Cosimo nodded, looking agitated. "Dragon territorial thing. You okay? Why didn't you come upstairs if you couldn't sleep?"
"It was late, and I didn't want to wake you if you were already out," Marcella admitted.
"No chance of that." Cosimo held out a hand to her. "Will you come and be my insomnia buddy? I might even be persuaded to share the whiskey I stole from Kian's cellar."
Marcella laughed softly and took his hand. "I would love to."
40
Cosimo hadn't meant to eavesdrop on Marcella and Apollo. He had gone searching for her and, finding her missing, had an irrational panic attack that she had left. His dragon had forced his emotions to go from zero to a hundred without stopping to think.
Cosimo was almost at the front gate of the mansion, still dressed in his pajamas, when he snapped out of it enough to figure out that the wards were undisturbed. Marcella couldn't leave without passing through them, and they would have alerted him to it.
When Cosimo had made it to the kitchen, he had heard Marcella and Apollo speaking in low voices. His heart had nearly broken when his son had spoken to her about Lisa. Apollo never talked to anyone outside of the family about that. It was just another sign that his family was treating Marcella like she was one of their own.
Claim mate, his dragon keened. It rarely begged, only demanded. Taranis was right. He knew it was time to tell her, but he was stubbornly determined to get her the grimoires first.
Marcella had shredded parts of herself to return to Forli and find Maria. It was only fitting that he would do the same. Not claiming her was turning him inside out. It was why he had spent most of the night still researching, desperate to find the answer that was eluding them.
"What's your excuse for still being awake?" Marcella asked as they walked back to his tower.
I love you and I want you and I hate that you're not in my room in bed with me.
"Going over my research again. I know there's something we are missing, but I can't see what. Maybe I'm too caught up in my own head," Cosimo replied instead. "You?"
"The same. I thought it would be easier with both of us and Bridget on the hunt, but I was fooling myself." Marcella put her manicure kit in her room before following Cosimo around a twisting staircase to a door that now matched her own.
It was another thing weighing on Cosimo. His rooms had changed in his absence. His study looked much the same, but his bedroom was completely different. It had a new four-poster bed with velvet curtains hanging over it. There were an additional bedside table, a new empty wardrobe, and two en-suites.
The house was meddling as much as his sons were. It was like it knew Marcella was his mate and was making space for her. It had jolted him to his core, and when he could finally breathe again, he thanked the house for being so considerate. His whole world wanted him to take that last step, and he was still using the grimoires as an excuse to summon his courage to do it.
Marcella looked around at the rooms with open curiosity. She politely ignored the bedroom and curled up on the couch in his study, where his research was.
"Mirroring spell?" Marcella asked, pointing to a projection on the walls of their combined research.
"Yes. I wanted to see all of it in a different location, hoping it might get my brain working," Cosimo said. He poured them both whiskey and handed her a glass. She took a sip and smiled.
"I usually don't like whiskey, but this is nice," she said, drinking some more.
"It's made by the fae, so gods only know how they brew it. It's not enchanted, so you don't need to worry about that. The true danger with all of their brews is how quickly they will knock you on your ass." Cosimo sat beside her and stared at the wall. "You have any extra thoughts tonight about all of this?"
Marcella made a frustrated growl in the back of her throat that had Cosimo's dragon twitching in excitement.
"Bridget is right about Da Vinci. His interference makes sense. I just can't see how. It's like I need to do a separate line of research just on him. My intuition flashes red lights whenever I think of him, but there's a piece missing. I'm so frustrated I could scream."
"I know a cure for frustration," Cosimo said with as straight a face as he could manage.
Marcella put her hand to her cheek and fluttered her lashes. "Cosimo Greatdrakes, did you bring me up here just to seduce me?"
He grinned and sipped his whiskey. "No, but I can't deny it does it for me when you talk research and all your passion flares up."
"In my experience, people always got tired of my rants about the Sforza grimoire. It's one of the reasons I became so secretive about it," she admitted.
"Mostpeople never feel passionate about anything. They don't understand the feeling or the way it can drive you. I've stopped trying to explain myself to anyone who is 'normal.' They don't get it. It's like trying to explain quantum physics to a three-year-old," Cosimo replied, waving his glass at the research. "This is love in a different form."
Marcella put down her glass, climbed into his lap, and kissed him. Cosimo ran a hand down her back, enjoying having her in his arms where she belonged. The irritating buzz under his skin finally settled, and he never wanted to let her go.
"What was that for?" he asked when they broke apart.
