Chapter 23 All the Questions
Seri
I cradled a mug of tea, my ankle throbbing dully beneath the table. Brumous lay at my feet as he gnawed on a bone one of the brothers, most likely his favorite accomplice Zane, had given him.
Casimir leaned back from the table, his arms crossed and his green eyes scanning me like I might break if he looked away for too long.
Koa was quietly sipping his own tea, the top and sides of his black hair tied up in a top knot, while Zane lounged in his chair, his legs sprawled out, the usual smirk playing on his lips.
“So,” he said, breaking the comfortable silence, “tour time? Or are we just going to stare at Seri all morning? Not that that’s any kind of hardship.”
Casimir shot him a glare, but I felt my cheeks warm.
“I’d love to see more of Evermere,” I said, setting my mug down. “But Simmy said I needed to rest my ankle.”
“We’ll carry you,” Koa said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
As if on cue, Casimir stood and strode over, scooping me up before I could protest. I let out a squeak of surprise, my arms instinctively looping around his neck.
“The hell is that?!” Zane’s shout from behind us made me jump, and Casimir tightened his hold as my heart raced.
“Why are you yelling, pest?” Koa rumbled as he came over and rubbed his hand up and down my back.
“Answer me, Serafina!” Zane’s voice came out even louder, and I shook a little. He hadn’t hurt me yet, but loud often came with pain. Eluned especially liked to scream whenever she hurt me.
“I don’t…” My lungs sped up now, too, as if competing with my heart. “Know what…”
“This!” he snarled.
Next thing I knew, he’d unlooped my outside arm from Casimir’s neck and held my fingers with one hand and shoved up my sweater sleeve with the other, his gingerbread eyes fixed on the bruise running around my wrist like an amethyst bracelet.
Casimir’s body turned to steel, his arms like iron bars under me, and I knew just from how his breathing changed that he was furious.
“Beloved?” Koa’s palm paused in the small of my back. “That wasn’t there before. What happened?”
His voice might have been exquisitely gentle in my ear, but that only told me he, too, was angry.
Knowing all three of them were mad made it harder to control the panic.
My lungs burned. I couldn’t seem to get a proper breath.
I wasn’t back with the Harrows, not really, but I was also not here.
Zane’s shout had knocked something loose, like a pane of glass between now and then had cracked open.
My vision tunneled a little. My pulse throbbed at the base of my skull.
“I didn’t mean to,” I whispered, not sure who I was talking to. “I’m sorry.”
Casimir sank into the chair behind him with me still in his arms, and his hand moved to cradle the back of my head. As his fingers curled in my hair, I felt them tremble and wondered why.
“You’re okay,” he murmured. “You didn’t do anything wrong, my love. We know. You’re okay.”
“She’s shaking.” Koa crouched beside us. His hand skimmed down to my wrist, the one Zane had uncovered. “You can’t yell at her like that, Z.”
“I wasn’t—” Zane’s voice was tight. “I didn’t mean to yell at her. I just saw that and I—”
He cut himself off, swearing under his breath. Then I felt his hands on mine again, gentle this time.
“Hey,” he said, his voice hoarse, “hey, sweetheart, I’m sorry. I don’t know how to do this, okay? I saw that bruise and— I thought about someone hurting you, and I just— I lost it.”
He looked like he was about to crawl out of his own skin, and my fingers curled around his.
“I’m okay,” I said through a wobbly voice. “Really.”
“You don’t have to be,” Koa murmured. “You don’t have to say that for our sake. You don’t have to lie or hide anything.”
“You’re safe now.” Casimir’s chin rested on the crown of my head. “No one’s going to hurt you again.”
“I pushed him,” I admitted, the words slipping out in a rush. “Mr. Storms. I pushed him into the lake.”
“And he grabbed you trying to keep his balance.” Koa stood, his jaw tight. “I remember. That’s what left the mark. I’ll fetch the arnica cream.”
“Grab a compression wrap, too,” Casimir said.
As Koa disappeared in a blur of motion, Zane blew out a breath, his hands still holding mine, but his gaze stayed on my knees.
“We weren’t raised to know what to do with something beautiful. We were only ever taught how to fight, how to kill.” He looked up at me then, serious for once. “But I’m learning. We’re learning. We’ll figure it out, darling. Just give us time.”
“Me, too.” I rubbed my thumb over his fingers. “I’m still learning, too.”
“You’re already better at it than us.” Casimir’s voice was gruff.
Zane bent to kiss the bruise as gently as a butterfly landing on my wrist, and my breath caught.
“See? Already learning how to handle delicate things.” His wink held a softer edge than his usual mischief. “Told you we’re teachable.”
I blinked, suddenly unsure what to do with all this gentleness. It didn’t feel like the jagged edges of survival I’d known before. It was soft and safe and warm.
Let them be kind. Let them be decent. And please, please, don’t let them hurt me.
They didn’t know that prayer, the one I whispered to the Moon Goddess over and over on my way to Evermere, but they were answering it all the same.
I tucked that warmth away, quiet and glowing, like a candle lit behind my ribs. Just in case the dark ever came calling again.
#
Once Koa applied the salve and Casimir checked to make sure it didn’t need to be wrapped, we went on with the tour.
We started with the new security room, which was unlike anything I’d ever seen.
Monitors lined the walls, their screens flickering with maps and footage of the estate.
In the center of the room stood a sleek, metallic table that looked like it belonged in a sci-fi movie.
Koa stepped forward, his espresso eyes shining as he gestured to it.
“This is a holographic display table. Here.”
When he handed me a pair of glasses, I slipped them on, and the world shifted. Suddenly, Evermere unfolded before me in three dimensions, the manor, the forests, even the pond shimmering in the sunlight. I gasped, reaching out as if I could touch it.
“Oh!” My fingers dug into Casimir’s collar as I took in the impossible detail. A sapphire butterfly landed on my virtual fingertips. “It’s like magic made real, Koko!”
Koa’s fingers brushed mine as he guided my hand through the hologram, sending ripples across digital tree canopies.
“Try pinching two fingers together.”
I did, and the estate shrank until I held the entire valley in my cupped hand. Back home, our single computer could barely load seed catalogs.
“This is incredible,” I breathed. “I didn’t even know things like this existed, Koko.”
“It’s still a work in progress, but it’ll be fully operational soon.”
“Could you teach me sometime? When you’re not busy, I mean.” I took off the glasses in time to catch his smile.
“Of course, beloved. We’ll teach you anything you want to learn. Oh, wait.” Koa traded me a sleek black phone for his glasses. “This is yours. Noticed you didn’t have one. Our numbers are preloaded, along with King Lucian’s and our older brother, Sebastian’s.”
“Do not call them unless it is an extreme emergency,” Casimir’s chest rumbled against me, “but do not hesitate to call them if it is an extreme emergency.”
I hugged the phone to my chest, then on impulse, kissed the corner of his jaw. His muscles locked, a statue carved from warm marble, before relaxing into the embrace.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” He cleared his throat, turning toward a rack of tactical gear.
My eyes followed his to the gear propped against the walls: Military-looking vests, an open case with some kind of rifle, another with a compound bow. My curiosity got the better of me.
“Could you teach me about those things, too?” I asked, gesturing to the equipment.
“This is temporary,” Casimir explained. “We’re still setting up the armory. But if you want to learn how to shoot, I’ll teach you. Once you’re healed.”
“Brace yourself, precious,” Zane cut in, smirking. “When the gunnery sergeant comes out to play, he doesn’t believe in ‘beginner mode.’ ”
I grinned, glancing at Casimir, who looked like he was torn between annoyance and resignation. I didn’t know what a gunnery sergeant was, but the warmth in the room, the easy way they included me, made me happy.
Brumous pawed at my uninjured dangling foot, whining when I reached to pet him, but Koa intercepted my hand.
“Leave the wolf’s training to me. You’ll want both arms secure when Casi starts screaming about trigger discipline.”
“Safety protocols exist for—”
“See?” Zane flung himself across a swivel chair, boots propped on a motherboard. “Already prepping for the lecture.”
My grin died when three voices snapped in unison: “Don’t touch that!”
All of their eyes were fixed on my curious fingers hovering near a funny-looking box.
“Weapons and ammo stay inert until you’re trained. Understood?” Casimir’s voice dropped an octave.
Brumous tucked his muzzle under Koa’s palm, his eyes as wide as mine. I nodded, my throat tight.
“Relax, commander.” Zane spun his chair, plucking a paperclip from the desk. “I’ll protect our damsel with this deadly shiv. Worked wonders in Saskatchewan.”
“You mean when you jammed a salad fork into a diesel generator?” Koa’s grin was dark and deadly.
“Electrocution still gets the job done!”
“Is that going on your next t-shirt?” He gestured to Zane’s “I Have Rabies!” shirt.
“Maybe it is!”
Shaking my head at the two of them, I glanced up at Casimir to make sure he wasn’t angry with me.
“Are you interested in hand-to-hand combat?” he asked, his tone casual, like he was discussing the weather.
“Probably not,” I admitted. “Is that your speciality? Like Koko’s is techy stuff?”
“We’re all experts at hand-to-hand,” Zane fidgeted with his deadly paper clip, “but I’m the best at archery. And guerilla warfare.”