Total pages in book: 247
Estimated words: 231436 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1157(@200wpm)___ 926(@250wpm)___ 771(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 231436 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1157(@200wpm)___ 926(@250wpm)___ 771(@300wpm)
When the Unseen attack again with no intention of leaving her alive, she unleashes her power once more, remarking that any who try to stop her from taking the crown will fail.
As a Council Elder, I am lucky enough to be in attendance before the crowning and discuss several things with Poppy: her night at the Red Pearl, her lineage, and her need to go to Iliseeum. I also get to announce the happy new couple—the King and Queen who will usher in a whole new era. They are the King of Blood and Ash and the Queen of Flesh and Fire.
Poppy and Cas ask Kieran to be their Advisor, and thinking back on the discussion she had with me and the other facts she knows, she comes to the conclusion that Nyktos’s guards are the draken.
She and her most trusted venture through the mists near the Mountains of Nyktos and into Dalos, coming face-to-face with the draken and the King of Gods. She then learns about the Consort and her beginnings, reminded again that gods should not be born in the mortal realm…yet there she stands.
After telling Nyktos about the Revenants, he remarks that they are abominations and apologizes for what Poppy will have to face in the coming days. He then reminds her that she was born of flesh with the fire of the gods in her blood, tells her that she is the bringer of life and death, calls her the Queen of Flesh and Fire, who is due more than one crown and kingdom, and reiterates that she’s always had the power within her.
Boarding a ship for their next destination, Poppy and Cas grow closer, exploring more of their desires—with a little help from page two hundred and thirty-eight of my journal. Mmm, yes. That was a good one.
In Oak Ambler, Poppy sees a large cat in a cage and has a flashback to the one she saw as a child. Her power hums in her chest, and it forces the feline to shift into a man. She promises that she will be back for him and wonders if it could be Malec. When she asks about it, she’s told that Malec wasn’t that kind of deity. Besides, he is supposedly entombed. The cave cat cannot be him.
When brought before Queen Ileana, Poppy vows that the Blood Crown will never lay a hand on her husband again and is finally able to at least see and hug her good friend. Tawny was her companion and confidante for most of her life as the Maiden, and the one person she was able to talk to who knew her without the veil. She’s missed her.
In her tête-à-tête with Ileana, many machinations are revealed. The Blood Queen tells them that she always planned for Poppy to become Queen of Atlantia, but that she assumed it would be with Malik as her King. She also says she’d rather see the whole kingdom burn than hand over a single acre of land.
Then she drops the biggest bombshell of all and tells Poppy she’s her mother, that her real name is Isbeth, that Cora didn’t agree with her plans and thus tried to spirit Poppy away, and that while Coralena survived the attack at Lockswood, she did not survive the Queen’s wrath.
It’s also revealed that Malec is a god. Poppy suddenly remembers what Nyktos said to her. She asks about it, and Isbeth confirms that everything she did, she did for revenge. In a petty snit, she has Ian killed, and Poppy’s ancient instincts take over, activating her powers. They fight like gods, and Isbeth ends up killing Lyra, Kieran’s friend and lover.
Poppy eventually falls unconscious and later wakes to find that Casteel handed himself over to the Blood Crown. In her rage, she summons another storm. A female Revenant approaches and tells her to quit what she’s doing, threatening to stop her if she does not. When Poppy finally stands down, she finds that Tawny has been wounded by shadowstone—something Poppy is unable to heal, even with her newly acquired powers.
Through the process of elimination and some deduction, Poppy realizes that the Consort must be her grandmother, and that Isbeth’s vendetta is utterly personal. Eloana took Isbeth’s son, so Isbeth took Casteel. And despite Malec being entombed, Isbeth and Malec must be her parents.
She decides to summon the draken and do whatever is necessary to bring Casteel home. When she and Kieran arrive in Iliseeum, she finds Nektas, Nyktos’s closest draken guard, in his god form. He tells her that Nyktos returned to sleep with his Consort. He then asks Poppy if she is willing to bear the weight of two Crowns and bring back what is theirs to protect and the thing that will allow the Consort to wake. Poppy finds out that is the missing draken—Nektas’s daughter, Jadis—and the Consort’s son, whom Poppy discovers is not Malec but rather his twin, Ires.