74 pages • 2-hour read
The Primal of Blood and Bone
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Chapters 41-50Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section contains discussion of graphic violence, explicit sex, emotional abuse, and sexual violence.
Chapter 41 Summary: “Poppy”
Poppy finds herself drawn again to the glass wall. Delano breaks her reverie, telling her he sensed her mood through the notam (magical mark). Poppy and Delano have a heartfelt talk, Poppy expressing gratitude to the wolven for watching over her. She gives him the bloodstone dagger Vikter gifted her, knowing it was carved from the bones of Delano’s slain sister, Preela (Malik’s bonded wolven). As Delano leaves, Poppy has a vision of his white wolven fur streaked with blood.
Meanwhile, Cas tells Poppy they must go to the Garden District, where Malik and Helenea have discovered something interesting. The interesting development turns out to be a group of Ascended who are rebels against the Blood Crown. While it is widely believed that an Ascended cannot survive without mortal blood, this group—who call themselves the Unbound—have made a conscious choice to live off the blood of animals. The Unbound do not partake in any of the cruel practices of the Ascended ever since they discovered the blood from mortals and Atlantians hoarded in Oak Ambler, a town in Solis. They also know that after the last Rite, orders were given to drain all third-born children in Solis, one of them being the youngest sister of Helenea.
Chapter 42 Summary: “Poppy”
The Unbound tell the others that they swear an oath to each other to walk under the sun and die if they are unable to sate their blood lust with animal blood alone. Poppy thinks it requires tremendous courage to sacrifice oneself for one’s principles. Ian, Poppy’s adopted brother, was an Unbound, a thought which fills Poppy with immense relief.
In light of the discovery of the Unbound, Helenea and Malik believe all Ascended must be given the choice to live on in this state before being culled. Poppy and Cas agree to consider sparing the Unbound, but first Poppy needs to visit the Hawleys, the Ascended couple who, according to the Unbound, ordered the last Rite and the stockpiling of blood.
Cas, Poppy, Malik, and Delano visit the sprawling windowless mansion of the Hawleys, sickened by the lavish wealth on display. They interrupt the couple, who are engaged in loud lovemaking. Lady Hawley defiantly pledges her loyalty to Kolis and tells Poppy that Isbeth is not really dead, as “No one truly dies now” (970). Isbeth had grand plans for Poppy, wanting her to sit by Kolis’s side, but Poppy will now serve under his feet. Poppy promises Lady Hawley she never plans to serve anyone again, and burns the lady away with her eather. Delano and Malik kill Lord Hawley.
Chapter 43 Summary: “Poppy”
Cas summons what he has termed the “shadow council” for a vote on the issue of the Ascended. The council including the three royals, Malik, Delano, Reaver, and Tawny, among others. Cas and Kieran both do not care enough about the Ascended to give them a choice, which angers Poppy. Poppy realizes Cas and the others are suspicious of the Ascended because they have suffered terribly under them. (Cas was tortured for decades during his imprisonment by the Blood Crown). Meanwhile, she wants to give the Ascended a choice because of Ian being an Unbound. In the end, Cas and Kieran agree to Poppy’s point of view.
When Tawny is left alone with Poppy, she demands to know what her friend is keeping from her. Poppy confides in Tawny about her link to the legend of Sotoria.
Chapter 44 Summary: “Poppy”
Reaver brings news of the return of Thad and Valyn. Poppy, Cas, and Kieran meet the returned soldiers in a great circular hall, shunning the show of obsequiousness the Blood Crown had demanded.
It turns out that Valyn’s party encountered a huge army near Pensdurth. Thad burned down half of the Pensdurth forces before he was shot down. Thad is badly injured, but healing. Most of the mortals of Pensdurth and nearby areas have been turned into Craven. The most shocking reveal is that the Ascended and Revenants of Pensdurth are being aided by 250 gods loyal to Kolis. Valyn encountered Varus, one of the gods, who warned him that they would soon be hearing from Kolis himself.
Chapter 45 Summary: “Poppy”
After Valyn’s report, Poppy tells Cas that they need to speak to him in private. Once they are alone, Poppy explains that her godhood enabled her to sense that Valyn’s essence is not Atlantian. Valyn confesses that he was born in Ileesium, with his father being Elian, Attes’s son. Valyn is a demigod, though being in the mortal realm for so long has weakened his eather. Cas is stunned to learn that Attes is no distant relative, but his great-grandfather. Valyn apologizes for keeping Cas in the dark for so long. Poppy knows that even though Cas appears nonchalant, he is angry at not being told of his ancestry.
Elian never discussed Attes much with Valyn, except to tell him that Attes had angered the Fates by tinkering with his bloodline. The statement rings a bell for Poppy, connected somehow to the prophecy about her, but she cannot yet understand its full meaning.
After Cas and Kieran leave to tell Malik about his connection to Attes, Valyn draws Poppy aside to confide the full message given by Varus: Poppy must return to Kolis’s side or be prepared to serve beneath him.
Chapter 46 Summary: “Casteel”
Cas teleports to a lonely spot in Carsodonia to vent his anger, and discovers Kieran has been quietly shadowstepping behind him. Cas accuses Kieran of stalking him, but Kieran coolly replies that he just wanted to be available in case Cas wanted to discuss the reveal about his bloodline. Kieran warns Cas that he must explain his anger against Kieran to Poppy before Cas runs out of time. Kieran’s mysterious words fill Cas with a strange dread.
Cas returns to the Solar, where he finds Poppy soaking in the tub. Poppy returns to their earlier conversation about Cas finding it difficult to make love to her as she has Sotoria’s soul. To prove to Poppy that her fears are completely unfounded, Cas makes intense love to her. As they climax, Cas hears Kieran’s words in his head again, wondering why they sounded like a premonition.
Chapter 47 Summary: “Poppy”
Poppy again brings up with Cas her urgent need to battle Kolis in Pensdurth. Cas argues that Poppy should not go alone. Sera’s assumption about him and Kieran being weak before Kolis is unfounded, as Cas, Kieran, and Poppy are a new class of gods, their powers yet unknown. Cas has a feeling that the three of them are stronger together. Moreover, Cas does not believe that Poppy is Kolis’s weakness, as Kolis does not behave like a man in love. Poppy and Cas remain at a stalemate, hugging and kissing each other to tide over the uncomfortable topic of Poppy going to Pensdurth alone.
Later, Poppy is awoken from sleep by her worries about Cas’s refusal to let her take on Kolis by herself. She must find a way to kill the True Primal of Death. Driven by a hunch that Kolis may be using an Ascended or a Revenant to spy on her and Cas, Poppy shadowsteps to the Cliffs. As she suspected, a young Revenant is spying on Wayfair from a vantage point. Poppy rushes to him, breaking his body as if it were a puppet. Spotting Kolis in the eyes of the Revenant, Poppy calls to him. A voice speaks out from the Revenant, addressing Poppy as Sotoria.
Chapter 48 Summary: “Poppy”
Poppy tells Kolis not to call her Sotoria, but the form of the Revenant grins and says the names are one and the same. Poppy realizes that Sotoria is a contraction of “my pretty flower” in Old Atlantian. Through the Revenant, Kolis taunts Poppy with disgusting revelations: It was he who controlled Duke Teerman, Poppy’s tormentor. After Poppy entered puberty, Teerman would often feed from her private parts while she slept.
Seized with fury, Poppy attacks Kolis. Though Poppy manages to stab the Revenant, Kolis gains on her. Attes materializes on the scene and throws Kolis off Poppy. Poppy insists on finishing the job herself and burns up the Revenant with her eather, much as she burnt away Lady Hawley.
Meanwhile, Cas shadowsteps to the Cliffs. Attes chides Cas for not looking after his wife, and refers to Cas as “boy.” As Attes and Cas bicker, Poppy returns to the Solar.
Chapter 49 Summary: “Casteel”
Cas has been brought up to respect his elders, but Attes annoys him too much, especially because of his obvious transfixion with Poppy. However, Cas keeps his annoyance aside as he discusses war strategy with Attes, Poppy, Kieran, and the others.
Attes explains that love is Kolis’s weakness, making Kolis lose control around those he loves, such as Ethyos (Kolis’s brother and the father of Nyktos) and Sotoria. Love was also the undoing of Callum, the first Revenant (also Isbeth’s close associate). Callum was Sotoria’s brother. After Callum killed himself to save his sister, Kolis resurrected him and made him his henchman. Lacking a soul, Callum nearly forgot his love for Sotoria.
Cas interrupts Attes by asking the god his reason for constantly staring at Poppy. Attes replies that Poppy reminds him of Sotoria, who was his friend.
Chapter 50 Summary: “Poppy”
Poppy reflects on Attes’s admission after the meeting. She is not sure the god was telling the whole truth. She shelves the questions for now since she and Cas are to address the citizens of Carsodonia from the balcony of the Sun Temple (dedicated to Sera).
Cas, Poppy, Kieran, and the rest of the company step into the balcony, looking at the thousands of mortals gathered in the streets below. Although Poppy had not wanted them to, the crowd bows before her and Cas in a mixture of awe and fear.
Kieran, Cas, and Poppy sense a new, unpleasant scent in the air. Suddenly, a black carriage comes clattering down the street, parting the crowds to halt in the courtyard. A woman in red emerges from the carriage, none other than Isbeth, the Blood Queen herself.
Chapters 41-50 Analysis
The Importance and Inevitability of Change is a key theme in these chapters, illustrated by the discussion between Helenea and the royals following the discovery of the Unbound. Helenea stresses that the Atlantians and the Descenters (rebels of Solis) should not view all Ascended as evil just because that has been their dominant worldview. This suggests that there could be a new, and healthier, way for these groups to relate to one another.
Helenea even presents a new political model for Atlantia, as practiced by the Descenters, where “we deliberate, vote, and then act upon the will of the majority as a whole” (959). Cas recognizes this as democracy. Though Malik stresses that Atlantians practice civic rule, where the king and the queen carry out the will of the people, the introduction of the concept of absolute democracy indicates that even that model may be outmoded. Perhaps, Helenea’s account suggests, the time has come for an inevitable change of the world order, where the very concept of kings and queens may need to evolve.
This section pits Poppy’s will against Cas’s protectiveness, reflecting Love as Both Sanctuary and Burden Under Pressure. Though Poppy’s well-being is always Cas’s chief concern, his concern can sometimes be stifling for Poppy, as evident in their argument over Poppy’s solo journey to Pensdurth. Cas’s protectiveness can also make Poppy feel she is incapable of handling matters on her own, which is why she heads to the Cliffs alone in Chapter 47.
For his part, Cas has additional difficulty handling Poppy’s decision about Pensdurth because his hunch tells him that their knowledge about Kolis is incomplete. Cas rightly guesses that their battle plan against Kolis is based on past patterns, but things have changed. The very fact that he, Poppy, and Kieran are an unprecedented class of Primals shows that no one, not even Sera or the Fates, can tell what they are capable of. Instead of relying on the knowledge of the old order, Cas and Poppy need to act out of their own value-system, which is that they are stronger together.
Visiting the Cliffs herself is Poppy’s declaration of her agency and power. When she zips past a meadow with preternatural speed, she notes that she moves “faster than [she]’d seen Casteel move” (1069). The comparison to Cas indicates that Poppy is subconsciously asserting her power in reference to him. She revels in her own strength, describing herself as an “arrow unleashed” (1069), and delights at how she takes the Revenant by surprise.
Poppy’s encounter with Kolis, who has possessed the Revenant, circles back to the motif of sexual threats and violence as an instrument of patriarchal control. Just as Poppy shows her supreme strength to Kolis, and takes pride in her selfhood, he suggests to her that she was sexually violated by him and Duke Teerman. The suggested violation is not made explicit, but it is possible that Teerman sunk his fangs near Poppy’s genitals and drank her blood. Kolis deliberately emphasizes the lasciviousness of the act, telling Poppy, “Watching your sweet flesh bleed was quite…arousing” (1077). The sexual threat of his words has the desired effect: The implied trauma brings up ugly memories for Poppy, making her feel disgusted and weak. Kolis’s modus operandi shows how sexual violence has little to do with desire or sex, but instead works as a systemic tool of control.
The group’s visit to the Hawleys illustrates the text’s symbolism and imagery around the nexus between unfair wealth and cruelty. Since the Hawleys—acolytes of Kolis—represent absolute moral corruption, they are associated with graphic, extreme images of luxury, such as a chandelier dripping with real rubies and emeralds. In the context of the obscene display of wealth, even consensual sex, usually a positive, life-giving force in the novel, is depicted as depraved.
Apart from gold and glittering gemstones, the Hawleys are also associated with the color red, highlighting the color symbolism of the novel. Red is an ambiguous color in the text, depicting life-giving blood and sex on the one hand, and violence and cruelty on the other. Lady Hawley’s lips are described as painted in red, while later, when Isbeth makes a grand entrance, Poppy notes that she wears dark-red boots, her lips are a bright red, and a ruby glitters in her nostril.
Poppy’s dreams constitute an important reflection of Prescribed Destiny Versus Personal Agency. Ever since she woke from stasis, Poppy often finds herself sleepwalking to the window facing the Cliffs of Sorrow—from where Sotoria fell to her death—almost in a trance. The repetitive nature of this exercise is tied to the text’s motif of doubles, as is Poppy’s resemblance to red-haired Sotoria. While the motif of doubles illustrates shared experiences, it also indicates the danger of being stuck in a loop and repeating time. It is only when Poppy decides to head to the Cliffs that she manages to break the cycle of destiny and chart her own course.
The Unbound also develop the pan-series element of Ascended with a conscience. Previously, in The War of Two Queens, Poppy noted that her adopted brother Ian, an Ascended, showed her love and concern. The fact that many Ascended—as many as 20%—are ready to die rather than drink mortal blood shows the importance of choice. An Ascended’s bloodlust is revealed to be not inevitable as believed, but conquerable. Thus, violence is not a default for any life-form.
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