The lie tasted bitter. Curses never left ‘nothing’ in their wake, but she thought it was a normal bird, and I wasn’t going to correct her. Not until I figured out a way to explain without panicking her.
Brumous whined, nudging my bloodied arm with his nose. The gesture was so unexpected that I momentarily forgot my objections to his presence.
“Thank you.” Seri’s gaze lifted from my wound, her gray eyes liquid with an emotion far worse than fear. “I didn’t think… That is, I thought you wouldn’t…”
“Wouldn’twhat?” The sharpness in my tone made her flinch. I modulated immediately, forcing my voice to be softer. “Wouldn’tprotectyou?”
“You’ve been so angry today.” Her fingers twisted together, a nervous tell I’d registered by day three with her. “I thought you were regretting…”
The implication slammed into me with hurricane force. All my meticulous plans, all my careful strategies, and I’d failed to cement theonetruth that mattered.
“Z and I got the cleanup.” Ko materialized at my shoulder and hissed in my ear, “Fix. This.”
I nodded once. We needed to dispose of the hex components before they could mutate as well as examine the remains for cluesabout the sender, but none of that mattered if Seri believed I regretted our bond.
I steered her toward the koi pond without touching her. Not without permission, not with this uncertainty between us. Brumous trotted after us like a fuzzy mediator, his presence strangely comforting now rather than a threat.
“You believe that I would have allowed a threat to touch you?” My voice came out harder than I intended, and Brumous growled low in his throat. The irony wasn’t lost on me; the creature I’d been so certain would harm her was now protecting her from my own emotional inadequacy.
“No, it’s just…” She sat on the stone bench by the pond and bowed her head, staring at her tangled fingers. “You get so irritated and upset and… I know I’m not who you… Sometimes, I wonder if…” She curled in on herself as she blurted out, “Am I worth it, Casimir?”
The forest blurred around me. Nothing in my training had prepared me for this. For my beloved’s belief that she ranked below safety concerns. That I, in my panic, had made her feel less than worthy of me when I was the one who was unworthy of her. Had I really been so cold, so focused on potential threats, that she doubted her place in my heart?
To look at her now, I was forced to admit that Ihad, and the realization was the hardest wake-up call I’d ever received. I’d been so determined to protect her from external dangers that I had become one myself, causing my beloved doubt and pain.
I dropped to my knees, earning a concerned yip from Brumous, and Seri’s head flew up, her eyes glossy with tears.
“Your injury! Are you—”
“Every allocation of resources, every threat assessment, every security protocol, it’s all… ” I swallowed hard, a lost wanderer in this terrain of emotional honesty. “Proof.” The confession tore free, raw and inelegant. “That you’re worth it.Morethan worth it. You’re mylife, Serafina. Not a duty. Not an obligation. And I’m so sorry I made you feel anything less than the reason my heart beats—”
Her mouth met mine with all the sweetness of stolen honey, tentative and trembling. Everything around me evaporated, even my awareness of the lightning in my blood battling the hawk’s curse. Her fingers curled into my collar as if I might dissolve if she didn’t hold tight enough, and I cradled her jaw, marveling at the way her pulse fluttered against my palm.
This fragile, precious connection was what I’d been so desperate to protect, and what I’d nearly destroyed with my rigid approach to her safety.
Brumous whined, nudging our linked hands until Seri giggled against my mouth, a sunburst sound that rewrote all the cold equations in my bones. The dire wolf’s eyes met mine, intelligent and somehow knowing, as if to say,“See? We both want the same thing.”
As we broke apart, her lips curved into a dazed smile, and every knot in my neck unraveled. Next thing I knew, I was on the ground under a wolf intent on washing my face with his tongue.
Apparently, Brumous had decided that our kiss meant he, too, could initiate a similar physical contact with me. How absurd.
Seri’s giggles mixed with Ko’s chuckles and the rapid-fire click of Zane’s phone camera.
“Look at Cas’ face!” Zane crowed. “It’s like a gargoyle being licked by a puppy!”
I would have glared at him if Brumous’ exuberant tongue hadn’t had me dodging this way and that to avoid full nostril intrusion. One hundred and thirty-one pounds of muscle and fur, I calculated automatically, and still underweight for his breed. The numbers flowed through my mind, but this time, I didn’t feel the edge of anxiety that accompanied them.
Then his nose prodded my clenched jaw expectantly, and I gave in. Reaching up, I scratched behind his ear. The resulting thump of leg against earth sent ripples across the koi pond’s surface.
Seri knelt beside us as she checked my arm again, and her smile widened to see the gash already closed, dhampir healing working efficiently as usual.Neverwould I tell her how lightning ricocheted through my veins, fighting the curse. After she was asleep, Ko and Zane would help me neutralize it.
Then we’d deal with whoever had sent it.
“Thank you,” she murmured.
“For?” I prompted, still struggling to interpret her emotional cues accurately.
“Accepting him.” Her fingertip smoothed the furrow between my brows, her touch feather-light. “Not making me choose between you and him.”
