AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Poppy and Isbeth end up in a fight, and Poppy is incapacitated. In order to save her and the others he loves, Casteel surrenders himself to Isbeth, and the Queen orders Malik to retrieve him.
After Isbeth removes Cas’s finger and sends it to Poppy, Millie makes Malik aware that his brother is suffering from an infection. He goes down to see Casteel, and the reception isn’t exactly a family reunion. He tells his younger sibling not to be a brat and then disinfects his finger.
As they talk, Malik reveals that he was furious to learn Isbeth’s truth and that their parents lied to them both. He wonders if either of them would be where they are now if they had been told the truth centuries ago.
Seeing how his brother is suffering, he’s genuinely sorry he can’t feed him and help ease his misery. But he says that if he does, Cas will be punished. Knowing what they did to his brother the last time, he doesn’t want that to happen.
Malik mentions that he’s been thinking of Shea lately and tells Cas that he knows what she did—that she turned them over to the Ascended. He’s sorry to hear that Casteel was the one to kill her and says he remembers how much she loved Cas. He also guesses that Casteel never told anyone about her betrayal.
Casteel mentions Millicent and, once again, Malik can’t control his response. As his brother tells him more, he becomes very interested in what things the Handmaiden told Cas. Come to find out, it’s about the Revenants. Malik agrees that Millie is odd but asks that Cas not take it out on her. He says that, like Poppy, she’s had very few choices in life.
As they talk more, Malik tells Cas everything has to do with Poppy. When Casteel reveals that Poppy was entirely on board with coming to rescue him, not even knowing him, Malik says that she doesn’t know him—or at least doesn’t remember him. When Cas questions that, Malik doesn’t answer except to say that he’ll find out soon enough.
Upon the Queen’s next meeting with Poppy and her two guards—Kieran and one other he doesn’t know—Malik remains stoic when Kieran tries to bait him. Then, when the Queen asks her daughter if she’s been able to resist the men’s ample charms, Malik can’t help but grin.
Poppy insinuates that all the lies will soon be revealed, and Malik asks what she expects: for Solis’s people to turn their backs on all they’ve ever known? He then goes on to say that they will fear Poppy.
Not long after, Poppy breaks through Malik’s mental shields and shocks him, sending him reeling, even giving him a nosebleed. When he’s unable to compose himself completely after, the Queen orders her Handmaidens to remove him. He waves her off.
Isbeth soon tells Malik to take her guests to their rooms—separately. He takes Kieran to one and Reaver to another below as Callum takes Poppy to see Cas.
Later, when Poppy questions why the Queen summoned her to the Great Hall, Malik tells her it’s so she can see how much she’s loved. He goes on to relay that Isbeth has been warning everyone about her, reinforcing their fears that she’s the harbinger. As they discuss the lies that were told about the Atlantian-captured cities, and Poppy tells Malik that his kingdom/father would never do the things that Isbeth claims, he shows no emotion.
Poppy notices his attention on Millie and taunts that she’ll tell the Queen that Millicent is the reason Malik stays. He threatens her, and not long after, the Queen orders him to leave.
Isbeth goads Poppy and tells her to unleash her power but not to forget that she’s not sitting in front of an Ascended. She crushes a Solis couple with her power to prove her point.
Poppy, Kieran, and Reaver leave Wayfair—and a huge mess in their wake. Malik follows and offers to take them to Cas if they get out immediately. When Kieran tells him it’s suspect, he tells him it’s a significant risk and reminds them that he helped Cas when he had the infection. He simply says he doesn’t want his brother anywhere near the Queen.
They still don’t believe him, so he answers a question that Poppy asked him some time back, confirming that he stays for Millie. He then explains that they’re heartmates. When Kieran calls her crazy, Malik warns him and then tells him that while he still loves the wolven like a brother, he won’t hesitate to rip out his throat if he doesn’t lay off the Handmaiden. He reveals that he’s done many unimaginable things for Millie—stuff she will never learn about.
Making their way to the dungeon, Malik urges them to hurry. He details how he ran into Callum earlier and felt he needed to check on his brother—to see what Callum might have done. When they all see what he did—wounding Casteel gravely enough to kick start his bloodlust—they realize they can’t get him out, at least not while conscious. So, Malik has Kieran distract Casteel while he puts him in a sleeper hold.
Kieran suggests they will need the deity bone chains for when Casteel wakes, and Malik agrees. When Reaver uses his fire to free Cas, Malik is shocked to find that he is a draken. Once they get Casteel free, he carries his brother through a series of tunnels and out of the castle. He then leads them to a friend’s house—Blaz, and his wife Clariza. Both Descenters.
When Clariza greets them with skepticism and a dagger, calling him Elian, Poppy tries to calm her by reinforcing what Malik told her and Blaz: that the unconscious man in their friend’s arms is the King of Atlantia, and she is the Queen. When they bow, Poppy shocks Malik by telling them not to because she’s not their Queen.
Once they get Casteel into a bed, Malik tells Poppy that his blood won’t do much for Cas. It has to be hers. Though when they try to secure him, he fights, the bloodlust taking control. Stunned, Malik watches as Poppy heals and soothes his brother. They finally settle him, and Malik tells Poppy that Cas needs motivation, like the scent of her blood, then explains that if he doesn’t take enough, things will be even worse for him.
With Cas still not entirely with it but calmer, Malik goes to get Reaver so he can remove the bone chains. When he returns, Cas acts as if he wants to attack the draken, and Poppy tries to remind him who it is, telling him that he probably doesn’t want to take him on. Malik remarks that it looks like he does.
Once things are settled there, Malik leaves, presumably to fill Blaz and Clariza in on what’s going on. He ends up on the settee in the living room to rest. Before he goes to sleep, however, he tells them all that he will secure a ship to smuggle them out of Solis and away from Carsodonia.
Talking later, he tells everyone that Blaz and Clariza are good people. When Poppy asks him if Millie is her sister, he wonders how she knows. Cas remarks that Millie both told and showed him, and Malik says how much she and Poppy look alike and adds that they both ramble.
As an answer to some of Casteel’s questions, Malik confirms that Millie would have been a god had she survived her Culling. When Reaver enters and reiterates what he heard, only referring to Millie as the Handmaiden, Malik gets upset and tells him that she has a name, thus letting everyone know there’s more to their relationship than meets the eye.
The conversation continues, and Malik explains that Casteel’s blood wasn’t strong enough to Ascend Millicent—he was too weak from the captivity, and Isbeth didn’t consider that. When they ask about Ires, he explains that bone chains and the deity bone cage nullify the god’s eather. He then mentions how Callum showed Isbeth how to make Revenants and says he wishes Millie would have kept her mouth shut about…everything. Everybody who knows those secrets is dead, and he doesn’t understand why she took such a risk.
His final bit of knowledge is that while she isn’t powerful enough yet, Poppy’s purpose is to destroy the realms. And she will be strong enough to do just that after she completes her Culling.
He shares with Poppy that Isbeth named her after the goddess who warned of the prophecy, then goes on to say how Poppy has already taken part in Isbeth’s plan by being born. But then he adds that perhaps her free will is greater than the prophecy and what Isbeth wants—after all, Coralena believed she would usher in change and not destruction.
When Poppy displays her shock at Malik having known Cora, and he can see that she remembers that fateful night in Lockswood, he tells Casteel that what they did to Preela broke him. He said he was never loyal to Isbeth—not after what she did to Cas and what Jalara did to Preela. Not after what Isbeth made him do to Millie. He wanted to kill the Blood Queen and actually tried before realizing what she was. And he likely would have kept trying if it weren’t for the prophecy. But when he learned of that, he couldn’t let Isbeth destroy the realms or Millie. He had to do something.
He says that killing a child was a line he simply couldn’t cross. Even when he tried again, thinking it was the only option, he saw the Consort looking at him through Poppy’s eyes. He didn’t know that was possible, and it stayed his hand. When additional questions arise about the events of that night, he explains that the Craven followed the trail of blood he left—the distraction was the only way he knew he could get past Leo and Cora.
Cas doesn’t take kindly to learning that his brother was the source of Poppy’s pain—both physical and psychological—and compels him to pick up a dagger and put it to his throat. When Malik says even more, insinuating that he would have tried to kill her even if he had known she was his brother’s heartmate, Casteel launches himself at Malik, taking him down and beating him until Poppy uses her power to separate the two.
