“Thank you. All of you. And I love you, too.” I took a steadying breath and rested my cheek against his red hair. “Well, if I’m not in immediate danger, I can help research what The Withering Veil does. It might be in one of the books in here—”
A realization hit me like a bucket of ice water. If Casimir had taken the hit meant for me…
“Simmy!” I lunged forward, dislodging Zane, and grabbed Casimir’s wrist. My heart hammering against my ribs, I yanked up his sleeve with frantic fingers. “The curse! It hit you!”
I instinctively reached for my magic, forgetting in my panic that I didn’t have any right now. The familiar ache stabbed in my chest, a phantom reminder of Amabel’s siphoning and invisible white-hot fingers gouging into me. I choked on the pain, but didn’t stop examining his forearm and the thin white scar where the hawk’s talons had ripped through it. It looked weeks old, not hours.
Relief made me dizzy. Cradling his arm in my lap, I bent over and pressed gentle kisses against the scar. Tears I hadn’t realized I was holding back spilled over, landing on his warm skin.
“You were almost—” My voice cracking, I dropped my forehead on the inside of his elbow. “Because of me, you were almost—And you never said a word!”
“I’ll always protect you, beloved.” Casimir’s lips brushed against my hair as he curled protectively around me, his free arm heavy across my back. “And I’m fine. We have extensive protocols for dealing with curses.”
“Yeah, Cas wrote a whole manual,” Zane chirped. “Thick as one of his medical textbooks. ‘Operational Guidelines for Curse Identification and Neutralization.’ He’s obsessive like that.”
“It’scomprehensive, not obsessive.” Casimir shot him a glare as we both sat up.
“It’s amazing!” I was impressed. I couldn’t imagine having the knowledge to write anentire manualon anything.
“Helped that he has lightning in his blood through his Valkyrie side.” Zane had a playful glint in his gingerbread eyes. “Usually destroys a curse the second it tries to enter his bloodstream.”
The way he said “usually” made me pause and look at Casimir with renewed concern.
“But it didn’t work this time?”
“No, which makes me wonder what exactly this curse was supposed to do.”
“It was adapting,” Zane said. “We could see it trying to circumvent the lightning, but our purification ritual killed it.”
“Storm-chased mistletoe elixir,” Koa added. “Always works for me and Zane, so we tipped that down his throat.”
“Yeah, but it made him drunk as hell.” Zane’s mouth twisted into a mischievous smirk. “Hey, big brother, do you still want your tiny hat?”
“Mywhat?” Casimir’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “I never had a tiny hat!”
“Youwantedone, though.” Zane’s smirk stretched into a wide grin.
“I didnot!” Casimir’s cheeks actually tinged red, something I’d never seen before.
I glanced at Koa, whose onyx eyes crinkled at the corners as he tried to maintain his composure. The absurdity ofCasimirdemanding a tiny hat broke through my lingering anxiety, and a giggle escaped me. That seemed to be Koa’s tipping point because his composure cracked, and we both dissolved into laughter as Casimir and Zane continued their ridiculous argument over tiny hats and peppermint-flavored popcorn.
Koa leaned closer, his breath warm against my ear as he whispered, “He reallydidhave a lot to say about tiny hats last night. Also rambled on about hedgehogs and synchronized flamingoes.”
Another wave of giggles bubbled up from my chest.
“Does he always react like that to an elixir?” I wiped a tear from my eye.
“As Zane said, he’s never had to have that one particular one before, but I examined the empty vial this morning and discovered it was laced with Goblin Moonshine.”
“What’s that?” My curiosity piqued. I’d learned many magical brews from Papa, but never heard of that one.
“Goblin brews are notoriously unpredictable. Their moonshine specifically is an extremely potent liquor that stays dormant until itmixes with something else.Anythingelse. Including something as minor as saliva. Whichsomeoneapparently forgot about.”
Zane caught Koa’s pointed look and stopped mid-argument with Casimir. Eyes dancing, he drummed his fingers against his thigh in that restless way of his.
“Yeah, Imighthave forgotten that little detail,” he admitted, not looking remotely sorry. “It made me hiccup small fireballs the first time I tried it. One of the most hilarious nights of my life!”
I blinked, trying to picture Zane belching flames, and let out a startled laugh. Casimir, however, wasn’t laughing. His jaw was clenchedandhe rubbed his knuckle between his eyes.
