Total pages in book: 401
Estimated words: 390373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1952(@200wpm)___ 1561(@250wpm)___ 1301(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 390373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1952(@200wpm)___ 1561(@250wpm)___ 1301(@300wpm)
A grin appeared. “That’s an understatement.”
My lips curved, responding to her smile. “True.”
She watched me as I straightened and pulled my hand from the water. “What are you thinking?”
“Honestly?” Reaching down, I tugged off a boot. “Not sure.”
“Are you…angry with him?”
I thought about it as I removed the other boot. “I’m perturbed.”
Her brow rose at my word choice.
“But if he was telling the truth about the Fates, then I’m not angry.” I set the boot beside the other. “Worrying about the Arae getting pissed isn’t exactly something my generation was concerned with—unless you were a wolven. They always act like the Fates watch from every bush and tree.” My grin was fleeting. “But my father’s generation and anyone older? They felt the same as the wolven. If true, my father wouldn’t want to tempt fate.”
“But how do you feel about everything?” she asked, her fingers flicking the water’s surface by her knees.
“The same.”
“Cas.” She sighed.
“Seriously. The same.” And that was the truth. “At first, it was…ground-shaking, but who my grandfather or great-grandfather is doesn’t change who I’ve been. It just makes my ancestry almost as interesting as yours.”
“I think it actually does change who you’ve been,” she replied dryly. “But I get what you’re saying.”
I cocked my head. “You really think that’s why I have more eather than Kieran?”
“I do. It makes sense. But…I feel like something else explains why you can shift already. And kill a Revenant.”
“We don’t know if Kieran can,” I reminded her. “Need to find one to know that.”
“True.” She paused. “By the way, I think Valyn was telling the truth.”
“Think?” I cocked my head.
Her head bobbed. “It’s not like the vadentia is telling me anything, but I just don’t see why he’d lie.” She paused. “Especially after what he told me when you and Kieran left.”
I cast her a sidelong glance. “Do I even want to know?”
“Remember what Seraphena said?”
It took me a moment. “Fuck. I forgot.” I stood. “You asked him?”
“I did.” Poppy’s chin lifted. “It was also…unexpected.”
I didn’t move as she told me how Seraphena had saved my father’s and Jasper’s lives at the Battle of Pompay. But she hadn’t just saved their lives. She had chosen them over her own blood—her son.
Yeah, that was unexpected.
I swallowed, my chest knotting. “Did he say if she told him why?”
“I don’t think it had anything to do with me—like she knew your father would eventually be connected to me.” Her nose wrinkled adorably. “Because if it was that, why would she intervene after doing so much to prevent Sotoria from being reborn?”
“You’re right. It wouldn’t make sense.”
“It’s crazy, isn’t it?”
“What do you mean?”
“That she did all of that, yet when she intervened for whatever reason she had, she ensured I would become…this.” Poppy’s gaze lowered to the water. “If she hadn’t, Malec would’ve likely been reunited with Isbeth, and she never would’ve gone down the path she did.”
“And you wouldn’t have been born.”
“Neither would you or Kieran,” she said. “Seraphena ended up guaranteeing that I was born, and the Joining could happen. That’s what’s crazy.”
Fuck.
It was also unnerving. “Sounds like…fate.”
A crease formed between her brows. “It does, but…” she murmured as I pulled my shirt over my head. Her expression smoothed out when I dropped the cloth. The tips of her fangs appeared when her gaze drifted over my chest and abdomen.
“You’re distracted.” I undid the flap on my breeches.
Her knee disappeared, but the tip of her rosy breast appeared above the water. It was only for half a second before foam lapped over her skin. Still, lust fisted in my gut.
I’d never been jealous of godsdamn bubbles until then.
“No, I’m not,” she insisted, her stare glued to my hands.
I smirked. “You forgot what you were saying.”
“I did not,” she argued. “Why do—?” She sucked in a sharp breath as I shoved the breeches down.
Raising a brow as I stepped out of them, I looked over at her. She was staring at my cock. “You were saying?”
The tip of her tongue darted out to wet her lower lip. “What?”
Chuckling, I sat on the ledge, swung my legs over the side, and let them drop into the water. “You were saying something before you got distracted by my dick.”
The flush in her skin deepened.
“I love your blushes.”
“Is that why you constantly say stuff to make me blush?”
“Possibly,” I murmured.
She shook her head. “I was about to say I don’t think it was the actual Fates. It seemed like they wanted to prevent my birth.”
Cold fury built in my chest. “All of them?”
“Well, I can’t say for sure what Holland and Thorne wanted, but why would they risk it?”
Why would they?
Unless one or more disagreed with Lirian and decided the risk was worth it.
For their sake, they’d better hope that was the case.
Poppy’s gaze dipped and then quickly lifted. The green of her eyes was brighter. “Did you…did you talk to Kieran?”