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)
Alastir asks to speak to Poppy privately, and they take a walk. They discuss the fact that she can fight, and then Alastir reveals how his daughter, Shea, was Casteel’s intended. He puts Poppy at ease and promises he’ll help her get out of her current situation if she feels it’s not what she wants. This may have seemed altruistic to Poppy, but there were much deeper machinations at hand. He also says he’ll ask around to see if any of his people know about her parents, but we now know that he already knew them both.
After leaving to check the roads with a small group, Alastir returns following the Ascended attack. He and his men take care of several of the Queen’s knights, and then he witnesses Poppy healing the injured. He asks her if she’s sure that her brother, Ian, Ascended since he doubts they would have let a half-Atlantian Ascend. He also tells her about the Empath Warrior bloodline and how they could siphon the energy behind emotions, feed on others in that way, and how they were called Soul Eaters.
Alastir leaves for Spessa’s End before the rest of the group. When he speaks with Poppy later, he tells her about the Joining and the wolven’s bond to the Elemental Atlantians, indirectly revealing that he was Malec’s bonded wolven.
Becket gets injured, and Alastir rushes him to Vonetta’s. He’s absolutely stunned when Poppy heals the young wolven—it’s much more than what she did after the Ascended attack, complete with a glow. He apologizes to her for those looking at her suspiciously and treating her strangely and advises her to ignore the looks, saying if she won’t remove herself from the situation, she can’t show that it bothers her.
This all seemed very counterproductive to what he planned. But maybe, despite knowing that he would be betraying her, he did have some fondness for her and a softness in him somewhere. And perhaps he really thought that he could just get her to leave if he overwhelmed her thoughts and triggered her self-doubt.
Alastir admits that he doesn’t understand how love sprang up between Poppy and Casteel given the Prince’s original plans for her as the Maiden. Then, he goes on to say how he’s seen Cas in love before and that the people expected someone else to become their Queen because Cas was promised to another.
Now that seems more in line with Alastir’s end goal. It was a grand opportunity to make Poppy doubt herself and her relationship with Casteel—and incredibly manipulative.
When Casteel chastises him for bringing that up, calling him weak for doing it, Alastir claims that Cas marrying his niece Gianna would have strengthened the relationship between the wolven and the Atlantians. Jasper warns Alastir that he’s overstepping, but the wolven still accuses Cas of refusing his duties to his people.
I honestly think that this was where the switch was completely flipped for Alastir. He had been plotting already but seeing that it was beyond hope and that he couldn’t talk Cas out of his plans or get Poppy to leave on her own just reinforced that he’d have to take matters into his hands.
As the others disperse, Alastir stays in Atlantia. When he meets back up with the group in Saion’s Cove, he’s shocked to see that Casteel and Poppy got married and even more surprised to hear that Nyktos blessed the union. He requests to speak with Casteel privately, likely hoping to talk some sense into him and bring him around to Alastir’s way of thinking.
I’m not sure what he got up to between that point and when Beckett led Poppy to her ambush at the Chambers of Nyktos, but, like most, he arrives after the attack, witnessing the end of the display of what she can do. He tries to reason with the Queen, telling Eloana that it’s not too late and knowing what it will mean for the Crown.
He makes it known that Poppy is calling the wolven at the Temple and says that he can feel the broken bonds because he can sense Poppy’s Primal notam. When Cas orders the guards to seize Alastir, he’s shocked and states that Cas has no authority over the guards or him since he is not yet King. They still secure him. When Valyn orders him to be put somewhere…safe, he’s incensed.
Shouting, “Protect your King and Queen,” Alastir signals those loyal to him to act, and they infect everyone trying to protect Poppy with shadowshade. He tells Poppy that she is the threat to Atlantia, not him, then knocks her out and whisks her away.
While Poppy is in the crypt, Alastir visits and apologizes for Jansen’s behavior. He then tells her about the gods, deities, Shadowlands, and Iliseeum. He goes on to explain how Poppy is dangerous. Says she’s entered her Culling and will start showing the same chaotic tendencies as those who came before her—the deities that became monsters, thus causing the Elementals to rise against them. He explains about Malec and reveals that Eloana and Valyn knew about Malec’s powers. Then, he implies that Malec is Poppy’s father and adds that the King had many mistresses, and there were others like her—children born of the deity—who never reached their Culling.