“It would only cause a spectacle if people realize they were unaware.” Casteel crossed his arms. “Which is something no one should realize since it’s not improbable for me to have sent word home to them.”
Alastir leaned forward. “Casteel, I really think—”
“You’re not going to change his mind,” I interjected, nearly as weary with the conversation as Casteel was.
“And what about yours?” Alastir demanded. “Would you wish to meet your future mother-in-law before or after you’ve married her son? Or does what you want even matter?”
The pulse of fury from Casteel was a warning, but it was my irritation with that question that led me to say, “If I hadn’t agreed with Casteel, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation with you.”
“Penellaphe, trust me when I say that this is not something either of you needs to rush into,” he said, gentling his voice, but I felt a thread of…anger that was not mine or Casteel’s. “You have time. All the time in the world.”
But we didn’t. “In a perfect world, I would’ve loved to have been courted in a way that didn’t involve kidnappings or fleeing the Ascended.”
“Or being stabbed,” Casteel murmured under his breath.
I turned to him.
He winked.
He actually winked at me.
Taking a deep breath, I focused on Alastir. “But that is not the real world. The reality is that I’d rather marry before learning all the ways his parents will most likely object,” I told him, and that was the gods’ honest truth. Temporary or not, who in their right mind would want to subject themselves to that?
Alastir’s features softened. “You don’t know that they will.”
“Yes. I do,” I stated, aware of Casteel’s gaze and the absence of the all-too-brief amusement. I sat forward. “The only people here who have been even remotely friendly to me are the wolven and some of the men who traveled with you. None of the people of Spessa’s End have, and I know exactly how they feel about me.”
Any denials died on Alastir’s tongue.
“There is no reason for me to believe that his parents won’t share the same worries or concerns as the people do,” I continued. “I’d rather marry without actually being able to replay all of their concerns in my head during the ceremony.”
Alastir sat back, rubbing his fingers over his brow. “I can understand that. I really can, but our King and Queen—”
“Will be shocked and probably greatly annoyed that I have married someone they have never laid eyes on, not to mention someone who is only half-Atlantian and was once the Maiden,” Casteel interrupted. “But as soon as they get to know her, none of that will matter. They will come to love her as fiercely as I do.”
My heart stuttered and squeezed as I looked at Casteel, and I knew—I knew he hadn’t planned to say that last part, or at least he hadn’t meant to say it like that. His surprise was sharp and cool, and the moment his gaze met mine, I looked away.
I swallowed the ragged breath I wanted to exhale. “How is Beckett?” I asked. Vonetta had said that the young wolven was walking with barely a limp, but it was time to change the subject.
“It is like he wasn’t injured at all,” Alastir replied. “What you did for him—”
“I was only trying to ease his pain,” I said again. “I don’t even know if I’ll be able to do something like that again.”
Alastir nodded, but he didn’t seem too convinced of, well, anything. And then, he left. Alone, I turned to Casteel.
“That was fun, wasn’t it?” he asked.
I didn’t know what it was about how he’d said that, but I laughed. “Almost more than I could handle.”
He smiled, his body finally relaxing to match his posture. “I could tell.”
My gaze flickered over him, and I…I knew the anger and frustration had faded. The sadness was there, lingering beneath it all, but there was a strange sense of contentedness, too.
“Are you reading my emotions?”
“No.” I paused. “Sort of?”
“What does that mean?”
“I’m not sure what it means.” I glanced down at my hands. “Ever since I woke this morning, I can read emotions without opening myself—without having to concentrate. I focus, and if I want to know…I know.”
“And if you don’t want to know?”
I frowned. “Then I don’t. I don’t know if crowds will be different.”