A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire

Poppy has a nightmare again and Cas comforts her. The next morning, New Haven’s keeper Elijah bids the group goodbye as they start their week-long journey to Spessa’s End. Poppy rides with Casteel on his horse Setti, sad that Elijah and the others will have to leave their home.

Poppy is unnaturally quiet on the journey through the woods to Spessa’s End. When Cas asks why, she tells him it is because she does not know how to act like his betrothed. Poppy was raised with such intense criticism that she tends to overthink her behavior in company. Cas is horrified when Poppy tells him how the Duke and Duchess Teerman—her minders—would even punish her for not walking quietly enough. She got through the Duke’s perverse punishments by dissociating.

On the fourth day of the journey, Poppy sees ropes binding bones to stripped tree branches—the insignia of the Dead Bone clan, a group of mortals who kill and eat other humans. Just then, arrows fly at them, and Cas is shot.

Though Cas is bleeding, he fights the members of the Dead Bones Clan attacking their group. Poppy joins the fray as well, using a bolt fashioned from bloodstone to shoot at the enemies.