Their love.
It was a gift beyond measure.
By the time I finally stepped out of the shower, my fingers were pruny. As Casimir and Zane tag-teamed drying me with plush towels, Koa wrapped my hair up in a third one and gave me a soft smile, so different from the brooding man I’d first met. He still carried that intensity, still burned with inner fire, but he’d found balance. Not the forced discipline of a man suppressing his nature, but the mindful calm of someone who had made peace with who he was.
“You’ve changed, too,” I told him as he carried me into the bedroom.
“For the better, I hope.”
“Definitely for the better.” I wound my arms around his neck. “You’re still my intense, passionate Koko, but you’re steadier now. Like you’ve found your center.”
“I have.” A slow smile spread across his face. “It’syou.”
“Here we go.” Zane streaked past and jumped into our big bed, sprawling like a starfish. “Freaking poetic shit again.”
His voice was full of mock exasperation, but his eyes sparkled. He rolled onto his stomach and propped his chin on his fists, watching us with a quiet reverence he usually tried to mask.
“Let me have my moment, Zoodle.” Koa laid me on the bed.
“Oh, you’re having it, Koko.” Zane rolled over to glom onto me. “We’re all having it. It’s just that some of us express our feelings like normal people. Through sarcasm, snacks, and inappropriate jokes.”
Casimir gave a quiet laugh as he fell onto the bed next to Zane and reeled him in for a noogie.
“There’s nothingnormalabout you, Z.”
“And yet here I am,” Zane puffed as he fought free of Casimir’s headlock. “Delightfully abnormal and devastatingly charming.”
“You’re an idiot, Zoodle,” I said fondly as Koa laid down on my other side, twining an arm around my waist, my back against his chest.
“I’myouridiot. Forever and ever, Serafina the Dark Witch-slayer.”
“That is not going on a plaque,” Casimir muttered.
“Definitelygoing on a plaque,” Zane and Koa said in unison.
I laughed, the sound light and surprised, and it felt like something finally settled inside me, something I hadn’t realized was spinning into chaos since the moment Papa walked into our home with Arabesque on his arm and her twin snakes in tow.
“Come here,” I whispered. “All of you.”
They did without hesitation, all trying to hold me at once. Koa’s lips found my neck. Casimir’s hand slid under my cheek. Zane rested his head on my stomach with a contented sigh.
“I love you.” I didn’t need to specify who because it was meant for all three of them, and they knew it.
“Back at you, sweetheart,” Zane murmured.
“Always,” Casimir said.
“With everything I am,” Koa finished.
We were a tangle of limbs and warmth, towels and tangled hair, and I felt safer and happier than I ever had in my life.
“You know what’s weird?” Zane mused after a moment. “I always thought defeating Arabesque would feel like winning a game. Point for the good guys, mission accomplished, let’s move on to the next big bad. But it doesn’t feel like that at all.”
“Howdoesit feel?” I asked.
He was quiet for a moment, searching for the right words.
“Like closing a door. Not slamming it, just shutting it on a room we don’t need to look into anymore.”
