I nodded, tipping the bottle to my mouth and taking a long swallow. The liquor burned my throat and eyes. Coughing, I pressed the back of my hand to my mouth as I handed the bottle to Delano. “I don’t know what horse piss tastes like, but I’m sure that’s a good comparison.”
Naill chuckled.
“We were getting ready to head in there.” Delano stretched out his legs, crossing them at the ankles. “But we figured we’d wait until the air cleared a bit.”
“Good choice,” I muttered.
“Looks like the room is airing out now.” Naill’s gaze flicked over my shoulder.
The muscles in the back of my neck tightened. “Please tell me that’s not him.”
“Well, I suppose it depends on who him is,” Delano drawled.
I turned to see Casteel coming down the steps and across the short distance that separated us, his gaze locked onto mine.
“I have a feeling the air is going to get a bit thick out here.” Naill hopped off the wall. “I think it’s time we head inside.”
“Wise call,” Casteel remarked, his gaze, nearly feral, never leaving mine.
Delano pushed off the wall. “Please, no stabbing. All of that makes me anxious.”
I crossed my arms. “No promises.”
Casteel smirked but said nothing as Naill and Delano made their way back into the fort. He stared at me.
I stared at him. “Do you need something?”
“That’s a loaded question.”
“I was hoping it was a rhetorical one with the answer being: obviously, no,” I said.
“Sorry to disappoint you,” he replied. “Why did you leave?”
“I wanted a few moments to myself, but apparently, that isn’t going to happen.”
A muscle flexed in his jaw. “I’m sorry, Poppy.”
My brows lifted as I focused on him. There was still a potent thread of anger in him, and I didn’t delve deeper into the layers of emotions. “About what exactly?”
“About more than one thing, apparently,” he replied, and my eyes narrowed. “But I’d like to start with how my people have behaved toward you. I hate that they’ve made you feel so unwelcome, and I hate that you know how they feel. I can promise you that will change.”
“You…you really believe that you can change that? You can’t,” I told him before he answered. “They will either accept me or not. Either way, I expected this, and there’s no way you didn’t. You just hoped I wouldn’t read them.”
“I wished you wouldn’t have known,” he corrected. “How could I not wish that? And I do believe how they feel about you will change.”
Pressing my lips together, I looked away. I didn’t think it was impossible for them to change. Feelings were not stagnant. Neither were opinions or beliefs, and if we stopped believing people were capable of change, then the world might as well be left to burn.
“We need to talk and not about the people in that room,” he said.
I turned from him to where the reflection of the moon rippled across the Bay. “That’s the last thing I want to do right now.”
“Do you have better ideas?” He stepped closer, the heat and scent of him reaching me. “I know I do.”
My gaze shot to him. “If you’re suggesting what I think you are, I am going to stab you in the heart again.”
Casteel’s eyes flashed a warm honey. “Don’t tempt me with empty promises.”
“You are so twisted.”
“Alastir was right. I do take after my father when it comes to women with sharp objects,” he said.
“I don’t care.”
He ignored that. “My mother has stabbed my father a time or a dozen over the years. He claims he deserved it each time, and truthfully, he never seemed all that torn up about being stabbed. Probably had something to do with the fact that they’d be holed up in their private chambers for days after a spat.”
“Glad to know the disturbed apple doesn’t fall too far from the crazy tree.”
He chuckled.
The door opened behind us, and Kieran prowled out. “Don’t yell at me,” he said as the door swung closed behind him. “But my father wants to speak to you.”
“Your father?” I frowned, and then it occurred to me. “Jasper?”
Kieran nodded, and now I knew why I thought some of Jasper’s features were familiar.
A muscle flexed in Casteel’s jaw once more. “He’s going to—”