“Never.” Ko moved first.
“Unless you’ve been sexting the toaster,” Z blurted out. My elbow found his ribs with sniper accuracy, and he let out a soft, “Ow.”
We herded her to the sofa with the gentle urgency of bomb disposal experts. Brumous flopped across her feet, tail thumping. I counted her breaths between her heartbeats: Five before the shaking started.
“Is everything okay? You all look so serious.”
“Don’t let Cas’ funeral director expression fool you, sunshine.” Zane threw himself down beside her, slinging an arm around her shoulders. “Everything’s fine.”
“Funeral director?” I echoed, frowning.
“Yeah, you know.” Zane gestured vaguely at my face. “That whole ‘I regret to inform you’ expression you get when you’re about to deliver news.”
Ko sat on Seri’s other side, but I remained standing, although I consciously loosened my stance to appear less imposing, less ‘funeral director-ish.’
“We want to be clear about something right from the start,” I began.
Seri immediately tensed, fingers twisting in the fabric of her sundress. After three months together, I’d cataloged every one of her microexpressions, and right now, her mind had gone straight to the same fear it usually did in these situations: We were done with her. We were tired of her baggage. We were walking away…
“Okay, first?” Zane took point before my tongue could unstick from my soft palate. “We love you. Like, crazy cult-leader levels of devotion. And we’re keeping you forever, sweetheart. Just so you know. That’s, like, the non-negotiable baseline for this entire conversation.”
“What Z is trying to say,” Ko cut in, “is that nothing we’re about to discuss changes how we feel about you or our commitment to you, beloved.”
Brumous gave a soft whine, his muzzle against her ankle. The dire wolf was remarkably attuned to her moods, sensing shifts in her emotional state that evenIsometimes missed despite my relentless study of the one I loved most.
“Okay.” Her shoulders slowly came down from her ears. “What is it, then?”
“Arabesque has sent things.”
Ko shot me a look, and I closed my eyes. Too blunt. Always too blunt. Damnation.
“Things?” Her fingers whitened as she strangled her skirt hem. “Deadthings?”
“No, no. Items that belonged to your parents,” Ko told her quickly. “Things she kept from you. She’s been sending them here.”
She went very still.
“For how long?”
“About three weeks,” I admitted. “She orders Foster to bring them mostly. We’ve been checking them for curses or tracking spells while holding them for you.”
I watched her face, preparing for the spectrum of potential reactions I’d anticipated. Hurt. Betrayal. Anger at being kept in the dark. Instead, what bloomed across her features was something entirely unexpected: Disappointment. Not in us, but inherself.
“Oh.” Her eyes dropped to her hands. “She’s still trying to get to me, isn’t she? And you thought I couldn’t handle it.”
“That’s not—” I began, but she shook her head.
“No, I understand. I haven’t exactly been the picture of stability.” A bitter smile curved her lips. “Every time I think I’m stronger, that I’m finally free of her, something happens to prove how deep her hooks still go.”
This cut me more deeply than any anger directed at us would have. Motioning Brumous aside, I crouched down to her eye level.
“Seri, we didn’t keep this from you because we thought you were weak,” I assured her. “We kept it from you because we weren’t sure you were ready to hear it.”
“I am not going to break, Casimir.”
The use of my full name, not Simmy, signaled her displeasure more clearly than raising her voice ever could.
“No, but that doesn’t mean we need to hand you hammers. After everything she and her daughters did to you—”
