“Here?” Her wide eyes speared me, and the shock and fear in them were hard to see. “But—”
“Spying. Looking for weaknesses, gathering intel. I found them in the hedge maze and released some spy eyes to track them.”
“Spy eyes?” She tilted her head.
“They’re tiny surveillance devices I created. They look sort of like mechanical ladybugs. Tiny metal bodies, gold-veined clear wings, red eyes hiding cameras.”
“They sound beautiful! Can I see them sometime?”
“Beautiful?” Zane snickered and squirmed closer until his head lay on her lap. “They give mad scientist vibes, darling, notbeautiful.”
Using the end of Cas’ long braid, Seri tickled his ear, making him swat at it.
“They are efficient.Morethan efficient.” Cas scowled as he got to his feet. “And my hair is not a weapon, Seri.”
“Anything can be a weapon,” Zane argued as he flipped onto his stomach and wrapped his arms around her waist, his face buried in her stomach.
“Good. Keep him there, Seri,” Cas muttered. “Muffle his endless lip-flapping.”
“Back on topic, we’ve been monitoring the Harrows since then,” I said. “That’s how we knew they sent the hawk and that the curse is called The Withering Veil.”
“You’ve been watching my—Theirhouse?” Seri’s eyes widened, and I nodded.
“Do you want to see?”
She hesitated, then squirmed out from under Octo-Zane and came around the desk. I pulled her onto my lap, her back against my chest, and Zane and Casimir crowded behind my chair. Taking a deepbreath, I clicked on the live-feed of a spy eye currently sitting on Eluned’s shoulder.
The crazy ass bitch was in what looked like a storage room, arranging jars on shelves. My little beauties relayed crystal-clear images, but I needed to figure out a way to improve the sound quality. We could barely hear her muttering even with my volume cranked.
“It’s not fair,” Eluned pouted, holding up a vial of something dark and viscous. “I don’t see whyIcan’t go. The only good thing is Amabel can’t, either, so there.”
Eluned stuck her tongue out at no one, and Seri’s breathing quickened. I almost stopped the video, but she gripped my wrist, her eyes fixed on the screen.
Then the door swung open and a voice called, “Did you find it yet?”
Arabesque strode into frame, black hair swinging like a curtain of midnight, her pale green eyes cutting through the gloom. Even through my laptop, her presence filled the room like poison gas.
Seri’s fingernails bit into my thigh. She didn’t scream, just exhaled this awful punched-out whimper as she folded inward, arms crossed over her stomach like she’d been shot. Cas slammed the laptop shut, but it was too late. Our beloved was already sliding into panic, her pupils blown wide, her skin clammy, her chest heaving with shallow, desperate breaths.
“She’s not here, Seri. You’re safe.” Turning her in my arms, I cradled the back of her head in my palm, her breathing coming in quick gasps against my collarbone. She was beyond words, trapped in some private hell where Arabesque held all the power over her. Zane dropped to his knees beside us, his hand on her knee.
“Breathe with me, firefly,” he urged, his voice layered with swan-song and gentle in a way few ever heard. “In and out. In and out.”
Cas appeared with a glass of water, seeming as controlled as ever, but I could see the fury in the tightness around his mouth and eyes. Not at Seri,neverat her, but at what had been done to her.
“I’m sorry.” I held her trembling body as Zane coaxed her to breathe. “I’m sorry, baby.”
It took nearly ten minutes to bring her fully back. Ten minutes of soft reassurances, of steady breathing, of three men collectively terrified by how easily she’d been pulled under by just thesightof her tormentor.
When she finally calmed, she buried her face in my neck, her tears hot and thick against my skin.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“No.” The word came from all three of us at once, fierce and immediate, and I tipped her chin up, forcing her to meet my eyes.
“You have nothing to apologize for. This is on me.”
“And me,” Casimir said. “I should have considered how seeing her would affect you.”
