My lips twitched. “And barrats.”
“Those, too. But her? Absolutely, not. I’m coming for you, and don’t you dare hide information from me out of some chauvinistic need to protect me.”
“Chauvinistic?” I grinned. “I was thinking it was love that fueled my need to protect you.”
“Casteel,” she warned.
“I think you want to stab me.”
“I would, but since you like it when I do, it doesn’t have the desired effect I’m going for.”
I laughed, and then my damn breath caught as she did it again. She softened at the sound. She yearned at the sound. I saw it in the set of her mouth and in her eyes.
Damn it.
“I’m underground. I don’t know where exactly, but I think—” I thought of the Handmaiden. “I think it’s part of a tunnel system.”
Her nose scrunched. “Remember the underground paths that led to Redrock from the bluffs? There were tunnels under the Temple of Theon in Oak Ambler, too. A pretty large network that connected to Castle Redrock and some of the estates,” she told me and then quickly shared how she’d discovered it. “Could they be like that?”
“Could be.” My jaw tightened at the feel of icy fingers brushing the nape of my neck. A bolt of panic cut through me. I dipped my head, kissing her. The touch of her lips. The taste. She was a drug.
“Cas,” she murmured against my mouth, and everything in me tightened. “We should be talking.”
“I know. I know.” There were things to be discussed. Important things. I wanted to know what her days and nights had been like. How Kieran was. I wanted to know more about her siege of Oak Ambler. Who she’d stabbed—because, surely, she had stabbed someone. Lots of someones. I wanted to know that she was okay. That she wasn’t afraid. That she wasn’t punishing herself. But she was here, in front of me, and I could feel it, the coldness sinking into my skin. It was just a chill, but one of us was waking, and I knew how fast it could happen.
I kissed her again.
There was nothing soft about it. I kissed to feel her. To show her how much she’d claimed me. And when I prodded at the seam of her mouth with the tip of my tongue, she opened for me. She let me in like always, and it was almost as good as the real thing. Almost. I kissed until I felt the cold kiss at the nape of my neck, and then I lifted my head.
The daze slowly cleared from her eyes as she looked up at me, and I saw the moment she knew. She realized that this was coming to an end.
“No,” she whispered.
My heart cracked as I dropped my forehead to hers. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.”
I shuddered, knowing we didn’t have much time left and that there was something I needed to tell her. “I know what Isbeth is. A demis.”
“A what?”
“A false god. Ask Kieran. Or Reaver. The draken must be old. He may know what her weakness is. A demis is like a god…but not.”
“Okay.” She nodded. “She’s also learned how to harness Primal energy—I don’t know now if it’s because of what she is or something Malec told her. But be careful. That magic is what killed the draken.”
“I’m always careful.” I pressed my lips to the tip of her nose as the chill spread down my spine, and a pang of hunger ripped through me. “Two hearts. We’re two hearts.” I brushed my lips over her brow, closing my eyes. “One soul. We’ll find each other again. We always will—”
The dream fragmented, shattering no matter how hard I tried to keep it together—to keep Poppy in my arms. I awoke shivering in the cold cell, alone and starving.
Poppy
“Demis,” I announced. A faint, misty cloud followed my words. The air wasn’t as chilled as it had been along the coast. Soon, when we crossed between Whitebridge and Three Rivers, it would be warmer, but we couldn’t risk a fire.
We were too close to the Blood Forest.
This was our second night camping near the cursed lands. So far, there’d been no sign of the mist or the Craven, but our luck could change at any second. Because of that, we rested in shifts, and very few of us slept deeply.
But, somehow, I’d managed to sleep after being on the road for six days. After not reaching Casteel for nine nights, I’d finally drifted off. But I’d been tired. Really tired. In a way I thought had nothing to do with our hard pace. Something that concerned me greatly and also made me think about how hungry I’d been over the last day or so. How dry my throat had felt no matter how much I drank. I didn’t want to think about any of those things right now while speaking to the side of a wagon.