He chuckled quietly. “Makes sense. Attes didn’t seem like he expected to see Malik and Cas.”
A brief image of a man who resembled Valyn flashed in my mind, except… The image had already faded from my thoughts, but a distinctive feature lingered. “Attes looked more like Malik, right?”
Kieran nodded. “I mean, you could tell that he and Cas are related, but yeah. Malik and their father clearly got more of Attes’s physical traits.”
“Did Attes…have a scar?”
“He did. Right about here,” he said, lifting a finger and running it from his hairline across his nose, just as I’d briefly seen. “How did you know that?”
“I…I don’t know.” I rubbed my palm against my chest. “I just kind of saw him in my mind.”
Kieran frowned. “Maybe it’s from when he was here. You did look at him.”
I sat back, thinking that had to be why. “I told Cas about Setti and who Attes was in Iliseeum.”
“Let me guess.” Kieran took a drink. “He had little to no reaction.”
“Correct.”
“He wasn’t very impressed by Attes,” he said. “Nor his bloodline.”
My brows lifted. “Really?”
“To be honest, I think the feeling was mutual.”
Now, I frowned. Only Cas could be unimpressed by the fact that he descended from a Primal god. However, something about that tugged at my thoughts. Something that felt important. But like so many other things since I woke, it slipped out of reach as soon as I tried to grasp it.
Casteel reemerged, his face clean-shaven as he pulled a linen shirt similar to the one I wore over his bare chest. He crossed the chamber and draped what appeared to be my robe over the back of the chair next to Kieran.
“I ran into Naill earlier.” He paused and sent a blatant stare in Kieran’s direction as he picked up the glass he had left earlier. “Surprisingly, he’s been in Wayfair all evening.”
“My bad,” Kieran murmured, a barely-there grin on his face as Casteel moved beside me. “I was under the impression he was away.”
“Sure, you were,” Casteel remarked dryly. I smiled.
“So,” Kieran drawled, leaning back, “is everything set for the meeting with the generals tomorrow?”
“Yeah. It’s set for the afternoon,” Casteel answered, then said to me, “I know you’d prefer it to be first thing in the morning, but the time was chosen under advisement of Lord Sven.” Casteel patted my hip. “He asked about you and was pleased to hear that he would be seeing you soon.”
I smiled at that. Lord Sven was one of the few generals I actually liked. Lizeth Damron, a wolven, was the other. And, of course, Casteel’s father.
I sat straighter. “Any news from Pensdurth?”
“None,” Casteel answered. “But it’s unlikely that Thad has returned.”
“When do you think he’ll be back?”
“I would think by tomorrow night,” Kieran answered. “Or the following day.”
Casteel leaned over and brushed his lips across my temple before settling into the settee. “We should have a plan in place regarding how we’re going to deal with Kolis before we meet with the generals.”
“Agreed.” Kieran watched me as a prickly, itchy sensation invaded my skin. I wiggled to free myself from Casteel.
Spying the robe draped across the empty chair beside Kieran, I rose.
Kieran cleared his throat. “A plan will be heard and allowed to develop without knowing what state Kolis is in.”
“I think it would be wise to assume that he has returned to his physical form,” Casteel decided, his gaze tracking me. “Didthevadentiatell you how long it will take for him to return to full power?”
