“I am too.” He met Talon’s eyes, tears hot in his own. “Please don’t misunderstand. You are my braaken, and what I felt for him has no comparison to what I feel for you. But what happened to him was wrong. It was because of me, and I have regrets for that. He was a decent dragon, fair and honest, a child like me. We were only young. We didn’t know we were in any danger or that we were endangering anybody. We were just falling in love in the way that teenagers do.”
“It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter at all.” Talon met his gaze, his eyes burning with an inner fire. “It wouldn’t matter if you had been an elder, a child, a dragon in your prime, what happened to you is wrong. What happened to Biram was wrong. This was wrong. No matter what, there is no reasoning that makes this right. There is no justification, no bizarre ritual or law, or grakke, that makes this right.”
Mercury grabbed his hand and held on, his heart pounding with a mixture of worry and sorrow and hope. Horrifying, impossible hope. “This will never happen to our child.”
“Never. Our child will grow up free with the knowledge that he or she is loved, cared for, and surrounded by community. You have my vow.”
Talon seemed so serious and Mercury hung his belief on Talon’s. “I love you, braaken. I know it may seem early to say it, so paltry, but you are my love, my heartbeat.”
“And you’re mine. Never doubt it.” Talon cupped his jaw, thumb rubbing his bottom lip. “And we are not going to sit and worry. Because you are having a baby.”
He shook his head. “I am. We’ll have to learn how to do that together. Have a baby.”
Mercury thought Talon would be a good father. He was a marvelous uncle to all of the children, especially little Miranda.
“Do you feel better now?”
He nodded. “I do. I think perhaps we should take a stroll, explore a bit, and see if you don’t run into some of the people who want to tell you congratulations for having a baby.”
“Us.”
Mercury blinked up, Talon’s words making him confused. “Pardon?”
“Us. We are having a baby. You and me together. And it’s going to be amazing. And they should congratulateus.”
He thought he could agree with that. He could see amazing love in his braaken’s eyes.
“Us then.” He nodded, holding out his hand, and Talon gripped it and rose, pulling him up too. They bundled him up a bit, because even with the fact that his keep had been so far north and always cold, he’d been locked in a small room. And it had always had a source of heat coming from below it. Whatever room he’d been over top of in the tower had perpetually had some sort of heat source turned up very high, and it had risen to him and kept him from freezing.
He liked it much better here. Here, if he wanted to put on more clothing or turn up the heat, he absolutely could. It had the doubly wonderful effect of making Talon take off his clothes oftentimes. And then he got to watch his mate walk around naked.
Hand-in-hand, they wandered out into the hall and were immediately met by a pair of dragons coming out of one of the other apartments.
“Ah, Talon, and this must be Mercury, your mate.”
“It is.” Talon bowed to the two braaken. “Mercury, this is Niko and Zayden.”
He bowed a little from the waist. “It is a pleasure to meet you.”
“We hear congratulations are in order, my friend.” The big dragon clapped Talon on the back. “We’re so pleased for you.”
Talon just beamed. “I thank you. We are incredibly thrilled. I’m going to take my mate and treat him to ice cream, I think.”
Mercury bit back a snort. Talon was the one obsessed with ice cream, he thought. He loved it, certainly, but he might have something else. The French toast earlier had been perfect, fluffy and light and yet a little bit eggy and full of cinnamon, and he wondered if they had cinnamon rolls downstairs.
I think they absolutely do. They have cinnamon rolls almost twenty-four because we’re all greedy for them. Talon was continuing to have his conversation with his warrior friends, even as he gave Mercury the little bit of side conversation.
Mercury had the terrible urge to giggle because Talon’s eyes gleamed with humor, but the two big dragons he was speaking to had no idea, he thought. Maybe they weren’t mated, and they didn’t know what kind of things people got up to in their heads.
“Well, we should let you go so that you may go have food with your hailee,” Zayden said, “We will make sure to bring you a gift when the time is closer.”
“That is very kind.” Talon bowed a little, and Mercury did as well because he didn’t want to insult anyone.
Then they headed off again.
By the time they got down to the cafeteria, he was exhausted. They had been stopped at least a dozen times for people to tell them how happy they were for them, and he was drooping from both hunger and tiredness.
“Are you well, hailee?” Talon sat him down, and he was relieved to note that the smell didn’t make him ill at all. In fact, there was a wonderful set of scents coming from the kitchen.
