A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire (Blood and Ash, #2)

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

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.”

“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.”

“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.”

My full name is Casteel Hawkethrone Da’Neer.

“I am Hawke,” he said after a moment. “And I am Casteel. I’m not two separate people, no matter how badly you want to believe that.”

“I’m not a bottle of wine,” I whispered. “No,” he said quietly. “You are not a bottle of wine, Poppy.”

“It’s considered a great honor in Atlantia to be welcomed into the bosom of the noble, ruling family,” he went on. “I think my mother is going to like you.”

“You are so incredibly beautiful when you’re angry.”

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.”

“There should always be dignity in death,” I said once I found my voice. “No matter what.”

“Nothing lives forever. Anything can be killed if you try hard enough.”

“You’re beautiful when you’re quiet and somber, but when you laugh? You rival the sunrise over the Skotos Mountains.”

“Just so you know, Penellaphe doesn’t need protection. She is more than capable of handling things herself. But that is my future you are walking away with. Guard her well. Your life depends on it.”

“Thank you.” “For what?” The touch of his fingertips was light, but a shiver still rolled through me. “For choosing me.”

“Please don’t die,” Kieran commented from where he sat. “Casteel would be most displeased.”

“A warrior bloodline that died off shortly after the war, but these were even more unique, Poppy. The ones everyone dreaded to face in battle.” His fingers slid over mine, and I looked up at him. “They were favored by the deities, as they were the only ones who could do what the empaths could—read the emotions of others and then turn that into a weapon, amplifying pain or fear. Sending an army running before a sword was even lifted.”

An older man stepped forward, thumping his fist off his chest. “From blood and ash.” Casteel placed his fist over his heart. “We will rise.”

“Kieran was right. You do ask a lot of questions.” My eyes narrowed. “Curiosity is a sign of intelligence.” Casteel smiled at that. “That is what I hear.”

“I won’t have yet another scar.” Two fingers pressed under my chin and lifted my gaze to his. “Your scars are beautiful,” he said, and there was a swift, swelling motion in my chest that couldn’t be deflated no matter what my brain yelled at it. “But I refuse to allow your body to be scarred again.”

“They’re saying it’s an omen,” Casteel answered quietly. “Of what?” “That the gods are watching.” His grip tightened on my hand as I shivered. “That even though they still slumber, they are signaling that a great change is coming.”

“You are a second daughter,” she whispered, sending a chill through me. “Not a Maiden but Chosen nonetheless.”

“What kind of gift?” “The best kind,” he said. “Retribution.”

“I couldn’t.” “I know that,” he immediately reassured. “I didn’t mean to suggest that you could have. You were trapped. Just like I was, and if anyone thinks you should have, then they have never been in a position where they had to do anything to survive.”

“But does the present really make amends for the past?” Casteel didn’t answer immediately. “Who is the judge of that? The gods? They sleep. Society? How can they make decisions unbiasedly when they are prejudiced by their own sins?” he questioned, and I had no answer.

“That sounds like a very dysfunctional…engagement.” “You can’t spell dysfunctional without fun, now can you?”

But he would be gone one day. When this was all over and we parted ways, he would be gone from my life. That was what I wanted—what I planned. Then why did I suddenly feel like crying?

“The most beautiful things in all the kingdom often have jagged and uneven lines, scars which intensify the beauty in intricate ways our eyes nor our minds can detect or even begin to understand,” the Queen had said as she turned the diamond in her hand, light catching on its irregular dips and peaks. “Without them, they would just be common and ordinary, like all the other smoothly cut diamonds you can find anywhere you look. Beauty, my sweet child, is often broken and barbed, and always unexpected."

A monster. Shuddering, I closed my eyes. What had he said when I’d called him a monster? I wasn’t born that way. I was made this way.

“The way Casteel is with you—the teasing and trying to get a rise out of you—isn’t how he is with most.” “So, it’s an act?” “No, Casteel is just more…alive when he’s with you,”

“Sorry,” he whispered against my lips. “I know I should’ve asked first, but your laugh… It undoes me, Poppy.”

“I don’t want to pretend,” I whispered. “I’m Poppy and you’re Casteel, and this is real.”

“I know I don’t have experience, but if you love someone, you could never do that to them.

“Am I seeing things, or is that your dagger strapped to your thigh?” I grinned. “You’re not seeing things.” “You’re an absolutely stunning, murderous little creature,” he murmured.

In the back of my mind, I’d already figured as much, hadn’t I? And that was before they heard Duchess Teerman’s ridiculous claims that I was Queen Ileana’s granddaughter. The Queen was an Ascended. I was not of her blood nor born of flesh and fire—whatever that meant.

“No one will harm you,” he vowed. “I will not allow it.” “Neither will I.”

“You have a beautiful smile. That and your laugh. And you…you never laughed enough as it was, but when you did…” I closed my eyes. “When you did, it was like the moment the damn mist finally cleared. Like when the first rays of sun break through the clouds after a heavy storm,”

“I’m going to repeat that, Princess. A god woke from hundreds and hundreds of years of sleep to protect you. That is not something that has ever happened before as far as I know.”