Chapter Thirty-Three #2
But she had pursued him? I managed not to ask that question. “But you never said anything to me about her—about this expectation.”
“Honest to gods, Poppy, I’d forgotten about it until Alastir mentioned the obligations.
Far more important things have occupied my mind.
And I figured that my father would’ve surely let go of the idea,” he said.
“At no point did I ever think that Alastir would bring it up like that. But he’s—” He shook his head.
“You can decide not to believe me, but that’s the truth.
And even if I had remembered, why would I mention a promise I never made to a woman, to another who I was trying to convince to marry me? ”
“Maybe so I would’ve been prepared to hear that?” I nearly shouted. “So I didn’t sit there and think that you were engaged to someone else when you and I—” I cut myself off.
“While you and I did what, Poppy? Kissed. Gave each other pleasure? Had sex? Fucked? Made love?”
I sucked in a shrill breath. “Made love?” I whispered.
“I know that’s not what we were doing,” he said, his eyes flashing a frigid gold. “You wouldn’t think for one second that I was engaged to someone else if that was what we were doing.”
“I don’t understand how that has anything to do with this,” I admitted. “And I also don’t understand why you’re upset.”
“Because I cannot understand how you actually believed I could be engaged to someone else and do the things I’ve done with you.”
“You speak like I know everything about you!” I threw up my arms in frustration.
“Just so you know, being able to sense emotions doesn’t tell me everything about a person.
Yet you act like I know you. But I hardly do when you pick and choose what you will tell me and when.
You only tell me what you want me to know, and I have to piece together what you have shared about yourself to form any opinions.
And then I have to decide whether or not you’re lying! ”
Casteel stepped forward. “Except for when I needed to feed, I have been nothing but honest with you since you learned who I really was.”
“Even if that is the case, I still don’t know you well enough to know what you would or would not do.”
“Have you even really tried?” he asked.
“I have!”
His brows flew up. “Really? Is that what you’re doing every time it looks like you want to ask something but force yourself to be quiet?”
“I do that because you either tell me nothing, or you tune me out when I ask about things!” I started to turn away and then whipped back around.
“Tell me about the conversations you and your brother escaped? The ones that drove you to the caverns. Tell me why you refuse to take the throne even when you know your brother won’t be fit to do it when you free him,” I demanded.
“Tell me why you thought it was okay in the first fucking place to kidnap me and use me as ransom before you even knew me!” Frustration crowded my throat.
“Tell me why it never occurred to you to mention the Joining. Tell me about Gianna, Casteel. Does she care for you? Does she want this engagement? Do you care for her?”
He exhaled roughly, shaking his head, but I wasn’t done.
“Tell me why you never told me the truth about Spessa’s End until I was here?
Was it because you didn’t trust me with that information?
Tell me about her . The one you loved and lost because of the Ascended.
Tell me what happened to her. Will you even say her name?
” My chest rose and fell with rapid breaths, and my anger overwhelmed my senses, blocking out his emotions completely.
“Tell me how you can stand to be near me when I represent the people who took so much from you. Tell me why you really came to my room tonight. Tell me something that matters! That is real.”
Casteel’s chest rose with a heavy breath. “You want something real?”
“ Yes .”
“I came to your room tonight to learn if what you said at dinner was true. That I was the first person to ever see you. That I was the first thing you ever chose for yourself. That you chose me when you knew me as Hawke, and even after you learned the truth, you still chose me,” he growled, his eyes luminous.
“I came here tonight to learn if you really felt like you were betraying Vikter and Rylan, all the others and yourself. I came here to see if that’d changed.
Was all of that real, or were you just pretending ? ”
I took a step back, entirely too exposed, and it had nothing to do with the ridiculous nightgown. I hadn’t expected him to go there. I wasn’t sure why, but I hadn’t.
He shook his head as he barked out a short, humorless laugh. “Yeah. Silence. As usual. That’s why there was never a reason to tell you any of those things you’ve demanded from me.”
I stared up at him, hands and arms trembling. “I don’t know what you want from me.”
“Everything,” he bit out between clenched teeth. “I want everything .”
A shiver broke out over my skin. “I…I don’t understand what that means,” I whispered.
And inexplicably, the back of my throat burned.
Apparently, I hadn’t cried out all the tears I had to give because they were now threatening to break free again.
“I don’t understand any of this. Not you.
Not me. How I’m supposed to feel. How I’m supposed to forget everything.
I don’t—” Pressing my lips together, I smoothed fingers over my face, over the scars he’d kissed.
I dropped my hands. “I don’t understand. ”
The sharp lines of his face softened, and it was like watching a mask slip away before my eyes.
He stepped forward and then stopped. “Do you think I understand any of this, Poppy? None of this was supposed to happen. I had plans. Capture you and use you. Free my brother and, maybe, if the gods were good, prevent a war—or at least lessen the bloodshed.”
Casteel turned sideways, shoving a hand through his hair.
“That was the plan. And fuck if it didn’t go off the rails the moment you walked into the godsdamn Red Pearl.
” His eyes closed. “And each time—every damn time—I spoke to you, each time I saw your smile or heard you laugh, and the more I got to know you, the less those plans made sense. And trust me, Poppy, those plans made way more fucking sense than this—than all of his.”
The breath I took got stuck as I grew incredibly still.
“I’m a Prince. A kingdom of people is counting on me to solve their problems—even the ones they’re unaware of, but I…
I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t give you to them, not even for my brother.
” He turned to me, his eyes nearly luminous.
“All because when I’m with you, I don’t think about the kingdom full of people counting on me.
I don’t find myself in the middle of the day, when it’s too quiet, back in those fucking cages.
I don’t sit and think of everything I know they’re doing to my brother.
Beating him. Starving him. Raping him. Turning him into a monster worse than even they can imagine.
When I’m with you, I don’t think about that. ”
I curled my hands against my chest—against my thundering heart as his features blurred. And finally, I felt him. His pain. His confusion. His wonder .
“I forget.” He quieted as he shook his head in confusion. “I forget about him—about my people, and I don’t even understand how that’s possible. But I did. I do. And you want to know something about her ? About Shea?”
I gasped at the sound of her name on his lips.
“Never once did I forget any of my obligations with her. Never once did I stop thinking about Malik,” he said, stunning me.
“And you—you have it all wrong. There is a reason I don’t speak her name.
It has nothing to do with the Ascended, and while it sure as hell has to do with how I feel about her, it’s not what you think. ”
Casteel stepped toward me once more, his eyes entirely too wide as he said, “And, truthfully, I have no idea how you can even bear my touch after my lies, after what I did and caused. All I do know is that I didn’t plan any of this in the beginning, Poppy.
I didn’t plan on being drawn to you. I didn’t plan to want you.
I didn’t plan on risking everything to keep you. I didn’t—”
A fist pounded on the door, startling me so badly I almost jumped.
“If you value your life right now,”—Casteel raised his voice—“you will walk away and pretend you were never here.”
“I wish I could. Trust me,” came Emil’s voice. “But this is important.”
“Doubtful,” Casteel muttered, and I almost laughed at the world-weary look that settled into his features.
But then Emil said, “The sky is on fire.”