“That’sthe salmon thief Zane mentioned?” Sebastian gaped at the beast, all gangly limbs and patchy fur, as it collapsed into wriggling submission beneath her gentle hands. My fangs retracted as she nuzzled the monstrosity whose head already reached her waist.
Up close, the creature’s scars mapped a history of cruelty, and the absolute trust in his blue eyes as Seri scratched his mangled ear undid every doubt I’d had about a dire so close to my new daughter.
Koa’s dry voice echoed in my memory:“He’s ours now. Her heart’s forever entwined with his.”
It was so easy to see, too, how the fierce tenderness that tamed my sons had tamed a crippled dire as well. This slip of a girl with her fraying cardigan and steel-spine hope would raze empires for those she loved.
“Jump, mutt!” With a grin, my man-child son dangled a pierogi over the wolf’s head.
The ensuing chaos involved airborne dumplings, a shattered glass, and Seri standing hands-on-hips like a wrathful nymph.
“Prince Sebastian Ro?u! Apologize to Brummy this instant!”
“Me?Apologize to adire?” Sebastian choked with wide eyes.
“Yes! You called my baby a mutt!”
As Brumous licked stolen filling off Sebastian’s tattooed fingers and guards swarmed the room, I sipped my wine and observed the witchling who folded trauma into humor, who wielded vulnerability like a blade, who commanded princes and predators alike.
Before me stood not a timid mouse, but a general strategizing love’s chessboard. And she was Arabesque’s greatest error. Clutching at costume jewelry, the Dark witch had discarded a diamond, mistaking its facets for fragility.
How stupid of her,I mused,to forget that diamonds cut deepest of all.
32. Here For You
Seri
“It’s not that I don’t trust their abilities.” I traced the edge of the library table. “It’s just—”
“Natural.” Lucian turned a page of Celestine’s grimoire without looking up. “Completely natural to worry about your mates.”
“Casi once tracked a pixie smuggler through three realms using nothing but lichen spores.” Prince Sebastian spun a throwing knife across his knuckles, the blade catching the afternoon light in dangerous winks. “They’ll be home before you finish your morning biscotti.”
Trying to get back to work, I stared at my design for a ward against siphoning, notebook pages spread between us, pencil lines wavering like uncertain spiderwebs. Brumous sneezed against my ankle, sending a puff of gray fur drifting onto Sebastian’s polished boot.
“Maybe I should change the grounding element?” I tapped the central sigil, remembering how my hands had shook as I drew it while crouched in my closet, Brummy tight to my side and our stomachs rumbling.
“I wish we could be more helpful, but lunar magic is outside our wheelhouse. Koa is right, however. The theories in here are a good place to start.” Lucian closed the book with a sharp snap, his silver eyes softening as I flinched.
“Yesterday, Kaori reminded us that lunar witches are in the skyborne branch of the magic family tree,” Sebastian spoke up.
“Skyborne?” I tilted my head in question.
“Lunar, solar, cosmic, and storm. Very common in the Sky Realm. You might find more answers with Zane’s mum since she’s a storm witch.”
My eyes flicked to Lucian at the mention of his former lover, but his face didn’t change. I had so many questions about her, as well as Casimir’s mother, but I knew better than to ask them.
“I’ll remember that if I ever meet her,” I said instead.
“I’m sorry I don’t know of a way to lift your silence shackle,” Lucian murmured. “It’s a tier three whisperbind. Expensive on several levels and powerful. As far as I’m aware, only the caster or her death can undo it.”
I shrugged a little as I laid down my pencil and pushed back the papers. I’d guessed as much, so I hadn’t gotten my hopes up.
“How about we do something fun now?” Sebastian sheathed his knife. “Any ideas, little sister?”
A smile spread across my face as I thought of something.
“Oh, dear.” Lucian’s eyebrows raised slightly. “I’m not sure whether to be afraid or eager.”
