Valentine stared at the water condensing on the side of his glass so he wouldn't have to look at them. There was no way he was going to get away from them without a fight, and his brothers could and would gang up on him. He didn't want to hurt any of them, but he would if provoked.
"Nothing really. I told her that I knew she had been pretending to be Caelan and that was about it," he said and shrugged. "I also said I didn't know how we could move past it because I can't trust her. That's all true. She lied to me, and now it'll always be in the back of my head when I talk to her. None ofthat matters anyway because she never wrote back, as I said. She didn't even try to defend herself. Nothing."
Bas sighed. "Oh, Val."
"Don't pity me. I was only trying to be honest, something she never was," Valentine replied. He didn't remember when he last ate, and the alcohol began to buzz through him. Shit.
"She only gave you another one of her names. The rest wasn't a lie," Apollo pointed out. "You trusted her enough as Caelan to get her advice about magic that helped you save me and all those prisoners. You were a good team."
"I know... I did thank her for that. I'm not a total asshole," Valentine said and drank more. Gods, he was going to need a hell of a lot more booze if they were going to force him to talk about this.
Reeve snorted. "Just 80% asshole. She was always curious about you, and you used to look at her like she was infectious or something. I'm surprised she wrote to you at all."
"You all seem to be forgetting that she saw me and thought I was a dark mage, tackled me, and held a blade to my throat! She immediately assumed I was going to start sacrificing baby kittens or something. She bloody stalked me when I came into the same vicinity as her. She only stopped because Charlotte convinced her I wasn't some fucking dark sorcerer," Valentine spat out, the alcohol singing in his veins now. "She judged me before I even said hello. So fuck you all for acting like I'm the only asshole here. Her ideas about magic are way darker than mine, and just because she's got all that honey hair and those big pretty eyes, you all think I'm the villain and she's an angel."
His brothers stared at him again, like he had utterly lost it. Maybe he had. Maybe this was the beginning of the end. He didn't care anymore if it was.
"I mean, she also licked your blood off your neck when she cut you that first time. Hell of a meet-cute if you ask me," Apollo said, the side of his mouth twitching.
Bas swallowed a laugh. "I had forgotten about that."
"I hadn't," Valentine said into his glass, fighting the urge to rub his thumb over the slight scar that remained there. She hadmarkedhim, and it twisted him up inside late at night. He had thought about the feel of her tongue on his skin a lot, too. Far more than he should have.
Just like he always thought about how they had worked together to help heal Taranis after the battle with his former pupil. Yelena had been holding back and only using the healing side of her magic. Valentineknewshe had been hiding parts of herself. He had never said anything about it because she would have known he was doing the same thing.
"I still think you guys can get past the Caelan thing," Apollo insisted.
"I don't know why I would want to, or why I should even care."
Apollo pulled on Valentine's ear. "Because you liked her, idiot. You were grinning like a fox every time you talked about Caelan. It's still her. Even that name is one of hers! You could see it like it was a way to break the ice, and you can carry on being pen pals or whatever."
"I don't know why you're all so invested in this," Valentine said, rubbing at the knot in his jaw.
Reeve's eyes went soft. "We care because you had a friend who understood you, Val. We all know we can only meet you halfway. Even Dad can't always keep up with you. Yelena can. Even better, she can challenge you. You haven't really been challenged in years."
Food arrived in time to save Valentine from having to reply to that. It was like Reeve's words had stuck another blade in his chest.
"Just answer us one thing," Bas said, waving a chip about. "Do you miss the letters?"
Valentine didn't look up from where he was slicing his own chips into bite-sized pieces. "If I say yes, will you all shut up about it?"
"Probably not," Apollo said.
Valentine wasn't hungry, but he put a chip in his mouth and chewed dutifully. "Yes, I miss the letters. I thought she would have responded to my last one or given me some kind of explanation or told me off at the very least. But she hasn't."
"Owain did say she was off in the wilds with Avallach. Maybe the letter got lost," Reeve pointed out. "A million things could have happened. Write to her again."
Valentine shook his head. "The magic we used to send the letters meant they would go wherever we were. It's not like they are getting delivered by a third party."
"Maybe she's just giving you some time to cool off. She's bound to come back to England one day, and you two can start again then," Apollo replied.
Valentine hummed noncommittally and ate another mouthful of food so he didn't have to reply. They were about to order another round of pints when Taranis came into the pub with Quinn, her long red hair free and wild from the wind.
"You invited them to this intervention as well?" Valentine huffed. He didn't need a lecture from Taranis either. Yelena was one of his favorite surrogate children after all.
"We didn't tell them where we were going," Bas replied.
"Hey guys...what's up?" Apollo asked casually when they reached their table.
