Tawny drew her head back, her delicate brow furrowing. “Areyouseriously about to lecturemeabout being reckless?”
I opened my mouth as Casteel huffed out a laugh. I narrowed my eyes at him again. One side of his lips curled up as he took a drink.
“Whatever,” I muttered. “It doesn’t mean it wasn’t incredibly dangerous.”
“Gianna made sure nothing happened to me,” she was quick to say. “I know you don’t like her—”
“I never said I didn’t like her,” I cut in, frowning.
Pulling away, Tawny crossed her arms. “Did you or did you not threaten to tear her apart, limb by limb, and feed her—”
“To a pack of hungry barrats if she had feelings for me,” Casteel finished for her. “The answer would be yes.”
I pursed my lips.
I had.
And she really hadn’t deserved that. It wasn’t her fault that Alastir was her uncle and wanted her to form a union with Casteel. Nor was it her fault that she was beautiful.
I sighed. “I can admit it wasn’t one of my finer moments.”
“I think it was,” Casteel remarked, his voice dropping to a purr that caused the muscles low in my stomach to coil.
“That’s a red flag,” Tawny murmured.
“I’m a walking red flag,” he replied with a grin that brought out his dimple.
Tawny looked over at him for a moment and then laughed. “There is something wrong with you.”
“I have been saying that since I met him,” I said.
“You love my wrongness,” he retorted.
I did.
“Of course, she does,” Tawny replied. “Because, clearly, there’s also something wrong with her.”
A laugh left me, and with that, I focused on the fact that Tawny was here. It was her.
She was just…changed.
I spent the next half an hour or so listening to Tawny tell me about her journey to the capital as we sat on the settee. There was no mistaking the way…life returned to her eyes when she spoke of Gianna. I wanted to ask her about that, but not with Casteel looming like an ever-present guardian.
“You want to hear something strange?” she asked, glancing down at the chalice of wine Casteel had poured for her. “I felt you when you woke. Both times.”
My stomach twisted sharply again. “Really?” I kept my voice level, aware that Casteel was listening more intently now. “Do you know how?”
“I don’t know how to explain it.” She ran her finger down the side of her glass. “I just had this feeling.” She lifted her gaze to mine. “Gianna didn’t feel it the first time, but said she did the second time. She mentioned thenotam.”
I nodded, knowing that wasn’t what she’d felt.
“That’s how I learned something was…wrong,” she continued, looking over at Casteel. “He wouldn’t let me see you then.”
A hazy memory of hearing her voice and walls draped with curtains flashed through my mind, disappearing before I could remember much else. “It was for your safety. I wasn’t…myself.”
“I get it.” Her lips curled into a fleeting grin. “But that doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
My lips curved up. “Of course not.” I exhaled. “I was…under Kolis’s influence.”
