"Now what?" Valentine asked without looking up from the book he was reading.
Cosimo tapped his phone on the palm of his hand a few times. "Now, all we can do is wait for Henry to get back to us."
He stared at the piles of research around the maps. His sister had always been meticulous in her studies.
"And maybe we should keep looking through all of this to see if we can find more clues about what the bloody hell she was up to."
3
Two days later, the whole of the Greatdrakes family was in the large kitchen of a villa in Arcerti. The property belonged to Roberto, who was the son of a friend of Cosimo's late mother and liked to spend most of his time on a beach in Corfu. The house was only used in the summer, so he never had any issues letting friends borrow it as they pleased.
Cosimo sat at the head of the table, paper in hand, wondering why he'd ever thought bringing the boys and their mates along for the trip would be a good idea. They were chaotic at the best of times, but mealtimes were nothing short of a zoo.
"I swear if you don't give me that pastry, Lachlan Ironwood, I will smother you in your sleep," Apollo's voice rose up above the other conversations.
"But the apricot cornettos are my favorite," Lachlan shot back.
"How about I trade you in sexual favors?" Apollo asked, deceptively sweet.
"Just share! I'll make more tomorrow, you big babies," Bas said from his place behind the kitchen counter.
"Wait, I want to hear what his counteroffer is…" Lachlan began with a thoughtful expression.
"I'm trying to eat here," Valentine interrupted.
"Who wants more bacon?" Bas asked.
"Me," Bridget said from where she was perched on the stool near him. She was reading a book and eating one-handed when she wasn't sneaking covert glances at Bas cooking.
"I like the trees outside," Yelena commented, lost in her own little world. "They are so tall and pointy. I want to go for a walk and touch them."
"We can do that whenever you like," Valentine said. "When is your meeting, Dad?"
"Eleven, and no, I haven't changed my mind about taking any of you along," Cosimo said, looking up from his paper.
"I can understand not taking the boys with you, but surely you knowIwouldn't embarrass you." Charlotte gave him a sweet smile, which would have worked better if she didn't have the steely determined look in her eyes that Kenna was so famous for.
"Sorry, my darling, but Henry insisted that I meet with his contact alone the first time," Cosimo replied.
"But you're meeting at the café in the Uffizi Gallery! It's hardly private," Charlotte insisted, crossing her arms.
Reeve put his arm around her. "We can go look at other things more interesting, babe."
"You should have someone watching your back in case it's a trap," Lachlan said, tearing his pastry in half to give to Apollo. Thankfully, Cosimo had missed what sexual favor he had decided on during the negotiations.
"I'm not going to stop you all from going to the gallery, but I don't need babysitting," Cosimo growled out before stopping himself.
His dragon was agitated since they had arrived, and he was looking forward to the thirty-minute walk into the city. It wasthe beginning of spring, and it would be a nice way to clear his head.
Cosimo sipped on his coffee and wondered if he should be more concerned about his safety, like the children were. He didn't know anything about who he was meeting with.
Henry's message had just said, 'Marcella will find you,' with a location and time. Cosimo would exercise the same amount of polite caution he always did when meeting another magic user or academic, and that would have to be enough.
The last thing he wanted was to give any offense or start any trouble because Maria's life could be on the line. He would get her back and then give her hell for whatever problem she had caused to get herself into the mess she had been stuck in for decades.
Maybe you should have looked for her earlier, a voice niggled at him. Hehadlooked, but he had stopped when he figured she would send him a sign if she wanted to be found.
Maria was the more brilliant one between the two of them, the one everyone had thought would go mad with the Greatdrakes's curse, and not even his mother or father had been surprised when she had disappeared. Still, the guilt was gnawing at his stomach.
