Chapter A Soul of Ash and Blood: PRESENT V

“I don’t think I’ve ever told you about that. It wasn’t that I was hiding it from you. I just didn’t want you to feel embarrassed,” I told Poppy as she slept, curling my arm around her waist. “I also figured you’d probably stab me if you ever learned I had been in your bedchamber while you slept.” I paused. “More than once.”

My laugh stirred the wisps of hair at her temple, but my amusement faded. “I didn’t know about the Duke. I just knew something was up. The way you and Tawny responded. How Vikter was when he showed up. Now, I know why he dismissed me. He knew you wouldn’t have wanted me—or anyone really—to see you after you finished with your . He was protecting you the best he could.”

His best wasn’t good enough in my opinion. He’d known what was being done to her, yet he stood by. But I kept that opinion to myself. She didn’t need to hear it.

I stared at her. Dawn quickly approached. I should try to sleep while Delano was here, resting at the foot of the bed in his wolven form. I could try to find her in our dreams. But my mind wasn’t shutting down, and maybe I was too afraid that we find each other. Neither of us knew how to walk in each other’s dreams—if it was something that happened naturally when we both slept or if one of us initiated it. But this wasn’t normal sleep. She was in stasis.

Still, resting would be wise either way. I needed it. Except there was no way I could until she opened those beautiful eyes of hers and knew me. Knew herself.

And she would.

I believed that.

Because she was strong and stubborn as hell. She was brave.

I hadn’t always known just how strong she was.

A smile tugged at my lips as I thought of the first time I’d truly grasped how brave and skilled she was. “When we were at the Red Pearl, and I found that dagger? You said you knew how to use it. I wasn’t sure I believed you. Why would I? You were the Maiden, but then you cut Jericho, and I should’ve realized then that you were nothing like I expected. Nothing at all.”

I dipped my head, kissing the bare skin of her shoulder beside the thin strap of the gown Vonetta had found for her. “But the night on the Rise, when the Craven attacked, I realized then that Kieran and I really underestimated you.” In my mind, I could see her now, her cloak billowing around her in the wind right before she threw a dagger at me. “That was when it began to change—how I thought of you. Saw you. You were no longer the Maiden. You were becoming… You were becoming Poppy.”