Chapter 27 Done with Her #2
Everything around me suddenly seemed to exhale, vision sharpening, sounds clarifying. My heart hammered against my ribs and my chest heaved, but I felt light. As if I could float away on the next breeze.
Movement on my left had me turning to see Foster leap off the porch, Brummy at his side, his tail wagging as they sprinted over.
“Mission accomplished?” I was surprised by how much my voice wobbled, and I let Koa’s knife fall to the ground, my hands shaking too much to hold it safely.
“Mission accomplished.” Smirking, Foster held out a giant fist. “Good job, Little Boss.”
“You, too.” I bumped my bloody knuckles against his with a nod, then quickly stilled when the world spun.
“Brums says, ‘We win!’ and now he’s chanting ‘Bad Hurt Witch dead!’ ”
“Yeah, we won.” I stared at Koa’s knife lying on the ground next to Arabesque’s corpse.
He can get it back himself before they burn her, I thought inanely as starlight exploded behind my eyes.
“Foster?”
“Yeah?”
“Can you, um, maybe catch me? Think I’m going to—”
#
As if I were underwater listening to something on the shore, I heard Foster’s heartbeat first, then felt Brummy’s wet nose nudging my cheek.
“She’s okay, Brums. Just fainted.”
“Did not,” I protested weakly.
“What was it, then? A strategic renegotiation with consciousness?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Well, if you could come back to full reality, I’d appreciate it. Your husbands just arrived, and they’ll kill me if they think I let you get hurt.”
“They’re here?” I forced my eyelids up only for them to slide right back down. “Where?”
“Kinda have to open your eyes to see them.”
“Pushing your luck, Foster,” I groused.
“Story of my life, Little Boss.”
Hearing a shout, I put all my strength into waking up and was rewarded with the sight of my husbands running toward me, their faces fierce with worry and pride, their tactile gear coated with blood and other things I didn’t care to examine too closely.
“Told you she’d do it!” Zane yelled, his red hair wild and his gingerbread eyes alight with triumph. “Our wifey’s a warrior queen!”
Koa reached me first and swept me out of Foster’s arms and up against his chest, one hand cradling the back of my head, fingers threading through my hair as he pressed his face into my neck.
“Serafina,” he breathed. His heart thundered against mine, his body trembling. Not with fear, but with the effort of restraining himself from crushing me in his embrace.
Casimir held me next, scanning me from head to toe, checking for injuries. When his gaze landed on my bloody hands, approval flashed across his face.
“In and out. Quick and clean. No hesitation,” I croaked out. “Just like we practiced, Simmy.”
“That’s my good girl.” He touched his forehead to mine and stared into my eyes.
As Casimir passed me to Zane, Foster picked up Koa’s knife and wiped it clean on the hem of Arabesque’s dress, then handed it back to my husband, handle first. Koa took it with a grunt and held it at an angle so I could see the etching of my name on the handle.
“The ?aumākua always knew Serafina was destined to finish this,” he said, his espresso eyes bright.
Biting my lips, I blinked back tears as he kissed the letters before sheathing the blade.
“Ready to go home, bubbles?” Zane nuzzled my cheek with his nose.
“Yes.” I wrapped my arms around his neck and let myself sink into his strength and warmth. “Want a bath and our bed, Zoodle.”
“Take her. I’ll stay and burn the remains,” Casimir said.
“Not gonna lie,” Zane smirked, “I wouldn’t mind resurrecting her a few times just to kill her again and again. Still, bath and bed with our wife sounds way better than choking on Dark witch ashes for the next hour.” He dropped a kiss on my forehead. “Let’s get outta here, bluebell.”
“I’ll wait until Simmy’s done,” I murmured against Zane’s skin. “I don’t want to be apart from any of you right now.”
“Go, all of you,” Foster intervened. “You three need showers, Little Boss needs loving, and Brums and I can handle this.”
“You sure?” Casimir was clearly reluctant to hand over what he saw as his responsibility.
“Oh, yeah. We’ll make sure Arabesque combusts properly. When we get home, though, I demand my weight in steak. Something special for Brums here, too. Little man deserves it.”
“King of the dires, aren’t you, taking out monsters’ hearts like a beast,” Zane crooned as he looked down at our baby. “You’re going to be a legend, yes, you are. You’re Zaddy’s special boy!”
Brummy threw back his head and howled in agreement, and I hid my smile in Zane’s throat.
#
By the time we crossed Evermere’s threshold, I was bone-tired, but also still exhilarated. We’d done it. Arabesque was gone. The Gravewrought were destroyed. And we survived.
Koa’s arm slipped around my waist, steadying me as a wave of exhaustion threatened to buckle my knees.
“Let’s get you cleaned up.” Concern darkened his eyes as he took in the dirt and blood, most of it not mine, that stained my clothes.
“I’m okay. Just tired.”
“I’m still processing,” Zane said, a note of wonder in his voice. “Our little moonbeam went and ganked the big bad witch.”
“Perfectly, too.” The pride in Casimir’s eyes was unmistakable, and my chest filled with warmth.
Once in our room, Casimir went into my bathroom and started the shower while Zane helped me out of my filthy clothes, for once without a suggestive comment.
Koa gathered towels, the softest we had, and laid them out on the counter.
The care they showed me wasn’t new. They’d been attentive from the beginning, but there was something different in it now.
A shift in the dynamic I couldn’t quite name.
As we all stood under the steaming water from four rainfall shower heads, I studied Casimir. He was scrubbing me down with his usual seriousness, but there was a new softness around his eyes.
“What?”
“You’re different,” I said, and a flicker of surprise crossed his face.
“How so?”
“When I first came here, you were too contained.” I grabbed his hand and squeezed it. “Like you were afraid to let anyone see beneath the surface. I was afraid it was because you didn’t care.”
“I’ve always cared,” he mumbled.
“I know that now, Simmy.” I brought his knuckles to my lips, kissing them. “But you’re not afraid to show it anymore. At least not with me or your brothers.”
He was silent for a moment, considering.
“Before you, I thought vulnerability was a weakness I couldn’t afford, a luxury,” he finally admitted. “I was wrong.”
“The great Casimir Leif Cimmerian, admitting he was wrong?” Zane gasped, flicking a line of soap bubbles at him. “Mark the calendar, folks. Historic moment.”
But there was a brittleness in his teasing that made me search his face. His usual smirk was there, but his eyes were too bright.
“Come here, Zoodle.” I held out my other hand.
“Good thing we got this shower expanded,” he muttered as he moved closer.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong.” He didn’t quite meet my eyes. “We won. Dark witch dead, good guys victorious. Happily ever after and all that—”
“Z,” Cas warned.
“Fine. I was scared, okay?” Zane ran his free hand through his wet hair, slicking it back. “When we got there and saw you lying so still in Foster’s arms, I thought—” He broke off, swallowing hard. “And it sucked.”
“It was terrifying,” Casimir admitted. “For all of us.”
I was stunned. Not by the admission that they’d been afraid since I’d been terrified myself, but by Zane’s willingness to say it aloud. When I first met him, he would have deflected with a joke, hidden his fear behind a wall of sarcasm. Now he was letting me see it, raw and unfiltered.
“I’m sorry I scared you, but I had to do it.”
“We know.” Koa wedged his face between Zane and Casimir’s shoulders. “And we’re proud of you. Still, Z’s right. Knowing you faced her alone is one of the hardest things we’ve ever had to accept.”
“You were fighting the Gravewrought,” I reminded them. “We all had our parts to play.”
“And we played them well,” Casimir agreed, “but that doesn’t mean it was easy.”
I looked at them, my fierce, protective husbands, and saw vulnerability. Something I’d never expected to see. They’d been my strength for so long, my anchors in a storm-tossed sea, but here they were, letting me see their fear, their worry.
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’s you.”
“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 nothing normal about 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’m your idiot. Forever and ever, Serafina the Dark Witch-slayer.”
“That is not going on a plaque,” Casimir muttered.
“Definitely going 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.”
“How does it 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.”
“Now who’s poetic?” Casimir remarked, but there was warmth in his voice. “Still, accurate.”
“When I first came here, I was so broken,” I said. “So afraid. I thought the best I could hope for was a roof over my head. I prayed for a kind, decent husband who wouldn’t hurt me. Just that much. I never imagined…”
I gestured at them, words failing me.
“You’d get ’ohana.” Koa breathed against my skin. “Found, fought for, and forged in fire.”
“ ’Ohana,” we all echoed.
His arm tightened around me as the first light of dawn snuck through a gap in the drapes and turned our room soft pink.
“Rest now, little wife,” Casimir whispered.
So I did. Surrounded by my loves, in the hush that follows the storm, our four hearts beating as one. Safe. Whole. Home.
Evermere.
A place beyond the hunt, where shadows rest and dawns endure.