After a lengthy, two-hour nap, Cas felt a little better than he had earlier, but he was still bothered by the visit with Dr. Foster. Every time he met with her, it was just another reminder that his father didn’t trust him. Climbing out of bed, he shuffled into the bathroom with a dull expression on his face. He couldn’t remember when he and the king had drifted so far apart, but it was clear that their relationship was rockier than it had ever been before. Atlas had always had unrealistically high expectations of him and had been stingy with compliments. The cold treatment had fostered insecurity inside of him, but it was the first time he felt like there was no way to redeem their small family. The king thought he was raving. He’d noticed that he hadn’t been given any responsibilities to take care of since he’d come back from the districts either. It was no doubt due to the fact that he’d defended Iris.

Standing at the sink, he turned on the faucet and bent over to splash warm water onto his face, trying to shake off the last of his weariness. As he did, he heard a distant knock on the door to his bedroom. [color=#b97703]“Come in,”[/color] he called to the visitor. Turning off the water, he grabbed a folded towel from the counter and dried his face off as he turned around to see who had stopped by.

By the door, a servant stood and bowed respectfully. “His majesty wishes to see you, your highness.”

Cas stiffened. [color=#b97703]“Why?”[/color] he asked, more defensively than he meant the question to come across.

The servant shifted his weight, “I wasn’t told anything else, your highness… Only that he asked me to send you to his room.”

[color=#b97703][i]That’s because he doesn’t want to go around telling everyone that his son is insane,[/i][/color] he thought with a roll of his eyes. Given the time frame of the request, he was certain Atlas was summoning him to discuss the contents of his meeting with Dr. Foster. He was probably upset that no “progress” was being made in his therapy sessions. The thought made him taste bile. [color=#b97703]“Tell him I’ll talk to him tomorrow,”[/color] he said curtly, averting his gaze. [color=#b97703]“Sorry, but I have somewhere I need to be right now.”[/color]

“Y-Your highness?” the servant stammered, taken aback by his uncompliant response.

Cas said nothing. Heading out of the bathroom, he slipped on a pair of shoes, stuffed his phone in his pocket, and brushed past the other man to get out of the room. He felt a little bad for forcing the servant to deliver word to his father that he wouldn’t be stopping by, but he couldn’t handle seeing him right now. Not when the king was just going to accuse him of things that weren’t true again. He needed to get out of the house before his father sent one of the guards to make him come back.

With that thought in mind, he went straight to the garage and climbed into his car, driving off to the Kinders’ place in the hopes of avoiding Atlas for the rest of the day.