Page 18 of The Primal of Blood and Bone (Blood and Ash #6)

CASTEEL

I fell forward onto my hands, feeling the hot gush of blood running down my throat. I ignored the pain, and my head snapped up just as Poppy smacked into the wall.

Time seemed to grind to a halt as she yelped and crumpled to the floor. Her limbs were splayed at awkward angles, her body completely still.

I saw red.

I saw fucking red. Tasted it. Became it.

Barely feeling the cold, hard floor under my palms or the fiery sting of my torn flesh, I pushed upward. Eather throbbed in my chest, sending a chill through the air as I locked eyes with the fucking draken standing between her and me.

He lifted his hands. “I can see you’re angry—”

With a roar that shook the walls, I shot forward.

Rage, pure and scalding, coursed through my veins, joining the surge of essence that rose from the very depths of my being.

I grabbed Reaver by the shoulder and hair, lifting the draken as if he were no heavier than a sack of grain.

I saw a brief flicker of surprise in his widening eyes, almost as if he couldn’t believe I had lifted him off his feet before he quickly masked it and the room blurred in a whirl.

I hurled him across the chamber.

The sound of his body thudding against the far wall with a force that echoed brought a too-short, savage sense of satisfaction before concern for Poppy took over.

I rushed to her side, dropping to my knees.

Or maybe I had fallen. I wasn’t sure. All I knew was that Poppy wasn’t moving.

Icy panic had a grip on me, even though, in the back of my mind, I knew she had to be okay.

She was a godsdamn Primal god, but my fingers still trembled as I brushed the hair back from her cheek.

Her skin was ashen, a stark contrast to the glistening blood smearing her chin and neck.

She lay there, fragile and still, and it messed with my head.

“Casteel,” Reaver called.

My jaw clenched as I leaned over her, pressing my lips to her cool forehead. Slowly, I rose and faced the draken, discovering that he’d dragged his ass off the floor.

He sighed heavily. “Can we just not do whatever it is you’re thinking?”

The laugh that came from me was dark and sharp.

Reaver tensed. “Casteel—”

I shot across the chamber and tackled the draken. The impact reverberated through the chamber as I took him to the floor. Straddling him, I drew my arm back and slammed my fist down again and again.

It wasn’t enough.

I wanted him to bleed .

I grabbed him by the hair and started to rise, punching down.

“Gods, you’re worse than that wolf.” Reaver caught my hand, his vertical pupils thinning as the blue of his eyes brightened. “Done yet?”

I was nowhere near done.

“Didn’t think so.” Turning his head to the side, he spat out a mouthful of blood. “But I am.” Reaver rocked back, drawing his knees back as the hand around my fist hardened. “Don’t make me send you off to dreamland.”

I drove my knee into his stomach just as I caught sight of the ridges of scales appearing. If that fucker thought shifting would save him—

He slammed his feet into my chest, knocking the air from my lungs. Stumbling back, I hit the wardrobe. The heavy oak doors cracked, and dull pain flared across my back.

A shivery wave of energy swept over me from head to toe as I straightened and shook off the pain. “I’m going to break every bone in your body.”

Reaver rose slowly. There wasn’t even one godsdamn bruise forming on the fucker’s face. “No, you’re not.”

“And when I’m done doing that,” I said, my voice a guttural scratch against my throat, full of frostbitten wrath, “I’m going to rip your hands off.”

He stepped to the side just a few inches. “That’s not going to happen either.”

I stalked toward him, the tips of my fingers stinging. “Then I’m going to beat you with your own fucking hands.”

Reaver raised a brow, his lips moving silently as he repeated what I said. He chuckled. “That’s actually amusing to picture.”

“You won’t be thinking that when it happens.” I swung at him.

He caught my arm again, his eyes narrowing. “You should really get your nails trimmed.”

I glanced at my hand, seeing claws. My upper lip curled. “I’ll trim them on your bones.”

The draken rolled his eyes and shoved me back. “You should be thanking me instead of threatening me.”

“I’m about to thank you with my fist punching straight through your chest.” The air charged with static as the essence flared hotly within me.

“Look, you have to realize I’m not trying to hurt her permanently,” he said.

Yeah, part of me recognized that. She was the draken’s Liessa —their Queen. Well, maybe not since Seraphena was awake. I didn’t fucking know. And I didn’t care at the moment. “But you did.”

“She’ll be fine.” He paused, frowning as he looked over his shoulder. “Well, I suppose fine is relative—”

The blow I landed knocked the draken’s head to the side, driving him down to one knee. “Son of a dakkai .”

I reached for him, halting when I heard a soft moan. I spun toward the sound, my heart clenching.

Poppy .

Her hands twitched and then flattened against the floor. She pushed up, her face shielded by a thick curtain of velvety-red waves.

Seeing her snapped me out of my blood-soaked rage. It wasn’t like I wasn’t still pissed, but breaking Reaver into pieces wasn’t my priority anymore. She was.

Acid simmered in my gut as I let my newly found senses stretch.

What I picked up from her would haunt me for a long time.

The suffocating confusion I’d tasted from her since she woke was still there.

The bitter taste of distrust was stronger.

But, gods, the pain. The pain . It alternated between a red-hot burn and an icy freeze. I would do anything to take it away.

Feeling a sharp prickle on my fingertips, I watched as the claws retracted and started toward her.

The draken cursed and grabbed my shoulder. “You need to stay—”

Whipping around, I gripped Reaver by the throat and pushed him into the wall.

A muscle flexed along my jaw as I forced a slow breath in and out.

I had to remind myself that, for some reason, Poppy liked this draken.

I held on to that thought. “You have no idea what it’s taking for me not to end your life right now. ”

“The feeling is mutual,” he bit out, planting a hand on my chest and thrusting me back. “You need to get away from her.”

“Not going to happen.” I turned to Poppy. She was on her knees, arms trembling, and that fucking broke me. I called to her, but she gave no indication that she heard me.

“Listen to me.” Reaver darted in front of me, blocking my path. “There is something wrong with her. I can sense—”

I tried to sidestep Reaver as I felt the energy suddenly ramp up in the chamber. Reaver felt it, too. The scent of stale lilacs tainted every breath I took as he turned, and I stepped to the side.

Holy shit.

I stared at Poppy in shock as she stood.

I was used to seeing the other side of her.

Her ability to heal and even restart a heart that had gone quiet.

I was familiar with all the warmth of life she could give.

But there wasn’t even a hint of warmth in Poppy now as her gaze flicked up to mine.

There was something else—a glint I’d seen lurking behind the ravenous hunger since she awakened.

Something that reminded me of the dark, bloody cells the Blood Queen had kept me in.

Only the faintest hint of gold and silver were visible among the streaks of midnight-hued Primal mist swirling around her legs.

A few slender tendrils of essence thickened, rising at her sides and moving with the sinuous grace of a pit viper as she lifted her head.

Through strands of hair, I saw her eyes.

Since she’d awakened, they hadn’t resembled the pure silver orbs of a god I’d briefly seen. Nor were they the fractured silver and green.

They were a multitude of colors now.

The hue—like spring grass—was familiar, and the silver wasn’t entirely new.

But instead of a luminous sheen forming an aura behind her pupils or even streaks, it was scattered blotches throughout the green—almost like tiny starbursts.

There were streaks in her irises, though.

Ribbons of gold and—fuck, there it was in her eyes.

Faint bands of shadowy crimson. The mass of eather twitched and snapped in the air, ready to strike at any moment.

“Fucking gods,” Reaver muttered.

“Poppy.” I gentled my voice as I stepped forward.

“If you think to handle her now, you’re out of your mind,” the draken snapped, throwing his arm out to stop me. “She’s about to go full Primal on your ass. You can’t do shit against that.”

I knocked his arm aside. “I can handle her.”

“Really?” The draken’s laugh was harsh. “You think she can’t tear you apart? End your life?” he asked, and my gaze cut to him. “In case you need it spelled out for you—yes, she can kill you and your wolf, bond be damned.”

“She would never ,” I seethed.

“Poppy would never. But that , right there,” he said, jabbing a finger at her, “that is not the Poppy you know.”

Every part of my being rebelled against what he said, but there was a stark truth in it, which settled inside me like an unwanted visitor.

The air in the chamber thinned as Poppy turned her head toward the draken.

Reaver tensed, his eyes narrowing on her. “Don’t even think it.”

The chamber trembled, and the stone beneath our feet shuddered. The silver streaks swirling in the mist brightened.

His eyes widened a fraction as he muttered, “Damn it.”

Poppy didn’t lift a hand. There was no display of eather. All she did was flick the wrist of her right hand, which was all it took.

The draken flew backward and slammed into the opposite wall. The stone cracked on impact, and he landed on his knees with a groan.

I smirked. “Looks like you’re the one who can’t do shit.”

“I’m really regretting removing those chains from you,” he snarled, pushing to his feet.

“Chains,” Poppy whimpered.