The War of Two Queens (Blood And Ash Series Book 4)

Slowly, I became aware of a soft touch against my cheek. A brush of fingers along the curve of my jaw and below my lips. A hand smoothing my hair. A voice. Voices. Two stood out the strongest.

“Poppy,” one called.

“Open your eyes, My Queen,” another said—pleaded, really—and I could never deny him.

My eyes fluttered open, locking with ones the color of honey and framed by a thick fringe of lashes. Him. My husband and King. My heartmate. My everything. Blood streaked his face, matted his hair, but his skin was unmarked beneath it, rich and warm. His fingers were warm against the skin below my lips. “Cas.”

Casteel made a rough sound that seemed like a cross between a laugh and a groan, and it came from somewhere deep within him. He lowered his lips to my forehead. “Queen.”

I reached up, touching the side of his jaw. He shuddered as he pressed his lips against my forehead. Slowly, I became aware that my head was cradled in his lap, but it was not his arm that braced my neck, or his hand on my cheek. Casteel’s head lifted, and my gaze drifted to eyes the shade of winter.

Kieran smiled down at me as he dragged his thumb down the side of my cheek. “Nice of you to decide to rejoin us.”

“I don’t…” I swallowed. My mouth felt weird. I reached up—

Kieran caught my wrist. “Before you even ask, yes.”

My breath snagged as I gingerly ran my tongue along the line of my upper teeth. They felt normal until I hit a small, sharp point, drawing blood. I winced.

“Careful,” Casteel murmured. “They’ll take a little bit to get used to.”

Oh, my gods. “I have fangs.”

Kieran nodded. “Cas is going to have to walk you through getting used to them. Not my wheelhouse.”

My gaze swung to Casteel. “What do they look like?”

His lips twitched. “Like…fangs.”

“That tells me nothing.”

“They’re adorable.”

“How can fangs be adorable—wait.” Fangs weren’t the most pressing issue here, nor even the fact that I had finished the Culling. I sat up so quickly, both Casteel and Kieran jerked back so I didn’t collide with them. My gaze swung over the cracked pillars, and Naill—

Naill sat with his back against one, his head tipped up, his eyes closed, but his chest was moving up and down—a chest that had been ripped open. His deep brown skin had lost the ghastly gray pallor of death.

I stared at him, knowing that I’d seen him fall. I’d watched him die. “I…I don’t—”

A cool nose brushed my arm, and my head whipped to the side. Vibrant blue eyes set in white fur streaked with red met mine. A shudder shook my entire body. “Delano…?”

His springy imprint brushed against my thoughts. Poppy.

Crying out, I threw my arms around the wolven. Casteel let out a rough laugh as I buried my face in Delano’s neck. I didn’t know how he was here, and I couldn’t stop shaking as I held him, soaking in the feel of his soft fur between my fingers and against my cheek. Kieran’s hand moved up and down my back, and I realized then that I was crying—sobbing really—as I held Delano in a near chokehold. He allowed it, though, wiggling his body as close to mine as he could get. He was alive.

“Poppy,” Casteel whispered, gently tugging on my shoulders. “The man’s got to breathe.”

Reluctantly, I let go, but Delano didn’t go very far as Casteel folded his arms around my waist from behind. I felt his head rest on my shoulder as Kieran swept away the tears on my cheeks with featherlight touches. I looked—

My heart stopped again when I saw Emil standing, the destroyed armor gone and the ragged tear in his shirt made by the spear I’d seen go into his chest all the more visible. He was…he stood next to Hisa, who sat on a low wall, her hands hanging limply between her knees as she stared at me.

“How?” I asked, my voice ragged. “How are they alive?”

“You,” Kieran said.

My brows pinched. “What?”

“You,” Casteel repeated, pressing his lips to my cheek. “You brought them back. All of them.”

“Look.” Kieran touched my chin, turning my head to the ground below the Temple.

What I saw floored me.

Soldiers milled about, avoiding the cracks in the ground. Some sat like Naill and Hisa. But all bore leftover traces of battle. Shredded armor. Torn clothing. Dried blood.

“You passed out,” Casteel said, his forehead pressed to my temple. “And that’s when they came back. All of them. Even the damn guards.”

“It was both the craziest and,”—Kieran’s voice caught—“and the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

“All these little…I don’t know what,” Casteel said, his laugh thick with emotion. “Orbs? Thousands—hundreds of thousands—of them came from the sky. It looked like the stars were falling.”

To speak her name is to bring the stars from the skies…

I stiffened, my head jerking to the Rise where I saw Aurelia and Nithe perched beside Thad. I didn’t see— “Reaver?”

“He took Malec to Iliseeum.”

My heart lurched at the voice I’d heard once before, in Iliseeum. Kieran rocked back, and then I saw Nektas crouched before the altar, his long, black-and-silver-streaked hair falling across bare shoulders and over the distinct pattern of scales in his warm, copper skin.

“How are you wearing pants?” I blurted out.

A silent laugh went through Casteel as he held me tighter. “How, out of everything, is that what you question?”

“If you’d seen Reaver naked as many times as we have,” Kieran muttered, “you’d think that was a valid question, too.”

Nektas’s eyes, with their thin, vertical pupils, fixed on me. “I can manifest clothing if I choose to do so. Reaver is not nearly old enough for that.”

My brows lifted. “He’s not?”

“He may be older than everything you know, but he is still a youngling,” Nektas explained, and my heart twisted, because I thought of his youngling. Jadis. “And to many, he is still Reaver-Butt.”

Reaver-Butt? Casteel stiffened behind me.

“Wait.” Kieran blinked. “What?”

“It was a nickname he liked when he was very young.” Nektas shrugged. “The point is, he’s not powerful enough to manifest clothing.”

I had to let that nickname go for the time being. “I’m sorry about Jadis. I…” I fell silent, wishing there was more to say but knowing there was nothing.

Nektas’s eyes briefly slammed shut, the skin around them tightening. “She has not passed.”

I glanced between Kieran and Casteel. “What? Reaver believed that she had been—” I didn’t want to say killed. “How do you know?”

“I can feel her. She is here, in this realm.” Nektas’s eyes opened to the sky. “I am her father. Reaver would not be able to sense her as I can. She lives.”

Shocked by the revelation, I told myself that this was good news. And it was. It was just…where was she? And why hadn’t Isbeth used her? “We’ll find her.”

Nektas nodded. “We will.”

“Reaver took Malec to Iliseeum?” I asked, glancing at where the casket lay in pieces upon the altar. “That means Malec lives?”

“For now,” Nektas said.

Well, that wasn’t exactly reassuring, but relief washed over me anyway. I leaned into Casteel. “Thank the gods,” I murmured, looking back at Hisa and Emil as Delano lowered to his haunches, pressing against my legs. Wait. I twisted, searching for… “Where’s Malik?” My heart skipped. “Millicent?”

“Millicent ran off,” Casteel explained. “Malik went after her.”

The knowledge that both were alive brought me some comfort. But had Millicent run off because she had witnessed the death of our mother? At my hands? I didn’t think that it was only me who had done that, but did she fear the same would happen to her? Was she upset? Angry?

Swallowing, I shut those thoughts down until I had time to figure them out. “How did I bring everyone…?” It had been my will. I remembered. I’d let my will sweep out from me as the mist cradled their bodies, but I wasn’t the Primal of Life.

“It wasn’t just you who brought them back. You’re not that powerful yet. You had help,” Nektas said, and my gaze shot back to him. “The Primal of Life aided you, and Nyktos captured their souls before they could enter the Vale or the Abyss and then released them.”

“Probably could do without the guards and all of them coming back,” Kieran muttered.

The draken eyed him. “Balance. There must always be balance,” he said. “Especially when the Primal of Life granted such an act as this.”

A shiver rolled through me. “Seraphena—the Consort. She’s the true Primal of Life.”

“She is the heir to the lands and seas, skies and realms,” Nektas said, speaking softly. But the words…they were full of respect, and they reverberated like thunder in my chest. “The fire in the flesh, the Primal of Life, and the Queen of Gods. The most powerful Primal.” He paused. “For now.”

For now?

“How is that possible?” Casteel asked.

“It is a complicated journey to how the Consort became the Primal,” Nektas said, looking at me. “But it started with your great-grandfather, Eythos, when he was the Primal of Life. And his brother, Kolis, the true Primal of Death.”

“Kolis is my great-uncle?” I exclaimed, forgetting the whole for-now part.

Nektas nodded as Emil and Naill drew closer, giving the ancient draken a wide berth as they listened.

“Your family ancestry is even more interesting than I originally believed,” Casteel murmured, and Kieran snorted. “What does he have to do with this?”

“To make a long story short, Kolis fell in love with a mortal. Scared her while she was picking flowers for a wedding. When she ran from him, she fell from—”

“The Cliffs of Sorrow.” My eyes went wide. “Her name was Sotoria, right? That was real? Ian…” I glanced back at Casteel. “Ian told me that story after he Ascended. I thought it was just something he made up.”

“Interesting,” Nektas murmured. “It’s real. Kolis went to Eythos, asking that he bring her back to life. Eythos refused, knowing that restoring life to the dead wasn’t something that should be done often.” His gaze centered on me, and I sort of wanted to crawl into the ground to avoid his knowing stare. “It started a bitter animosity between the brothers, which resulted in Kolis using some sort of magic to steal his brother’s essence—allowing Kolis to become the Primal of Life, and Eythos the Primal of Death. But neither were meant to rule over such things. Kolis couldn’t take all of Eythos’s essence, nor could he erase all of his. An ember of life remained in Eythos, and another ember had been passed onto Nyktos. But Eythos feared that Kolis would discover the ember within Nyktos, so he took it.”

“And placed it in a mortal,” I finished. “In the Consort. That’s why she was only partially mortal.”

Kieran leaned forward. “Then what is Nyktos? I thought he was the Primal of Life and Death.”

“He’s a Primal of Death,” Nektas answered. “But he’s not the true Primal of Death, nor was there ever a Primal of Life and Death. That was a title given to him long after he went to sleep, and not one he would’ve ever answered to.”

“I feel like I need to sit down, except I’m already sitting,” I murmured, and Casteel gently squeezed the back of my neck. So many things that Reaver had and hadn’t said now made sense. “So that’s why her name cannot be spoken? Because she’s the Primal of Life? That’s…bullshit.”

Several pairs of eyes landed on me.

“It is! Everyone is like oh, Nyktos this and Nyktos that, and the whole time, it should have been Seraphena this and Seraphena that. Did Nyktos even make the wolven? Was it even him who met with Elian to calm things after the deities were killed?”

“Nyktos did meet with the Atlantian and the kiyou wolves,” Nektas shared. “But it was the Consort’s essence that gave the wolven life.”

I stared at him for what felt like an eternity. “That’s some sexist, patriarchal bullshit!”

Casteel’s body shook against mine again. “She has a point.”

“She does.” Nektas lifted his chin. “And doesn’t. The Consort is the one who chose it to be this way. For her to remain unknown. Nyktos only honors it because it is as she wishes.”

“But why?” I demanded.

“You know…” Kieran said. “For once, I would also like to know the answer to a question she’s asking.”

I shot him a glare.

“Because of this.” Nektas spread his arms. “Everything Nyktos and the Consort have done. Everything they have sacrificed was to prevent this.”

Alarm bells began ringing inside my head.

Casteel’s amusement quickly faded. “What part of all that just went down is the this you’re referencing?”

The draken zeroed in on Casteel’s tone as his head tilted. “What Kolis did when he stole Eythos’s essence had catastrophic consequences. It prevented any other Primal from being born. The Consort’s Ascension was like a…cosmic restart,” he explained. “But only if a female descendant was born and Ascended would that restart begin anew. And it begins with you and your children if you choose to have them. They will be the first to be born Primal since Nyktos.”

“I…” I started, my head feeling as if it might spin right off my shoulders. “That is a lot.”

“It is.” Casteel’s thumb moved along the curve of my neck. “Why only a female?”

“Because it follows whoever the current Primal of Life is.”

“So if Kolis hadn’t taken Eythos’s essence, and Nyktos had eventually become the Primal of Life as he should have, then Malec and Ires would’ve been Primals?” Casteel reasoned. “But they weren’t because it took a female descendant to be born first?”

Nektas nodded, and I was glad that Casteel understood that because I wasn’t sure I did.

“But what does that have to do with preventing this?” Kieran asked.

Nektas’s gaze shifted to me. “Because what Nyktos and the Consort did to stop Kolis—what balance the Fates demanded—meant there could be no more Primals born. The why behind that, well, there’s not enough time in the realms to go into that,” Nektas said. “But Nyktos was supposed to be the last born Primal, and the Consort would be the last Primal born of mortal flesh. You,” he said quietly, “were never supposed to be.”

“Sorry?” I whispered.

The draken cracked a small grin. It was brief, but I saw it. “The plotting that brought about your creation is not something you should apologize for,” he said, his voice softening. “Malec and Ires were already well on their way to being born by that point. But what was done to stop Kolis meant that Malec and Ires could never risk children. Malec did anyway, but that…that is Malec,” he said with a sigh. “We all got lucky before.”

“Because it meant risking having a daughter.” My skin chilled. “That’s why they stayed in Iliseeum.”

“Until they didn’t.” Nektas’s gaze flicked to the night sky. “They were not forbidden to come here. They were born in this realm. But they were strongly advised against it. The risk was too great. Creating that cosmic restart allowed for what Nyktos and the Consort did to stop Kolis to be undone.”

But we’d stopped it. Malec lived. For now. “Why were they born in the mortal realm?”

“Nyktos and the Consort felt that it was safer that way.”

His answer left me with more questions, but there were far more important ones to ask. “So, I’m what? A loophole?” I said, and Kieran scowled. “One that Isbeth learned about and exploited?” It could’ve been Malec who told her of this or… “Callum. Where is he?”

A growl rumbled through Casteel’s body. “I think he peaced out the moment you called out the Consort’s name.”

“That’s because he knew what it meant.” Nektas’s features had sharpened. “He must be found and dealt with.”

“That is at the top of my list of things to do,” Kieran said.

“Good.” Nektas’s gaze settled back on me. “You are not just a loophole. You’re many things. The Primal of Blood and Bone—the true Primal of Life and Death.” He spoke in the way he had when he’d spoken of the Consort, and the essence hummed through me. “Those two essences have never existed in one. Not in the Consort. Not in Nyktos.”

“Is that a good or a bad thing?” I whispered.

“That is yet to be known.”

Casteel’s arms tightened around me. “We already know that it means something good.”

Nektas eyed him as tiny kernels of unease took root. “Then make sure of it.” He rose with a fluid grace at odds with his size. “Ires? Have you found him?”

Setting the worries aside for another time to stress over, I cleared my throat and ended up dragging my tongue across my fangs again. I winced as I figured it was well past the point I should stand. Rising to my feet, I held back a smile as both Casteel and Kieran held me as if they worried I’d topple over again. “I know where he is.”

“Then take me to him,” Nektas said.

I started to turn when I halted, looking down. Something strange caught my eye. “What is that?”

Kieran toed aside a fallen sword that had fallen on the vines that had grown over the steps. But where most of the vines were dark green in the starlight, this section was the color of ash. Not charred. Just gray. And it had spread from there in thin, dull veins, turning the moss underneath the same lifeless color.

I bent, reaching for a vine, but Casteel caught my hand. “Why,” he asked, golden eyes tired but dancing with amusement, “must you touch everything?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I’m a tactile person?” I said, and one side of his lips tipped up, hinting at a dimple. My fingers curled around empty air. “What do you think this is?”

“Kolis,” Nektas said from behind us. “As I said, what was done to stop him has been undone.”

The three of us faced him, our hearts lurching at the same moment. Casteel’s eyes narrowed. “Malec lives. We stopped what Isbeth planned.”

Nektas’s head cocked. “You stopped nothing.”

My stomach twisted as I suddenly understood what both Callum and Isbeth had meant—why I had sensed that we hadn’t stopped them and were too late. “Kolis was already awake.”

Nektas nodded. “And what was done here tonight freed him.”

“Son of a bitch,” Kieran growled as Casteel’s lips parted.

“You only slowed what was done, preventing Kolis from returning to full, flesh-and-bone power. But he will if left unchecked.” Nektas stared at the ashy vine, his lip curling. “His corruption is already here, tainting the lands. This is why the Primal of Life aided you in restoring life to so many. You will need every one of them if you have any hope of stopping him.”

“Entomb him again?” I asked.

“Kill him.”

My mouth dropped open.

“And exactly how do we do that?” Anger and frustration burned through Casteel. “When it appears that the Primal of Life and Nyktos were unable to do so?”

“If I knew the answer to that, do you think I’d be standing here?” Nektas questioned, and I snapped my mouth shut. Those vertical pupils constricted and then expanded. “Take me to Ires. We must find Jadis. And then, I will need to return to Iliseeum, and you—all of you—must prepare. Kolis is not the only one who has awakened. The Consort and Nyktos no longer sleep. That means the gods will be awakening all across the many Courts of Iliseeum and in the mortal realm, and many of their loyalties do not lie with the Primal of Life. The war you fought hasn’t ended. It has only just begun.”