The Primal of Blood and Bone

Cas and Kieran are found unconscious by Emil Da’ Lahr—an Elemental, another name for an Atlantian—who drags the two back to the bed. Cas and Kieran awaken days later, but Poppy continues to remain in stasis.

Cas knows that Poppy’s Ascension has turned even him and Kieran into Primals because the three of them underwent the Joining. Cas recalls that the colors of the eather surrounding him and Kieran in the previous chapter were different—silver and gold for Kieran, and shadowy and crimson for him. This means that Poppy’s powers of Life and Death may have split between him and Kieran.

Soon, the Crown Guard Commander Hisa Fa’Mar brings news that several Ascended have been found murdered in the wealthy Garden District. She wants Cas to visit the site of the murders. Kieran telepathically senses Cas’s unwillingness to leave Poppy’s side. When he and Cas are alone, Kieran tells Cas, as the King, to step up to his duties as ruler of Solis and Atlantia. The people are scared since the royals have not addressed them since the Blood Crown was overthrown. Forces hostile to Cas and Poppy are taking advantage of their prolonged silence to turn the masses against them: 15,000 mortal soldiers have disavowed those who overthrew the Blood Crown. Cas realizes Kieran is right and tells him to order the execution of the soldiers who are stubborn in their refusal of the new rule. Cas heads to the site where the Ascended were killed.

As Cas rides into the Garden District, he is struck by the grandeur of the area, where the wealthiest Ascended and mortals live in stately mansions with running water and electricity. Such luxuries are unheard-of in most parts of Solis and Atlantia. Naill, a wolven, shows Cas the corpses of the Ascended in the basement of the first murder site, noting that they were killed by being drained of blood. This leaves Cas confused, since the blood of the Ascended—who are vampyry (vampires)—has no value. Further, it is odd that the drained Ascended have not turned into Craven, or bloodthirsty zombies. (In the series, creatures who have been drained of blood without being brought back by the blood of Atlantians or gods turn into the Craven.)

When Emil remarks that the murders are as uncanny as if a spirit floated in and silently drained its victims, Casteel stiffens, suddenly wondering if Kolis, whose soul was freed in The War of Two Queens, could be behind the killings. He orders Hisa to guard the entire city closely.

Back in Poppy’s chambers, Cas calls for Reaver, the draken, to share his suspicions about Kolis. Cas remembers Nektas saying that Kolis did not return to his full flesh and bone form, which means he may be getting by as a shadow being. Reaver confirms that the scent of dead lilacs in the homes of the murdered is suggestive of the True Primal of Death (Kolis). Reaver suggests that Poppy alone can end Kolis, but doesn’t explain further, frustrating Cas.

In her dream-stasis state, a voice intrudes in Poppy’s dreams. The voice belongs to an exquisite-looking golden creature, whose perfect looks hide rot. The being shows Poppy visions of a golden cage and fills her with agony. He promises to take away Poppy’s pain if she lets him possess her. Poppy resists and she remembers “his” (Cas’s) voice, which would never manipulate her the way this being is attempting. Poppy focuses on the truthful voice, realizes the being is Kolis, the great deceiver, and tells him she will never let him win.

As Poppy fights with Kolis in stasis, her skin turns clammy. Keiran sits next to her, wiping her skin with a towel. He and Cas disguise their worry over Poppy by bickering with each other. Delano, a wolven very close to Poppy, calls them outside urgently. The two rush out and look where Delano is pointing through the window. Cas’s blood runs cold as he realizes that it is evening, and yet the sun is rising in the west. He and Kieran remember the final verse of the prophecy of the Ancients: “Beware, for the end will come from the west to destroy the east and lay waste to all which lies between” (93). Cas projects his fear and anger on Kieran, asking the wolven to stay away from his room.

With all her power, Poppy forces her eyes to open. Cas is delighted to see Poppy awake, and offers that she feed from him to regain her strength (Unlike the Ascended, a manufactured life form, Atlantians and gods naturally partake of each other’s blood to renew their life force). However, Poppy barely recognizes Cas and rises in a defensive crouch, eager to leave the room.

Kolis’s voice in her head asks her to attack Cas. Poppy feels a cold rage against Cas. Kolis intensifies the rage by evoking a vision of Poppy’s old guardian, Duke Teerman of Masadonia, before her. (In From Blood and Ash, 2020, the first book of the series, Teerman sadistically punished Poppy).

Poppy is transported into Duke Teerman’s castle, where the aristocrat used to strip and cane her. Alarmed by the memory, Poppy attacks Cas, who restrains her. When the embrace turns sexual, Poppy begins to remember intimate moments with Cas, and begins to feed from his throat. She nearly comes back to herself till Kolis’s voice urges her to drain Cas of life. Poppy’s feeding grows frenzied, eather streaming out of her. Reaver crashes into the room and yanks Poppy off Cas.

Enraged at Reaver for throwing Poppy against the wall, Cas attacks the draken. Reaver tells Cas that he doesn’t intend to hurt Poppy permanently, but she needs to be stopped because there is something off about her. Reaver’s words make Cas queasy, since he sensed the change in her when she fed from him. Her eyes too have changed, their irises now containing a multitude of colors, including shadowy crimson.

Kieran races into the room. Reaver tells him and Cas to take a good look at Poppy, who is clearly not herself. She has Kolis inside her. Cas recoils at the words. He also notices that Kieran is in the room, despite Cas’s request that he stay out. Cas knows Kieran could not have sensed that he was in danger, since Cas was shutting him out (as Cas’s bonded wolven, Kieran can usually sense Cas’s feelings; the telepathy has intensified since the Joining with Poppy).

Before Kieran can answer Cas’s question, Poppy changes back to her usual self and tells Cas she summoned the wolven. It is revealed that Poppy sought a promise from Kieran that he would stop her if she ever went out of control. When Cas learns that the mechanism of stopping Poppy is to put her in deep stasis under the ground for centuries, he grows incensed at Kieran.

As Poppy changes back to Kolis, Reaver knocks her out. The group discuss what to do about Poppy next, stumped for answers. Kieran reminds Cas that the silver lining is that Poppy did not truly harm any of them even though she could. This indicates she is fighting the Kolis within her.

Cas asks Reaver if he can reach Seraphena (Consort of Nyktos, the King of the Gods, and Poppy’s paternal grandmother) for answers. Reaver agrees to go to Ileesium (the home of the gods). Meanwhile, Poppy must be placed somewhere where the others are safe from her.

Cas hates the idea of confining Poppy, but agrees. He asks Kieran to arrange for a cell for Poppy, after which he doesn’t want to see the wolven again. Kieran agrees, but reminds Cas to reflect on why Poppy asked Kieran, and not Cas himself, to stop her.

Kolis shows Poppy apocalyptic visions of a blood-soaked ground and sobbing masses on their knees. She wakes up and tells Cas in Kolis’s cold voice that he will kill everyone whom Cas cares about. Kolis also says that Cas reminds him of someone else, a “fool” who also loved “her.”

Unable to make sense of Kolis’s words, Cas says he is going to do what he did to Teerman (Cas tortured and killed the duke for what he did to Poppy). As Cas rises menacingly over Poppy’s form, Kolis withdraws and Poppy comes back as herself. She asks Cas not to come too close to her as Kolis may take over again.

Cas calls Emil to gather intel on Kolis. Millicent, Poppy’s sister, must be found as she knows the ways of Kolis and the Revenants working for him (Millicent, a Revenant herself, went missing from the battleground after Poppy killed Isbeth).

Cas’s brother, Malik, shows up in the hallway outside the cell, accompanied by Emil and Delano. Malik tells Cas that Millicent is still missing. Cas apprises Malik of the situation with Poppy.

Suddenly, a ball of light appears in the hallway, signifying an opening between the realms. An unknown Primal god, with a distinctive resemblance to Malik and Cas, steps out of the light. The Primal is Attes (the ancient God of War and Accord, a character from the spin-off Flesh and Fire series). Attes tells Cas that Reaver sought him out for help with Poppy.

Cas is guarded and snappy with Attes. Ignoring Cas’s attitude, Attes tells the group that Kolis is a very powerful god, and killing him is bound to end the vessel (Poppy). Kolis can only be expelled from Poppy’s body and that, too, only by a Primal. Kieran and Cas must search Poppy’s body for a mark Kolis must have left on her. Attes will then burn away the mark with draken blood.

Attes, Cas, and Kieran enter Poppy’s cell. Attes is surprised to see Poppy’s resemblance to Seraphena. However, Cas senses there is another element to Attes’s surprise, almost as if Poppy also resembled someone else whom Attes knew (this refers to Sotoria). Cas and Kieran lift Poppy’s garments to study her skin, hating themselves for doing something that feels like a violation. They find a mark between Poppy’s breasts, a red circle bisected by an off-center diagonal, the sign of Death and Kolis.

Attes drops the draken blood from a basalt vial on the mark, which turns out to be made of circling serpents. Cas grabs the serpents and flings them against a wall, shattering them into smoke. Kolis exits Poppy’s body in a foul-smelling crimson and black mist and disperses out from under the door. Attes tells them this is not Kolis’s soul, or aru’lis, but his ve’lla, “the eather that is an extension of his will” (237). This means Kolis has grown powerful enough for his ve’lla to travel.

Attes asks Cas for a private word. The god tells Cas that he can see from their obvious physical resemblance and shared impulsiveness that Cas is from his bloodline. Since Kolis knows Attes’s weaknesses well, he will probably sense them in Cas and try to use them against the Atlantian king. Cas should therefore not let his temper get the better of him.

Several days pass since Attes’s visit. Poppy continues to sleep. Poppy remembers scenes from her childhood, the night her beloved adoptive parents, Leopold and Coralena, tried to escape Solis with Poppy and her adopted brother, Ian. Leo tells the young Poppy that she is named Penellaphe, since the goddess was a friend of his mother. Leo’s statement and a few other clues from Poppy’s childhood memory suggest to the dreaming, grown-up Poppy that Leo may be none other than Ires, Poppy’s biological father. As Leo and Poppy converse, Cora comes in, asking her family to hurry as someone unexpected has turned up (the Balfour family’s escape was interrupted when a bunch of Craven attacked them).

As Poppy’s dream turns into a nightmare, she cries out. Meanwhile, Reaver comes to Poppy’s chambers, telling Cas she needs to be awakened immediately as Poppy’s presence is necessary to rouse Jadis (the daughter of Nektas, the first sentient draken created by Ethyos), as well as to stop the carnage in the realm; more Ascended have been found murdered.

An angry Cas tells Reaver that he has tried everything to awaken Poppy, but it has been in vain. Cas and Reaver come to blows till Malik, Cas’s brother, interrupts the fight. Malik tells Cas that the southern town of Pensdurth has rejected Cas’s claim to the crown of Solis and pled allegiance to the one true king, or Kolis.

Cas tells Malik to have Kieran send soldiers to Pensdurth to give the new duke, Eldric Ashwood, the chance to surrender peacefully. Cas feels guilty for Poppy’s weakened state because he feels the Joining made her spread her eather between her, Cas, and Kieran, her energy healing the other two whenever they were hurt. This means Poppy was particularly weak during her Ascension—which is already a vulnerable time for gods—the weakness creating an opening for Kolis to possess her. An agonized Cas whispers his apologies to the sleeping Poppy, begging her to return.

Cas worries over the chaotic state of affairs in Atlantia. Kolis is still at large, while bands of Craven are roaming the Blood Forest. Cas’s father, Valyn, has taken a regiment to the forest to deal with the fell creatures. Kieran and Cas are still not talking.

A beleaguered Cas decides to pray aloud to Poppy’s grandmother, Sera, begging the Queen of the Gods to bring Poppy back. A brilliant light floods the chamber and Cas knows Seraphena has answered his prayers.

Poppy finds herself in a meadow of wildflowers, where she glimpses a woman who looks like her, picking poppies. This woman (Sotoria, though Poppy does not know it yet) tells Poppy to return to Cas as “the other,” or Kolis, is almost there. As the woman disappears, the landscape turns windy and malevolent, and Kolis closes in on Poppy. However, a golden light pushes him back and Seraphena’s voice commands Poppy to wake up. Poppy awakens, showing no signs of Kolis, much to Cas’s relief.

Poppy’s memory returns, Cas featuring prominently in them as her husband and the first male whom she kissed. She feels overwhelmed with love for Cas, but is surprised not to find Kieran in her chambers. Cas promises to explain later.

Poppy feeds from Cas and their embrace turns sexual. The two flirt and touch each other intimately, expressing their love. Poppy looks at her eyes in the mirror and is shocked to see that they contain a multitude of colors.