Total pages in book: 401
Estimated words: 390373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1952(@200wpm)___ 1561(@250wpm)___ 1301(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 390373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1952(@200wpm)___ 1561(@250wpm)___ 1301(@300wpm)
“I will.” His gaze searched mine. “I’m sure you know this already, but I feel the need to say it. I wish you’d held off on doing this. You just woke up and then were pulled into that other realm.”
“I’m okay,” I said for what felt like the hundredth time.
“I know you are.” He lowered his voice. “But a lot has happened.”
A lot felt like an understatement. Like with Kieran, I had a feeling he was talking more about learning that I’d been under Kolis’s influence than what had happened in the Continents. Still, my mind kept flashing to the tension between him and Kieran and what he’d asked me before I crossed the Veil. Those words—Do you?—came to the forefront of my mind, causing my stomach to twist.
“Is everything okay with you and Kieran?” I asked, uncomfortable with the question.
He tilted his head to the side, and his eyes cooled to a polished amber. “Why wouldn’t it be?”
“I don’t know.” I shifted my weight from one foot to the other as I picked up nothing from him. He had his shields up. “It’s just that you two acted kind of strange with each other.”
“Really?”
I nodded.
“We’ve been worried. Probably has us both feeling a little off,” he said, brushing a strand of hair behind my ear.
His answer was nearly the exact response I’d gotten from Kieran. It made sense, but did it really explain the distance between them? The doubt I’d picked up from him before I crossed the Veil? “I know that I can come to you with anything.”
“I know,” he said.
I didn’t feel the sharp, cutting doubt then. But I didn’t feel anything. He still had his emotions walled off, which wasn’t entirely abnormal.
“I do.” Dipping his head, he brushed his lips across my forehead. “Okay?”
Twisting a button on the robe, I nodded, even though I wanted to ask him why he’d questioned it then. Had I mistaken what I’d felt? Seen? It wasn’t impossible, but the nagging voice wanted me to push. There was also another, much louder voice, telling me to let it go. He said he knew. Both he and Kieran had assured me that everything was fine. There was no reason for me to harp on it.
Those words were familiar.
I’d heard something similar a hundred times when I wore the veil and the Ascended claimed something I had difficulty believing. Let it go. It was easier—
Casteel tucked another strand of my hair back. “I can tell a thousand different things are running through your head.”
Exhaling a long, slow breath, I shoved all of that aside. There were far more important things for me to be thinking about. “Is it that obvious?”
“A little.” He dropped his hand. “What’s on your mind?”
“Just…everything,” I said.
“Like?” He reached over and placed his fingers over mine. Energy danced between us as he gently pulled my fingers away from the button I was bound to break.
“Kolis,” I decided on. “It’s possible he’s corporeal now.”
“Seeing him will make killing him easier.”
“True.” A knot of unease formed in the pit of my stomach. I let out a slow, even breath to ease the tension gathering inside me. Feeling Casteel’s piercing stare on me, I shifted my thoughts from Kolis. “You mentioned Setti before when we shadowstepped. You named your horse after Attes’s vellám.”
“No, I didn’t. And what is a vellám?” he asked. Then I explained what it was and how Attes had once been the Primal God of War and Accord. “Okay. But I named him after Theon’s horse.”
“Nope. The vadentia—” I tapped the side of my head—“told me Setti was Attes’s bloodsteed.”
Casteel’s head cocked. “I guess it’s possible the scholars got the two confused,” he said, just as I sensed Reaver’s approach. “Especially if the names were similar.”
My brows lifted. “That’s all you have to say about learning that you named your horse after Attes’s, who also happens to be a Primal of War?”
He lifted a shoulder.
I continued to stare at him.
“You know,” Casteel drawled, “you’re adorable with your mouth hanging open.”
I snapped it shut.
The heavy doors opened then, letting in the fading rays of sunlight from outside as Reaver strode in…
Completely nude.
“For fuck’s sake, man,” growled Casteel as I quickly spun in the opposite direction.
“You do realize that draken are nude before and after shifting,” was Reaver’s bland response.
“And you realize you’re carrying pants in your hand, right?” Casteel retorted. The image of Reaver flying with pants dangling from his talons almost made me giggle. “Instead of wearing them?”
“I didn’t want to keep you all waiting.”
“For the whole five seconds it would’ve taken you to put them on?” I asked.
“Yes.” There was a pause. “I’m wearing them now.”
Casteel was shaking his head as I peeked behind me. Reaver had donned the same loose, black pants I’d seen him wearing earlier.
“This way.” Reaver’s gravelly voice echoed through the circular hall as he passed us.