open. There was peace in her soft smile that I hated to disturb.

But I had to.

She was rested, fed, and fucked.

All I could hope was that those three things would help her process what I had to tell her.

“There is something I need to talk to you about. It’s going to be hard to believe, and it’ll be a shock.”

The change in Poppy was immediate. The smile vanished, and she’d gone completely still as she stared up at me. “What?”

I drew in a deep breath as I tugged the hem of her shirt down. “The Handmaiden that you think my brother is in love with? The one he claims is his heartmate?”

Her brows snapped together. “Millicent?”

“Yeah. Her.” I swallowed. “She came to my cell a few times. I know she told Malik the wound in my hand was infected. And then she came again, after I saw you. She showed me something. That’s how I know that what she told me is true. I saw it. There’s no denying it. She’s…she’s your sister, Poppy. Your full-blooded sister.”

Chapter 34

Poppy

“My sister?” There was no way I could’ve heard him right. I sat up as if that would somehow change what he’d said. “She can’t be my sister, Casteel.”

A warm vanilla taste gathered in my throat as he smoothed his thumb just under the scar on my left cheek. “She is, Poppy.”

There was like some sort of barrier that flat-out repelled the whole idea. “And you think this, all because she told you so?”

“Because she showed me,” he said gently. “Have you seen her without that mask painted on her face?”

I frowned. “No.”

“I have.” He trailed his thumb along the curve of my jaw. “I’ve seen what she looks like after she’s washed away the paint and dye.”

“Wait. Was she bathing in front of you?”

“Sort of.” One side of his lips curved up, and there was a hint of a dimple in his right cheek. “She, with little warning, straight-up dunked her head in the bath that had been brought into my cell.”

That sounded like an odd thing to do.

But then I remembered how she’d climbed into that chair and lay upside down for no reason whatsoever.

“Her hair isn’t black,” he continued, and I thought about the flatness of her hair color, how it had looked patchy in some areas. “It’s a very pale blond, nearly white.”

I jerked back as an image took hold—one of the woman I’d seen in those strange dreams or memories. The one I’d believed to be the Consort. She had hair so pale it reminded me of moonlight. My heart started pounding.

“And her face?” Casteel leaned in, sliding his hand to the nape of my neck. “She has your eyes, except the color is different. Her nose. The structure of her features. Even the tilt of her jaw.” His gaze searched mine. “She has way more freckles than you do, but she could almost pass for your twin, Poppy.”

I was staring at him again, caught in a storm of disbelief. Almost pass as my twin? If that were true, how could I not have seen it? But the mask—the facial paint—was thick and large, making it difficult to even tell what her bone structure was like.

But he couldn’t be right. Somehow, he’d been misled. Tricked.

Leaning back, I shook my head. “This doesn’t make any sense. Revenants are the third sons and daughters. And if she were my sister, then that means I have two more siblings. And she would be a goddess.”

“I thought the same thing at first—that she had to be a goddess. But she said she wasn’t. The only thing I can figure is that she didn’t survive the Culling, and Isbeth used her knowledge of the Revenants to save her,” he told me.