I exhaled sharply, then moved. Scooping Seri up was easy; she was still far too light. I brought her to the couch. Lowered her onto Zane and the second her body touched his, they melted together.
It was unconscious. Immediate. Zane turned toward her in his sleep, his arm draping over her waist, face tucking into her neck. Seri shifted, pressing closer into his chest, her fingers curling over his heart like she knew it was hers. Their breathing fell into sync. Two broken pieces that somehow only felt whole when they touched.
The sight of it made my chest ache.
“Damnation.”
I’d lingered too long. Just watching. One hand braced against the couch back, my jaw locked tight as I stared at the way she softened him. The way his face, usually stretched into that reckless, shit-eating grin, now looked younger. Unarmored. His smirk turned into somethingvulnerable the second she touched him. And Seri? She was boneless without the tension. Not even stress lines bracketing her mouth.
She knew she was somewhere safe.
I took a few steps back, raking a hand through my hair as that awful, familiar pressure built behind my ribs. That bone-deep ache I never spoke about.
You should’ve protected them better.
My teeth clenched.
I hated when these thoughts came, but they always did. When we were kids, I told myself it was my job. I was the biggest billy goat gruff. I took the hits. Carried the weight. Broke before they did. Because they still had something inside them worth protecting.
Zane with his feral joy. His madness. His unkillable spark of light, even when everything else around us dimmed. Koa with his heart. Gentle. Good. Still capable of softness, no matter how dark things got.
So I became their shield. The one who put himself between them and what lurked in the dark.
So why had I led them into hunting monsters?
You were trying to save them.
Bullshit.
I failed. I let it happen. I watched Zane’s grins turn into razor-toothed smirks. I watched Koa’s softness die, his kindness buried under layers of rage. If I’d been stronger, smarter, they wouldn’t have had to harden. I should have found a way to stop Father. They shouldn’t have spent their whole fang-rotted lives becoming monsters to fight monsters just to survive.
I should’ve broken first.
And now there washer. Serafina. She didn’t have a single ounce of monster in her. She wasn’t like us; she was better. Pure. Itclawedat me that she was here, tangled in our mess. She deserved more than this. More thanus.
But she made them better. That’s what killed me the most. She touched Zane, and his chaos softened. She smiled at Koa, and his walls crumbled. She wasn’t built for darkness, but she pulled the light back out of them.
And now you have to protect that, too.A lump burned in my throat.Another light to guard. Another reason to fight.
I clenched my fists hard enough to hurt. Sentimentality was a luxury I couldn’t afford. Not when there were threats to neutralize, plans to make, people to protect. But standing there, watching Zane and Seri sleep, it was hard not to wish things were different.
It was a dangerous thing to love someone this much, but I couldn’t help it. She and my brothers were worth every risk.
Footsteps creaked in the hall. Koa. Up from the basement. My ears tracked him to the gym, where I knew he’d head for the shower room.
Move. Don’t linger.
I looked back once.
Zane, slack and unconscious, his hand tangled in her hair, Seri tucked safe beneath his arm. Brumous, still watching me, hisdon’t screw upglare unwavering.
I exhaled hard.
Crossed the room.
Stopped,for one moon-damned second, and roughly shoved his mess of red hair off his forehead. I scowled at this emotional nonsense, but I still did it. Just to remind myself he was breathing, of course.
Then I bent and pressed a kiss, lighter than air, to Seri’s temple.
