Page 131 of The Primal of Blood and Bone (Blood and Ash #6)

“We never met her, but we…checked in on them—in the least creepy way possible,” she said. “Malec…he did love your mother.”

Casteel’s laugh was short and cutting. “He had an interesting way of showing it.”

The skin at the corners of her mouth pulled taut, but then she nodded curtly. “He treated your mother like the Queen she was until…”

“Until he didn’t,” Casteel finished.

“Until he met her.”

I knew at once that she meant Isbeth, and I had a hard time holding her gaze.

“That doesn’t absolve him of responsibility,” she was quick to say. “Malec made many choices.”

“They really were heartmates?” Casteel asked. “Isbeth and Malec?”

Her gaze flitted away. “They were.”

Casteel tensed behind me. “Then why did you all refuse the heartmate trials?”

“The answer to that question is complicated,” Seraphena said.

I’d always wondered why they’d refuse something like that for one of their sons, but then I realized something. It was partly the timeline surrounding everything, and also instinct. “When did you go to ground?”

“Before the War of Two Kings,” Kieran answered.

Watching her, I shook my head. “That’s not true.”

Seraphena’s gaze returned to mine, and a moment passed before she sighed. “Vadentia?”

I nodded.

“Well…fuck me,” she muttered. I almost laughed. “It was nice being the only one with foresight . ”

“You didn’t go to rest before the war. Right?”

“We went to ground after the end of it.”

“You all…you were awake during the war?” Casteel asked, his voice pitched low. His arms fell to his sides, and Kieran stiffened.

“Yes,” Seraphena said.

“And you did nothing?” he demanded. I turned sideways to keep an eye on him. “You did nothing when entire bloodlines were eradicated?”

Her shoulders drew back. “You don’t understand.”

“Damn right, I don’t,” Casteel shot back, the ripple of eather in his voice snapping me from my thoughts.

I placed a hand on his chest as Reaver’s attention shifted to him. Cas . I reached out to him. He took a deep breath, and the eather dimmed.

“We are not to interfere in the mortal realm unless it is to prevent a great catastrophe,” she explained.

Kieran’s eyes widened. “A war isn’t a big enough catastrophe?”

Oh, gods, now he was doing this? The calm, logical one?

The tension returned to the corners of Seraphena’s mouth. “There are rules,” she began, and I nearly groaned. “Rules I don’t personally agree with and do my level best to skirt.”

Casteel laughed, and I stiffened. The sound was low and…shadowy. And I wasn’t the only one who’d picked up on it. Kieran inched closer to him. “Your level best clearly wasn’t good enough.”

Eather pulsed from Seraphena, hot and intense. “Your father would disagree with that.”

Casteel jerked back. “What?”

“All I can say is that we weren’t as uninvolved as the histories will have you believe.” Seraphena’s shoulders relaxed as she calmed the essence in her. “We went to ground shortly after the end of the war.”

“What convenient timing,” Casteel remarked coolly. I was still stuck on the whole mention of Valyn. “You slept through every atrocity committed by the Ascended.”

The chamber was tomb silent, the only sound being a wolven howling outside as Seraphena stared at Casteel.

“Cas,” Kieran warned.

He held up a hand, silencing the wolven, and I hoped to the gods ravens didn’t start flying in. “A whole lot happened after that war. It wasn’t like the suffering and death ended with it. You know that, Kieran.”

Casteel was right.

And it needed to be said.

With the Blood Crown able to grow unchecked, many had suffered and died.

We would never know the full extent of the damage, but the anger that always occupied thoughts of the gods sleeping the last several hundred years away wasn’t as intense as it had been in the past. The difference? I thought I knew why.

“It’s because of Malec,” I said.

Seraphena went completely still.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, Poppy,” Reaver advised quietly.

“I think I do,” I countered, my heart thumping.

It wasn’t the vadentia . It couldn’t tell me the past exactly.

It was the emotion I picked up from her.

I thought of what Holland had said about me not knowing the scale of devastation Seraphena did—something she was responsible for.

“It’s because Malec was entombed. You went to sleep to stop yourself from… causing harm.”

“Harm?” Seraphena laughed, but the sound was without humor. “More like to stop myself from destroying the whole mortal realm in my grief and anger because I couldn’t deal with what I’d done.”

“What did you do?” I heard myself ask.

“I…” Her voice cracked. She closed her eyes, and I saw her fingers twitch at her sides. “I helped entomb my son.”

I sucked in a breath. I hadn’t expected that. Casteel and Kieran seemed just as shocked. The three of us stood there in silence.

“Why?” I whispered.

She didn’t answer for several moments. “The same reason we refused the heartmate trials. The risks were too great.”

“What risks?” I asked, feeling Casteel’s arms wrapping around me again.

Her gaze slid to mine. “Kolis.”

Casteel’s hand fisted against my stomach as the chill radiating from him cooled the length of my back. “What does he have to do with your sons?”

“Everything.” She didn’t say more for a long moment.

“Malec wasn’t the only one who made poor decisions.

Ash and I made choices, too—hard ones we believed were the only way to prevent Kolis from being freed and unleashing death and destruction no less devastating than the Ancients Awakening.

But…” She shook her head. “In the end, our choices built the road that Malec and Ires inevitably traveled down.” Her gaze met mine.

“And now that road ends with you—all of you.”

I watched her turn, the length of her tunic fluttering to reveal a white dagger strapped to her upper thigh.

“We don’t have much time, and there are things we must discuss—and do,” she said, walking toward the credenza.

“The wolven already feel my presence.” Stopping at the table, she picked up a decanter and pulled the stopper, pouring some amber-hued liquor.

“The longer I am in this realm, the more the notam will strengthen in my favor. We cannot allow that to happen. You will need their help.” She picked up the glass and faced us.

“Kolis hasn’t only been freed.” Her emerald-and-sterling gaze met mine. “He’s coming for you.”

CASTEEL

Coming for you.

Muscles tensed in my neck as my head cut to Reaver. The draken was busy flipping the carving knife as our conversation about what Isbeth actually needed Poppy for cycled in my head.

“He wants to become the true Primal of Life and Death,” Poppy said, and my gaze shifted back to Seraphena. “We know we need to stop him.”

I watched her, thinking about what the grul —Kolis—had called Poppy.

My soul.

I felt Poppy’s hand fold around mine. The warmth of her touch was a stark contrast to the coldness of mine.

“And we failed to prevent him from coming back,” Poppy said, causing me to frown. “We won’t fail at this.”

“You didn’t fail. Not really.” Seraphena took a drink. “You stopped him from inhabiting my son’s body, which would’ve made him stronger and faster—”

“I’m sorry? What?” Poppy exclaimed, and I cursed. “Isbeth needed to sacrifice someone she loved for the ritual,” she said.

“That’s what we thought,” Kieran was quick to say. “And, apparently, no one”—he glared at Reaver—“felt the need to correct us until recently.”

Catching the knife, Reaver returned Kieran’s look with a bored one.

Poppy twisted at the waist to look up at me. “What were we wrong about?”

It was Seraphena who answered. “Given what was done, it appears Isbeth plotted to use my son as a…vessel for Kolis’s aru’lis— his soul.

Which would’ve been…” She inhaled sharply.

“I can’t even think about that. And I don’t need to,” she said, sounding like she was convincing herself as much as us.

“You were able to prevent that from happening.”

“For it to have worked, it would’ve needed to happen the moment Malec’s soul left his body.” My attention shifted to Seraphena. Eather had seeped into the veins beneath her eyes again. I refocused on Poppy. “I kept meaning to bring it up, but more happened.”

“But…” Poppy’s brows knitted, and I knew the moment she realized what that meant. The breath she took was sharp and shallow. “So, she wasn’t…?” Her laugh was quick and sounded brittle. “She wasn’t making some…grand and unexpected sacrifice.”

I tightened my arms around her as Kieran moved closer. I wished she’d never had to learn this. I’d rather she have the lie, as fucked up as that sounded.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, brushing my lips across her temple as Seraphena watched us. Her grip on the cup was tight enough to crack the glass.

“It’s all right.” Poppy laughed again. Fuck if it was all right.

“To be honest, I’m not even surprised.” She exhaled softly.

“All right, then. So…I’m going to be honest.” Her chin lifted.

“I’m not sure what difference preventing him from taking Malec as a vessel ended up making—other than it being incredibly disturbing.

He still found a way to return to power, and clearly, he has.

His will alone…” Her shoulders squared. “Well, we know what his will is capable of.”

“If he had succeeded in taking Malec as a vessel, he would’ve practically returned to full power.

And yes, he is powerful now, but also still weak.

” Seraphena turned, trailing a hand along the gilded molding on the wall.

“If not, he would’ve killed both Rhahar and Saion.

And he would’ve already come for me.” Her lips twisted into a vicious smile eerily similar to ones I’d seen on Poppy’s lips.

“The fucker has quite the massive bone to pick with me.”

Poppy blinked.

“Do you have any idea where Kolis might be?” she asked.