Page 49 of The Primal of Blood and Bone (Blood and Ash #6)

“I…” I thought about it. I didn’t feel hungry. “I don’t think I can eat right now.”

He approached. “You haven’t eaten in a while, Poppy.”

“Neither have you.”

Casteel stopped before me, glass in hand. “I ate enough to get by, which is still more than you.”

“I’m really not that hungry, and yes, I know that’s odd.”

“It’s likely because you just fed,” he explained. “But you still need to eat, Primal god or not.”

“How do you know a Primal god needs to eat?”

“Because I say so.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’ll eat soon. Right now, I have questions.”

“Of course, you do.”

My eyes narrowed.

Casteel winked. “Then at least drink.” He offered me the glass with a grin that showed a faint dimple. “It’s water infused with whatever the fuck fruit…” His brow pinched before smoothing out. “There’s some sort of fruit in it.”

I took the glass, suspecting Kieran had made the drink.

“Our senses are also enhanced.” He sat beside me. “Hearing. Sight. We’re both stronger—”

“Wait.” My eyes widened. “You said you could taste my emotions! And you said you could taste—”

“Your desire?” Heavily lashed eyes slid to mine. “I did.”

I was back to staring at him, struck silent as I processed the fact that he could read my emotions. “And Kieran can do it, too?”

“Kieran’s always been able to do that to some extent, though differently. Wolven are good at scenting emotions,” he reminded me. “But I assume so.”

“You assume?” I asked.

Casteel nodded. “He hasn’t mentioned it, but I figure he’s probably seen an improvement there.”

My gaze fell back to my glass. “I’m not sure if I like the idea of you being able to read my emotions.”

“Oh, I cannot wait to correct you when you say that nothing is wrong when, in fact, you’re upset or—”

“Ugh.” I resisted the urge to throw myself flat on my back.

His grin spread. “I won’t be as obnoxious as you are with it. I promise.”

“I’m not obnoxious with it…” Seeing him give me a pointed look, I sighed. “Whatever.” I ran my thumb over the rim of the glass. “I know you haven’t tried using the more…extreme forms of the essence, but have you been able to harness it?”

“I have.” Casteel glanced at the ceiling. “It wasn’t intentional, but I feel like I could call upon it.”

My head swung back toward him. “That’s how it feels to me. Like I just need to summon the essence, and it responds. Wow.” Excitement rose, and again, a flicker of recognition tugged at the edges of my consciousness. “This is good news—great news, actually.”

“Mm,” Casteel murmured, causing my attention to sharpen on him.

Did he not think it was good?

“Drink,” he murmured.

I did as he urged, enjoying the hint of fruit in the water. Strawberries? And something else—mint, maybe? I took another drink. Definitely mint.

Casteel’s fingertips slid down my arm, leaving behind a wave of tiny bumps.

It hadn’t passed me by that the only times Casteel hadn’t been touching some part of me was when I went to the bathing chamber, and when he was at the table.

The way his touch lingered on my skin made me think he feared I would disappear if he let go.

His fingers grazed the top of my hand, and something about that triggered a faint memory. “I think I felt you touching me— holding my hand—while I was in stasis.” My gaze lifted to his as a new realization dawned on me. “And I think you were talking to me.”

“I rarely left your side,” he admitted quietly, and an ache bloomed in my throat. “There was a chance you wouldn’t remember who you were when you woke up.”

My heart stuttered as I lowered the glass. “That was possible?”

He nodded, running his fingers over my knuckles. “According to Nektas, it was. He said talking to you while you were in stasis could help, but I wasn’t sure. It wasn’t a guarantee.” He exhaled heavily, lashes lifting. “So you could hear me?”

“Yeah, I think so. It’s kind of fuzzy, but I thought I heard your voice.” My brows knitted at the memory of a lower, deeper timbre. “I think I heard Kieran, too.”

“He was here often.” Tipping forward, he pressed a quick kiss to the corner of my mouth. “Do you remember anything else?”

Bending slightly, I placed the cup on a nearby nightstand as I thought about that.

There were brief, muddled images of places and people and more—I knew there was more.

And a feeling that I needed to remember something, but nothing was clear.

“I think I dreamed, but sometimes, I was just there…in the darkness.” A tiny ball of coldness settled in my chest. I’d heard another voice when I was in the nothingness. “Was anyone else in here?”

“Delano. Emil a few times.” Casteel drew his hand down the side of my neck.

He seemed to relax as he did, folding his fingers over mine and drawing my gaze.

“Tawny spent some time in here,” he added, sending a jolt of surprise through me. “I thought her presence would help.”

“She traveled from Padonia?” That wasn’t exactly a safe journey, even if the kingdom wasn’t at war. One had to pass through the Blood Forest.

“Gianna and a few others escorted her.” Reaching over, he gently squeezed my arm. “She got here safely.”

I nodded slowly, still shocked that she had made that trip, even with at least one wolven accompanying her.

She hadn’t trained to protect herself like I had—still did—and she’d been afraid to make the trip to Carsodonia for her Ascension—and that was before either of us knew the truth about the Ascended.

But Tawny wasn’t the same.

That I remembered.

I shifted, dragging my toes against the floor as I prodded at a fang with my tongue. I didn’t remember hearing Tawny, though.

“Millicent also spent some time with you.”

“Really?” Another bolt of surprise pierced me. I hadn’t expected to hear that. Millicent was…well, she was a bit odd. She was also my sister.

I had a sister.

Gods, there really hadn’t been time to wrap my head around that.

I drank deeply, thinking about how Millicent had been brought into this world by the same machinations as I had.

Did that knowledge bother her? I had no idea.

The only thing I really knew about her, other than the fact that she was a Revenant partly due to Casteel’s blood—and gods, that was as messed up as knowing that Isbeth planned for Malik to Ascend me—and her inability to sit in a chair like a normal person.

Well, those things and the fact that she was Malik’s heartmate.

But it wasn’t her I’d heard either. The other voice had been a colder, drier whisper that was…masculine. Familiar.

Casteel touched my cheek with his other hand, pulling me from my thoughts. “You okay?”

Clearing my throat, I nodded and attempted to focus. I’d been in stasis for a long time, and I needed to know what had happened while I was. “How are things with the capital—the kingdom?”

His thumb moved over the top of my hand. “We’ve ensured that things are calm while you’ve been in stasis.”

“How did you do that?” I asked, thinking that couldn’t have been easy.

“We put the capital on lockdown at first,” he explained. “That’s been lifted, but we still have a curfew in place.”

“How has—?” Tiny bumps broke out all over my skin as the breath I took got stuck.

“Poppy?” Cas said, sounding like he was in another chamber even though he sat beside me.

Unease settled in the pit of my stomach like a creeping chill, causing my chest to tighten. My hands shook, spasming open.

Cas lurched forward, catching the glass before it hit the floor.

Water sloshed over the rim, splashing off the stone as I jerked to my feet.

An unseen weight pressed down on me until I felt like I would fall through the floor, choking me with dread, with the knowledge that… something had changed in the realms.

That something was becoming aware .

Awakening.