The Caverns
Poppy
Something pulled me from the nothingness, tugging at me until soft, dappled sunlight pierced the darkness.
I blinked until my surroundings came into focus. Wisps of steam disappeared between the gently swaying lavender-hued blossoms hanging from the fragile branches blanketing the ceiling of the cavern Casteel had once brought me to.
I’ll be waiting here. Always.
My breath snagged in my chest as I remembered Cas’s promise.
I spun toward the bank of the pool, stirring the water into a frothing riot.
Heart thumping, I searched the shadows clinging to the lilac-smothered walls.
They were empty. I faced the earthen steps and the cavern’s misty entrance. They, too, were empty.
Stepping back, I turned toward the outcropping of rocks, this time peering into the darkness where the water deepened and flowed into more caverns and tunnels that eventually led to the sea.
I was alone, but I knew Cas had…called me here. It had been he who had pulled me from the emptiness of sleep. He must’ve been looking for me—dream-walking—because…
A frown pulled my brows together as I drifted farther into the pool, the warm breeze toying with the strands of hair framing my face. Stomach dipping, I stopped where the water lapped over my waist, and white-tipped, foamy bubbles teased the swells of my breasts.
Cas would be looking for me because I wasn’t with him.
He was in Carsodonia, and I had been in Pensdurth.
My hand went to my throat. The skin there was still smooth.
The memory of Kolis’s fangs tearing into me sent a cold shudder snaking down my spine again as I looked down, where the bone dagger had been plunged deep into my chest. There was a new scar there, a faded pink line between my breasts about an inch and a half long, just below my heart.
I lowered my hand to the scar, feeling the jagged skin beneath my fingertips. My gaze went to my waist as I remembered the burning sting of Kolis’s essence.
I’d been wounded, gravely so, and nearly drained of all my essence. I’d felt death reaching out for me, and Cas…he would’ve felt that, too. I knew that. And he wouldn’t have been able to get to me. I had made sure of that.
Closing my eyes, I breathed through the shredding sensation in my chest. I also knew he must have been going out of his mind with fury and desperation, because when I woke up to discover that he’d been taken from me, I’d been panicked and enraged.
I lost control. And knowing Cas like I did, he would’ve been pushed to the brink.
Possibly even over it.
My stomach turned as I reminded myself that Cas hadn’t been alone.
Kieran was with him. So were his father and brother.
And his friends: Vonetta, Delano, Emil, and Naill.
They would’ve kept him level. That’s what I kept telling myself, even as a tiny voice in the back of my mind whispered that none of them would be able to stop Cas.
Maybe before, but now, after my Ascension and the full effects of the Joining?
Not even Kieran would be able to stop him.
Unease started to unfurl, but I tamped it down. There was nothing I could do about any of that right now. I was…asleep, possibly even in stasis. Drawing in the humid air, I called for him, to him.
I’m here. I’m waiting for you. I’m here. I’m here. I’m—
The air in the cavern suddenly shifted, stilling.
My eyes snapped open as I tilted my head back.
The lilacs had stopped swaying, and the fine hairs on the nape of my neck lifted.
Tiny bumps erupted over my skin as awareness throbbed deep in the center of my chest. I dragged in a stuttered inhale, catching the scent of pine, decadent spice, and something new.
Something I couldn’t place. But it didn’t matter.
I spun, sending the water into a spraying and fizzing frenzy as I searched the bank. My mouth parted, but his name faded from my lips.
The bank of the pool was empty, but I…I could feel him.
His stare. Like always, it was as powerful as a caress, and it was drifting over my face, tracing the slope of my shoulders, and then moving lower.
A heady flush bloomed up my throat as the tips of my breasts pebbled under the heaviness of the stare that could only belong to Casteel.
He was here.
I’d never been more certain of anything in my life.
Drawing my lower lip between my teeth, I scanned the bank, slower this time. My eyes moved over the lilacs and the deep shadows clinging to each branch as I turned slowly toward the pool’s steps.
Water rippled around my hips, tickling my skin as I stilled.
My eyes locked on the mouth of the cavern.
The delicate blossoms had withered on the slender branches and were twisted and taut, hanging suspended in midair as they recoiled from the opening—from the darkness that had replaced the cloudy mist that had been there before.
The fine hairs all over my body stood up even more.
There was…something in those shadows. I took another step forward.
The water dropped to my thighs, sending tiny bubbles spinning across the surface.
My breath snagged in my throat as I felt the touch of his stare slipping to where the water frothed.
A tremor coursed through me as the scent of pine and lush spice increased, settling against my bare skin like satin.
My thighs trembled as a sharp aching pulse spiked through me.
The shadows clinging to the cavern walls peeled away, whispering over the damp stone as they slid toward the place where the darkness gathered in the opening, seeming to pulse and expand. They solidified and thickened, becoming a deep charcoal gray as they drifted forward—
As he drifted forward, cloaked in deep-gray shadows and crimson smoke edged in silver.
My entire body stilled as Primal mist coiled around his legs and waist.
Heart thudding, I stared up at Casteel. He’d never looked more like a God of Death than he did now.
And that was what he had become.
The Joining had split my abilities between him and Kieran, changing both of them into Deminyen Primals—a Primal belonging to no Court.
But with Cas…it had affected him differently, and I still didn’t believe that it was only due to how much eather he had in him, thanks to who his great-grandfather was.
There was another reason, one I couldn’t figure out, but right now, it didn’t matter.
What did was why he’d dream-walked in this form.
Concern blossomed. I didn’t know everything there was to know about dream walking.
Either the vadentia—my foresight—didn’t work in this state, somewhere between a dream and reality, or I wasn’t meant to know.
But the last time, he’d looked like himself until he was close to waking up.
Only then did the Blood Queen’s—my mother’s—treatment begin to show.
Unless this wasn’t him.
No, it was his posture and height. His broad shoulders. His presence.
This was him. But something was very wrong. I drew in a shallow breath and leaned forward.
The essence spun faster, curling over his shoulders as he jerked his head up and tilted it to the side. Through the throbbing mass surrounding him, I couldn’t see his face or his eyes.
My concern grew, chasing away the heat of his stare. I stepped toward him, lifting a hand—
The mist spinning around him ceased. A heartbeat passed.
Crimson-soaked dusk whipped out over the pool.
Beneath the churning shadows and smoke stretching out toward me, the frothing and bubbling water stilled and then glazed over.
I jerked to a stop as the shadows spun around me, the air turning as cold as a winter’s morning in the northern lands of Masadonia.
Ice formed in delicate veins, cracking as it raced over the surface of the hot springs.
“Cas,” I gasped, my breath forming a misty, puffy cloud.
The spreading ice ceased, cracking softly as the wisps of essence swirled around me, filling my lungs with his scent—pine, spice, and…
It wasn’t the damp-soil-and-moss scent I had picked up on him when he was on the verge of going full Primal before.
This was like that, but deeper and colder. Like…frosted ash.
My mouth dried as I searched the form before me, looking for his golden eyes. I couldn’t find any hint of them. The fractured beams of light seemed to bend away from him, leaving only a silhouette that was more starlight, dusk, and crimson smoke than man.
“Cas,” I tried again, shivering as the icy-hot tendrils whirled around me.
He remained silent.
I wet my lips, searching for something—anything—to say that would reach him, because he was here and he also wasn’t. “I love you,” I told him. “Always.”
The smoke and shadows throbbed and flickered, thinning until I saw the well-formed shape of his mouth, the fullness of his upper lip, the sharpness of a cheekbone, and his eyes. Gold, like polished citrine laced with silver, dipped in crimson. The mist slowed—
Casteel’s head suddenly jerked to the side, and those lips curved up on one side into a smirk I normally found infuriatingly charming. Now, it carried a blade-like sharpness that promised devastation for whoever it was directed at.
He was waking.
“Cas—”
It was too late.
The churning shadows retreated, slipping back across the frozen waters. The ice cracked and melted into the rising steam.
Cas’s head turned back to me, and I felt his piercing stare for just a second more before the shadows and smoke fragmented.
Then, he was gone.
But I couldn’t take my eyes off where he had stood. Not even as a white, cloudy film descended on the cavern, the walls began to fade, and I could no longer feel the water I stood in or the humid air against my skin.
And then I, too, was gone.