“Being older doesn’t mean anything when you were that young.” Jono gently turned him around, cupping his face with warm hands. “Whatever Ethan has done to her isnot your fault. He should’ve been a father to you both, and never was. You aren’t to blame for his selfishness.”
Patrick listed forward and let his head slide free of Jono’s hands to sink down onto his shoulder. “Still have to kill him.”
“Yeah, love. I’ll help.”
Patrick sighed. “Okay.”
Jono took charge that morning when Patrick would’ve preferred to stay in bed. He got Patrick in and out of the shower, made sure he brushed his teeth, and gave him tea instead of coffee, which Patrick thought was an utter betrayal. Patrick complained about the lack of coffee on the drive to Eiketre but still drank the damned tea.
Sunday morning had arrived with Chicago blanketed in snow and more still coming down. Ice was pushing against the shores of Lake Michigan, snow plows and salt trucks were running nonstop, and all flights in and out of O’Hare were delayed. Which meant Patrick’s meeting with the SOA’s only necromancer wasn’t happening until late afternoon at the earliest.
“Fuck,” Patrick muttered as he glared at the email from Setsuna while Jono parked in front of the bar. “Shit. I could’ve slept in.”
“But breakfast,” Wade whined as he got out of the SUV. “I’m hungry. Housekeeping wouldn’t refill my minibar snacks.”
Jono shook his head. “I told you not to touch the minibar in your room.”
“Yeah, but I washungry.”
Patrick got out of the SUV, wincing at the cold that slapped him in the face. With all of the delays happening, Patrick should have spent his morning at the SOA field office working on the Westberg case now that it had blown up in everyone’s faces. Instead, he, Jono, and Wade were at Eiketre. Patrick would’ve declined the breakfast offer, but when a goddess demanded you show up for a meal, he knew better than to ignore the order.
The front door was unlocked, and they let themselves inside. Magic slithered over Patrick’s shields, making his headache spike and the tea he’d carefully sipped on the drive over threaten to crawl up his throat.
“Be welcome,” Frigg said from where she and Thor sat at a pair of tables shoved together and overflowing with food.
The spread of fresh bread, cheese, meats, pâté, jam, and enough coffee to drown in was almost enough to make up for driving through heavy snowfall, if Patrick felt like eating. It wasn’t quite a blizzard, but it was getting there. Patrick would give it another day, maybe less, before it reached whiteout conditions. The SOA’s weather witches were working double shifts to try to break up some of the weather patterns, but they wouldn’t be able to disrupt it all.
Patrick would choose freezing to death in a blizzard over breaking bread with gods, but Jono had vetoed that idea. Wade, however, was more than happy to eat what Frigg offered him.
“This is good,” Wade said after sitting down and filling up a plate. He took a bite of fresh bread laden with three slices of meat, a smear of brie, and enough jam to make Patrick worried about the upholstery in their new rental.
“I could’ve sworn we taught you manners,” Patrick said, keeping his head propped up with one hand.
Wade stared at him and took another overly large bite of his breakfast and chewed loudly.
“He’s a growing dragon. Let him eat,” Frigg said, giving Wade a motherly smile.
Wade smirked at Patrick and started picking out the next pieces of meat to go on another slice of bread. Patrick resigned himself to needing to pay a cleaning cost on the SUV when he returned it to the motor pool.
“It’s good of you to care for him, though I hope you’ll be able to tend to his needs,” Thor said.
Patrick shrugged with one shoulder. “A friend of ours is a billionaire who owns a tech company. His pack tithes ours. We’ll be able to keep Wade fed.”
“You hope,” Wade muttered around his food.
“Let’s not make it a contest, yeah?” Jono said mildly. “Chew with your gob shut.”
“Any news on Odin?” Patrick asked, leaving Wade to his food.
Frigg’s expression never changed, though Thor looked as if he wouldn’t mind murdering someone.
“The valkyries are still searching. Muninn and Huginn haven’t heard the Allfather’s thoughts since he was taken,” Thor said.
“That does not mean he is gone. We would know if he was.” Frigg arched an eyebrow at Patrick. “They said Chicago had visitors last night.”
“Persephone and Demeter say hello, and that you should maybe jail Freyr since he apparently performed a fertility rite on my sister.”
Thor grimaced, setting down his coffee mug. “Freyr would not abandon his convictions for the Dominion Sect.”
