“How was Jadis before she left?” I cringed as soon as the words left me. “I mean, I know she wasn’t…good.”
“I understand.” Seraphena’s faint smile was reassuring. “She calmed. I think it just being the two of us helped.” She glanced at the rotunda and sighed. “Did Reaver return?”
“No,” Casteel answered.
She looked over at him and then did a double take.
“Reaver.” He sighed. “This is the shirt he thought fit me best.”
Seraphena mashed her lips together, but it didn’t stop the smile. It only created a grin with puffed-out cheeks.
“But it was nice of him to even think of getting you one,” I offered. “Especially since he wasn’t…”
The amusement vanished from Seraphena’s face. “It was hard on Reaver—it’sgoingto be hard on him,” she said. How she said it gave me the impression that she knew that firsthand. “But they’ll be okay. We’ll make sure of it.” Her gaze returned to me. “I need to get back, but I have to talk to you about something first.” She paused. “Alone.”
Casteel stiffened beside me, but I spoke before he could. “Whatever you need to discuss with me can be said in front of him.”
“You’re right. Itcanbe said in front of him.” She held my gaze, and something in her stare caused tiny balls of bloodstone to form in my stomach. “But it doesn’t need to be.”
That comment caused the balls to multiply. There was a heavy meaning there I didn’t understand—or want to. “I want him here,” I said.
Seraphena looked like she wanted to argue.
“She wants me here,” Casteel began, and my head cut toward him sharply. His voice was soft—too soft—when he finished. “So, you’ll have to physically remove me.”
Her head tilted. “You think I can’t do that?”
“I think you can try,” he replied with a curl of his lips, causing just a hint of his right dimple to appear. “Keyword beingtry.”
Eather flared in her eyes, momentarily turning them pure silver.
“Okay.” I stepped in before it went further. “What did you want to talk about?”
I would’ve had better luck talking to the wall. Neither looked away from the other. Casteel still had that smirk on his face, and the curl of her lips matched his. The air charged, and a sharp gust of wind whipped through the hall, tossing strands of hair across my face. I had no idea which of them was responsible for that.
“You know,” I said, stepping between them, catching the strands of wind-tossed hair, and tucking them back. “It’s almost like you two are related.”
“Thank you,” Casteel murmured.
“That wasn’t a compliment.”
“Sounded like it to me,” she replied.
“For fuck’s sake.” I threw up my hands. “You know what? I’m going back to Wayfair. You two can stay here and try to out peacock each other.”
Both heads turned to me.
“Out peacock each other?” Seraphena asked, her brow furrowed.
“You know how peacocks are,” I said.
“I don’t think we do.” The wind settled as Casteel arched a brow. “Please, tell me how peacocks are.”
“They’re always fluffing their feathers at one another,” I told them. “And puffing out their chests.”
“I don’t know if that’s true,” Seraphena murmured.
I stared at her. “Whether it’s true or not isn’t the point.”
