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

Casteel curled his fingers around my chin, drawing my gaze back to his. “What?” His gaze searched mine. “What are you thinking? I know you are thinking about something. You always get this look on your face when you’re thinking about something you don’t want to share.”

“What kind of look do I get?”

“Your nose wrinkles.”

“What? It does not.”

“It does.”

I couldn’t tell if he was being serious or not. “I wasn’t thinking anything.”

“Lies.” His thumb swept over my bottom lip. “Tell me.”

His gaze caught and held mine, and my heart started pounding. I fell into his warm amber depths, and I could feel my mask cracking. “I was thinking…I was thinking that you can be very convincing when you speak to others about how you feel about me.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes,” I whispered.

He dragged his lower lip through his teeth as his lashes lowered. “But not convincing enough.”

I knew he spoke of Alastir, but I thought if he were any more convincing, I would start to believe him.

His lashes lifted. “There’s something I want to show you.”

Astride Setti once more, Casteel controlled the reins as he led us through the woods, riding in the kind of companionable silence I’d felt with few people before. He hadn’t gone straight, toward the town. He veered left, where the canopy of trees was quite a bit thicker and the woods were dense for as far as I could see.

“Look,” Casteel said, nodding toward our right.

Turning my head, there was no stopping the smile that lifted the corners of my lips and spread across my face. Before us was a stunning field of flowers with showy red petals and black whorls, swaying slightly in a breeze.

“Poppies.” A light laugh escaped me at the unexpected sight. “I’d never seen so many in one place.” My gaze swept over them. “It’s beautiful.”

“Yeah,” he agreed after a moment, clearing his throat as he shifted behind me. “It is.” The horse started to move along the edge of the woods and the poppies. “They’re grown here in the meadows for medicinal use.”

I arched a brow. “You don’t worry about people using them for other reasons?”

“Do the fields look empty to you?” When I nodded, he tapped my hip lightly with his fingers. “There are sentries in there, camouflaged so they’re hidden. The fields are monitored at all times so no one with the knowledge of how to cultivate the poppies can use them for ill-gotten gain.”

“Goodness,” I murmured, half expecting someone to pop up from the rows. “That’s smart. I’ve heard it’s becoming a problem in some of the cities.”

“While I was in Carsodonia, it ran rampant, and I saw it taking hold in Masadonia, too. But can you really blame those who live under such conditions, desiring an escape, no matter how temporary? Many of them who lose hours and days in opium dens are those who gave their children to the Court or to the Temples,” he said. “It may not be right, but I can understand why.”

“I can, too. I mean, they’re seeking peace, even if it doesn’t last.” Sadness crowded out the beauty of the field.

“This is only part of what I wanted to show you.” He urged Setti forward, pulling me from my thoughts. “Something I think you will appreciate.”

“I appreciated the poppies,” I admitted with a faint flush.

“I’m glad to hear that.” His chin grazed the side of my head as his arm tightened briefly around my waist, pulling me more fully against his chest.

The movement left me a little breathless. It always did, and it was something he did often. I wondered if he was aware of it as he took us deeper into the forest. Was it a purposeful gesture or one he wasn’t even aware of? The act reminded me of what I remembered seeing my father do. He always seemed to be pulling my mother close to him, as if he couldn’t bear for there to be any space between them. I didn’t think that was the reason for Casteel. Maybe it was just a method of communication for him.

Yet again, I found myself wishing that Tawny were here. I could ask her. She would know.

Sighing, I allowed myself to soak in the dappled sunlight of the forest, the chirps of nearby birds, and the scent of rich soil and…something sweet?

I sat up straighter as I caught sight of wolven-eye blue and soft purple lilac blossoms. The display was magnificent, climbing a rocky hill and spilling over in thick, spirals of color. It wasn’t until we grew closer that I realized there was an opening in the hill, a gap of blackness behind a curtain of blue and purple.

My heart began to pound as Casteel stopped the horse once more and we dismounted, leaving Setti to graze. I thought I had an idea of what Casteel was going to show me as he took my hand, leading me to the nearly hidden entry that one most likely wouldn’t find if they weren’t looking for it.

“It’s a little dark in a part of this,” he warned me, sweeping aside the heavy fall of flowers. “But it won’t last long.”

A little dark was an understatement as we entered the hill. I could see nothing in the cool air. My grip on his hand tightened. “Can you really see anything?”

“I can.”

“I don’t believe you.”

A low laugh came from in front of me. “You’re wrinkling your nose right now.”

I totally was. “All right, then.”

“Do you remember the caverns I mentioned before?” he asked. “The ones that I came to with my brother?”

The ones that he’d also come to with the girl he’d once loved. Yes, I remembered, and it was exactly what I suspected when I saw the entryway. Disbelief still seized me in the darkness. Was he really bringing me to a place he’d once shared with his brother—with Shea when he sought to escape confusing conversations that his parents were having? I almost couldn’t believe he would bring me here.

“Yes,” I answered, finding my voice. Up ahead, I could see faint light breaking through the darkness. “I thought they were in Atlantia.”

“They are. And here. But what you can’t see is that many tunnels branch off from this one. Some of them run for miles, all the way to the Skotos Mountains and then beyond them, to the bluffs by the sea,” he explained. “Malik and I spent endless hours and days trying to map them out, but we never found the tunnels that passed through the mountains.”

I could easily picture little boys spending an entire childhood racing through the tunnels. My brother would’ve been the same.

“This is a part of them,” he said as sunlight began to seep through the fissures in the ceiling of the cave. “The best part in my opinion.”

Damp, sweetly scented air reached us as Casteel turned to our left, where streams of sunlight washed over deep gray stone walls. He let go of my hand and hopped down a foot or so. “There’s a slight drop here.” Turning back to me, he placed his hands on my hips and lifted me down.

He didn’t let go when my feet were steady on the rock floor. He remained there, our chests inches apart. I looked up, and his eyes immediately locked onto mine. A shivery sense of awareness passed between us, one nearly impossible to ignore as we stood there. There were shadows in his eyes and around his mouth, and that sent my heart racing all over again.

And it didn’t slow as he backed up, his hands slipping away from my hips. A ragged exhale left me as he turned and walked forward. I felt like a bowstring pulled too taut as I got my legs moving.

The lilacs had crept their way into the cavern, rising over the walls and streaming over the ceiling. Wisps of steam danced in the slivers of sunlight as Casteel stopped in front of what appeared to be some sort of rock pool.

“Hot springs,” he said, kneeling down and running his fingers through the water. It bubbled in response, fizzing. “It’s not the only one in the cave system, but it’s the largest.”

I stopped beside him, staring at the springs. It was large, about the size of the Great Hall in Teerman Castle, the edges irregular. Outcroppings of rocks jutted from the frothy water in several places. “How deep is it?”

“It’d probably reach your shoulders through most of it.” He rose fluidly. “It does get a little deeper farther out, near the entrance to another cavern. You’ll see that area is dark, so I would stay away from that if you can’t swim.”

“I used to be able to,” I told him, bending down. Warm water fizzed around my fingers. “But I don’t know if I remember.”

“I can help you remember when we have more time,” he offered, and I tipped my head back to look at him. “We will be expected at dinner tonight, but we still have a little more time to…just be.”

We.

As if we were a unit, a lock and a key.

The night before, I had eaten in my room while Casteel left to do, well, something princely. I wasn’t even sure if he’d eaten when he returned after the sun had set, and he joined me on the terrace. We didn’t speak much then either, and it had been…comforting.

I turned back to the pool. “How much time do we have?”

“About an hour.”

An hour seemed like a lifetime.

“You shouldn’t waste a minute of it,” he said, almost as if he’d read my thoughts. “I’m going to check on the horse. I’ll be back in a couple of minutes.”

Looking over my shoulder, I watched as he disappeared into the tunnel, leaving me in privacy to undress.

He was always so…unexpected, his actions and words a constant contradiction. Considerate and then demanding. Teasing endlessly and then cold as looming death. Violent beyond all thought and then unbelievably gentle. I knew I could spend a dozen years by his side and never fully see all his facets—all the masks he wore.

Dragging in the sweetly scented air, I tore my gaze from him and quickly undressed, leaving my clothes and boots in a messy pile. The grass was cool under my feet, and the breeze warm against my skin as I walked forward. Water teased my toes, warm and frothy. I carefully eased down the earthen steps, delighted as the water quickly reach my hips, lapping around my skin as I moved farther out. Heady, pleasant warmth seeped through my skin, into muscles sore from hours of riding. The lush scent of the water soothed my nerves as it fizzed around my breasts, reaching just above them. Stopping in the middle of the pool, I tipped my head back and let out a soft sigh.