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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.
Isbeth shows up where they’re staying and kills the Descenter couple who were hosting them. A skirmish ensues, and Cas stops Malik from returning to Isbeth—with some help from Kieran, who knocks him out. But Kieran is wounded in the fight, which leads to Cas stabbing Callum in the chest before bringing Poppy back from the brink.
They head to Padonia and their armies and discuss taking Carsodonia while they meet with Isbeth at the Bone Temple. It’s not ideal, but it is something to think about. They also talk about the prophecy, how Poppy’s life is hers, the Joining, and everything that was revealed about Malik.
Cas talks to Kieran about the Joining, and the wolven makes it clear that he doesn’t want or expect them to do it just to save him from the curse that’s now on him from the blade Callum stabbed him with. Cas tells him they’re more than friends or brothers—they’re halves of the same coin. And then he tells Kieran when he plans to do the Joining if Poppy is still willing.
If she’s not, can I volunteer?
Just kidding.
Or am I? *wink*
With a cooler head, Casteel confronts his brother, making it clear how he feels about Malik being the Dark One and how it hurt and thus impacted Poppy’s life. After further discussions about Alastir, Millie, and Malik’s intentions and beliefs regarding Poppy, Cas has a moment of softness where he tells Malik not to get himself killed and asks him to fight with them, not against them.
Now, I’m not saying they were close again by any means, but that was a big step for Cas to extend that olive branch, and for Malik to agree—at least in the moment.
Casteel asks Malik about the creepy rhyme that Poppy heard, and Malik tells him he has no idea what he’s talking about, confirming that it wasn’t his brother. He then orders the bone chains to be removed from Malik. He doesn’t want his father or the kingdom to see him again for the first time while in chains.
Seeing the draken for the first time in Padonia leaves Cas speechless, but he feels slightly more sure-footed when Poppy identifies each of them for him. He’s taken by surprise once again when he sees Tawny. She no longer feels the same to him, though he can’t put a finger on what she feels like. It’s just something…different.
The group prepares, and Cas tells everyone they will only deliver Malec to Isbeth to have Kieran’s curse lifted. After that, they will end the war once and for all. Plans are then put in place to call the generals back, and discussions are had about how to take Carsodonia.
The next few days are full of planning and enjoying his Queen until they set off to get Malec. The journey is full of strife as usual—Craven, Sentry Gyrms, serpents—but it’s also rife with information. Cas learns about the different types of Gyrms and how they came to be, how Malec changed after visiting the mortal realm, and that Nyktos and his Consort had their reasons for not intervening when their son was entombed.
With that part of their journey done, he orders everyone to take a day to rest before they leave for the Bone Temple. That night, he leads Poppy to the Wisteria Woods and the bank of the River Rhain, where Kieran waits.
Outside, amongst nature, the three will become one. Could anything be sexier?
The trio begins the ritual: Poppy drinks from them, they drink from each other, and then he and Kieran drink from her, exchanging the words that solidify consent and intent and make tensions rise. I saw the whole exchange in a vision, and let me just say, I had to pay a visit to one of my regular paramours afterward. The three of them, a gorgeous palette of colors blending, sighs filling the air, the trust, love, and respect in the moment…it was truly something beautiful. As were the cords of the Joining that connected them.
When they lay in a tangled, satisfied, bonded heap after, they see that Kieran’s wound is healed, but they don’t know if the Joining lifted the curse. It’s still a worry, but the Joining was about much more than just saving Kieran’s life, and all three of them know that. The most astonishing thing to Cas is now sharing a heartbeat with the two most important people in his life. It’s a marvel.
The group sets off for the Bone Temple, and Cas, Kieran, and Poppy revel in their newfound closeness. They always had a bond, but it’s so much more now. When they reach Isbeth, Cas squares off verbally with Callum and taunts Isbeth about how Malec still sleeps. He also asks why she would ever think that Malec would give her what she wants. Smug as ever, she replies that she knows he will.
