Cosimo had hoped she would appear to him, like she had to Valentine. There hadn't been a whisper of Maria's magic since that night, and Cosimo couldn't hold it off any longer. He had taken one step up the stairs when he felt Valentine behind him.
"About time you went up there," he said.
Cosimo turned to Valentine, who was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. He looked like he had been there a while, which made Cosimo narrow his eyes.
"How long have you been standing there? Do I need to ban glamor in the house?" he asked, fighting off embarrassment.
Valentine only grinned. It was a smile from long ago that was becoming more frequent again after mating with Yelena. His too powerful, complicated son was finally himself and happy again.
Cosimo loved that all his sons had finally found their partners, even if it made him resent the fact that he no longer had a mate.
We can change that, the voice of his dragon prodded at him.
Cosimo rubbed at his eyes, willing the dragon to go back to sleep.
I don't want another mate.
Liar. There could be one out there.
I don't care.
You are just scared to try again, like you have always been. We could have another mate, and you…
"Shut up," Cosimo growled under his breath.
"Dad? Are you okay?" Valentine asked, taking a step forward.
Cosimo attempted a smile. "Sorry. Just a bit of a headache. Did you want to come up with me?"
Valentine nodded. "I'm not going to let you do this on your own. Besides, I've never been into this part of the house because you banned us."
"I banned you because magicians' towers become unstable when their magician is gone for too long. Maria was brilliant and loved ancient magics. Gods only know what some of her research and experiments do. I went up there after her disappearance, trying to find some evidence of where she had gone, but then I felt it was better to leave it alone," Cosimo said, running a hand through his salt-and-pepper hair.
If anything, the warning made Valentine look more interested. It was another reason Cosimo had warded the stairs to the tower. All his sons were curious, but Valentine had always been exceptionally ravenous for knowledge.
"I'm definitely coming up with you now," Valentine said, stepping up beside him. He pointed at the invisible space in front of them. "Do you want to get this ward or should I?"
Cosimo huffed out a laugh. "Go ahead. I know you have been dying to do it."
"I was trying to respect your decision," Valentine replied, and a slight swiping motion with his index finger shredded the wards like they were nothing more than cobwebs.
"Show off," Cosimo said fondly. "Let me go first at least."
"You think there will be traps?"
"There weren't last time I came up here, but I don't know how stable it's going to be now," Cosimo admitted. "Did Maria seem hurt at all when she appeared to you?"
Valentine shook his head. "Not hurt. Pissed off and confused, but not in any pain. She didn't seem to have aged much. Not like you."
"Thanks, son. I appreciate that," Cosimo replied, rolling his eyes. The shock of Lisa's death had made him start to go grayearly, but he didn't want to point that out. "If you boys didn't stress me out so much, I would look a lot younger."
"You and Taranis both bitch about that, and really, we haven't gotten into any trouble that we haven't gotten ourselves out of," Valentine pointed out.
Cosimo snorted. "Have you been sampling Apollo's potions? You went into an ancient barrow kingdom and picked a fight with a fae king only a few weeks ago! Taranis and the others had to rescue you."
"It wasn't a risk. It was a battle plan. Going in there was a tactical maneuver that needed to be taken to remove Midir as a threat," his son argued back.
"Dark gods, it's a blessing I went gray instead of bald, with you thinking that makes doing something so dangerous any better."
