"Valentine is going to undo the sigil binding his dragon," Yelena said sweetly. Valentine glared at her, but she only batted her eyelashes.
"What do you mean by binding it? Val hasn't bound his dragon. He..." Reeve stopped talking, his surprise turning to anger. "You have got to be fucking kidding me. Really, Val? Since fucking when?"
Valentine suddenly felt very old and tired. "Does it matter? It's almost unravelled anyway."
"For fuck’s sake! Yes! It matters!" Reeve shouted.
"Now, Reeve, let's use our inside voices. Valentine has a good reason for it, I am sure," Charlotte said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "We should all go and watch him shift."
"Can you not?" Valentine grumbled.
"No. I'm definitely coming. I'm the queen here, and I get to watch," Quinn said stubbornly. "Also, Owain won't shut up about how big and ugly you are as a dragon, and I'm not missing that."
Taranis gave Valentine an apologetic smile. "Sorry, lad. I want to see it too. You can use my launching space so there's no one else around, but if you are undoing binding magic, I should be there."
"Fine," Valentine muttered and finished eating. He didn't look at Yelena. He wanted to keep the binding thing to himselfbecause Cosimo would lose his shit, and his brothers would berate him. He was tired of the argument before it even began.
Maybe it is time for them to know the truth, his mother's voice whispered to him.Haven't you hidden long enough?
To that, he had no answer.
Valentine let the others' enthusiasm carry him through the rest of the meal. He wasn't sure how exactly, but by the time they made it through the palace to Taranis's private launching space, Emyr, Owain, Vidar, and Avallach were waiting.
"Really, Vidar? You too?" Valentine asked.
Vidar shrugged. "I need to see if there is any truth to the nonsense these three talk."
"Oh, come on, Val, don't be shy," Quinn said, putting an arm around him and squeezing. "We just want to support you. It's not like you to let your brothers get ahead of you at anything, and Bas and Apollo have already shifted!"
"Maybe because he bound his fucking dragon," Reeve growled behind him.
"And with that attitude, you wonder why I did," Valentine shot back. "It's my body and my business."
"Come on now, we aren't attacking you," Taranis said, putting his hands on Valentine's shoulders and giving them a gentle squeeze. "We are here for you."
Valentine wished they weren't there at all. Yelena turned back toward them and pushed Quinn and Taranis's hands off him.
"Leave him. He doesn't want to be touched right now," she said, no trace of her sweet smile. To their credit, Taranis and Quinn backed off. They moved to stand with the others in a loose semi-circle, the cold wind blowing around them.
"Thank you," Valentine said, his shoulders hunching inwards. His anxiety was burning through him, and if anyone else grabbed at him, he would snap.
Yelena said softly, "I know you are mad at me, but they needed to know about the binding, Val. The magic would have broken, and Taranis, especially, would have felt it and panicked. I didn't want that to happen. Everyone is tense enough right now."
She was facing him but not trying to reach for him. Thank fuck. How she knew he didn't want to be touched was a mystery. No one ever noticed things like that about him. He was fighting not to walk away from the whole shit show, but somehow her calm presence kept him where he was.
"You better not care if I'm an ugly dragon," he muttered, staring at his boots because he couldn't bear looking at everyone's expectant faces.
Fuck, this was a bad idea. All he could think of were the things that could go wrong. Was this the day he went truly crazy?
"It's not possible for you to be anything but gorgeous. They are only teasing you," Yelena said and tilted her head to catch his eye. "Look at me, Valentine, and forget about them. You have this. Anything happens, and I'll be right here."
Valentine sighed. "Fuck, this is going to hurt."
"Only for a moment, then you will feel better than you've ever had in your life."
Valentine's lips twitched. "I don't know about that. I felt pretty good last night."
"You will tonight too if all goes according to plan," Yelena replied, a teasing note in her voice.
