A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

  “Nothing happened. I was mad—mad at you, because I was locked in the room,” I explained. “He then said it must’ve been the wind, and it was windy then, so I forgot about it.”

  Casteel lifted another strand of hair. “That’s bizarre.”

  I stared at him. “That’s all you have to say to them feeling my call? That’s bizarre?”

  “Well, the definition of bizarre is something strange and unusual—”

  “I know what bizarre means,” I interrupted. “Is that another empath trait manifesting?”

  His gaze met mine. “I’ve never heard of an empath being able to do that.”

  My stomach dipped. “Just like glowing silver and being able to heal—”

  “You could be of two bloodlines,” he cut in. “We talked about that before. It could be possible.”

  More possible than Queen Ileana being my grandmother. I had no idea what to think of the whole hearing my call thing, but what if that was an empath ability? People could project their pain and fear. What if that was what I was doing, and the wolven, for some reason, picked up on it? That seemed like it made logical sense.

  “What do we do now?” I asked.

  “Right now? At this very moment?” His smile was smoke as his gaze traveled over the bare skin he could see, which wasn’t any of the interesting parts. “I have so many ideas.”

  “That’s not what I was talking about,” I said, even though I was glad to see the somberness leave his eyes.

  “I know, but I’m distracted. It’s not my fault. You’re naked.”

  “You can’t see anything.”

  “What I can see is enough.” He lowered himself to his knees as he rested his arms on the edge of the tub. “So, I’m thoroughly distracted.”

  “You being distracted sounds like your problem and not mine,” I told him.

  He chuckled as he bent his head, kissing the patch of my knee that wasn’t covered by my arms. “We’ll leave for Atlantia tomorrow. The Atlantian armies that arrived will remain behind just in case the Ascended want to make a very bad life choice. Spessa’s End will be protected.”

  There was a whooshing sensation in my chest. “So soon?”

  “We would’ve already been there if things had gone as planned.” He leaned back. “We are married, but you haven’t been crowned yet. That needs to happen.”

  I worried my lower lip. “I get that the crowning makes things official, but what will that really change? Your…” I briefly closed my eyes. “Our people still don’t trust me or like me. Whatever. And your father still has his plans, right? For me?”

  His brows lowered. “My father’s plans have changed.”

  “What if they haven’t?”

  He studied me for a moment. “Did someone say something to you?”

  Not wanting to potentially get the older wolven in trouble, I gave a slight shake of my head. “It’s just…I know many don’t accept me, even after the marriage and last night. You’re the Prince and all. But he’s the King—”

  “And you’re starting to sound like Alastir,” he interrupted. “I’d almost think he got you all worked up again, but he stayed in Atlantia.”

  “It’s not Alastir,” I said. “But he did say that, and he has a point. I know you wanted to marry me partly because it offered me a level of protection—”

  “Originally, Poppy. And that was only because I’d convinced myself that was the reason,” he stated. “It wasn’t the only reason. Neither was freeing my brother or preventing a war. I wanted you, and I wanted to find a way to try to keep you.”

  There was a different kind of snag in my chest now in response to his words. “You have me,” I whispered the words I’d said to him in the carriage.

  “I know.” His gaze held mine. “And no one, not even my father or my mother, will change that.”

  I believed him.

  I really did.

  “No one will harm you,” he vowed. “I will not allow it.”

  “Neither will I.”

  He smiled then, both dimples appearing. “I know. Come.” Rising, he reached for the towel. “If you stay in there any longer, you will start to grow fins.”

  “Like a ceeren?”

  A grin appeared. “Like a ceeren.”

  I didn’t move though. “I lied to you.”

  Casteel arched a brow. “About?”

  “You asked me if the Duchess had said anything to me before I killed her, and I said no. That was a lie.”

  A heartbeat passed. “What did she say?”

  “I…I asked her about my brother and yours. She said they were together, but that’s all she would say about them.” I watched him return to kneeling beside me. “She told me that Tawny was going to Ascend without waiting—that it could’ve already happened. She said that the Queen knew how much I cared for Tawny and wanted her to be there, so when I returned home, I would feel comfortable.”

  “Gods.” Casteel leaned over, cupping the back of my head. “You don’t know if any of that is true. Any of it, Poppy. Your brother. Mine. Tawny. She—”

  “She said that the Queen will be thrilled when she learns we’ve married. That if she knew that had happened, none of what took place last night would’ve been necessary,” I told him, and he stilled. “She told me that I accomplished the one thing the Queen never could. That I took Atlantia.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense, Poppy.”

  “I know,” I said. “Neither does what she said about the Queen being my grandmother. It makes no sense at all. It’s so far out there that, so unbelievable that I…I can’t help but wonder if some of it is true.”

  Chapter 42

  We rode east, toward Atlantia, under a sky that was a canvas of blues.

  The men who’d traveled with Alastir were with us, even though the wolven hadn’t made the trip back to Spessa’s End. They were missing a few, more than just the wolven Dante, but our group had tripled, if not more, in size. We’d gained Jasper and several other wolven, who were returning to Atlantia. Vonetta had remained back in Spessa’s End, but she had promised that she would see me soon as she planned to return for her mother’s birthday and the upcoming birth of her little brother or sister.

  The barren, flatlands on either side of the heavily wooded area gave way to fields of tall reeds with tiny, white flowers. Beckett ran beside us in his wolven form, seeming to pull from an endless reserve of energy I found enviable. He would race ahead, disappearing among the wispy plants, only to pop up a few seconds later beside us once more. He never strayed too far from our side—or rather from Casteel’s side. I figured Beckett’s closeness had to do with his Prince’s presence, and I was glad I picked up no fear from him—from any of those who traveled with us.

  But the group was quiet, even Casteel, and there were so many reasons for the silence. There wasn’t a single person here who hadn’t lost someone in the battle or at New Haven.

  I couldn’t think of Elijah, of Magda and her unborn child, of any of them. I couldn’t think of who would now add the names to the walls underground.

  But I knew Casteel did. I knew that was why he’d fallen silent several times the night before, and I figured it had very little to do with what we’d talked about. He missed Elijah. Mourned him and all the others, and I knew he believed he’d failed them.

  My thoughts were heavy, and it wore me down. The lack of sleep didn’t help. Nightmares of the night of the Craven attack found me once more, and even though Casteel had been there when I woke, gasping for air with a scream burning through my throat, the horrors of the night found me again as soon as I fell back asleep.

  I wasn’t looking forward to tonight.

  The sun was high above us when I realized the horizon I’d been staring at wasn’t where the clouds met the land. I sat straighter, gripping the saddle as patches of dark green started to appear in the gray ahead. This mist. It was the mist obscuring the mountains, so thick that for however many miles we’d traveled, I’d believed it to be the sky.
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  “You see it now?” Casteel asked. “The Skotos?”

  Heart stammering, I nodded. “The mist is so thick. If it’s like this during the day, how much worse is it at night?”

  “It’ll thin out a bit once we get into the foothills.” Casteel’s arm remained secure around me as I stretched forward. “But at night—well, the mist is all around you.”

  I shivered as more of the mountains began to peek through the mist. A rocky cropping here, a cluster of trees there. “How did the armies get through the mist then?” I looked at Kieran. “How did you get here so quickly.”

  “The gods allowed it,” he replied, and my brows rose. “The mist did not come for us. It thinned out at night, enough for us to continue forward.”

  I sat back against Casteel, hoping the gods would allow us the same.

  Casteel burst the bubble of hope the next second. “The mist is never as bad leaving Atlantia as it is entering.”

  “Great,” I murmured.

  “We’re lucky that the Skotos Mountains are nowhere near as large as the range beyond,” Naill said from where he rode on Jasper’s other side.

  “There are larger ones?” The Skotos Mountains were the largest in Solis, that I knew of anyway.

  The Atlantian nodded. “It takes less than a day to cross where we’re passing through. However, some peaks would take days.” He shifted on his saddle. “But there are mountains in Atlantia that stretch so high into the sky, you see nothing else. Peaks so high that it would take weeks just to reach the top. And once there, even an Atlantian would find it difficult to breathe.”

  Tendrils of mist began to creep between the bushy reeds, forming little clouds above them.

  Beckett dashed ahead, and within a heartbeat, was swallowed up by the mist. I sucked in a sharp breath, straining forward as I reached for my dagger—

  “He’s okay.” Casteel’s hand closed over mine. He squeezed gently. “See? There he is.”

  My heart didn’t slow as the dark, furry head appeared above the mist, tongue lolling as he panted with excitement. “Are you sure there’re no Craven here?”

  Riding slightly ahead, Emil said, “There hasn’t been a Craven this far east since the war.”

  I still remained alert as we neared a blanket of mist where only shadows of shapes existed behind it. Muscles tensed as every instinct in me wanted to grab the reins and pull Setti to a stop. We couldn’t possibly pass through this. Who knew what waited on the other side? And what if they were wrong about the Craven? Goosebumps broke out across my skin as Jasper and Emil disappeared through the wall of mist. A shout built in my throat, lodging there when Delano vanished into the thick, grayish-white haze. I started to press back against Casteel—

  He slowed Setti. “The first time I saw the wall of mist from the other side, I refused to pass through. It wasn’t because of the Craven. I hadn’t learned yet that they travel in the mist. It was that I feared we’d reached the very end of the kingdom, and that there was nothing beyond it,” Casteel told me, his arm a band of steel around me. “I know that sounds silly, but I was young, less than a year from the Culling, and Kieran also feared passing through it.”

  I looked to our right, where Kieran kept pace with us. After everything I’d learned, I still found it hard to picture either of them afraid of anything.

  “It was Malik who went through first,” Casteel continued, dragging his hand around my waist in a slow, comforting circle. I looked down, my gaze snagging on the golden band he wore. “For a moment, I thought that was the last I saw of my brother, but then he came back. Told us there was nothing but weeds and sky on the other side.”

  “That wasn’t what he told us at first,” Kieran chimed in. “Malik claimed there were giants with three heads on the other side.”

  “He said what?”

  Casteel laughed. “Yeah, he did. We believed him until he started laughing. Bastard doubled over with it.” There was a fondness in his tone, and it was so rare to hear him speak of his brother without sadness and anger. “It will only take a few seconds to pass through. I promise.”

  As Naill entered the mist, I nodded jerkily. “If there are three-headed giants on the other side, I’m going to be very angry with both of you.”

  “If there are three-headed giants awaiting us, your anger will be the least of my concerns,” Casteel replied, tone light with amusement. “Ready?”

  Not really, but I said, “Yes.”

  Fighting the urge to close my eyes, I jerked as thin vapors stretched out from the rapidly approaching mass, a cool caress against my cheeks. Setti made a soft whinny as the tendrils curled around his legs, and then the mist enveloped us. I could see nothing. Nothing but the thick, choking, milky-white air. Panic bubbled up in me—

  Casteel shifted behind me, pressing his lips to the space behind my ear as he whispered, “Think of all the things I could do to you.” The hand at my hip glided over my thigh, and then up it, moving with predatory grace toward my very center. “That no one would ever be able to see. Not even you.”

  My breath snagged for a wholly different reason as his fingers danced over me. I tensed as muscles low in my stomach clenched in response and my head snapped to the side. I opened my mouth, but whatever I was about to say was forgotten when Casteel caught my lower lip between his teeth.

  He slowly let go of my lip, but his mouth was still there, warm and solid against mine. “I have so many ideas.”

  My heart stuttered as a wave of shivers exploded over me. I could imagine what some of his ideas involved, and for a brief moment, I wasn’t thinking about anything. A breathy sound left me, lost to the mist—

  “You can open your eyes now,” he murmured against my lips.

  I hadn’t even realized I’d closed them until he spoke, but now I knew why he’d done and said what he did. He’d sought to distract me, and it had worked, bringing a quick end to the rising panic.

  “Thank you,” I whispered, and his hand, which had made its way back to my hip, squeezed. I opened my eyes as he straightened behind me to see…

  To see that the mist had thinned out to wispy coils around moss-shrouded rocks and the legs of the waiting horses. I blinked as I saw Beckett sitting before us, his tail swaying along the ground, stirring the mist as he craned his head back, looking up. I followed his gaze, lips parting on a sharp inhale as I saw what he looked upon.

  Gold.

  Glittering, luminous gold leaves soaked in the rays of sunlight that penetrated the mist.

  “Beautiful, aren’t they?” Delano asked, looking up.

  “Yes.” Awed, my gaze crept over the golden trees. “I’ve never seen anything like them.” Even when the leaves changed colors in Masadonia with the weather, the yellows were muted and muddied. These leaves were pure, spun gold. “What kind of trees are they?”

  “Trees of Aios,” Casteel answered, referring to the Goddess of Love, Fertility, and Beauty. I couldn’t think of a better namesake. “They grew in the foothills and throughout the Skotos range after she went to sleep here, deep underground.”

  I glanced back at Casteel. “She sleeps here?”

  His eyes, which were only a shade darker than the leaves, met mine. “She does.”

  “Some believe she is under the highest peak,” Jasper said, drawing my wide-eyed gaze to his. “Where the trees of Aios flourish so intensely, you can see them from the Chambers of Nyktos.”

  “Chambers…of Nyktos?” I repeated.

  “It’s a Temple just beyond the Pillars,” Emil explained. “Very beautiful. You must visit them.”

  “Does he sleep there?” I asked.

  He smiled as he shook his head. “No one knows where Nyktos rests.”

  “Oh,” I whispered.

  “We should go ahead and split into smaller groups,” Casteel cut in. “Kieran will ride with us. Beckett, you need to take human form and go with Delano and Naill.”

  I watched the wolven bound through the mist, causing Naill’s horse to prance nervousl
y. The Atlantian rolled his eyes as he looked at Casteel.

  “He’s good practice for whenever you decide to settle down and have children,” Casteel said, and I could hear the smile in his words.

  Naill looked like he might fall from his horse.

  Having guided his horse to face us, Jasper smirked. “I fear after one night keeping an eye on Beckett, he will swear off children.”

  “Gods,” Naill muttered as Beckett suddenly launched himself at a…gold leaf that had tumbled into his line of sight.

  Quentyn shook his head as he watched his friend. “You should see him with the butterflies.”

  “I really don’t want to.” Naill sighed.

  “We’ll meet at the Gold Rock.” Casteel addressed the group. “Remember, no one goes anywhere unaccompanied. Stay together in groups no larger than three.” He turned to where Beckett was finally sitting. “Do not explore. Do not answer any calls.”

  My stomach tumbled. Was Casteel referencing what the wolven believed they had heard from me?

  “I expect to see everyone at Gold Rock, all in one piece with their minds intact,” Casteel continued, and a shiver curled its way down my spine. “Be safe.”

  There were several nods as the group began to break apart, Beckett leaving with Naill and Delano, who said, “I’ll make sure he shifts.”

  Quentyn stayed with Jasper and Emil, but before they headed to our right, Jasper rode to our side, clasping Casteel’s hand. “Be safe, Cas. You’ve been gone far too long and are too close to home to not arrive.”

  “You have nothing to fear.” Casteel’s voice softened.

  Jasper nodded, and then his attention shifted to me. “Stay close to them, Penellaphe. The magic in these mountains has a way of getting under your skin. Trust them but be wary of trusting what your eyes and ears tell you.”

  And with those parting words, he rode off, the now pale and quiet Quentyn in tow.

  I looked over my shoulder at Casteel. “What in the hell is this mountain going to do?”

  “Nothing,” he replied, urging Setti forward. “As long as we don’t allow it to.”