“Yeah, pixie. Just name the ones about to die.” Light as a feather, I touched the mark along her jaw. “Bonus points for location, and I’ll even use your preferred method of dismemberment.”
“Zane,” Ko warned while Cas loomed like a silent judge, jury, and executioner all in one.
She hesitated, her fingers trembling. I waited. The wall clocktick-tick-tickedthrough three full seconds.
“Serafina?” I finally prompted.
“Amabel and Eluned Harrow. My stepsisters. They’re twins a year younger than me.”
I stared at her. She stared at the blanket.
“Why?” Ko asked softly. “Why would they hurt you like this?”
“To make sure I knew how worthless I am.”
A tiny sniffle, and three pairs of predator eyes locked onto their battered princess, three sets of fangs punched through gums, and three well-armored hearts fractured.
Seri kept her gaze on her lap, her shoulders hunching like she was bracing for a hit, and I realized with stabbing clarity that this was just the tip of the iceberg.
“Yeah,” I said finally, breaking the quiet. “They’re dead.”
Koa shot me a look, his brows dipping in a silent,Really?
“Maybe don’t say that out loud,” he suggested.
“She’s too tired to care.” I jerked my chin at her drooping eyelids, the way her head was slowly drifting to the side.
Truth? Iwantedher to hear it. Wanted her to know we would take care of it for her. But I wasn’t talking to Seri, not really. I was talking to my brothers, and they knew it. I met Casimir’s gaze, then Koa’s, and there it was, that unspoken agreement, sharp as a blade.
Still happening.
I didn’t say it out loud. I didn’t need to.
“You are not worthless, Seri,” Cas spoke at last.
“Far from it.” Ko hovered, helpless as the rest of us poor bastards. “You are our beloved. Our everything.”
He elbowed me in the ribs. My head swung to look at him, and he pointed at her with his eyes.
Oh. My input was required.Sincereinput, to judge by the homicidal glint in his dark peepers. Huh. Guess declaring my intent to disembowel her steps wasn’t enough.
“They obviously lied to you, beautiful. Jealous of you, no doubt.”
With a tiny nod that said sheclearlydidn’t believe us, Seri laid her head back against the pillows, her breath a soft, tired sigh.
Cas was at her side before I could blink, adjusting the blankets with the kind of precision that’d put a five-star hotel to shame. Ko picked up Brumous, telling her he would take the pup out for his post-dinner walkies, and got a small, “Thank you,” in return.
And me? I just watched her chest rising and falling in shallow, steady breaths like some kind of creep. But hey, I had the right. She was ours now, and I wasn’t letting that go.
And, after seeing all those wounds earlier, I needed the physical evidence that she was alive.
Finally, Cas shooed us all outside, Brumous doing a little doggy whine that clearly said, ‘Walkies before I wee everywhere,’ and we hustled down the stairs and out through the kitchen, Ko holding Brumous in front of him like he was afraid of getting pissed on any second.
“So. Evil twins,” I scoffed as he set the pup in the grass and we watched him sniff around for a good spot. “Bet they’ve got monogrammed boots that perfectly match Seri’s shoe-print bruises.”
I glanced at my brothers. Moonlight sharpened the edges of their profiles: Cas’ blade-straight jaw, Koa’s warrior-poet cheekbones.
“We handle it,” Cas replied after a moment. “Quietly.”
