Total pages in book: 247
Estimated words: 231436 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1157(@200wpm)___ 926(@250wpm)___ 771(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 231436 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1157(@200wpm)___ 926(@250wpm)___ 771(@300wpm)
When the Queen has Ian beheaded, Millie can’t hide her shock. To me, that indicates she’s not as icy as she tries to portray.
As Poppy raises the furious storm outside of Oak Ambler after Casteel gives himself up, Millie appears before her and tells her to stop, hinting that Poppy will hurt innocents if she continues. When she orders the others of the group to intervene, and nobody moves, she tacks on a threat that if they don’t stop her, she will. Poppy throws a net of power at her, and Millie tells her it won’t work, also making Poppy aware that a shadowstone arrow is pointed at her head.
After Poppy finally calms a bit, Millie tells her she’s sorry about Ian. She then makes sure the group understands that all the vamprys have left and only innocents remain, so they shouldn’t be so hasty to wipe out the entire place. When Poppy threatens her further, Millie laughs and says she would welcome the final death.
They talk a bit more, and Millie finally reveals that the Ascended will take Cas to the capital, but she doesn’t know where. She goes on to say that Isbeth will have the Revenants and Malik watching him, and that the only way Poppy can save him is if she brings the fire of the gods.
This may seem like an innocuous statement, that Poppy should bring everything she has, but in my interpretation, she’s actually telling Poppy that she needs to secure Nyktos’s guards. I love that she revealed that Poppy needed to get the draken without coming right out and saying it.
About thirty days into Casteel’s imprisonment, Millie goes to see him. After looking him over, she informs him that she thinks his finger is infected. When Cas asks her why she’s there, she admits that she made a promise to someone—which we later find out was Malik. She tries to get him to bathe, and he sasses her at every turn. Finally, she quips that he must be cranky because he’s hungry and tells him that Malik gets that way, too.
Interesting that she knows that and would bring it up.
Cas asks her where his brother is, and she replies that he’s probably here, there…everywhere he’s not supposed to be. When he states that she must be around Malik a lot to know what he’s like when he needs to feed, she says she’s really not. She’s just observant.
I don’t believe that for a second. Knowing what we know about Malik’s extracurricular activities beyond the Queen’s notice, that statement about him being in places he shouldn’t takes on a bit of a new meaning, though I’m not saying that because I have proof. It is merely conjecture.
As Millie scrubs the symbols from her skin using Cas’s bath water, they talk about the tunnels and wards. She tells Cas how Poppy broke the wards when she Ascended into her godhood, allowing things to get in and out, though not even Callum knows when and where. When Cas asks more about the golden one, Millie tells him that Callum’s really old.
Millicent reveals that she would have killed Isbeth, but the Queen is a god—we know she’s really not, but… Then she says that she believes Poppy will eventually kill her, telling Casteel that she saw Poppy after Cas gave himself up and realized how powerful she is. Cas tells her his wife is unlike anybody else, and Millie agrees. However, when he mentions that Nyktos is the reason for Poppy’s uniqueness, she corrects him by saying that he knows nothing if he thinks Nyktos is the true Primal of Life and Death. She then details how Isbeth needed a tool/weapon to destroy the realms and lets it slip that Isbeth figured out how to bring to life something that can.
Millie is there to head off Poppy, Kieran, and Reaver while they’re on their way to Carsodonia to save Casteel. A fight breaks out, and they eventually have a discussion where Millie calls Poppy the Queen of Flesh and Fire. Ultimately, they all end up at Wayfair.
Later, Millie tells Poppy the Queen wishes to speak with her about the future of the kingdoms and the True King of the Realms and informs Poppy that New Haven and Whitebridge have fallen under Atlantian control—the Blood Crown received a missive. She adds that everyone’s been on edge since. Poppy refuses to wear the outfit Millie brings her because it’s white and says she won’t be forced to look like the Maiden again. She tells Millie to either get her something else or she’ll go naked. Millie jokes that it would almost be worth letting Poppy go like that just to witness the outcome.
As they talk more, Poppy warns Millie not to refer to Isbeth as her mother. When Poppy pushes with her powers, Millie blocks her attempts to read her. As she leaves Poppy, she tells her she’ll keep Kieran and Reaver company and comments on how handsome Reaver is.