“I’m fine,” I assured him. “It was just a nick—”
“Just a nick?” Crimson-laced shadows lashed through his irises and filled his voice.
“Yes. I’m sure it’s already healed. I’m…” I trailed off as his hand slid to the nape of my neck. The shadowy eather deepened in his flesh as it flowed up the sides ofhisneck.
Casteel pulled his hand away and turned it over slowly, revealing the smear of crimson across his fingers. “Just a nick, too?” he asked, his voice cold.
“Yeah, it’s just a…bump.”
“Glad to see she was left in good hands,” Attes’s voice came, low, flat, and hard.
Casteel’s gaze lifted, and he slowly turned his head toward Attes.
“Do you have any idea what she was doing?” Attes demanded.
“I can only imagine.” Casteel’s words sliced through the air with the sharpness of frostbitten bloodstone. “But why don’t you tell me?” His head cocked. “Great-grandfather.”
My eyes widened.
Attes’s inhale was swift. “Well, I see that horse has fled the stable.”
“Indeed.” A muscle flexed under the eather rolling along Casteel’s jaw. “What are you doing here, Attes? With her?”
“Apparently, making sure she doesn’t get herself injured too badly,” Attes replied. “Since you weren’t cap—”
“Don’t,” I warned, twisting my neck to shoot the Primal a look of warning, “finish that sentence.”
“No.” Casteel’s voice dropped with that one word, sending a chill crawling up my spine. “Please, do.”
“Please, don’t,” I said, placing my other hand against Casteel’s chest. His skin had cooled even more. He stepped to the side.
Attes fell silent. Thank the gods.
Casteel, however, did not. “Or did you just realize what a fucking idiotic thing that was to say?”
I matched his steps, staying in front of him. “Cas,” I tried again.
“What did I tell you last time, boy?” Attes growled, and I felt more than heard him approach.
Boy? I grimaced. Hearing Vikter call Casteel boy was amusing. Coming from Attes and being said to Casteel’s face? Not so much.
Casteel’s lips curved into a tight smile. “You might need to refresh my memory.”
“He doesn’t need to,” I cut in, pressing more firmly against Casteel’s chest.
“That is,” Casteel continued as he wrapped his fingers around my wrists, “if you can even remember what you said in your incredibly advanced age.”
Oh, my gods.
Attes’s laugh wasn’t nearly as chilling as what had come out of Casteel, but it was threaded with the same promise of violence. “I can kick your ass despite my incredibly advanced age. How about that?”
Casteel lowered my arms. “I’m about to sound incredibly clichéd, but I would love to see you try.”
“You won’t be seeing any of that.” I stretched onto my tiptoes, briefly considering reaching out to Kieran. I quickly dismissed that idea because I had a feeling he couldn’t help.
“If that’s true, then why are you hiding behind your wife?”
Oh.
