He picked me up and cuddled me like a baby as he carried me outside and laid me out on the grass under the moon. Zane took great pleasure in stripping me out of my t-shirt, citing “maximum surface area for full moon efficiency,” but the tent growing in his shorts made him a liar.
“You literally pulled us through shadows,” he said with his usual smirk. “Do you have any idea how badass that was? I vote we add it to our official playbook. Shadow Extraction, patent pending, by Serafina Not-Actually-Helpless Cimmerian.”
“So does that mean I passed the test?” I picked a blade of grass and twirled it. “I’ll go on more missions now?”
All three brothers turned to stare at me with identical expressions of disbelief.
“Beloved, we almost got eaten by Dark-infused shadows.” Koa rubbed his temples with his fingers. “You drained yourself to the point of passing out. And Cas added about fifty new rules to the book. What part of that strikes you as a resounding success?”
“We’re all alive.AndI proved I can help by thinking outside the box.”
“You proved you’reunpredictable,” Casimir corrected, but there was something in his voice that hadn’t been there before, a note of consideration rather than outright dismissal.
“So is Zane,” I pointed out with a shrug. “He’s the guerrilla warfare expert. I’ll be the guerrillamagicexpert.”
Narrowing his eyes at me, Casimir studied me for a moment, then picked up the rulebook where it lay beside him on the grass.
“Rule Number Ninety,” he said as he wrote. “No celebrating near-death experiences as victories.”
“Rule Number Ninety-One.” Zane snatched the pen from Casimir’s hand. “All lunar witches must moon-bathe for at least an hour following magical exertion.”
Koa took the pen next, his handwriting neater than Zane’s atrocious scrawl, but not as elegant as Casimir’s.
“Rule Number Ninety-Two: No one teases Seri about saving Zane’s life for at least twenty-four hours afterwards.”
“Rule Number Ninety-Three.” I held out my hand for the pen, and Koa placed it in my palm. I wrote,Thank your lunar witch when she saves your fang-rotted asses.??
Zane leaned over to read it, then clutched his chest in mock offense.
“I was getting to that part! Thank you, Serafina Rose Cimmerian, for your heroic, rule-breaking, completely unauthorized rescue of my devastatingly attractive self.”
“You’re welcome,” I said primly.
“Mahalo, lunar witch,” Koa leaned down to kiss my forehead, “for saving our fang-rotted asses.”
“I will always save you, Koko,” I promised him with a smile and rolled onto my side to face Casimir lying next to me.
He didn’t budge. Didn’t blink. Didn’t squirm. I watched the way his jaw worked as he struggled between pride and fear, anger and relief. He’d been so certain his rules would keep me safe, then chaos had erupted and it had been me breaking rules that saved us.
“I’m not sorry, you know. Ican’tbe sorry for keeping you safe. Any of you. I did what I had to do. And I’d do it again. Wouldn’t you have done the same?”
Something flickered in his green eyes, maybe recognizing the irony. How often had they justified their overprotectiveness with those exact sentiments?
“Next time,” he said at last, his arm going around my waist and pulling me closer, “just don’t give me a heart attack.”
It wasn’t quite approval. It wasn’t quite acceptance of my abilities. But it was acknowledgment that there wouldbea next time, that I was part of this now, rules and all.
“Thank you, Seri.” He didn’t smile, but the tension around his eyes eased a bit. “Foreverything.”
On my other side, Zane was recounting our near-death experience to Brummy with increasing embellishment.
“And then, from the shadows themselves, like some kind of glittery avenging angel—”
“Rule Number Ninety-Four,” Casimir called over his shoulder. “No dramatic retellings of events we all experienced.”
“Rule Number Ninety-Five,” Zane called back. “Seri gets to break the rules when she’s right.”
“I second that motion,” Koa rumbled.
