My heart skipped at the intrusive thought, and my mind immediately started spewing out denials. It seemed impossible. Unreal. But it was real. I wasn’t the girl who’d fallen off a cliff, though. Not really—
“Poppy.”
Gods, I was terrible at prioritizing.
Drawing in a shallow breath, I forced a smile and decided I should fake it until I made it. “We should head back.”
He didn’t respond.
I peeked over at him.
Casteel watched me, his arms crossed, testing the seams of that ridiculously tight shirt.
He did make it look good, though.
I shuffled uncomfortably, my fingers running over the clasps on my vest. “Why are you staring at me?”
“Because you’re beautiful.”
My chest fluttered, but I managed to keep my voice bland as I said, “Really.”
“Yes.” He tilted his head, and a moment passed. “I can tell a thousand different things are running through your mind.”
I snorted. “Is it that obvious?”
“A little.” Turning from me, he picked up Seraphena’s glass and moved to the liquor cabinet. “What would you like to drink? Sherry? Or…” He picked up a decanter with some liquid that matched his eyes. “Whiskey?”
“Do you think we should be having a drink right now?”
“What I think is that there will never be a time where drinking ismoresuitable.”
I snorted like a pig—not a piglet. “True, but—”
“We’ll head back soon.”
“But,” I repeated, “we need to check on things in Lowertown and see if Thad returned from Pensdurth.” Another thing occurred to me. “Plus, we have to find out what Malik wanted to show us.”
“We will do all of that soon.” Casteel glanced over his shoulder at me. “Just a drink. Then we return.” He grinned, that dimple in his right cheek peeking out. “So, whiskey?”
I sighed. “Sure.”
Casteel flipped over two fresh glasses and poured. “The one thing I can’t complain about when it comes to the Ascended in and near Carsodonia,” he said, walking the drinks over to me and handing me a glass, “is that they actually have good liquor.”
I didn’t know there was a difference between the liquor in Masadonia and that in the capital. I hadn’t really had many chances to sample the offerings.
He sat on one of the longer couches and leaned back as best he could with the swords and dagger strapped to him. “Sit with me?”
Cradling the drink, I made my way over to him and sat. I took a sip, surprised by the liquor’s smoothness, but it still made my stomach churn. Though it wasn’t the whiskey doing that. It was why I knew Casteel wanted to linger here.
“So,” he drawled, and I tensed. “You going to tell me why you want to kill one of the Fates?”
I blinked, not expecting that question. “I was hoping you’d forget that.”
He snorted. “You should’ve known better.”
“I asked them if they were going to do anything about the other realm.” I rubbed my thumb across the glass. “They said they couldn’t because there were rules.” I rolled my eyes. “And, well, I kind of lost my temper.”
“Is that so?” he asked with a hint of amusement in his tone.
