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Once Callum lifts the curse, Cas tells Kieran to let Poppy heal him—for her, not for him—and then stands with them as a unit as they await what Isbeth will do. When she pulls a shadowstone dagger, he comforts Poppy. They can’t trust Isbitch, and she’s shown she’s nothing if not unpredictable, proven once again when she plunges the blade into Malec’s chest.
When Callum explains the real meaning of the harbinger and bringer of death and destruction bits of the prophecy, Cas reminds Poppy that he never thought she was death and destruction. Still, he’s shocked by what Callum reveals and incensed by what he says about the so-called “True King of the Realms.” The last straw, however, is when Callum says that he’s waiting to pick his pretty poppy and watch it bleed. Cas has heard enough and rips the asshole’s still-beating heart from his chest with his bare hand…just as Kolis makes his presence known.
The earth cracks open, the wolven run—something Cas has never seen them do—and dakkais spill out of the fissures. They battle with everything they have, but so many fall. Naill. Emil. Delano. He does what he can to avenge them, his attention split between the battle and Poppy’s transformation. It absolutely astonishes him, as does Nektas’s arrival, and he finds it hard to look away despite the dangers coming at him from all sides. He tries to shield Poppy from the horror of Isbeth’s destruction, but she watches—they all do—until Isbitch is no more.
Coaxing Poppy back to consciousness, Cas marvels at everything that happened. Somehow, none of their people are dead, and Poppy completed her Culling. When he informs her that she brought everyone back to life, Nektas corrects him and says that the true Primal of Life, the Consort, aided her, and that Nyktos captured their souls before they could enter the Vale or the Abyss.
When Nektas shares the full story of Sotoria and Kolis and Nyktos and his Consort, they’re all intrigued—if concerned. As Nektas continues, Cas pieces together that if Kolis hadn’t done what he did—killed his brother and stolen the embers—then Nyktos would have become the Primal God of Life, and Malec and Ires would have been born Primals. But they weren’t because it took a female descendant.
When Nektas says that Poppy is the Primal of Blood and Bone, the true Primal of Life and Death, and that those two essences have never existed in one, Cas reassures her that whether that’s good or bad, they already know that she is good.
Hoping things will start to look up now that they thwarted the Blood Queen’s plans and Malec still lives, Cas feels only anger and frustration when Nektas tells them that they stopped nothing and need to kill Kolis—something Nyktos and the Consort weren’t even able to do.
Later in the tunnels, Cas kills a vampry, even though they weren’t attacked. He says it was moving toward Poppy and that wasn’t okay. He’s not sure why she seems to be fading, but it greatly concerns him.
Nektas tells Cas he’s too much like the bloodline he’s descended from—Attes and Kyn’s.
The tunnels collapse, and Cas and Kieran move to protect Poppy. Nektas tells them that it wasn’t her, it was them. Meaning the gods awakening—primarily Penellaphe, who rests near.
Still worrying about Poppy, Cas’s thoughts must be pushed aside for a bit when they come upon Ires in his cat form, caged. He looks absolutely rough. They all see the bars and the wards, and Nektas says that nobody in the mortal realm should have that knowledge.
They tell Ires that Isbeth is dead, that they’ve come to rescue him, and that all will be okay. Poppy touches her father and he shifts into his god form, telling them about Jadis. Then, he passes out, going into stasis.
Poppy gets dizzy. Nektas asks if she slept, and she says a little. But that’s not what he meant. He’s inquiring about stasis after her Ascension. Before she can even really answer, she passes out, and Cas and Kieran catch her.
Nektas explains she needs the stasis to complete her transformation and says that the very earth will seek to protect her. He adds that he doesn’t know how long she’ll sleep but tells them to take her somewhere safe, watch over her, and talk to her. However, he adds that there could be unexpected side effects. She could awaken with no memories of herself, them, or anything that happened.
They take her to a guest room in the castle, and Cas tells Emil to make sure Wayfair is safe. He already planned to make sure they weren’t bothered but says the wolven are guarding the premises with Hisa and the Crown Guard.
He asks Cas what they should do with the Ascended and Cas’s first instinct is to say, “kill them all.” Instead, he orders them to be kept in their homes.
Emil then asks about Valyn and Ires, and Cas realizes he hasn’t even thought about those in Padonia. He says to send word to his father but to leave out the bits about Poppy, and tells him Nektas took Ires home to Iliseeum.
Remembering what Nektas said about talking to her, he thinks about the first time he saw her and decides to tell her what it was like in Masadonia before they officially met. Starting with his time on the Rise.
Poppy sleeps for hours. During that time Cas bathes her, washing the dirt and blood of battle away. He tells her that Vikter is part of the Fates in a way and that perhaps being a viktor, he sensed Cas’s true motives as Hawke. He reminds Poppy that it could have been Vikter who died that night in the garden and not Rylan Keal and admits that he had preconceived notions about her since he hadn’t known her yet. But he says that everything changed when they met.
Cas holds Poppy to his chest, telling her he had trouble processing everything that happened during his captivity, Shea, what happened after, and admits to using sex, drugs, and drinking to dull the pain. Then he started using the pain—literal pain—as a way to escape. The only thing that made him realize how bad things got was when he noticed how much he was taking from Kieran.
Kieran tells him it was okay that he used their bond to gain strength, and it’s also okay to forget things, as long as he remembers later. He also asks about Shea and wonders if Cas will ever tell her.
We know that she knows that he killed Shea with his bare hands after her betrayal. What more could there be?
His response to Kieran is that Poppy needs to be awake to hear that story and learn all of it.
I want to learn all of it!
Cas talks to Poppy about Malik being kept and what the Lord in the meat packing plant said, realizing that he wasn’t wrong given the game Malik was playing, and how Vikter didn’t let on what happened during her lessons with the Duke because he didn’t want to embarrass her.
Cas really wants to try to find her in dreams but isn’t sure it’ll work since this isn’t normal sleep, it’s stasis.
He thinks about the Red Pearl and how brave he thought she was, then mentions the night on the Rise when the Craven attacked. He says that’s when everything began to change, and she started to become Poppy for him.
Kieran and Cas talk about the day Britta came to Hawke’s quarters and he hopes Poppy doesn’t remember that bit when she wakes. They discuss whether she looks any better and conclude that she does.
Kieran tells Cas that things are calm in the city. A Descenter warned Emil about the tunnels the vamprys use to travel during the day, and Hisa is taking a group down to take care of it. Kieran admits that it’s hard not being with them, but Cas reminds him that he’s needed right where he is.
Cas asks about Malik, and Kieran says that Valyn and company were delayed in Padonia but they would arrive soon. He tells Cas to rest, and Cas turns it back on him and asks him if he’s rested. They determine where they left off in the story they were telling Poppy…
