“Fucking ravens,” I muttered, pushing the essence all the way down. Godsdamn it. I’d rather deal with Reaver than them.
Straightening, my father looked over at me, some of the color leaching from his normally warm olive tone.
“Get used to them.” I walked inside. “They’re everywhere.”
He followed me, letting out a low whistle as he scanned the grand vestibule. The vines had shattered the windows and crawled their way in. Their thick, gnarled tendrils crept and twisted along the walls and snaked their way around the columns as if they wished to squeeze the gold from the marble. They slithered across the ceiling, their knotted limbs seeking and finding every crack like the fingers of something hungry. And maybe they were. If you looked at them long enough, you could see the heartbeat echoing the one in my chest.
“Is the entire castle like this?” my father asked as the scent of damp soil and moss increased, and the air grew colder.
“The first floor and much of the second,” I answered, approaching one of the four arched entrances to the Hall of Gods. I ignored the chill that accompanied entering the space once designed to honor the gods.
Now?
Now, it was just a space fallen to ruin.
My father’s steps halted as he stared down at one of the vases. They were the only things that remained—that and the vines that blanketed the walls and pitched ceilings.
He knelt, taking a closer look at the poppies. I couldn’t blame him for wanting to. He’d likely never seen anything like them.
A thin layer of frost encased the flowers, freezing them in time. Beneath the glittering ice, you could see the vivid orange-red hue of the petals and the lush green of the leaves. Somehow, the poppies lived beneath the ice.
Movement snagged my attention. My gaze flicked up. A raven peered down from a tangled mess of vines, its silver orb eyes watching us. It wasn’t the damn bird that unnerved me, though. It was the crimson-streaked shadows pulsing through the vines.
“The Great Hall is straight ahead,” I said, knowing my father’s presence had been felt.
Damn, Cas had likely known the moment he crossed into the capital.
“Is he alone?”
“Attes is likely with him,” I told him. A huge part of me was still shocked that the Primal had returned after the blowout between him and Cas.
He rose, and we were about halfway across the chamber when we heard the quiet click of…heels. Frowning, I turned toward the larger atrium.
No one wearing heels would be in that part of the castle.
“Wait here.” I stalked toward the large, circular chamber.
Anger pumped through me as I briefly glanced at the wide staircase and then scanned the hall ahead. I didn’t have time to deal with whatever fool had managed to get into Wayfair.
A heavy thud echoed from the hall straight across from the stairs—the one that led to the dining and meeting chambers. The muscles in my neck tensed. “I thought I said wait.”
My father huffed from behind me. “And I thought you knew better than to issue such a ridiculous order to your father.”
I could feel the veneer of calm I’d been wearing for the last several days begin to crack as the clicking grew louder. I prowled into the middle of the atrium and jerked back a step the second my eyes locked on the pale-blond-haired female. It was her—
No, it’s not Seraphena, you dumbass. You would’ve felt her. This was the otherher. The moment I realized that, my jaw unlocked.
Was this some sort of mirage? No one had seen her since Poppy was in stasis. But no, it was her.
Poppy’ssister.She strolled down the center of the hall as if out for a fucking walk in the park, her fitted cloak swishing around the ankles of her pointed-toe boots.
“I see some redecorating has been done in my absence,” Millicent said, the delicate lines of her brows arched. “I like it.”
I stared at her, too stunned to speak.
“Though I would’ve pared back some of the vines. Less is more, or so they say.” Millicent’s steps slowed, and her pale-blue gaze flicked behind me. “Who are you?”
“Jasper,” my father stated.
