"Why are you all hogging my husband?" Apollo demanded, and instead of sitting on the bench beside Lachlan, he sat in his lap.
"Your husband?" Lachlan put an arm around him. "I don't remember you proposing?"
"Must have slipped my mind when I was railing you so hard, you were speaking in tongues," Apollo replied, causing uproar from his brothers.
"I would like to know more," Owain said.
Bridget held up a hand. "Me too."
"Not while I'm in earshot," Bas grabbed her hand and kissed it.
Apollo leaned forward and rested his arms on the table. "So, Val, have you decided if you are going to Faerie to see Caelan?"
"I want to, but they haven't given me a reply," Valentine said, his dark eyes showing a flicker of annoyance.
"Probably won't for a few days either," Owain replied and had another drink.
Valentine raised a dark brow. "And why is that?"
"Because Yelena has gone off on a mission with Avallach and a bunch of other fae. It's why she was sent home, not to be your pen pal," Owain replied. His eyes went wide. "Oh...that it...is, I mean..."
"Caelan is Yelena?" Apollo gasped, his smile lighting up.
Lachlan gave his leg a warning squeeze. Crimson threads were dancing around Valentine's hands.
"Why didn't anybody bother to tell me this?" Valentine asked in a low and dangerous voice.
Taranis must have sensed the change of magic in the air because he was suddenly behind Valentine, his hands coming down on his shoulders to hold him in the chair.
"Because you have been an ass to her since you met," he said, not letting Valentine go.
"She is the one who acted like I was going to become some dark sorcerer!"
"Only in the beginning, lad," Owain said with a shake of his head. "She was actually really curious about you, and Yelena doesn't get curious about anyone. I think you know what that's like. She knew you two started out on the wrong foot and didn't know how to get you to give her a chance."
Valentine's eyes flashed a brilliant crimson. "And she thought the best idea was to give me a fake name and start writing to me?"
"It's not a fake name. Her full name is Yelena Caelan Tuathach. You would have known that if you had ever bothered to ask her," Taranis said, and his tone gentled. "I knew you two would be fast friends if you got over bad first impressions. Was I wrong?"
Spots of bright color appeared on Valentine's pale cheeks. "Let me go."
"Just think things through before you burn a friendship you both need. Her magic helped you save your brother, after all." Taranis let him go, and Valentine shot out of his chair like a jackrabbit. He stormed out of the hall, leaving crimson trails of magic in his wake.
"I'm sorry, my king. It was a stupid blunder of my tongue," Owain said, lowering his head.
"It's not your fault. He needed to know sooner or later," Taranis sighed. He picked up Valentine's mug and drained what was left. "Fuck."
"It'll be okay, Uncle Taran," Apollo said and gestured at his brothers. "We know Val. He will be pissy about it for a few hours, and then he'll realize it's not the end of the world. You should have seen him talking about his friend Caelan the whole time we were in France."
Lachlan nodded. "He did, and he'd light up when he did it. He's smart enough not to throw a friendship like that away. He's just embarrassed he didn't figure it out."
Apollo gnawed on his bottom lip. "He's not in a good head space right now anyway. He finds it hard to cage his magic after using so much of it. By the looks of that crimson, it's not going back in."
"It's because he's outgrown his cage," Taranis replied, rubbing a frustrated hand over his face. "What is it with you Greatdrakes boys? I swear I'm not even your father, and you give me chest pains."
"Well, Dad has a dragon too. Wait until he starts waking up," Reeve said, a sly grin on his face. "I think he will give us all chest pains just to get back at us for stressing him out over the years."
Taranis groaned. "Dagda, spare us."
