"How did your punishment go?" Valentine asked Imogen. Her grin said it all. "Glad you enjoyed it after all. Thank you for the help."
"Anytime, kiddo. Well, maybe not summoning Gwyn but helping in general," she replied.
"It was a very good summoning, if that counts?"
Imogen waggled her brows at him. "I think it was the jazz hands that did it."
Valentine was still laughing when his brothers came to stand with him.
"So I'm pretty sure if Mpreg was a dragon thing, Dad would have shat an egg after he found out that stunt you pulled going to Midir," Apollo commented, making Bas's drink come out of his nose.
"That's…graphic," Reeve said, laughing at Bas and offering him the napkin he was holding. "But not untrue. We all thought he was going to shift, but no such luck."
Valentine watched his father across the gardens, talking with Oberon and Mananan as they smoked cigars. A tired-looking Taranis was standing under the trees nearby, Quinn under his arm.
Avallach had meant to be his Seneschal in the North, but since that was no longer needed, Avallach and the knights were in charge of investigating the other lords. Taranis was talking about abdicating as king, but Valentine didn't know if it was only because the betrayal of his lords had hit him so hard. Ella perched on Mananan's lap, laughed loudly at whatever Cosimo was saying.
"Maybe Dad is holding his dragon back somehow," Valentine said finally. "Do you think we should worry about him?"
"He's Dad. He has always had better control over himself than the rest of us," Bas commented.
"Oh, gods, you don't think he has bound his dragon like you did?" Apollo said, wrinkling up his nose. "That sounded so painful."
Valentine lifted his drink to his lips. "Only toward the end."
"It all seemed to work out," Bas replied with a bright smile. "I knew Yelena would get through all your prickly bullshit eventually."
Valentine found his mate where she was talking with Elise and Chrissy, her hand resting on Elise's stomach. She hadn't announced anything to the wider fae community yet, but the family now all knew. Yelena looked so happy that his heart did the weird, bursting feeling that he was still getting used to.
"She loves a challenge," was all Valentine said to his brothers.
They all grinned the Greatdrakes smile at him.
Apollo bumped his shoulder against his. "A good thing, too." He raised his glass of wine and pouted when he saw it was empty. "Damn it. I'll have to go to the cellar for another bottle."
"Let me. I need some quiet time for a few seconds," Valentine said, patting him on the back.
"Okay, but you better not do a disappearing act because Quinn is going to sing too," Apollo replied.
Valentine cocked a brow. "You think I would leave my mate alone with you miscreants? Unlikely." He hurried across the lawn and through the back kitchen door before he could get stopped again.
The silence of the cellar enfolded Valentine, and he took a moment to shut his eyes and let it calm him.
"Who are you and what in Minerva's name are you doing in my house?" a woman's voice said, startling Valentine and making his magic flare to protect him.
He looked around the dimly lit shelves. "Hello?"
The ghostly outline of a woman was glaring at him. Her curly, dark hair was piled up on top of her head, and she wore black, moth-eaten clothes.
"You aren't Cosimo," she said, fear coming into her eyes.
"I'm not. I'm his son Valentine." He stepped closer and reached out to touch her shoulder. There was nothing there. "Are you a ghost?"
"What? No! I'm… No. It'll take too much time, and I don't know how long this spell will hold. Tell Cosimo to find Maria," she said as she began to fade. "Cazzo! It's wearing off. Tell him to follow my trail and watch out for strega."
"I will…" Valentine began, but he was alone. "What the fuck was that?"
He forgot all about the wine as he bolted up the stairs into the kitchen and crashed into his father.
