Her head tilted, golden curls slipping over one shoulder.
“It wasn’t your mistake. You didn’t know she—” Pale fingers fluttered to her throat, as if an invisible collar was tightening.
“We’re aware of the constraints.” Sebastian leaned forward, elbows on knees. “Casi briefed us before they left. The silence shackle, siphoning, all of it.”
“You knoweverything?” Eyes widening, she glanced between us.
“Enough to start building gallows,” he growled, and she leaned away from him and closer to me.
“Then maybe we could discuss something I don’t understand?”
Ask, I willed her.Let me prove myself.
“Certainly, daughter-in-law. We live to untangle conspiracies before dinner,” I assured her.
“It’s about my father. Jonathan Bell. He was an earth witch. Powerful, but not ambitious. I’ve always wondered why Arabesque chose him. We weren’t rich, not by any means. The farm was modest, but we always had enough. Then she and her daughters arrived, and itwas like the money just disappeared. I couldn’t even afford new shoes when mine wore out.”
“I heard Casi threw a tantrum about that,” Sebastian smirked. “I believe he called them ‘podiatric abominations with aglets.’ ”
“Zane shouldn’t have told you that,” she chided.
“Which part?” His grin turned wolfish. “The rant? Or how our resident cyborg spent hours researching the best replacements?”
“They’re comfy and practical.” She held up a foot to display a pristine white sneaker with soles thick enough to survive a zombie apocalypse, then ducked her head as a pretty blush stained her cheeks. “He knelt and put them on me himself.”
My chest tightened. Casimir hadn’t knelt since age seven, when he’d vowed to never again beg for mercy.
“Dark take it, I wish I’d seen that!” Sebastian choked on his laughter. “Casi playing Cinderella’s valet.”
“Let me guess. Waterproof, GPS-tracked, and doubles as a flamethrower?” I murmured.
“Antimicrobial lining, actually.” For the first time, her smile reached those wounded-doe eyes. “They bought me a whole new wardrobe, too. Koko made me. We shopped on his phone.”
“Good.” I nodded once.
The crocheted lace at her neck was pretty, but obviously as homemade as the blouse itself, which was threadbare in places. And as for that sweater, Sebastian wouldn’t have allowed his cat to use it as a bed. I’d worried at first that my sons hadn’t noticed, but it seemed they weren’t as horrible at being husbands as I’d feared they’d be.
“Koko?” Sebastian choked on the word.
“Yes. Koa.” She nodded with wide, serious eyes. “Zane calls him Koala Bear sometimes, but only as a joke. I think Koko sounds sweet. Almost as sweet as he is.”
I did notdarelook at Sebastian. Koa, whose fury worried even me, and sweet did not belong together in the same sentence.
“And does he agree?” I asked before I could stop myself.
“He said it was nice and he liked it, that nicknames were a sign of affection. Do you think he was lying?” Her brow wrinkled up, and I chastised myself for introducing doubt into her lovely mind.
“No.” Sebastian leapt to my rescue. “Koa does not lie.Ever. If he said that, he meant it.”
That brought the light back to her eyes, thank the dark. I’d been warned to within an inch of my immortal life not to upset her.
“Do you have pet names for Casimir and Zane, too?” Sebastian’s lips quirked up at the corners.
“Yes, but I haven’t told Zane his yet.” Her soft eyes shone with love and something more. “I’m saving it for a surprise.”
“But Casimir has one?” I hardly breathed as I waited to hear what it was.
“Simmy, of course!” Her smile transformed her face from beautiful to something almost otherworldly and told me more than words how unaware she was of the bomb she’d just dropped.
