Page 128 of The Primal of Blood and Bone (Blood and Ash #6)

“I figured you should be completely clothed when she arrives.” She tossed a shirt toward me. “And that you would prefer one that doesn’t look like you’ve spent the last year sleeping in it.”

“I would.” Kieran smiled at her. “Thank—” His head jerked back, hand snapping up to catch the shirt Poppy launched right at his face. “Was that necessary?”

“Yes.” She crossed her arms as Kieran tugged his tunic off. “You could’ve told me about his little cave-cat thing.”

“Little?” I huffed.

Kieran smirked.

Fucker.

“What were you doing in that closet, by the way?” Pulling the shirt on over my head, I stepped down and shoved the ends of it into the waistband of my breeches. “It sounded like you were having a fight with the hangers.”

“And losing,” Kieran added.

“I couldn’t decide what to wear,” she said as she drifted from the chamber.

I caught up with Poppy in the sitting chamber. “So, how jealous are you that I shifted before you?”

Poppy spun on me, sending me a look I imagined she had just directed at Kieran right before she threw the shirt at his face. “You know, you shouldn’t even be able to shift this soon.”

“Seriously?” Kieran said, walking in behind me.

“I guess I’m just special,” I said, grinning when she rolled her eyes.

“Is it because of the Joining that he can?” Kieran asked.

“I don’t think so,” she replied, carefully pulling her hair from where it had gotten snagged under the collar of her shirt. “Because I know I can’t yet."

“Let me guess.” A faint smile played across Kieran’s lips. “Your vadentia isn’t telling you why.”

“Unfortunately, you are right.” She sighed. “But I keep thinking I know why. Like it’s—”

The air suddenly charged and crackled as a presence surrounded us.

Her presence.

It was like a warm summer breeze that carried the fresh scent of…lilacs. I knew in my bones and blood that the Queen of the Gods, the true Primal of Life, had arrived.

POPPY

A sudden awareness pressed down on me, warm as a golden sunset. I’d felt that when I stood at the Chambers of Nyktos, but that wasn’t the image that came to mind now. Instead, I saw a meadow full of…orange-red poppies. I’d felt her then, in a dream right before I woke.

Essence flared and throbbed, and a slight tremor shook the walls, scattering the image in my mind. Tiny goose bumps erupted on my skin as the realm opened with a soft crackling sound. A sparking orb of eather pulsed and lengthened a few feet behind Casteel.

Uncertainty tightened my chest, causing my breath to hitch in my throat as Kieran moved to stand in front of me. Gold-tinged silver light poured out of the tear, intense and blinding as it filled the chamber.

Kieran threw up his hand to shield his eyes. “Good gods.”

I repeated Casteel’s reassurances, trying to ignore the rapidly building uncertainty surrounding how she would respond to me.

She and I were bonded by blood but in a tainted, wrong way.

How could that not skew the way she saw me?

And how would she handle what Casteel and Kieran had become? And everything with her sons?

My knees felt like they were made of jelly.

And, gods, that made me feel like the girl from before .

The one who, despite her suspicions, hadn’t asked questions or peered beneath the thin veneer the Ascended wore like a mask.

The girl who took her lessons without any real fight, whether they came in the form of Priestess Analia’s sharp slaps or Duke Teerman’s favored cane.

The girl who hadn’t even realized she’d been kept in a cage.

The daughter of a traitorous false god who had allowed her heartache and tragedy to spoil any good in her.

The product of rape—and that is what Isbeth had done.

There was no prettying it up, and it would be wrong to do so.

How could she not wonder if I would somehow turn out like Isbeth? That I, too, would become spoiled?

A presence, cool and crisp like snow falling among the pines, brushed my mind. Your heart is beating too fast, sweetheart.

A jolt ran through me as Casteel moved to stand beside Kieran. Without taking his eyes off the pulsing tear, he reached around until his hand found mine. Energy danced between us as he threaded his fingers with mine and squeezed.

I let out a ragged exhale.

That simple gesture was its own kind of magic, stronger than the eather coursing through the three of us.

My knees strengthened. My heart slowed. My mind quieted enough for me to remember that I wasn’t the girl who’d been forced to wear the veil of the Chosen. I hadn’t been her in a long time.

I was Penellaphe Da’Neer. I wasn’t timid, and I didn’t need to be protected or set free. I was vicious and even a little murderous when needed. I was Poppy—wife, Queen, and Primal. I had faced down Craven, Ascended, and everything in between and had the scars to prove it. I’d ended the Blood Crown.

Freed myself.

Most importantly, I was nothing like my mother.

And if the Queen of the Gods was disgusted by me, then… fuck her .

My chin lifted as the light receded, and then I saw her.

Well, I saw part of her since Casteel’s and Kieran’s enormous frames blocked most of her.

All I could make out was a cascade of long, silvery hair flowing over her shoulders in soft waves and loose curls—hair that was just like Millicent’s. I saw no crown. Did they even have crowns? Yes. Yes, they did. And so did we—and not the Atlantian crowns.

But none of that was important at the moment.

I leaned to the side to peer around Casteel, catching a glimpse of what she was wearing.

My lips parted in surprise. Her arms were bare except for a gold cuff on her upper left biceps.

Her gold-trimmed black tunic was fitted across the chest and waist before flaring out at the sides, ending at the knees of her breeches, just above her boots.

I didn’t know what I’d expected her to wear, but she was the Queen of the Gods. I supposed I’d pictured her in some sort of ethereal, flowing gown—not for her to be dressed like…well, me.

I really needed to stop thinking of her as her . She had a name.

Seraphena.

Willing the eather to calm in my veins, I stepped out from behind Casteel and Kieran. Every thought fled my mind except for one.

Millicent.

She looked exactly like Millicent.

The hair. The smattering of freckles across her nose, cheeks, and forehead.

The slightly less narrow nose and wider, fuller lips.

Millicent was leaner, whereas the Queen was full-figured, and her features were more mature than my sister’s.

Still, Seraphena was nearly the mirror image of her.

I searched for my features in her face and found a hint of them in her high cheekbones and slightly pointed chin.

A cloying sensation blanketed my skin. It felt an awful lot like…jealousy.

My head kicked back in surprise. I was… jealous. I knew it was irrational, but I didn’t take after her like Millicent did.

I looked like my mother.

And maybe my father. But when I thought about him, all I could see was Leopold’s face—

My stomach twisted sharply, and I shook my head. Gods, I was being silly.

Refocusing on Seraphena, I started to speak when I saw that she wasn’t even looking in my direction.

Eyes the same shade of green as…well, part of my eyes, and pierced by silvery-gold streaks, were fixed on Casteel and Kieran.

She stared at them so intently that I wasn’t even sure she was aware of my presence.

My senses stretched out, but it was like coming up against a thick wall.

Unease skipped through me as footsteps echoed from down the hall.

“Your Majesty,” Kieran’s low voice broke the tense silence as he lowered himself to a knee.

Oh, my gods. We were being so disrespectful. She was the Queen of the Gods, and we were just standing there. I started to kneel but halted as my attention focused on Casteel.

He was wary, very much so, and hadn’t so much as budged an inch.

“Please rise,” the Queen of the Gods requested. “Such formalities are not necessary.”

I was only vaguely aware of Kieran rising. It rattled me to hear her voice in the here and now instead of in distant impressions of a time long before mine.

But not as much as how she was staring at Casteel and Kieran.

Something was wrong.

The air in the chamber thickened as Seraphena stepped forward, the webbing of veins beneath her eyes lighting up with eather. “This is…” Her gaze darted between them. “This is impossible.”

Casteel angled his body so he was once more positioned partially in front of me.

Tension gathered in my muscles, and the essence throbbed. I so did not like how she was eyeing them. I sidestepped Casteel, or at least tried to. He mirrored my movement.

Seraphena lifted a hand. Without looking behind me, I knew Reaver had entered the Solar, and she was sending him a message to stay back. The tiny hairs on my nape lifted.

“Is there a reason my granddaughter hides behind you?” Seraphena asked.

“She’s not hiding,” Casteel replied.

“Doesn’t seem that way to me.”

“Then you’re mistaken.”

Hiding ? I wasn’t hiding—

Feeling my chest and throat warm, I realized I was once more staring at Casteel’s back… and now Kieran’s, which meant I was sort of hiding. Unwillingly, but still.

“You should step aside,” Seraphena said, the eather continuing to fill the chamber with barely restrained energy. “Both of you.”

“Now, you see…” Casteel’s tone and stance epitomized someone unbothered, but I knew better. Especially when he spoke that softly. “You telling us to step aside makes me feel like maybe we shouldn’t.”

Clearly, he hadn’t been exactly truthful regarding what he’d said during his pep talk earlier.

“I’m not hiding,” I said. “They’re just being…them.”

A snort came from behind me.

I moved to the side just as Casteel did.

“I see,” Seraphena remarked.

“Cas,” I hissed, my eyes narrowing. Gripping the back of his shirt, I held him in place and stepped forward.