“Yet you live to annoy another day,” I snorted, grateful for his intervention.
“Keep expectations low, little brother,” he sassed, popping a grape into his mouth with exaggerated carelessness. “Disappoint less people.”
The air lightened, but Seri’s head tilted in that way that meant she was seeing deeper than any of us were comfortable with.
“And you, Simmy? What did failing look like for you?”
His jaw worked. For a heartbeat, I thought he’d deflect. Then, “Perfection. Bury every weakness, every mistake, until evenyoucan’t find them.”
He didn’t add the rest. How he’d been the template against which Zane and I were measured. How he’d beg Lucian to teachhimthe lesson, not us. How he still woke some nights, rigid and damp with sweat, from dreams he wouldn’t discuss.
Brummy whined, nosing Cas’ wrist. The dire wolf pup had an uncanny sense for emotional undercurrents.
“Then why stay?” she asked a question we’d never allowed ourselves.
“Darling, where else would we go?” Zane’s grin turned razor-thin. “After Lucian became king, the Ro?u name turned into a collar. And he holds the leash.”
A chill skittered down my spine despite the afternoon sun. The truth of it settled in my stomach like lead. For all our strength, all our skills, we’d never had a life beyond Lucian’s reach. The boundaries of our world had always been drawn by his hand, no matter how much we tried to change that.
Seri opened her mouth, to ask more or to offer comfort, but Cas spoke first.
“Not anymore, he doesn’t. Those days are over.”
I nodded, remembering our old vow to build something that was ours alone. Something that even Lucian couldn’t touch. Then Seri happened, and it actually became possible.
“I reminded him of that while he was here,” she said out of the blue. “Did Sebastian tell you that?”
All our eyes fixed on her as the world seemed to tilt sideways.
“You what, now?” Zane asked weakly, Brumous liberating the slice of salami he held forgotten in his hand.
“I reminded him that you are his sons, not his weapons.” She shrugged.Shrugged. Blithely, even. As if she hadn’t just confessed to challenging the most powerful vampire in North America.
My lungs forgot how to work. My mind filled with images of Lucian’s silver eyes flashing with rage, his hand around Seri’s throat, her fragile body broken before any of us could intervene.
“And what did he say?” Cas’ hand dropped to rest over his heart, as if physically bracing himself for her answer.
“He’s so silly!” Seri giggled, then dropped her voice in a horrible imitation of Lucian’s. “ ‘I could have you executed for that tone.’ ”
She laughed, oblivious to the horror on our faces. Or maybe laughing because of it.
“Oh, stop, you three! He wasteasing.”
“You believe that he was teasing?” I checked.
“Yes!” she insisted, naive little rabbit that she was. “Besides, Sebastian says—”
“Sebastian says, Sebastian says,” Zane mocked, voice pitched high. “Our eldest brother said a lot.”
“Explain, wife,” Cas demanded.
Dutifully, she repeated her conversation with our father from the day he ‘babysat’ her while we hunted down Claudio, and I traded raised eyebrows with my brothers.
“And then Sebastian warned him that you’d carve his tongue out through his throat, Koko, when you learned he threatened me.” Seri chuckled again.
“Did you really call him Papa-in-law?” I breathed in awe, my eyes unblinking as I stared at her.
“Yes!” She pushed on my shoulders until I lay down, then crawled on top of me to rest her elbows on my chest and prop her face in her fists. Her weight was slight, but it anchored me to the reality that she was still here, still whole, still ours. “I’m so happy he is my papa-in-law. I love him already. Sebastian, too. I didn’t tell them, though, because they aren’t ready to know it.”
