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)
The next time Millie comes to see him, washing the black color from her hair and clearing her face of paint, he realizes why she seems so familiar. She confirms his suspicions by telling him that she’s the first daughter, Poppy’s full-blooded sister. She goes on to say that unlike Poppy, she’s not a god. She’s a failure. The more she reveals, the more answers he gets, but the more questions it raises. She details Isbeth’s long-running plan and tells Cas that when Poppy completes her Culling, she’ll give her mother exactly what she’s wanted since the Queen’s son died: revenge against everyone. She doesn’t want to remake the realms, she wants to destroy them, and Poppy is destined to help with that. She is the harbinger foretold. Millie continues by saying that everything prophesied to happen will happen. Poppy will bring about the end, and Casteel will fail. He will kill Poppy.
Haunted by his thoughts, he thinks over everything the Handmaiden told him. He knows he will never kill Poppy, but things with the prophecy have been revealing themselves to be true…albeit not as expected.
When Callum returns, he tells Casteel that Poppy stabbed him with his own dagger, and Cas couldn’t be prouder. But when Callum reveals that while Casteel’s arrogance is impressive, he’s seen love bring down the most powerful of beings and has only seen love beat death once—with Nyktos and his Consort, it reveals to Cas just how old Callum is. And then…the Revenant stabs him in the chest, sending him straight into bloodlust.
Kieran, Poppy, and Malik come for him, but he’s too far gone to realize what’s happening. Kieran distracts him while Malik renders him unconscious, and then Reaver frees him from the bone chains before his brother carries him from the cell. Poppy uses her gifts and tries to heal him, but he’s too far gone for it to do much good. He goes for Poppy’s throat, but his love for her wins out, and he ends up protecting her instead of hurting her.
I don’t think he could have harmed her. I personally believe that he would always know it was her and maintain control, even in the throes of bloodlust.
Casteel meets Reaver and thinks he could like the draken, especially when he helps to remove the shadowstone shackles. Once he’s sure they’re all safe, Cas asks for some time alone with Poppy. Kieran lingers, and he thanks his friend for helping to free him, but mostly for taking care of Poppy and being there for her when he could not be.
Desperate to prove that she’s real and with him again, they show each other how much they love and missed each other and then vow never to be separated again. He assures her that he will eventually be okay.
Poppy tells him what’s been going on with her, and he finds out that while she does need to feed, any blood but a draken’s will do. He assumes that she fed from Kieran, and it actually makes him happy. She fills him in on everything else that has happened, and as he listens, he struggles with how to tell Poppy that Millie is her sister.
Unable to sleep with that lingering thought in his head as well as the Handmaiden’s words about Poppy dying in his arms, he leaves her to sleep and talks with Kieran. They discuss everything Millie told Cas and what it means regarding the prophecy and what they believe to be the truth about Millie and Malik. During their talk, Casteel realizes that Poppy will be a Primal once she completes her Culling and worries about what Isbeth said about love being dangerous for a Primal.
Once Poppy has fed, and they spend some more quality time together, he finally reveals to Poppy that Millie is her sister and that she didn’t survive her Culling—Isbeth turned her into a Revenant to save her.
With some time alone with his brother on their journey, Casteel reveals that Millie told him she was Poppy’s sister and that he put two and two together about how she ended up the way she did. His brother confirms that Cas’s blood wasn’t enough to Ascend Millie since he was so weakened from his captivity, and that Callum showed Isbeth how to create Revenants and use Primal magic.
After his discussion with his brother, Casteel tells Poppy that he doesn’t think she’s a god anymore, and Malik cuts him off, telling Poppy outright that she’s a Primal. Casteel then realizes something and turns his ire on Reaver for not telling Poppy she was a Primal right away, and then asks how a Primal can be born of mortal flesh.
As things are brought up that make him realize that Malik was the Dark One from Lockswood and thus responsible for Poppy’s scars and trauma, he compels his brother to pick up a dagger and put it to his own throat. Poppy stops Cas and explains that Malik didn’t hurt her directly. He actually helped her escape. That doesn’t ease Casteel’s rage. When Malik contradicts everything Poppy says to try to make Cas understand that he was only protecting his kingdom and family, Cas can’t hold himself back. He launches himself at his brother, and Poppy is forced to use her powers to separate the two.