"What is wrong with Elise? Is she hurt? Oh, gods, is it some human thing, and she's dying?" Oberon demanded. "Kian, we need to take her to see some proper healers and…"
"She's pregnant," Valentine said, and Kian shot him a surprised look. "What? It's obvious..." He trailed off as everyone stared at him. "Okay, so maybe only obvious to me?"
"A baby? Really?" Quinn gasped and then smiled. "That suddenly explains so much. She's been wearing an absurd amount of flowy dresses and has put off having a girls' night."
"You can't tell anyone!" Kian commanded. "Elise doesn't want anyone to know until she's ready. Yelena's elixir hides the change in her scent."
"A Tuatha Dé Dannan baby," Oberon said, still stunned. Then he was out of his chair and hugging Kian, almost tangling their antlers. "My baby nephew is going to be a father. Oh, blessed Danu, I feel like crying."
Valentine had never liked children, but he supposed it was different for the fae. Kian and many others had struggled to find the source of their infertility over the years.
"I have been crying. A lot," Kian said, accepting the congratulations. "Elise doesn't want to say anything until we can't avoid it. It's not just hope for us but for all the fae. It's a lot to put on her shoulders."
"I can always take her to Tír fo Thuinn," Mananan suggested. "If anyone threatens her, I can drown them with a tidal wave."
Kian laughed. "She might like a trip to the sea for a few days, but I don't know how she would feel about hiding in Faerie."
"She doesn't need to go all that way. I got a perfectly good castle in the north for her. Freya's going to freak out when she's told," Bayn said with a wide grin.
"You never know, baby brother. She might want one next," Killian teased, and Bayn's grin slipped off his face.
"I'm too young to be a father," he said quickly. "You're the oldest. You can be next."
Killian snorted. "You think more Ironwoods in the world is a good idea?"
"This is so nice," Bas said beside Valentine. "I can't believe you knew."
"I'm observant."
"The Fae are going to lose it when you tell them," Cosimo commented. "My liver is already hurting just thinking about the inevitable party."
"No parties until Elise asks for them," Kian said, pointing to Quinn. "No acting suspicious."
Taranis knocked his hand away. "Don't point at my mate."
"Tell her to behave herself."
Quinn laughed evilly. "Have you met me? I don't do 'behaving.'"
"It's because you like discipline too much," Apollo chimed in.
Quinn opened her mouth to say something, but Taranis put his hand over it and muffled her reply. "Okay, enough. We need to focus on finding Yelena and Avallach. Elise and Kian's good news, and when they want to share it, is their business," he said, and then looked back at Valentine. "Use the letters and anything else you can think of to track them down."
"And then what?" Valentine asked, his mind already turning to the magical problem.
"Then I go and find them. I hope it's just me overreacting, and they are just being overly cautious, but until I find out otherwise, we treat this like a rescue mission," Taranis said.
Valentine thought about the letters and his dreams, and magic tingled his fingertips. If there were any connection linking their magic, even if it were just the magic of the letters, he would find it.And he wouldn't sit back and watch Taranis go into Faerie without him.
Valentine closed his eyes, let the voices in the room drown out, and dropped into his magic. In the warm darkness, the dragon inside of him stirred.
Unlike the rest of his family, he hadn't needed to wait until magic had been restored to feel his dragon. He had kept his beast and his knowledge of it locked up since he was a teenager. It had been safer that way for all of them.
I need your help, Valentine told the slumbering beast.If my dreams of Yelena are real, help me figure out how to use them to find her.
The dragon opened its ruby eyes.You have ignored me every time I tried to warn you before…especially about her.
Valentine knew it was right, but he didn't have time to argue about it.I know, and I'm sorry. It might be safe enough for you to be free soon, but she was the only one I thought might help us not hurt anyone when we let you out.
