Total pages in book: 44
Estimated words: 42412 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 212(@200wpm)___ 170(@250wpm)___ 141(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 42412 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 212(@200wpm)___ 170(@250wpm)___ 141(@300wpm)
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.