A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire (Blood and Ash 2)

Goosebumps broke out over my skin. “Delano. Oh, my gods….”

“What?”

“When we were in New Haven and I was kept in the room, he burst inside at one point, swearing he heard me calling for him. But I hadn’t.”

Casteel’s brows slashed over his eyes. “Did something happen at that time? Because if so and I wasn’t told about it—”

“Nothing happened. I was mad—mad at you, because I was locked in the room,” I explained. “He then said it must’ve been the wind, and it was windy then, so I forgot about it.”

Casteel lifted another strand of hair. “That’s bizarre.”

I stared at him. “That’s all you have to say to them feeling my call? That’s bizarre?”

“Well, the definition of bizarre is something strange and unusual—”

“I know what bizarre means,” I interrupted. “Is that another empath trait manifesting?”

His gaze met mine. “I’ve never heard of an empath being able to do that.”

My stomach dipped. “Just like glowing silver and being able to heal—”

“You could be of two bloodlines,” he cut in. “We talked about that before. It could be possible.”

More possible than Queen Ileana being my grandmother. I had no idea what to think of the whole hearing my call thing, but what if that was an empath ability? People could project their pain and fear. What if that was what I was doing, and the wolven, for some reason, picked up on it? That seemed like it made logical sense.

“What do we do now?” I asked.

“Right now? At this very moment?” His smile was smoke as his gaze traveled over the bare skin he could see, which wasn’t any of the interesting parts. “I have so many ideas.”

“That’s not what I was talking about,” I said, even though I was glad to see the somberness leave his eyes.

“I know, but I’m distracted. It’s not my fault. You’re naked.”

“You can’t see anything.”

“What I can see is enough.” He lowered himself to his knees as he rested his arms on the edge of the tub. “So, I’m thoroughly distracted.”

“You being distracted sounds like your problem and not mine,” I told him.

He chuckled as he bent his head, kissing the patch of my knee that wasn’t covered by my arms. “We’ll leave for Atlantia tomorrow. The Atlantian armies that arrived will remain behind just in case the Ascended want to make a very bad life choice. Spessa’s End will be protected.”

There was a whooshing sensation in my chest. “So soon?”

“We would’ve already been there if things had gone as planned.” He leaned back. “We are married, but you haven’t been crowned yet. That needs to happen.”

I worried my lower lip. “I get that the crowning makes things official, but what will that really change? Your…” I briefly closed my eyes. “Our people still don’t trust me or like me. Whatever. And your father still has his plans, right? For me?”

His brows lowered. “My father’s plans have changed.”

“What if they haven’t?”

He studied me for a moment. “Did someone say something to you?”

Not wanting to potentially get the older wolven in trouble, I gave a slight shake of my head. “It’s just…I know many don’t accept me, even after the marriage and last night. You’re the Prince and all. But he’s the King—”

“And you’re starting to sound like Alastir,” he interrupted. “I’d almost think he got you all worked up again, but he stayed in Atlantia.”

“It’s not Alastir,” I said. “But he did say that, and he has a point. I know you wanted to marry me partly because it offered me a level of protection—”

“Originally, Poppy. And that was only because I’d convinced myself that was the reason,” he stated. “It wasn’t the only reason. Neither was freeing my brother or preventing a war. I wanted you, and I wanted to find a way to try to keep you.”

There was a different kind of snag in my chest now in response to his words. “You have me,” I whispered the words I’d said to him in the carriage.

“I know.” His gaze held mine. “And no one, not even my father or my mother, will change that.”

I believed him.

I really did.

“No one will harm you,” he vowed. “I will not allow it.”

“Neither will I.”

He smiled then, both dimples appearing. “I know. Come.” Rising, he reached for the towel. “If you stay in there any longer, you will start to grow fins.”

“Like a ceeren?”

A grin appeared. “Like a ceeren.”

I didn’t move though. “I lied to you.”

Casteel arched a brow. “About?”

“You asked me if the Duchess had said anything to me before I killed her, and I said no. That was a lie.”

A heartbeat passed. “What did she say?”

“I…I asked her about my brother and yours. She said they were together, but that’s all she would say about them.” I watched him return to kneeling beside me. “She told me that Tawny was going to Ascend without waiting—that it could’ve already happened. She said that the Queen knew how much I cared for Tawny and wanted her to be there, so when I returned home, I would feel comfortable.”

“Gods.” Casteel leaned over, cupping the back of my head. “You don’t know if any of that is true. Any of it, Poppy. Your brother. Mine. Tawny. She—”

“She said that the Queen will be thrilled when she learns we’ve married. That if she knew that had happened, none of what took place last night would’ve been necessary,” I told him, and he stilled. “She told me that I accomplished the one thing the Queen never could. That I took Atlantia.”

“That doesn’t make any sense, Poppy.”

“I know,” I said. “Neither does what she said about the Queen being my grandmother. It makes no sense at all. It’s so far out there that, so unbelievable that I…I can’t help but wonder if some of it is true.”

Chapter 42

We rode east, toward Atlantia, under a sky that was a canvas of blues.

The men who’d traveled with Alastir were with us, even though the wolven hadn’t made the trip back to Spessa’s End. They were missing a few, more than just the wolven Dante, but our group had tripled, if not more, in size. We’d gained Jasper and several other wolven, who were returning to Atlantia. Vonetta had remained back in Spessa’s End, but she had promised that she would see me soon as she planned to return for her mother’s birthday and the upcoming birth of her little brother or sister.

The barren, flatlands on either side of the heavily wooded area gave way to fields of tall reeds with tiny, white flowers. Beckett ran beside us in his wolven form, seeming to pull from an endless reserve of energy I found enviable. He would race ahead, disappearing among the wispy plants, only to pop up a few seconds later beside us once more. He never strayed too far from our side—or rather from Casteel’s side. I figured Beckett’s closeness had to do with his Prince’s presence, and I was glad I picked up no fear from him—from any of those who traveled with us.

But the group was quiet, even Casteel, and there were so many reasons for the silence. There wasn’t a single person here who hadn’t lost someone in the battle or at New Haven.

I couldn’t think of Elijah, of Magda and her unborn child, of any of them. I couldn’t think of who would now add the names to the walls underground.

But I knew Casteel did. I knew that was why he’d fallen silent several times the night before, and I figured it had very little to do with what we’d talked about. He missed Elijah. Mourned him and all the others, and I knew he believed he’d failed them.

My thoughts were heavy, and it wore me down. The lack of sleep didn’t help. Nightmares of the night of the Craven attack found me once more, and even though Casteel had been there when I woke, gasping for air with a scream burning through my throat, the horrors of the night found me again as soon as I fell back asleep.

I wasn’t looking forward to tonight.

The sun was high above us when I realized the horizon I’d been staring at wasn’t where the clouds met the land. I sat straighter, gripping the saddle as patches of dark green started to appear in the gray ahead. This mist. It was the mist obscuring the mountains, so thick that for however many miles we’d traveled, I’d believed it to be the sky.

“You see it now?” Casteel asked. “The Skotos?”

Heart stammering, I nodded. “The mist is so thick. If it’s like this during the day, how much worse is it at night?”

“It’ll thin out a bit once we get into the foothills.” Casteel’s arm remained secure around me as I stretched forward. “But at night—well, the mist is all around you.”

I shivered as more of the mountains began to peek through the mist. A rocky cropping here, a cluster of trees there. “How did the armies get through the mist then?” I looked at Kieran. “How did you get here so quickly.”

“The gods allowed it,” he replied, and my brows rose. “The mist did not come for us. It thinned out at night, enough for us to continue forward.”

I sat back against Casteel, hoping the gods would allow us the same.

Casteel burst the bubble of hope the next second. “The mist is never as bad leaving Atlantia as it is entering.”

“Great,” I murmured.

“We’re lucky that the Skotos Mountains are nowhere near as large as the range beyond,” Naill said from where he rode on Jasper’s other side.

“There are larger ones?” The Skotos Mountains were the largest in Solis, that I knew of anyway.

The Atlantian nodded. “It takes less than a day to cross where we’re passing through. However, some peaks would take days.” He shifted on his saddle. “But there are mountains in Atlantia that stretch so high into the sky, you see nothing else. Peaks so high that it would take weeks just to reach the top. And once there, even an Atlantian would find it difficult to breathe.”