“You have no family at all?” Apollo asked, blond brows drawing together.
“Nope. Not a one. Mother is dead. Never knew my father. I’m not worried. I get by okay,” Bridget said, swallowing the lump in her throat.
Apollo patted her hand that was still over his arm. If anyone else would have tried that shit, Bridget would have let them have it, but she felt strangely comforted when Apollo did it. Maybe his magic was empathy.
“You’re a magician, which means you’re always welcome here, Bridget,” he said.
She really needed to steer the subject away from family. “What is your magic if you are blowing things up all the time?”
“I specialize in alchemy and shenanigans,” Apollo replied. “Hence the laughing potion to make my brother piss himself.”
Bridget was still laughing when they got downstairs, and she got a noseful of something that smelled like fresh bread and melted cheese.
“Oh my god, what is that?” she asked, her stomach growling.
“That’s Bas. He’s a bit of a mother hen when he wants to be. He’s always been like that, but it got worse after Mom died,” Apollo said, his smile dimming just a little. “He makes sure we all eat right and don’t catch scurvy.”
“You’re lucky. I hate cooking for myself.”
Apollo put his arm around her shoulders. “Then you’ll be pleased to know that Bas is taking you under his wings.”
Bridget didn’t get a chance to ask him what he meant by that, or process the image of being under Bas, because Apollo opened the door to the kitchen, and she was faced with all the Greatdrakes men sitting around the scarred pine table drinking wine and talking all at once.
As one, they all stood up when Bridget entered the room, and she giggled nervously. She didn’t think people in real life did that shit.
Cosimo pulled out a chair for her at the head of the table. “So happy you could join us, Bridget. This table needs a feminine influence more often.”
“I don’t think anyone has ever accused me of being a feminine influence before,” she babbled and quickly sat.
“Wine?” Bas asked from his place in the kitchen. Bridget nodded, and Cosimo poured her a glass.
“This is from my favorite estate in Veneto. I have to hide bottles so the boys don’t drink all of it on me,” he said, shooting her a wink.
“You say that like you don’t go to Italy every month,” Apollo said, holding his glass out. “Make it a big one, Dad. I’ve had a day.”
“What’s in Italy to keep you going back there?” Bridget asked. She could totally do small talk. Or at least try to. She was curious about these generational magicians. They weren’t like regular boring people she had nothing in common with.
“I hunt magical manuscripts mostly,” Cosimo replied. “My grandmother was a Florentine, so I ended up with the name Cosimo. It’s a family tradition to be named after magicians, mystics, and alchemists, so I was named after...”
“Cosimo Medici?” Bridget guessed.
His face lit up, and all the brothers groaned.
“You know of him?” he asked.
“Of course. The whole of Western civilization and culture was altered because of Cosimo. If he hadn’t funded Marsilio Ficino and the Florentine Academy, we would still be in the dark ages,” Bridget replied before she could stop. She quickly shut her mouth before she started to ramble. People didn’t always like that about her.
Cosimo put a hand on his chest. “A woman after my own heart. Finally, a youth I don’t need to educate.”
“You got him started now,” Valentine said, his lips lifting into a wry smile. “Quick, Bas, feed us so we avoid a lecture.”
“Philistines. I’d love a lecture on Cosimo Medici. Do you know that apparently Ficino was worried that he would never have the resources to translate all the manuscripts he had, so he went outside and sang the Orphic Hymn to the Cosmos, and then like the next day, he got patronage from Cosimo? Actually, it makes sense that Cosimo was a magician now that I think about...and I’m rambling. Sorry,” Bridget said and quickly drank her wine.
The Greatdrakes men were all smiling at her, Bas with a hand resting over his heart.
“That’s it. We are keeping you,” Cosimo declared, smacking his hand on the table. “Well done, Bas. Very well done indeed.”
Bridget blushed from the tips of her toes to the tips of her ears. “I don’t know what just happened, but thanks. I read a lot, and I don’t get to talk much about stuff with people because I can’t have normal conversations.” She really, really needed to stop verbally spewing everywhere.
