He swallowed convulsively and stared at the ceiling, still half-lost in the nightmare. His breathing came in short, shallow gasps, his hands opening and closing spasmodically at his sides. He was with us in body, but his mind wasn’t accepting it.
I’d seen Cas injured before. Broken bones, guts hanging out, covered in dragonfire burns that took weeks to heal. I’d never seen him like this, though. Shattered from the inside out, his ironclad control splintered, his unshakeable confidence replaced by raw, naked fear.
The sight hurt something in me. Casimir was our rock, our North Star, the one who always knew what to do, who never wavered, who kept us on course when everything else fell apart. Seeing him reduced to this trembling, disbelieving shell felt like watching the foundations of our world crumble.
“What do we do?” I asked Zane, not bothering to hide the desperation in my voice. “He doesn’t believe we’re real. Doesn’t believe he made it out.”
“Get her,” Zane rasped, not opening his eyes. “Convince him.”
In a flash, I was on my feet and moving, sprinting through the shattered wreckage of our foyer and out into the blinding sunlight beyond. The SUV was parked four miles down the drive, and I ran faster than I ever had before, boots barely touching the ground as I covered the distance in seconds. My heart pounded against my ribs, not from exertion, but from the urgent need to reach Seri, to bring her back to Cas before the cracks in his psyche widened beyond repair.
The thought of him lying there, believing we were all dead, believingSeriwas dead, filled me with a grief so acute, it threatened tobring me to my knees. All that countered it was the burning certainty that Seri could fix what Amabel had broken.
Because that’s what our beloved did. She healed. She mended. She brought light into our darkness.
And right now, Cas was drowning in shadows he couldn’t escape alone.
#
Seri
“Tell me again,” I demanded, gripping the seat in front of me. “Everything.”
“We stepped onto the porch and—” Koa’s voice broke. He swallowed hard, then continued, “There was an illusion web. Cas already walked right into it.”
My stomach clenched. “A trap.”
“As you warned us.” The SUV swerved violently around a curve, tires squealing. “Cas, he just dropped. Amabel was hiding behind the grandfather clock. ”
Brumous’ head shot up at the mention of Amabel, a low growl vibrating from his chest. I stroked his fur, trying to soothe him while my own heart threatened to explode.
“We got her. She’s secured for now. Zane broke through the illusion with telepathy and swan song. But Cas—” Koa choked on the words, blinking rapidly. “He’s not coming back to us. Amabel— She said the illusion shows you your worst fear.”
“And did you see it through the magi-goggles?” I demanded. “What is Casimir’s?”
“I didn’t need to see it.” Koa’s eyes met mine in the rearview mirror, shattered with grief. “Being too late. Being unable to save us. Watching us die. He’s always feared that. Even more since we found you.”
Oh, my poor Simmy.My throat closed, vision blurring as I tried desperately to blink away tears.
Of course that would be his nightmare. The protector unable to protect, the planner facing the one outcome he couldn’t prevent.
“He still thinks I’m gone,” I breathed. “Thatwe’regone.”
“Nothing’s working.” Koa’s voice cracked completely this time. “We don’t know how to bring him back.”
The SUV crested the final hill, and Evermere appeared through the windshield. Our beautiful home, now marred by the gaping wound where our front door should have been. Even before Koaslammed the vehicle to a halt, I was fumbling with my seatbelt, my entire body electric with desperate need.
“Stay with me,” I commanded Brumous, and he pressed against my leg as I leapt from the still-rocking SUV.
Heart hammering, I sprinted through debris. An overturned table, the shattered grandfather clock, several pictures hanging crooked. Amabel lay in the corner, bound in a brutal-looking device and hogtied with an enchanted cord. But all I could focus on was the tumble of limbs and Casimir’s hair, unbound from its knot and fanning around his head like molten gold.
Zane knelt on the marble floor, curved over Casimir, all playfulness long gone. And Casimir—my fierce, indomitable Simmy—lay sprawled and broken, chest rising in shallow, rapid breaths, tears flowing unchecked from the corners of his vacant eyes.
“Casimir?” I whispered.
“Seri!” Zane sounded funny, probably from the red-stained cotton filling his nostrils. “We can’t— I’ve been trying to—”
I was already flinging myself on Casimir, my knees straddling his torso. My hands found his face, cold and clammy with sweat, and I dropped my forehead against his, as if I could force my way into his mind through sheer contact alone.
