Attes raised his brows as if to say, “Am I wrong?”
He wasn’t.
“Cas has always been temperamental,” Jasper said, drawing my gaze back to him. His body was once more loose, and he had moved a foot closer. “You should have seen him as a child.”
Attes’s hand hovered near the sword strapped to his hip. “Yeah, well, I doubt he made a person’s insides their outsides as a temperamental child.”
I smirked as my gaze slid back to Kieran. His features were expressionless.
“Can’t say I’ve seen him do that,” Jasper commented, seemingly unfazed by Attes’s presence. I knew damn well he sensed what the Primal god was. “But I’m sure whoever that happened to had it coming.”
They had.
“And he isn’t going to touch me,” Jasper continued with all the bravado of someone who was like blood to me. “Isn’t that right, Cas?”
I said nothing, my gaze still locked with Kieran’s. What Jasper had said wasn’t a question. It had been a statement.
“I want to talk,” Jasper said, which was the very last thing I wanted. Needed. “I can’t even begin to know what you’re feeling. Not gonna even pretend that I do…”
Jasper’s words faded as I dragged my stare from Kieran. My gaze flicked past Attes to the doors. I didn’t have time for this.
Whoever had woken me was still in Wayfair.
Opening my senses once more, I willed the ravens to take flight. Some remained behind, but one obeyed, quietly flying from the Hall. I went with it. Not physically, just my vision as the raven entered the corridor beyond, its feathers whispering against the cool air. Hallways unfolded in quick bursts, glimpses of closed doors, flickering light, and pulsing vines. We didn’t have to go far before I felt them. The unnaturalness of something not quite dead but also not alive. The raven swooped under atangle of vines, gliding past the chamber where statues once stood.
I saw them. My brother and…Millicent’s silvery-blond head.
Nice of her to finally return.
They were squared off, facing each other. Malik’s lips were faintly curved, eyes glinting with a hint of amusement, something I hadn’t seen since our father…since then. On the other hand, Millicent looked like she was a second from ripping his balls off.
No longer hearing what Jasper said, I focused on Millicent through the raven’s eyes. She shared some ofherfeatures.The heart-shaped face. The stubborn jaw.She stepped toward Malik, pointing a finger up at him.The attitude.My fingers curled around the smooth bone of the throne’s arm. The raven slowed, eyeing a lumpy sack roughly the size of a body. I willed thechoracloser as it flew silently above them, its head tilted down and sharp eyes scanning the burlap. The drawstring along the top was loose, and through the small gap, golden hair fanned out.
Well, well, well, it appeared Millicent had returned with a gift.
Satisfaction surged, mingling with anticipation as a slow smile pulled at my lips.
“Shit,” Kieran muttered at the same moment Jasper fell silent, and Malik’s head snapped toward the raven.
My brother’s eyes widened in recognition. “Fuck.”
“Excuse me?” Millicent demanded.
“We need to go.” Malik spun toward the person-shaped sack, grabbing it with a rough jerk. He hoisted it over his shoulder. “Now.”
“More like you need to go fu—”
I severed the connection to thechora, and the dimly lit Great Hall took shape around me. Moving silently, I let the essence pooling at my feet rise.
Kieran stalked toward me, his brilliant blue eyes like chips of sapphires. “Cas.”
I stepped forward as Kieran jerked to a halt, his eyes narrowing. Cursing, he spun and took off for the doors—at the exact moment I shadowstepped.
Kieran was fast.
But I was always faster.
Both froze as I appeared before them, shadowy eather spilling across the narrow passageway that ran behind the dining hall. Essence spun around me in streaks of dark gray and crimson as I stepped toward them.
