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October 31 - November 26, 2025
“What matters is that I choose her,” Casteel spoke, and my stupid, stupid heart skipped a beat, even though I did not choose him. “And that is all that matters.”
“I just want you to know that I’m not even particularly upset about you questioning what I intend to do. How you’ve spoken to me doesn’t bother me. I’m not insecure enough to care about the opinions of little men.”
“If that had been all, I would’ve overlooked it. If you had stopped after the first time you referenced her, I would’ve let you walk out of here with just your overinflated sense of self-worth. But then you insulted her. You made her flinch, and then you threatened her. I will not forget that.” “I—” Whatever Landell was about to say ended in a gurgle as Casteel’s right arm thrust forward. “And I will not be able to forgive you.”
No one speaks of you or to you like that and lives.”
“There is no side of you that is not as beautiful as the other half. Not a single inch isn’t stunning.” His lashes lifted, and the intensity in his stare held me captive. “That was true the first time I said it to you, and it is still the truth today and tomorrow.”
“But he’s the one thing in all the kingdoms that you, and only you, never have to fear.”
“If you’re looking for a fight…” came a voice that sent a shiver down my spine and then over my skin. My head jerked in the direction of the sound. “You’ll fight me, Princess.”
“No one, and I mean no one, speaks of you like that. Threatens you and lives.”
“Just so you know, I’d do it again—kill a thousand versions of Landell,” he said, dampening some of the satisfaction I felt as I glanced at the sword he’d dropped. “And I wouldn’t lose a moment of sleep over it. But you never need to fear me. Never.”
“But we will have that conversation later,” he promised, thrusting the sword into my hand. “Make me feel incompetent and kill more than me, Princess.”
When I was a small child, my mother took to calling me an abbreviated form of that name. And so did my brother. They, and only they had ever known me as Hawke,” he said. “Until you.”
“Because knowing that Hawke is a part of my name, a part of me, matters to you.”
He was both the villain and the hero, the monster and the monster-slayer.
“Why did you have to tell me that Hawke was your middle name?” The fire crackled, spitting sparks, and I closed my eyes. Seconds, maybe minutes later, Casteel said, “Because you needed to know that not everything was a lie.”
“So incredibly violent, my Princess.”
“You don’t need to apologize,” he said. “You’re beautiful when you’re quiet and somber, but when you laugh? You rival the sunrise over the Skotos Mountains.”
“I will find you a diamond so big it will enter the room before you do.”
Because seeing the truth was terrifying.
“Thank you.” “For what?” The touch of his fingertips was light, but a shiver still rolled through me. “For choosing me.”
“I am born of the first kingdom.” Casteel’s voice carried like the wind and snow, stroking over the knights, who all turned, one by one, to look in his direction. “Created from the blood and ash of all those who fell before me. I have risen to take back what is mine. I’m who you call the Dark One,” he said, and chills danced across my skin. “Yes, I have the Maiden, and I’m not giving her back.”
“But I refuse to allow your body to be scarred again.”
“What…what have you needed for so long?” “You.”
We were only pretending… But this felt so very real.
“No, Casteel is just more…alive when he’s with you,”
I cared about him. Because I’d never stopped falling. Gods. I was in so much trouble.
“I’m so incredibly unworthy of you,”
I was the fire, and Casteel was the air that fed it.
“I don’t want to pretend,” I whispered. “I’m Poppy and you’re Casteel, and this is real.”
“I would love to take my time because there are so many different ways I’d love to be real with you. Lay you out on the rocks and lick every inch of your body. Make you come that way. And then I’d want you on your knees and your mouth around my cock.”
“I’m going to need you to hold onto me and not let go, because I’m about to fuck you like I promised.”
“You feel like all I could ever want.”
“I took her, and I kept her, but not to use her. Somewhere along the way, I no longer saw her as a bargaining chip or a tool for revenge. I saw her for who she was. Who she is—this beautiful, strong, intelligent, endlessly curious and kind woman who was as much a victim of the Ascended as any Atlantians. I fell in love with her, probably long before I even realized I had.”
She is the reason I came home.”
And I chose him. I chose him because he made me feel like I was something other than the Maiden, and he saw me when no one else ever really did. He made me feel alive. He valued me for who I am and didn’t try to control me.
“You’re beautiful.” His head tilted, and I gasped at the feel of his lips on the longer scar of my cheek. He kissed that one and then the shorter one, above my eye. “Both halves, and you should never question why anyone would find you utterly, irrevocably, and distractingly beautiful.”
“I don’t know what you want from me.” “Everything,” he bit out between clenched teeth. “I want everything.”
“Your heart, Poppy? It is a gift I do not deserve.”
“But it is one I will protect until my dying breath. I don’t know what that means.”
“Let’s make a deal that we don’t borrow tomorrow’s problems today.”
“Will you do me the honor of allowing me to one day become worthy of you? Will you marry me? Today?”
“Yes. I will give you the honor of becoming my husband, because you’re already worthy of me.”
“I feel excessive, Princess. There’s another place, one that won’t supply that much blood, but I think it will be your favorite.” His hand cupped me then, between the legs, and his thumb pressed against the bundle of nerves, driving me to the tips of my toes. “Right there. I could taste you and feed from you at the same time.”
“Beautiful. I want you to know that. You’re beautiful. Every inch of you.”
“You have no idea how long I’ve waited to do this. To be inside you as I take a part of you inside me. To feel you come around my cock while I taste your blood on my tongue. It feels like forever.”
