CHAPTER 1
Casteel
Thunder rumbled in the distance as the wolven beside me stood rigid, his hands balling into fists as what I’d said about the Revenant sank in. He’d sung the very same disturbing rhyme that had haunted Poppy — my wife, my Queen, my everything — since she was a child. Though it wasn’t only that it was fucked up and had triggered a violent storm of emotions in both of us.
It was also what the Rev — now in bloody pieces strewn across the floor — had insinuated. That he had been waiting a long time for what was his.
It took no leap of logic to know the Rev meant Kolis. And what he wanted was Poppy.
Kieran’s jaw clenched. “Absolutely f---ing—”
A low rumble shook the floor and walls, causing objects in the bathing chamber to fall over.
Kieran looked at me. “That can’t be another god waking up.”
I agreed.
A sudden surge of energy filled the air, making the hairs on my arms stand up.
Stone cracked beneath us. A thin fissure appeared next to Kieran, quickly spreading in a circle around us and the bed. Another fracture formed at the foot of the bed, as well as at the head and along the sides.
Kieran stepped back as yet another shallow rift split the floor below the bed. “What the—?”
Silvery light sparked and spread along the cracks in the stone. It pulsed and held, revealing a circle with an overlapping pointed cross inside.
We were staring at an old Atlantian symbol — two symbols, actually. The circle with a line through it meant life. The one at the top meant death.
Combined, they stood for life and death.
Blood and Bone.
As the intense brightness faded and the rumbling ceased, we both looked at Poppy. Eather emanated from under her skin, illuminating the intricate network of veins that ran throughout her body.
“My gods,” Kieran whispered.
The hope and fear I’d kept in check this whole damn time crashed together, making me sway.
She will know herself.
She will recognize us.
Those words were like a prayer to the no-longer-sleeping gods as I repeated them over and over.
“Please.” My voice cracked.
The glow faded from her veins as a mass of silver-streaked shadows gathered beneath her flesh like storm clouds in the summer. They rolled down her chest and ran over her arms and legs.
Poppy’s fingers twitched.
My legs went out from under me. I landed beside the bed on my knees, watching as Kieran pitched forward, catching himself with his palms on the bed.
She will know herself.
She will recognize us.
A spasm ran through her arm, and her knee bent slightly. Picking up her hand, I shuddered as I felt the change. “Her skin is warm. See?”
Placing his hand over ours, Kieran exhaled roughly. “It is.”
Relief left me f---ing weak as her left arm jerked and her chest rose. I could’ve sworn ours did the same.
“Poppy,” I whispered, leaning toward her.
A heartbeat passed, and then her fingers tightened around mine. Kieran gripped our clasped hands, and my cheeks dampened.
She will know herself.
She will—
All I could hear was Kieran’s shallow, quick breaths as her lashes fluttered and then opened.
Her eyes …
There were no pupils. No discernible irises. Framed by thick lashes, they were orbs of pure molten silver, brimming with the essence — the eather — of the Primal gods.
I no longer felt the stone floor beneath my knees. Neither Kieran nor I moved.
She will know herself.
She will remember—
The air in the chamber went stagnant, and I had the distinct sense that time had ceased to function properly. Heart pounding, I inhaled, suddenly smelling the fresh, delicately sweet scent of…spring. Renewal. Life.
Lilacs.
Kieran stiffened, and because his hand still rested atop ours, I saw the tiny bumps rise along his forearm.
A new scent — sweet yet stale, and even a little musty — filled the chamber. It was like … stale lilacs. Or fallen leaves in autumn.
“Death,” Kieran murmured, a tremor coursing through his hand.
Kieran had always picked up that faint scent on her, but we’d never understood why.
Now, it made sense.
The breath I took halted as the grip her fingers had on mine loosened, and her hand went limp.
My throat was dry, and my voice came out as a hoarse whisper when I spoke. “Poppy?”
The back of my neck prickled a heartbeat before unfettered power flooded the chamber once more.
But it was different this time. Stronger. I could feel it pressing on me and watched as Kieran staggered, going down on one knee. What felt like a charge of energy rippled from Poppy’s hand to mine, and then into Kieran’s. Hot and intense, it traveled up our arms, a silvery glow tinged with gold and … shadowy crimson lighting up the veins.
“Fuck,” Kieran rasped as russet-brown fur sprouted on his arm before disappearing in a wash of eather.
Every muscle in my body tensed as Poppy’s veins once more lit with eather. Somehow, I knew. I knew what was coming. “Oh, shit.”
Essence erupted from her, tearing her hand from ours and lifting her toward the ceiling. She was in the same position she had been in while in bed, her hair flowing down like a waterfall of dark red wine. Her gown rippled around her as tendrils of crackling essence arced from her and slammed into us.
The realm turned silver for the briefest moment, and then I flew backward, the power flinging Kieran to the opposite side of the chamber. I didn’t hit the wall. Neither did he. Through pulsing strands of eather, I saw him suspended in midair.
Pressure built in my skull and then spread, clamping down on my lungs. I didn’t know what was happening. And, fuck, I couldn’t think with the heated essence racing up my back and running over my shoulders.
Then, I felt it.
A quake began in the center of my chest, where the faint essence that all Atlantians carried within them resided, eather flowing into my abdomen. The energy ramped up, expanding and growing within me until the corners of my vision turned silver, shaded with gold and crimson. Raw, burning pain seized my heart as the eather soaked my flesh, drenching every vein and entrenching itself deep in my bones.
The power flowing through me felt unending and inescapable. Old. Inevitable. And I could sense it changing every part of my being. That was the source of the white-hot pain: the essence shattering bones in one breath before rebuilding and fortifying them in the next. I clenched my jaw as every vein in my godsdamn body collapsed and then expanded, strengthening as the essence wrapped itself around each organ. I bore the agony of my flesh catching on fire and then hardening, starting from my feet and then traveling all the way up. As it reached the base of my skull, pain exploded in my head, shorting out every sense. My hearing. Sense of smell. Sensation was the next to go — thank the fucking gods. Right before it took my vision, I saw Primal mist seeping from Kieran’s outstretched arms, swirling gold and silver.
And then I saw the mist churning around my arms in a dizzying rush of shadows and crimson. ...
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