The air in the chamber became stagnant, and I had the distinct sense that time had ceased to function properly. Heart pounding, I inhaled, suddenly smelling the fresh, delicately sweet scent of…spring. Renewal. Life.
Lilacs.
Kieran stiffened, and because his hand still gripped ours, I saw tiny bumps rise along his forearm.
A new, slightly musty scent filled the chamber. It was like…stale lilacs. Or fallen leaves in autumn.
“Death,” Kieran murmured, a tremor coursing through his hand.
He had always picked up that faint scent on her, but we’d never understood why.
Now, it made sense.
The breath I took halted as the grip her fingers had on mine loosened, and her hand went limp.
My throat was dry, and my voice was a coarse whisper when I spoke. “Poppy?”
The back of my neck prickled a heartbeat before unfettered power flooded the chamber once more.
But it was different this time. Stronger. I could feel it pressing on me and watched as Kieran staggered, going down on one knee. What felt like a charge of energy rippled from Poppy’s hand into mine and then Kieran’s. Hot and intense, it traveled up our arms, a silver glow tinged with gold and…shadowy crimson that lit up the veins.
“Fuck,” Kieran rasped as fawn-colored fur sprouted on his arm before disappearing in a wash of light.
Every muscle in my body tensed as Poppy’s veins once more lit with eather. Somehow, I knew. Iknewwhat was coming. “Oh, shit.”
Essence erupted from her, tearing her hand from ours and lifting her toward the ceiling. She was in the same position she had been in while in bed, her hair now flowing down like a waterfall of dark-red wine. Her gown rippled around her as tendrils of crackling essence arced from her and slammed into us.
The realm turned silver for the briefest moment before I flew backward, the power flinging Kieran to the opposite side of the chamber. I didn’t hit the wall. Neither did he. Through the pulsing strands of eather, I saw him suspended in midair.
Pressure built in my skull and then spread, clamping down on my lungs. I didn’t know what was happening. And, fuck, I couldn’t think with the heated essence racing up my back and running over my shoulders.
Then, I felt it.
A quake began in the center of my chest, where the faint essence that all Atlantians carried within them resided, eather flowing into my abdomen. The energy ramped up, expanding and growing within me until the corners of my vision turned silver, shaded with gold and crimson. Raw, burning pain seized my heart as the eather soaked my flesh, drenching every vein and entrenching deep in my bones.
The power flowing through me felt unending and inescapable. Old. Inevitable. And I could sense it changing every part of my being.Thatwas the source of the white-hot pain: the essence shattering bones in one breath before rebuilding and fortifying them in the next. I clenched my jaw as every vein in my godsdamn body collapsed and then expanded, strengthening asthe essence wrapped itself around each organ. I bore the agony of my flesh catching on fire and then hardening, starting at my feet and traveling all the way up. As it reached the base of my skull, pain exploded in my head, shorting out every sense. My hearing. Sense of smell. Sensation was the next to go—thank the fucking gods. Right before it took my vision, I saw Primal mist seeping from Kieran’s outstretched arms, swirling gold and silver.
And then I saw the mist churning around my arms in a dizzying rush of shadows and crimson.
CHAPTER 1
CASTEEL
I stood in the bathing chamber, my eyes closed and hands splayed across the vanity’s cold marble top.
I had no idea how long I’d been standing there, but water no longer dripped from my hair.
The last thing I remembered before waking two days ago to find myself and Kieran lying in bed beside Poppy was seeing the Primal essence swirling around us.
Mouth dry, I’d turned my head to find fucking Emil Da’Lahr sitting in the armchair beside the bed, his head in his hands. When he realized I was awake, I half-expected him to start crying. I didn’t think I’d ever seen a man more relieved.
Kieran woke moments later, just as confused as I’d been. That’s when Emil keyed us in on how we’d ended up in the bed. Apparently, he’d found us out cold, slumped against opposite walls with pieces of the Revenant still scattered across the floor. But onlyafterhe’d seen me in the form of what resembled a gold-spotted black cave cat.
Fuck.
Emil probably thought he was hallucinating. Like he’d done when we consumed those wild mushrooms we found in the woodlands of Aegea when we were younger.
But, gods. He handled it, despite having no idea what was going on. Even though I knew that seeing his Queen in stasisand then finding his King and the Advisor to the Crown out of commission must have messed with him. He’d gotten Delano and Malik—of all people—to help get Kieran and me into bed with Poppy and then cleaned up the mess I’d made with the Revenant and made sure no one else knew anything was off. They’d covered for us the entire damn day we remained unconscious.
