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 he finally asks Malik why he didn’t get Cas out, Malik says that he refuses to leave Millie. Finally reaching Cas, Kieran tries to stop Poppy from rushing into the cell and is devastated at seeing Cas almost Craven-like in his bloodlust. He remarks that Casteel is too far gone and doesn’t like Malik’s suggestion for getting him out to give him time to come back to himself. Eventually, he tells Poppy they must knock Cas out to safely remove him from the cell, and then hope he stays unconscious.
Kieran distracts Cas while Malik knocks him out and then tells Poppy they need to bind him for everyone’s safety. He soothes her when she cries over the thought. After he’s secured, he offers to carry Casteel, but Malik refuses. Instead, Kieran just covers Cas and the chains with his cloak.
Malik takes them to some of his friends, Descenters Blaz and Clariza, and they learn that Malik befriended them while posing as Elian—his middle name and the moniker of his ancestor. Working together as a unit, Poppy and Kieran deal with bringing Cas out of his bloodlust and feeding him. When Casteel is more himself, Kieran leaves the couple alone and goes to talk with Malik.
Once they’re all settled and rested a bit, Cas comes to chat with Kieran and assures him the Blood Crown only took blood this time. Kieran reminds Casteel that he has him and Poppy, always and forever, and then assures Cas that he’ll feed Poppy as soon as she wakes.
They discuss needing to leave by nightfall and talk about Reaver and Malik. Kieran relays that Malik can secure a ship and have them smuggled out, but remarks that he trusts few with Poppy’s safety—and Malik definitely isn’t one of them… Still, he hasn’t left or betrayed them yet, and Kieran acknowledges that he’s risking a lot to help them.
Discussions turn to Millie and how she is only leverage if Isbeth knows that she and Malik are heartmates. Cas reveals everything he learned about Millie being Poppy’s sister and tells Kieran that she’s like a Revenant, yet…not. They talk about the prophecy, and Kieran wonders how Millie was a failure. He assumes that Isbeth turned her into a Revenant to save her after she didn’t survive her Culling.
When Kieran asks if Millie was Isbeth’s first attempt to create something to remake the realms and Poppy was the second, Cas agrees, and Kieran says there’s no way Poppy would ever help Isbeth. Casteel goes on to tell him that Millie said that only Cas can stop Poppy, and only by killing her. At the thought, Kieran suggests they have Reaver torch the Revenant. They talk about Poppy some more and realize that once she completes her Culling, she’ll be a Primal. They then conclude that she did, indeed, create the mist.
Kieran follows Cas to wake Poppy and tells her she needs to feed. Casteel bites Kieran’s wrist, and he jerks a bit when she closes her mouth around him. Still, he shows her inappropriate memories and gets way too much satisfaction out of it.
Kieran is definitely a man after my heart. If I had the power to transfer memories and visions, nobody would ever be thinking of war.
Later, he hugs Cas, and Poppy asks him if he believes that Millie is her sister. He tells her that he didn’t at first, but he does now. When Reaver seems surprised by the news, Kieran can’t pass up the opportunity to rib him a little. As they discuss how things went so wrong with Millie’s Culling, Kieran asks why they didn’t use Ires’s blood, and Malik explains that the cage nullifies his eather.
Malik mentions Preela in conversation, and Kieran tells Poppy that she was Malik’s bonded wolven. As Malik continues the story, Kieran is outraged when he realizes Malik was the Dark One from Poppy’s memories and planned to kill Poppy as a child. Cas attacks Malik, and Kieran lets it play out. He refuses to step between them and thinks Malik deserves whatever hell Cas rains down upon him. When Poppy uses her power to separate the brothers, Kieran catches Cas before he falls.
The Queen arrives with her guards and Callum, and the group readies themselves to fight until they realize they can’t. Callum tells Kieran he’s always wanted a pet wolf, and Kieran tells him to fuck off. Later, in the melee, Callum cuts Kieran with a shadowstone blade and whispers a spell. Reddish black smoke billows from and then soaks into the wound. Shadows ripple over Kieran’s body and throw Malik back before Cas stabs Callum in the heart.
The Queen gives them an ultimatum: return with Malec or Kieran dies. After they depart, Malik goes to follow the Queen, and Cas tells him not to. In order to keep him with them, Kieran knocks him out and tries to reassure Poppy that he’ll be fine, saying she shouldn’t worry about the curse Callum put on him.