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)
Poppy and Hawke set off for the capital with eight men and continue growing closer as the days pass, despite the circumstances. They share things about their pasts and personal things about themselves—vulnerable things. And all along, Kieran continues to remind him to remember his task and stick to the plan.
In New Haven, Cas meets with Elijah, Delano, and Kieran, and they discuss next steps and what’s happened so far.
Finally, Poppy and Hawke are no longer able to resist each other and have sex. The next day, he meets with Elijah, Delano and Orion—an Atlantian bearing a missive from the Crown. They find out he’s being shady, and when he threatens Poppy’s life, Cas rips out his heart and throws it into the fire, telling everyone the messenger died unexpectedly during his journey.
Cas realizes he needs to go to Berkton to meet with his father, but there’s a storm on the way. Delano offers to go with him, but Cas tells him he needs him in New Haven. Elijah assures him that Poppy will be okay.
Suddenly, Naill bursts in, saying that Phillips (one of the men they traveled with) is trying to leave with Poppy. They all rush to the stables.
Cas’s schemes come to light when he kills one of the guards in front of Poppy and tells her the events that led to where they are now.
Clearly, she doesn’t take it well—neither that nor seeing Kieran shift into his wolven form—so he has her confined to the dungeon so she can’t escape or hurt anybody.
On his way back from Berkton, he receives word that she was attacked and feels terrible fear. Kieran takes her to his chambers, so he meets them once he arrives and sees how bad things are. He takes her to the floor by the fire and pries the dagger from her hands.
To help her heal, he feeds her his blood and loses himself in her sensual reaction to it.
Finally, he comes clean that he is, in fact, Casteel Da’Neer, Prince of Atlantia—whom she has been taught is and only knows as the Dark One. Being—as he calls her now—the absolutely stunning murderous little creature she is, she stabs him in the heart and runs.
When he catches up to her, he explains that he—unlike the wolven or an Ascended—cannot be killed by a blade to the heart. Telling her that everything between them has been real and that nothing has been a lie, he bites her, immediately realizing that she’s part Atlantian. He can’t control his lust, and they have glorious, unfettered sex in the snowy forest.
It brought back some very good memories for me. I should go back and read those journal entries in the volumes I still have in my possession…
Later, Casteel confesses that his feelings got in the way of his plan, and she takes away his pain—both the physical and the emotional—making him realize why the vamprys wanted her so badly. He then tells her he’s taking her home to Atlantia, but after some dissent within his ranks, he suddenly realizes that it’s imperative for him to show his people that she’s under his protection.
After nailing all those who attacked Poppy to the hall walls with bloodstone spikes through their hands and hearts and heads—leaving only Jericho alive, minus a hand—he informs all the others that Poppy is part Atlantian and the two of them are going home to be married. As their journey progresses, they share stolen moments amidst sniping at each other, and Casteel tells her that he has not lied to her since she discovered who he is and explains his reasons for wanting to marry her.
When Poppy tries to escape again, and Casteel realizes she planned to go to the Ascended, hoping they’d take her to the capital where she could find and free her brother, he tells her that he refuses to carve her name in the wall of the tombs like so many of the other dead and returns her bloodstone dagger.
As he watches Poppy’s gifts change and grow, Casteel knows there’s something special about her—and it’s not just her heritage or her blood. When the Ascended finally track her down and attack, he confronts them and says: “I am born of the first kingdom. Created from the blood and ash of all those who fell before me. I have risen to take back what is mine. I’m who you call the Dark One.” And then he continues. “Yes, I have the Maiden, and I’m not giving her back.”
Something he meant in more ways than one, I’m sure.
After a battle with the Ascended that leaves him afraid she’ll be dead when he finally gets to her, he gives her his blood to help her heal and uses a mild compulsion on her to help her sleep, thus skipping the hyperarousal that usually comes from the act of feeding.