Chapter Seventeen

Poppy and Casteel leave their room, sharing a charged touch before stepping outside to find a fully grown blood tree where none stood the night before. Onlookers call it an omen that the gods are watching and that great change is coming, unsettling Poppy despite Casteel’s focus on her well-being.

They head to the makeshift infirmary, where Poppy uses her gift to ease several people’s pain with unusual ease, possibly enhanced by Casteel’s blood or her Culling. She comforts an older man grieving his grandfather, calms a gravely injured wolven named Keev, and respects a feverish mortal’s refusal of her touch, recoiling from his distrust and hatred. A dying young woman’s mother, once of Masadonia, recognizes Poppy’s mercy and calls her a “second daughter…Chosen,” but says Poppy’s gifts would be wasted on her child.

Outside, Alastir and Casteel discuss the sight of Poppy’s abilities. Alastir suggests Poppy descends from empath warriors—once feared as “Soul Eaters” for siphoning the energy behind emotions and their closeness to the deities—explaining the wary reactions. They debate the omen’s meaning and whether it concerns Poppy and Casteel’s impending marriage. For safety after the attack, they decide to split into smaller groups and travel east toward Spessa’s End.

Poppy recalls a Red Pearl woman who called her a second daughter and seemed a Seer. Casteel reveals he never sent anyone to guide Poppy to his room that night, deepening the mystery of the changeling’s involvement and reinforcing the sense of fate or manipulation around Poppy.

Seeking privacy, Casteel draws Poppy into a pantry to acknowledge her courage and the cost of using her gift amid fear. He asks to “pretend” for a moment—no past or future, just a kiss between Hawke and Poppy. Longing to escape recent trauma and confusion, Poppy consents, agreeing to the “pretend” kiss as their relationship further intensifies.