Blood and Ash, #1
From Blood and Ash
by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Contents
Chapter Thirty-Four
Overview
Poppy wakes after choosing Hawke and resolves not to Ascend. Phillips bursts in, claiming a trap and trying to extract her. Kieran transforms into a wolven, triggering a desperate flight to the stables. Hawke arrives with allied wolven, kills Phillips and Luddie, and coldly declares they need Poppy alive, shattering her trust.
Summary
Poppy wakes in Hawke’s arms after their night together, feeling determined never to return to the Maiden’s path or Ascend. Hawke leaves to handle something, and Poppy resolves to tell him she won’t continue to the Queen as the Maiden.
Phillips barges in, agitated, claiming the keep is a trap: no Ascended are present, Evans and Warren are missing, and he distrusts Hawke and Kieran’s rapid rise. He tries to lead Poppy out at swordpoint as Kieran appears in the hall. When Phillips attacks, Kieran is wounded and transforms into a wolven, confirming Phillips’s fears.
Poppy and Phillips flee to the stables, where Luddie and Bryant bar the doors. The wolven presses them, and a one-handed man—Jericho, Rylan’s killer—steps from the shadows, promising violence. The doors explode inward; Hawke enters with a crossbow-like weapon as wolven prowl behind him.
In a blur, Hawke fires, pinning Phillips through the mouth to a post, while Delano (another wolven) shoots Luddie. Kieran takes down Bryant. Surrounded by wolven allies and led by an emotionless Hawke, Poppy realizes her trust has been betrayed as Hawke tells Jericho they need her alive.
Who Appears
- Poppy (Penellaphe)Protagonist; wakes after choosing Hawke, rejects Ascension, flees with Phillips, witnesses Kieran’s wolven shift and Hawke’s betrayal.
- Hawke (Casteel, implied)Leaves at night, returns with a crossbow and wolven allies; kills Phillips and allows his side to subdue guards; declares Poppy must live.
- KieranRevealed as a wolven; transforms, chases Poppy and Phillips, and kills Bryant in the stables.
- PhillipsGuard who suspects a trap and tries to extract Poppy; is pinned through the mouth by Hawke’s bolt and dies.
- JerichoOne-handed attacker who killed Rylan; reappears allied with Hawke’s side, taunting Poppy and urging her death.
- DelanoWolven ally; shoots Luddie with a bolt, confirming the keep’s attackers are coordinated with Hawke.
- LuddieGuard at the stables; helps bar the doors before Delano shoots him in the back.
- BryantGuard who tries to flee the stables; Kieran kills him during the attack.