Cosimo rubbed at his eyes and took some breaths. "I'm fine. Apollo, look at me, please."
Apollo lifted his head, his eyes wet with unshed tears. "Yes, Dad?"
"I love you. This is not your fault," Cosimo said, his voice soft. "Yes, we had good memories in that apartment, and those aren't gone. We can rebuild it, but I can't rebuild you boys. Understand? I'm not upset or angry that they destroyed it. I'm furious that they tried to kill both my sons and a man who I count as family. Hug him tighter, Lachlan, because I can't."
"Yes, sir," Lachlan replied and wrapped his other arm around Apollo. He put his head into Lachlan's neck and held onto him.
"Good," Cosimo said with a firm nod. "Can we get the others in on this call now? We need a plan. Valentine, stop pacing and tell me what's on your mind."
Valentine glanced up at his father. "Murder. Kill them all. Get the other creatures that they are hurting. Make them wish that they really had disbanded when Catherine died."
"Steady on, dark lord," Apollo sniggered, and Lachlan laughed softly. Someone was feeling better.
A smile ghosted Cosimo's lips. "I don't disagree, Valentine. Let's do it the right way, shall we? Let's send out the SOS to the family group chat and get as many of us in this discussion as we can. Boys? Maybe put some clothes on first."
It took another hour, but eventually, all of the Tuatha Dé Danann, Ironwoods, and Greatdrakes were logged into the call. Apollo had got pants on and had calmed down enough not to be draining the little minis one after the other.
Lachlan had put a bottle of water and a Gatorade in front of Apollo and wouldn't let him have any more alcohol until they were both gone. He had tried the same tactic with Valentine, who had just laughed in his face and gotten another order of alcohol sent up. He wasn't drinking them as fast, so Lachlan figured that was about as good as it was going to get.
"Please tell us you have found something on these assholes, Layla," Lachlan said once everyone was online.
His cousin had her blonde hair in a messy bun on top of her head, and she had a slightly crazed gleam in her eyes like she had one too many energy drinks.
"The alchemists might be on a closed system, but their cyber security is lackluster. I don't know half of the stuff I'm looking at, but I have found multiple properties listed under their shell companies," Layla replied and dug around for a notebook. "They haven't specified which property is holding the prisoners, but from an initial search, there's only one that is big and remote enough for them to get away with anything without drawing attention. It's called, ah, Château de Mont…something."
"Château de Montceaux?" Valentine demanded, his head snapping up.
Layla looked over her notes. "Yeah, that's the one. How did you know?"
"Château de Montceaux was one of Catherine Medici's private residences. Her favorite, in fact. She could practice alchemy there without the interference of court life. It's been in various states of ruin for years, apart from a large house. And I mean a ruin. A few walls here and some pillars there. The Sanguis Vitae could have bought it for sentimentality's sake and started to rebuild it. There are legends amongst magicians that Nostradamus had a secret lab there with her. It's debatable because there's no evidence she had a lab or that he visited her there. They were close friends, though, so anything is possible," Valentine said in one long ramble as he began to pace again.
Taranis interrupted. "Take a breath, Val, and for the love of the gods, stop pacing. You are giving me anxiety."
Surprisingly, Valentine did as he was told and sat on a couch. His expression glazed over like he was already lost in some other spiraling thoughts.
"Is he okay?" Lachlan whispered to Apollo.
He nodded. "He's going through his mental inventory about the Château. He'll be fine. It just needs to run its course."
The conversation continued without him as Layla brought up some plans that were on the servers she had hacked.
"Lachlan? What do you need to make this attack happen?" Kian asked, his hands steepled in front of him. "If we can stop politics from getting involved, I would appreciate it. According to human laws, I have no authority in that country, and if we all turn up, someone is bound to notice."
"No more dragons. I know Apollo and Valentine need to see this through, but I'm not going to risk any other dragon getting anywhere near these fuckers," Lachlan replied and leaned forward to rest his elbows against his knees. "I want Ciara at my side because she's my fighting partner, and I know Tor won't let her come on her own."
"No way in darkest Nifelheim," Tor grumbled, crossing his big arms.
Ciara only grinned at her little brother. "I'm looking forward to meeting these alchemists."
Lachlan grinned back. He would feel a thousand times better to have her with him. "I also want Killian and Bron. Kill has shadow magic that we can use and will be able to calm any fae that might be held captive. Same with Tor and any shifters. They will trust people like them. Bron knows how to make the most of getting into a facility this size without being seen, so the risk of political complications will be lowered significantly."
Apollo cleared his throat. "I'm going to need someone to raid my lab at home. I want to brew up some surprises to use."
"What about you, Val? What do you need?" Taranis prompted.
Valentine shook himself. "I need to write to Caelan and ask them to help me perfect a spell I've been working on. I will beable to use it to take out the building in Paris. I will also need their ideas on a portal spell to get me to the Château."
"Who the fuck is Caelan?" Bayn asked, a frown on his face.
