“But you have also held back a few times, so there’s that,” Velra added.
Lazriel rubbed my back. “Credit where credit is due, necromantic heartthrob.”
I swung my head to see his eyes hooding a little.
When Lazriel got worked up, he needed physicality. And often a lot of it. Sexual, for the most part. I wasn’t exactly in the zone to give that, and neither was he, really. He was just off-kilter, hurting, like all of us.
I wrapped my arms around him, guiding him in front of me. He sank against me, his back to my chest, a sigh of contentment escaping him. “It’s all okay, babe. We’ll make it okay.” Off Velra and Cassius’ looks, I clarified. “The way we discussed.”
Velra stroked my cheek, then nuzzled against both of us. “Love you,” she told us, ruffling Lazriel’s hair, then slipping her hand into Cassius’ as he reached out to her.
We returned the sentiment and held each other for several moments, until Velra abruptly tensed, and eased back. “Shit. Where are Winter’s loves?” She eyed Lazriel. “And your dad?”
“Upstairs in Winter’s room. Dad hasn’t seen him yet, and he couldn’t wait any longer, so I took them all straight up there. Then I scented you guys out and headed down here.”
“How are they in light of all of this, and Remnant explaining the need for extreme discretion?” I asked.
“You know my dad. He’s got a soothing way about him, and a way of revealing information clearly but somehow also without too much overwhelm. They’re good now that Winter’s been found. Just really worried about him.”
I tightened my hold on Lazriel and he nuzzled against me, craning his neck to offer me a reassuring smile.
“And the discretion aspect?” Cassius asked. “Zayn Riene is not a concern. He understands how we must operate. He’s spent time under this very roof. Also, as you reported several days ago, Sylas, he is all alone regarding other attachments, his parents barely in contact with him due to their own trauma.”
“And Vaxan used what was supposed to be a secret ability in our pursuit of Winter,” I told them. “Not only that, he ended up inadvertently demonstrating its impressive reach and what a resource it could prove to be in many situations. By doing that, he’s gone against a Basilisk Kingdom directive, implicating himself.”
“Compromising himself if he were to speak of this, you mean?” Cassius said.
“Yeah. But even without that, we don’t need to worry. What I saw of his care for Winter… it’s far deeper than mere infatuation or fascination.”
“What about Evira?” Lazriel asked, having seen some fallout of that firsthand during Torvek’s attack on our son. “Her attachment to the Dracoryn Realm and all that? Is it gonna be an issue here?”
“She’s not as attached as we’d initially been concerned about. At least not politically,” Cassius told us.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“You’re aware I’ve been monitoring the Dracoryn Realm since Torvek attacked Winter and it became apparent that the Evira-Winter relationship would be revealed—and not taken well to over there. As a result of this monitoring, it’s come to my attention that Evira has given up her title. Earlier today, in fact.”
“She gave up Crown Heir for our boy?” Lazriel spoke.
“I highly doubt that was the only reason, especially when paired with my research on her,” Cassius said. “She’s attunedto bigger picture issues and matters. She’s also a free spirit.” He gestured around at the four of us. “Familiar, hmm?” He continued, “Holding the title of Crown Heir was tethering her to a life she is currently branching out from, keeping one foot rooted there, while the other is at Loxley Academy and also wishing to move into the wider world. The way her closeness with Winter was viewed, the reason it had to be kept secret in the first place by them, clearly didn’t sit well with her either. She doesn’t care for speciest thinking.” He smiled at Lazriel. “But, yes, one of her reasons for stepping down was to protect and nourish her bond with Winter, to ensure it couldn’t be severed by the weight of Dracoryn Realm political expectations and protocols.”
We fell silent for a few moments as the weight of it all settled over us.
And then I tensed when what I’d known was coming my way finally hit.
Velra narrowed her eyes at my Nexus Band ring.
Here it comes.
“We felt you unmute it, so… good.”
She was ramping up.
“Good, hmm?” I pushed, knowing she needed to get it out. “Listen, me not telling the three of you about Winter—”
“You mean our son being kidnapped by a highly dangerous True Celestial intent on using him for some insanely balance-destabilizing task?” she ground out.
I held her intense gaze.“Yes.If I hadn’t been able to recover him within such a narrow window, my intent was to wait until you returned from the Dark Fae Realm, until Lazriel was back from Vyrn Hollow and away from Jaxon Silver and Vorzyr who he’d been meeting with there, and until Cassius had signed off for the day with his work alongside Ariana. And then I would have filled you in.” I blew out a breath. “The specificcircumstances at that time, where you all were, who you were with… that was what made me keeping it quiet, muting the Nexus Band, necessary. If anyone outside of those involved had discovered Winter had been taken by the likes of Ruxnoth, it would have—”
