The Primal of Blood and Bone (Blood and Ash #6) Read Online Jennifer L. Armentrout

Categories Genre: Alpha Male, Fantasy/Sci-fi, Paranormal Tags Authors: Series: Blood And Ash Series by Jennifer L. Armentrout
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Total pages in book: 401
Estimated words: 390373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1952(@200wpm)___ 1561(@250wpm)___ 1301(@300wpm)
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“Thank you.”

“You don’t need to thank me,” I said.

“I know.” Holding the bundle to his chest, he looped his arm around my shoulders and tugged me to him. “I don’t know what I’m going to do with it,” he said, his breath stirring the top of my head, “but I’m so damn grateful I have a choice.”

I blinked damp lashes as Delano leaned in to press a kiss to my forehead.

When he stepped back, a lopsided, sweet and boyish smile tugged at his lips. He didn’t say anything as he left—I imagined to be alone. I needed that, too.

I inhaled deeply, grateful I had a few moments to myself. I took several deep breaths, hoping to ease the stinging in my throat as I wiped under my eyes. Lowering my arms, I shook out my hands, my gaze creeping over the chamber before settling on the glass wall and the gray Cliffs beyond.

Where I had died.

That felt so…wrong yet right to think. I took a small step toward the glass—

Awareness skittered through me, drawing my attention from the Cliffs. I felt both Casteel and Kieran, but only the latter appeared in the doorway. My eyes locked with winter-blue ones.

Kieran stepped into the chamber and then stopped. His chest rose with a deep breath. “Cas told me.”

I smiled. Or at least I thought I did. “Bet you weren’t expecting that.”

“Were you?”

What he asked was such a simple question, but the answer halted in my throat. Swallowing, I turned back to the window and the Cliffs. Had I been expecting to learn that I’d been reborn more times than one could count? No. But had I suspected something from the moment I woke—maybe even before then? Yes.

“I don’t know,” I said finally. “It doesn’t matter, though.”

“You’re right.”

His response drew my gaze back to him.

Kieran crossed the space between us and grasped my upper arms. He didn’t look away as he lowered his chin. “Poppy,” he said, his normally flat tone rough and low. “That’s who you are. That’s who you will always be. And that is all that matters.”

The tension in my chest loosened—not by a lot, but a little. And at that moment, it was enough. “Thank you,” I said, my voice shaky.

Kieran didn’t respond. It was almost as if he sensed there was nothing more to say. The breath I let out was stilted as a mixture of…wariness and bone-deep sorrow pressed on me. No, not just sorrow. I felt anguish. The bitterly cold kind that pelted my skin. It was quick and vanished as fast as it arrived. Lifting my head, I met Kieran’s gaze. He gave me a small smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes as I opened my senses. Kieran’s shields were up, but I picked up faint traces of sadness and threads of almost bitter wariness. But what I’d felt was stronger. More intense. Familiar. What I’d felt wasn’t from Kieran. I stepped back and looked toward the doorway.

Casteel stood there, his features smooth except for the tension bracketing his mouth.

That anguish was coming from him. And the reason it felt familiar was because I’d felt it before when we first met in Masadonia. It was that same anguish that had always been there under the surface of every teasing word and smile. It was the near-constant anguish for his brother.

But Malik wasn’t the source of what I’d briefly picked up from Casteel a bit ago. It couldn’t be.

I stepped toward him.

The tension left his mouth. Before I could speak, he did. “Malik is waiting for us.”

The air was cool despite the time of year in Carsodonia as we traveled along a wide street deep within the Luxe.

I’d asked Casteel if he was okay before we reached the stables. He assured me he was. When it was clear I didn’t believe him, I got a smile without a dimple and a soft, sweet kiss.

He had done what I did when asked that question. He’d told a white lie. Considering how often I’d done it, I couldn’t hold it against him, but the reason behind his anguish haunted my thoughts.

I feared I knew what it had to do with. Or whom.

Kieran.

It was telling that he hadn’t traveled with us and instead opted to stay back and discuss setting up a public address with the generals. Off the top of my head, I couldn’t think of a time that had happened before I awakened.

Whatever was going on between them—between the three of us—had briefly fallen to the wayside with Seraphena’s arrival. But Casteel had agreed to talk. And that would happen as soon as we were done with whatever this was. As we crested the circular driveway of a stately home at the end of a quiet street, I told myself I wouldn’t allow myself or him to distract me.


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