Chapter Nineteen
Fred
Xav was still a sheet of ice. Only now I wasn’t sure how much of the ice was my son’s mate and how much was frozen condensation that was added from the walk-in.
“Xav, we’ve got to talk. I get how convenient it is to sleep for a few decades. I’m really good at sleeping for decades. So, believe me, I know, but I want you to know that Sequin is okay. I think the only time it’s acceptable to sleep that long is if your mate dies or your kid. Your egg is fine too. Getting a bit too big for Sequin to carry around everywhere but he’s still doing it. Won’t let any of us help him. So, if you’re hibernating because you think you lost the fight you can wake up now. If you’re hibernating because you can’t wake up, you need to figure out how to tell us what you need.”
I bit my lip and stared down at the sheet of ice. This wasn’t the first time I tried to talk to him. I tried every time I relieved Sequin and every time the result had been the same. Sequin had mentioned him being able to take on other elemental forms including fire but throwing him in the oven didn’t feel like the right thing to do. If he was in his elven form, I’d have set up an IV to keep him fed and hydrated. Only I couldn’t find a single vein on him in this form. Did ice eat?
“They went really high in the sky to eat the cold up there, I think. At least, that’s how I took his explanation,” Sequin chimed in sleepily over the family link.
High in the sky it was but only once my egg brat was out cold and the others were distracted. I snuck the sheet of ice that was Xav out of the walk-in freezer and out into the backyard. To be honest, I was relieved for the chance to stretch my wings. I’d been cooped up at their house too long and needed some fresh air. I wasn’t certain how far up I needed to take him but I’d give it my best shot. Sequin was too young to lose a mate. I barely survived it and didn’t leap onto Lotus’s funeral pyre only because the kids needed me. So, out came my wings as I kicked up off the ground.
The ice that wasn’t Xav started to melt away before I cleared the top of the houses. I kept him tucked under my arm as I flew higher toward the clouds above my head. I knew the clouds would be cold. Above them was an even colder layer of atmosphere. It wasn’t my favorite place to be but I’d do anything for my egg brats and their partners. The ice sheet wiggled under my arm, almost coming lose.
“Sequin?” A voice groaned.
“Almost, kiddo. Almost,” I said, unsure if I should keep going up.
“Why did you kidnap me? Are you working with my mother?” Xav asked, fading to a mist and circling around me.
“Your mother, if you want to call her that, is in a locket around Liatris’s neck. Locked up in some little house thing and he’s the only one with the key. I think he’s happy to leave her there for eternity for all the trouble she caused. Not that any of the Starscales are going to disagree with him. She did attack Sequin in his nesting room. That is actually an executable offense here.”
“Where’s Seq?” he asked.
“Asleep, hopefully. I did sort of kidnap you from the freezer.”
“I think I woke up because I was too far from him. I can’t rest without him. I can’t smell him from here,” Xav said and the mist began to sink.
“Thank Frost’s balls that we don’t have to go all the way up,” my dragon grumbled as we made our way back to the ground.
Despite his ‘drifting’ form of travel, Xav was on the ground before me, even if it took me a moment to realize he was drifting back up towards the open nesting room doors. Sequin squeaked a moment later and my heart beat properly for the first time since I felt his panic over the family link the day that crazy bitch attacked them.
Knowing Xav was going to be fine, I headed home to Nelum, Elio, and the younger egg brats. If I knew Sequin as well as I thought, he wasn’t going to share Xav’s attention with anyone else anytime soon.