"I only stabbed him...a few times"
Book Two of Blood and Ash series. Recap for Book 1 here.
Important New Characters and Information
Landell - A Wolven who talked trash and threatened Poppy. Cas rips his heart out in front of everyone in the dining hall.
Dante - A Wolven who questioned how Cas could marry Poppy. Later, goes out with Delano to check the fires, and gets killed.
Alastir - King and Queen’s Advisor. Father to Shea, Uncle to Gianna. Seems very nice and friendly, Poppy likes him. But always opening his mouth and telling her things he shouldn’t to try and get her and Cas to break up.
Shea - Cas’s first love. Betrayed Cas and Malik, Cas killed her.
Gianna - Alastir tells Poppy that Cas is “promised” to her when they get home but it isn’t true.
Naill - An Altantian. Close friend of Cas and Kieran.
Delano - A Wolven, also close friend.
Emil Da’Lahr - An Atlantian. Another close friend, but Cas frequently wants to kick his ass.
Malek - Queen Eloana’s first husband. He is the one who started this mess and created the first vampry, Isbeth.
Isbeth - The first vampry. Location - Unknown with Malek.
Coulton - A Wolven who reacts to Poppy’s touch but doesn’t seem afraid of her.
Lord Chaney - An Ascended Royal Guard who comes looking for Poppy, kidnaps her, and later is murdered by her.
Vonnetta - Kieran’s sister. Helps Poppy get ready for her wedding day.
Jasper - Kieran and Vonnetta’s dad. Head of the Wolven.
Queen Eloana - Cas and Malik’s mom. She overthrew Malek when she found out what he did with Isbeth.
King Valyn - Cas and Malik’s dad.
Malik - Cas’s brother. Is being held by the Ascended and being used to make more Ascended through the Ascension process.
Wivern - Atlantian blood line of two worlds. mortal and animal. Large cave cats. Died off
Ceeren - Water folk
Draken - dragon bloodline. Legend is that they died and some were left to protect the sleeping gods.
Senturion - multiple old bloodlines with warriors who were born, not trained. With one line being the
Empaths, what Cas believes Poppy is descended from.
Side note: Deities created elementals and most warrior lines. Some elementals rose up and created an uprising. Many deities, warriors, and elementals died. Last deity was King Malek, who created the first vampry, King Malek was the son of two ancient deities.
Recap
We open up where we left off - at dinner where Cas has just announced that they are going back to Atlantia to get married. Poppy, rightfully so, is like wtf no we are not.
A Wolven, Landell, also questions wtf Cas is doing. Cas is letting him speak his piece until he insulted and threatened Poppy and then Cas jumps up, pins him against the wall, and RIPS HIS HEART RIGHT OUT OF HIS FUCKING CHEST.
The King and Queen's advisor, Alastir Davenwell, shows up.
Kieran tells Poppy that everyone else, literally everyone else, should fear Cas but she will never have to fear him.
Poppy tries to escape later that night, she gets pretty far but Kieran and Cas catch up to her. Cas tells her if she can best him in a fight, she can win her freedom, so they spar. Then Craven show up and they fight them together. Poppy realizes she’s being dumb because she can’t escape on her own with the Craven, so she goes back with him willingly.
Poppy is locked in her room, Delano standing guard, Poppy is mad and ranting and raving but in her thoughts, Delano comes running in and said he heard her screaming his name and for help. She said “not externally”.
Kieran tells Poppy about Elemental bloodlines and assumes she is from one but unsure of which. Elemental bloodline -blood is purely Atlantian, can be traced back to the earliest known ones, created by the gods.Cas is elemental. Changelings (able to shift form into whatever they want) and Wolvens are different bloodlines but he assumes she isn’t one of them. Cas explains to Poppy that he wants to marry her to ensure her safety with his people and to help her get free of the Ascended. His people will (hopefully) not attempt to kill her if she is his fiancee and he reveals she is part-Atlantian. And the Ascended will not be able to turn on her without destroying all the lies they’ve told their kingdom about her being Chosen by the gods. He thinks that with her, he will be able to get an audience with the Queen of Solis, to negotiate the release of his brother and he wants some of their land back. Once he has his brother back, he won’t let the current King and Queen of Solis live. And when everything is done, he will grant her a divorce, if that's what she wants. He tells her he won’t force her. If she refuses he will find another way to rescue his brother and to help her get free from the Ascended and save from his people. That kind of makes up her mind. She agrees to marry him if he helps her free Ian. Also - she wants a diamond, a real big one.
Alastir does not believe that Poppy and Cas are being truthful. He offers Poppy help to escape if she is being held against her will but she declines.
Poppy and Kieran are in the library when Poppy finds a very old book with Atlantian records in it. She notices some words that she doesn’t know and asks Kieran. He comes over and accidentally brushes his arm against hers. He hissed and put several feet in between them. Poppy is like wtf is wrong with you, and he says when their skin touched, he felt an electric shock. Cas says he freaked out because Wolven can lose control of their forms when they come into contact with electricity.
Lord Chaney and a bunch of Royal Knights show up. They say they are looking for the Lord of the village but then admit they are there because they heard the Maiden was brought there. Poppy and Cas are hiding in the woods while Elijah tries to deal with them. One of the knights kills a dude and Lord Chaney orders a knight to grab a young boy by the neck. Cas emerges from the trees then and there’s a fight. Cas had dropped Poppy's dagger for her before he ran out, she grabs it, and takes off after the knight who has the boy. She kills him, tells the boy to run, and takes on another knight. Then Chaney shows up with the boy again. Poppy lies and says oh thank god you’re here to save me. She agrees to drop the dagger if he lets the boy go. She drops it and is knocked out by another guard she didn’t know was behind her.
She wakes up in Chaney’s carriage. Poppy tries to keep up the act that she doesn’t know what is going on, she is so glad they rescued her, all while she thinks about how she is going to escape. Chaney has been injured and it's making him not think very clearly. He tells Poppy he just needs “a little sip”. They tumble around in the carriage until he traps her and bites her. At first, the pain is too much and she froze. Then the carriage jerks and Chaney falls off of her. He bites her again but she remembers she isn’t that little helpless girl anymore. She still has the steak knife she stole from the keep and she starts stabbing him, repeatedly. She feels the carriage door being ripped off and cold, murderous rage, flying in. Then Chaney is gone but she can’t stop fighting until she hears “Princess”.
Cas takes her back to the keep and gives her more of his blood to help her heal. When she awakes, they talk, civilly. She finds out that Chaney did not let the boy go, but snapped his neck. Four were killed and more wounded. She jumps up and says she wants to help them, to ease their pain.
Cas shows her what is now in the courtyard where she bled - a Blood Tree. Not one that looks like it was just planted, but one that looks like it's been there for decades. He says people think it's a sign that the gods are watching even though they are sleeping.
She helps ease the pain of a few. One man refuses her touch - she reaches out and senses hatred from him. Another woman tells her she doesn’t need to help her daughter, she knows it's too late. Then tells her that she had heard stories about the Maiden helping the cursed find dignity but she didn’t believe it. She also says “You are a second daughter”.
Alastir is shocked and says that some might not trust her because some of the Empath Warriors were called Soul Eaters because they could siphon off people's energies and steal their life.
Poppy tells Cas that “that woman” in the Red Pearl also had told Poppy that she was a second daughter. Cas is confused, doesn’t know who she is talking about. Poppy says that woman you had send me to your room. He doesn’t know what she is talking about.Then he takes her into a pantry, and asks her if they could just pretend for a bit. He just needs her and can’t they just pretend that he is Hawke and she is Poppy? They make out for a bit.
He tells her he has a gift for her and takes her to where he has Lord Chaney chained to a wall, still alive. Kieran is there with him, he had ripped out his tongue because he was annoying. Cas hands Poppy her wolven dagger and she uses it to murder Lord Chaney.
Poppy asks Kieran about the bond. Kieran tells her that he knows when Cas is injured, because he got sick. When Cas was held and tortured, Kieran could no longer walk, and no amount of food or water could help ease his thirst or keep weight on him. Cas was held for 5 decades, and Kieran was sick the entire time.
“The bond is an oath that requires that I obey him and protect him, even at the cost of my own life. Nothing alive today supersedes those bonds.”
Kieran takes Poppy down to the cave where all the names they've lost to the Ascended are carved and Poppy carves the Tulis’ names.
Poppy has a nightmare where she sees her mom covered in blood. Cas is sleeping next to her and soothes her (and fingers her) back to sleep. They do this annoying thing where they’re like “lets just pretend” “this isn’t real” which is annoying because we all know that they have real feelings.
The next day, they set off for Spessa’s End. Poppy is super quiet which Cas is questioning why. She says it's because she doesn’t know how to act. As the Maiden she had to be a certain way and she has to make everyone believe that she and Cas are together, she doesn’t know how to act. He reassures her that she just needs to act like herself. No one would believe that Cas would fall for the Maiden but for the feisty, mouthy, stab you in the heart girl - that's the one for him.
While traveling, they get attacked by the Dead Bones Clan. They shoot Cas with like 4 arrows, which only annoys him. Poppy ends up killing the leader - with a dagger to the under-chin.
They pass through what is left of Pompay which is just burnt buildings and graves upon graves. Cas and Kieran said that the Ascended destroyed the town by either killing everyone or turning them into Cravens. And that it took some time but Cas and Kieran buried everyone.
Cas starts acting weird towards Poppy because she questions how he can be around her when she represents the Ascended and they have destroyed so many things close to him. Instead of reassuring her, he just goes all weird and quiet.
They finally make it to Spessa’s End and Poppy discovers that Cas has been relocating some Atlantians there to try and solve the land issue. They are greeted by two young Wolven - Quentyn and Beckett. Quentyn shows them to their room and Cas leaves with a “get some rest Poppy”. Poppy wakes up cuddling with Cas. When she attempts to move, he wakes up, but he isn’t himself. His pupils are huge and he doesn’t appear to know who he is, or who she is. He puts his hand around her throat and she tries to fight him off, she grabs her dagger and holds it to his throat, but doesn’t make a move to use it. He ends up going down on her, which to be clear, she is perfectly okay with. He doesn’t force himself on her. She screams … in a good way. And Kieran bursts through the door. Cas, still not himself, starts growling at him. Kieran tells Poppy that when Cas lunges for him, she needs to run. Poppy was like fuck that I don’t run. She tries to reach Cas again, she touches his arm, and wills all happy thoughts through. Just like she would if she was trying to ease someone’s pain and says “it's okay Hawke”. This seems to reach him, he closes his eyes, bows his head, and then opens his eyes and says “Honeydew. I’m sorry.” and he leaves.
Kieran stays with Poppy and wants to know if Cas hurt her or forced himself on her. He tells her that Cas hasn’t been feeding off any Atlantians. She asks why and he’s like that's the question isn’t it?
Kieran tells her that Cas cares for her and that's why he is doing all of this. If he didn’t care, he would have just compelled her and stuck with the original plan. Cas had told him that he felt like he knew Poppy after only talking with her a few times, Poppy says she felt the same, and Kieran thinks he knows why - because they’re heartmates.
Kieran tells her the reason Cas hasn’t fed is because once an Atlantian cares for someone, it feels wrong to feed from someone else. Poppy decides she is going to offer herself up as a snack. If Cas ever comes back.
Alastir comes to visit. Makes Poppy question lots of things. Like why didn’t Cas tell her about Spessa’s End sooner? Did he think she was going to run back to the Ascended and tell them?
He also tells her about The Joining. She doesn’t know what that is so he explains that when an elemental (Cas) is bonded to a wolven (Kieran) and that elemental gets married, the bond can be extended to the partner. Not only would the wolven also be extremely protective of the partner, but his lifespan would be linked with the mortal. So Poppy could live as long as Kieran. But the joining requires sharing of blood between all 3 of them, and sharing of blood usually leads to sex. Alastir also tells her, after she asks, that Malek did not attempt to Join Isbeth and his wolven because the wolven would have refused, and he knows that, because it was him.
Poppy offers herself to Cas for dinner. He hesitates, then says he will only do it if Kieran is there to make sure he stops. Poppy gets a wee bit embarrassed since she just learned about the Joining. Things get heated, Kieran has Cas stop, and he leaves. Cas and Poppy hook up and then they cuddle.
He takes her to see the real Spessa’s End. They go to the stables, there’s a Wolven there, Coulton, and he takes a step back from Poppy and looks shocked. When Cas asks him what's wrong he says he felt a static charge (Remember, he isn’t the first Wolven to say this), and when Poppy shakes his hand, he feels it again. Cas teaches her to ride a horse by herself while riding into the town. and she meets Kieran's sister, Vonnetta.
Beckett gets hurt while in his Wolven form. Both legs were broken. Poppy wanted to help ease his pain so he could switch back to his mortal form while someone was getting the healer. She put her hands on him and they started to glow, she healed his legs. Lots of people saw and were in shock, awe, and scared.
Cas tells Poppy that Spessas End is technically Atlantia soil so they can marry here before they leave. He is worried that people will start to think she is a Soul Eater and will do something stupid but they would definitely hesitate if she was married to him. He said they need rings and an officiant, someone who is the Leader of one of the bloodlines. Alastir doesn’t speak for the Wolven but Jasper does and he’ll be there tomorrow. Alastir tries to talk them out of marrying before meeting the King and Queen.
Poppy wakes up the morning after healing Beckett and can sense emotions without trying to make a connection now. She just "knows".
Cas takes her to the Cove that he hasn’t been in since he was there with Malik and Shea. He wants to hook up again, she tells him they can but only if they stop pretending. She wants to be Poppy and for him to be Casteel. They fuck.
Later at dinner, Alastir tells Poppy that Casteel is supposed to be married to his great niece, Gianna, when he gets home. Obviously Poppy doesn’t know this and is upset. Casteel gets real pissed that Alastir doesn’t keep his mouth shut. Some other Atlantians speak up and question how can he marry HER. No one gets their heart ripped out of their chest (this time) but Poppy speaks up and tells everyone about how she was blind to the truth of the Ascended and she chose Cas when he was Hawke and she chooses him now even with knowing all of the lies and kidnapping. Later when Cas comes to bed, Poppy is furious because why didn’t he tell her he was promised to someone else? Cas gets mad because how can Poppy think he would be legit promised to someone else and have done all those things with her? They both yell at each other a little but before they could finish their argument, Emil comes to the room and tells them the sky is on fire.
There’s a giant fire, Delano and Dante (another Atlantian) went to check it out. It was Pompay and it's a shit ton of Ascended. Dante was killed, Delano was injured, but ran all the way back to Spessas End to warn them. He collapses outside of the RIse and Poppy and Cas go to him. Poppy heals him with her magic glowing hands. He tells them everything is on fire and that there are probably about 1000 Ascended headed their way, should arrive in about a day or two.
Cas wants to send Alastir and Kieran farther into Atlantia to get reinforcements. Kieran is pissed but Cas says it's because he needs to protect Poppy. Which pisses off Poppy. She’s like da fuck? I’m not going anywhere. Her and Cas argue in front of everyone. He threatens to use compulsion to get her to go with Kieran, but he can’t do that (because he wuvs her). He finally agrees that she can stay but he still wants Kieran to go - to keep him safe but also to watch over Alastir.
Later on, after war planning, Cas and Poppy are finally able to talk again. He tells her all about Shea. (Who is Shea you may be asking? Shea is Alastir’s daughter. She and Cas grew up together and were in love. When he got captured by the Ascended, Shea and Malik kept trying to rescue him. But Shea was captured. She negotiated her life for the life of Malik. They released her and she helped lead Malik to Cas. Malik was of course then captured while Shea and Cas got away. An Ascended caught up to them and said hey now, you promised us both brothers. Cas realizes she’s a traitor. He killed the Ascended and Shea. He has never told Alastir, just lets him believe she was killed by an Ascended, and died a hero). They basically admit they are in love with each other by saying lots of things but not the actual words. He proposes to her the correct way and she agrees to marry him for real this time.
Vonetta lends Poppy a dress and some diamonds.
After Jasper announces they are wed, the sky becomes black like night. It was mid-day but it looks like midnight. Jasper says it's another omen, from the gods. He hasn’t seen it since the day that Cas’s parents got married. He says it’s from Nyktos - he approves of their marriage.
The Ascended were nice enough to let them get married, consummate it, and even get a little nap before they arrive.
The Duchess arrives with her army. She says there doesn’t need to be a fight, she just wants what is theirs - the Maiden - and she’ll leave. She tells Poppy that the Queen is her grandmother. She tells them she has a gift for them and maybe that will convince them to cooperate. They use catapults to send their gifts - the heads of those they killed from New Haven. Like Madra and Elijah. Cas sees this and says fuck it - I’m murdering them all and drops off the Rise. Poppy stays on the Rise and uses her bow. After a bit, she runs down and joins the fight on the ground. She ends up fighting back to back with Cas (who asks if it's inappropriate that he is turned on while she is murdering people). The second wave of Ascended arrive. Cas wants to run away with Poppy. He says getting her out of there is the most important thing but that they will have to fight their way out. She agrees. As they are fighting, she is realizing that they aren’t going to make it. She yells at everyone to stop and holds a knife to her throat saying she will slit it if the army doesn’t stop. Then she hears howling and hears hooves. The army from Altantia has arrived. A huge pack of Wolven and some Atlantians on horseback. This turns the tide and they are winning when Poppy notices the carriage that Duchess was in, is still there, and unguarded. She goes into it where the Duchess tells her that Tawny has been Ascended and she starts laughing when she realizes that Poppy and Cas are married. She says the Queen will be proud that they can steal the kingdom out from underneath them. She says Poppy was born of “Flesh and fire”. Poppy tells her to shut up and then kills her. Cas comes into the carriage (and reminiscent of Feyre and Rhys), they fuck. During a war. With people dying right outside the door. Awkward.
They leave one Ascended army dude alive and send him back to Pompay with a warning to not fuck with them again. Poppy goes around and heals anyone who will let her. She heals an older Wolven who tells her that he remembers the Empath line and that he doesn’t remember any of them glowing or able to heal with their touch. He also tells her to be careful. That Cas may be the Prince but his dad is still King and his plans may have not changed.
When Cas returns from delivering the Ascended army dude out of their territory he tells Poppy that Kieran heard her calling for help right before they showed up during the battle. That the other Wolven heard it too and they changed course to come to her. She remembers what Delano had said a long time ago, how he burst into her room saying he heard her screaming and she said she wasn’t screaming out loud just in her head.
She also voices concern about maybe Cas’s dad plans haven’t changed and Cas vows that no one will hurt her.
They set off for Atlantia in the morning. Quentyn tells her that traveling through the Skotos mountains - the mist can do things to you. Play tricks on you, to keep people from crossing it, to keep them away from Atlantia, and they can only travel in groups of 3. Poppy feels like the mist is interacting with her. The way it's described reminds me of Moana interacting with the ocean in the beginning of the movie.
When they go to sleep, Poppy is in the middle of Cas and Kieran. She wakes up with them all cuddling. She dreams about the night her family was attacked by the Craven. She sees her dad’s face and remembers there was someone else there that her dad trusted to help get them to safety. She remembers later when her mom is ripped from her, her mom saying “How could you?” She keeps trying to get to the man in her dream, she just knows that if she can get his hood off, she would know who it is. She wakes up with a woman yelling her name saying “Poppy! No farther. What you seek is not to be found here. Stop. Go home. Take what is yours, and you will find what you seek there. The truth. Go home.” She asks the woman who she is and then she is pulled backwards by Cas. She was standing on the edge of a cliff, about to walk off. Cas had woken up and noticed her gone, so they went looking for her. They both said they didn’t see anyone else there when Poppy asked them. As they were heading back to camp, the ground started rumbling and when it was over, Kieran asks her what the woman looked liked, because that earthquake was a god, returning to sleep. Kieran believes it was Aios. Cas tells her how special it is that Nyktos gave his blessing and Aios awoke from sleep to make sure Poppy didn’t fall off a cliff.
They travel to Saion’s Cove. Alastir comes and says the King and Queen are there and he needs to talk to Cas alone. Cas doesn’t want to leave Poppy but Beckett says he’ll take her to see the Chambers of Nyktos. Beckett seems nervous. He thanks her again for healing his legs. She turns around and realizes he's gone but she's not alone. A dozen Atlantian and mortals are there. No Wolven. They hate her - she's the Maiden, an empath, a soul eater. They start stoning her. The clouds gather, thundering, it starts raining blood. The marble ground cracks as vines grow out of it. Poppy is furious. She somehow takes all their anger and turns it against them. It kills them and the sky stops bleeding. A blood forest tree pops straight out of the ground behind her. Then she sees the wolves. All of them, maybe a hundred. And Cas. Cas seems shocked. And then Atlantia people start showing up, including his parents. His mom says “Hawke, what have you done? What have you brought back?”
Cas bows before Poppy, the wolven kneel. His mom, the queen, takes off her crown and puts it on the feet of Nyktos statue. She tells everyone to lower their sword and “bow before the last descendant of the most ancient ones, she who carries the blood of the King of Gods in her, bow before your new Queen.”
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