She sniffed. "You had your reasons. I'm sorry. I don't know why this is making me so emotional."
"It's been a trying day, and we are both exhausted. Don't cry, love. We are home, and that's a good thing," he said, rubbing her back.
"It's beendaysfor me, Val. I thought I was going to lose my mind waiting for you to activate that token," Yelena corrected, letting him go.
"Tell me about it?" Valentine asked.
Yelena wiped at her cheeks. "You first."
They washed their hands in the kitchen sink, and Valentine talked. He got her seated at the kitchen table before he went hunting in the fridge. He wanted to hug Bas a million times over when he found frozen minestrone soup. His brother's meal-prepping tendencies were always a good thing. Valentine heated the soup, poured wine, and toasted bread while telling her about Midir.
"It felt like hours to me in that place. I knew time was screwy in there. You only have to look at the ageless, young fae in there, but I didn't realize how messed up it was," he said, setting her up with a steaming bowl, an extra glass of water, and bread for dipping.
"Sit, Val. This is more than enough," Yelena said, amusement in her eyes.
"My dragon is worried. It needs to look after you. I don't know how and..."
Yelena took his hand. "Val, it's all I need. Sit down and eat with me."
Valentine sat. His appetite was usually nonexistent, and he was surprised by how ravenous he suddenly felt. "How did it go with you? Two days is a lot more time than I thought we had to get people in place."
Yelena swallowed a mouthful of soup. "I'm glad you wrote them letters because they were all mad. We expected that, but I honestly thought Cosimo was going to shift. He was scared for you."
Valentine pushed a hand through his hair. "I knew he would be. I thought now I had shifted, he would have trusted that I could handle the situation."
"He knew you could handle it, but he's your father. He's always going to be scared for you."
Valentine tore up a piece of toasted bread and gave her half. "Thank you for getting everyone where I needed them. I knew it was risky, and that Midir's barrow would be hard to navigate in a fight."
"We got through it. Taranis and the others will deal with the fallout. Midir's warriors, maybe even his whole kingdom, have been controlled by his magic for so long, it might not even hold as a kingdom now that he's gone," Yelena commented, tapping her spoon against her lip.
"What do you mean? How can a whole kingdom disappear?" Valentine asked, his food momentarily forgotten.
Yelena put her spoon back into her soup. "Well, a magician's spells generally fail when they die. The whole of Brí Léith was a kingdom built on Midir's family's magic. The Hunt would cut him off from it completely, like he's dead. Taranis and the other kings will have to take all of Midir's people in. You saw those warriors. They had no idea where they were or what had happened to them. While you were gone, the kings had already discussed the possibility of the barrows disappearing if Midir died and were planning what to do with all the fae that were trapped there."
Yelena ate more while Valentine thought through her explanation. The kings wouldn't have an extra kingdom to run, but they would have a hell of a time finding places for all those people.
"What a mess," he said after a while.
Yelena's foot tapped his under the table. "But not our mess."
"No, not ours. I have enough plans for us to get through," Valentine replied with a grin.
"And what are these plans?" she asked sweetly.
"Very simple. Food, shower, sleep," Valentine said before taking her hand and kissing her knuckles. "Then I'm going to make you my mate and fuck your brains out. Any objections?"
"None. That sounds perfect," Yelena said. Her smile dimmedfor a brief second, and Valentine ran a thumb over the back of her hand.
"What is it?"
"I'm not human. I'm not fae. I don't know how to do a mating bond with you," she admitted, her brow furrowing. "Wild dragons don't do it like the fae do either."
Valentine kissed her hand. "We know how our magic binds, and we are very clever. We will figure it out. The elves can sense who their mates are, but they use their magic to do a final binding, and the tattoos. We can do it that way if you like."
Yelena brightened again instantly. "I would like that. I want you to tattoo me again. Do you want to make a design together like we did with my hand?"
"I would love that," he replied, and he suddenly remembered the design he had been toying with for weeks. Fate had bitten him in the ass again, and he laughed. "I think I know the perfect place to start."
