Chapter Sixteen
SIXTEEN
BECKET
“I’m ashamed of myself,” I told Aisling two hours later.
She, Ysolde, May, and I were out in the small garden at the back of her house, absently watching as four children ran around screaming while shooting one another with fancy water pistols.
“Ouch. I hope Anduin is all right,” I added to Ysolde when her son did a face-plant after leaping off a kid’s plastic play castle.
“Eh,” Ysolde said, glancing at the boy. He was up and chasing after the older kids without so much as a pause. “He’s tougher than he looks. He gets that from me.”
Anduin yelled something quite rude in Russian.
Ysolde pursed her lips. “And that he gets from his father. Anduin! You know better than to use that word!”
May laughed, then quickly stifled it with a glance toward me. “Sorry. I know this is a solemn moment and all.”
“It may be solemn for you,” I said, alternating between on the one hand wanting to march back into the room where the wyverns were present to give them all another piece of my mind and, on the other, wishing to apologize again to Aisling for defending Yrian with such vehemence the men threw me out of the sárkány.
“I’m mortified that I let my temper get the better of me.
But really, your wyverns were being unreasonably mean to Yrian, and I’m not going to stand that from anyone. Not even his brother.”
“I don’t think Baltic was being mean so much as just pointing out the obvious problem,” Ysolde said, but patted me on the arm to show support.
“I agree that Hunter and Archer went a bit over the line saying Yrian cheated them out of the right to kill their father, but I can understand that emotion.”
“It didn’t give them the right to be so snappish at him,” I said, taking a chair when Aisling gestured toward a patio table.
“Telling him he did it on purpose because he has main-character syndrome ... that’s just bullshit.
Yes, Yrian came out of his griefscape to help you guys, but to accuse him of wanting to be the hero of the day is ridiculous.
He’s gone through hell trying to cope with Bael, and honestly, it’s not like any of the other dragons are helping him.
They just tell him to do the job, and then don’t lift a finger to help. ”
Silence fell and my shoulders sagged at the sound of my words, guilt piercing me like shards of glass.
“Well, now,” Aisling said, blinking a few times as she gazed at me.
“I’m sorry,” I said, lifting a hand in apology. “That came out a lot harsher than it sounded in my head. Obviously, I’m not blaming you. It’s just so frustrating when everyone piles their expectations on Yrian and doesn’t realize that he’s just one man.”
“A demigod, evidently,” May said, since I’d let that slip earlier during my verbal explosion at the wyverns. She slid Ysolde a look. “Does that mean Baltic is one, too?”
“Goddess, no!” she answered, looking mildly horrified. “It’s no doubt because his mom was a dragon, while all the other Firstborn had two demigod parents. And frankly, I’m happier that way. I can only imagine how annoying the First Dragon would be if Baltic had the same sort of abilities as Yrian.”
“You don’t like him very much, do you?” I asked, suddenly distracted.
“Me?” Her eyes widened. “I like Yrian quite a bit. He’s intense, but in a good way, if you know what I mean.”
“No, I meant the First Dragon. He’s basically your father-in-law, right?”
“Oh, him.” Ysolde gave an abbreviated eye roll, followed by a little laugh.
“I’m actually fond of him, not that I don’t think he can be an interfering boob sometimes, but I know he loves Baltic, and to me, that’s the most important thing.
I mean, obviously he loves all the dragons, but Baltic being Baltic, I appreciate the fact that his father cherishes him so much. ”
The ladies murmured their agreement while I thought about that.
“So, does the fact that you glamoured Hunter and Archer into toads when they got shouty about Yrian mean you’ve accepted him as your mate?
” May asked. “I realize that it’s prying, but I’m acting secretary for our Mates Union, so I need to know if I should add you in to our group chats and private Zoom sessions. ”
“Also, we are nosy and want to know,” Aisling added, shouting a warning to her children to stay in the section of the yard in front of us.
She was clearly still concerned about the safety of the green dragons even though Xavier was no more.
“Not that you’re obligated to tell us, but we do like to keep track of all the mates. ”
I touched my hair. The sárkány was the first time I appeared in public without a glamour, knowing Yrian preferred my true appearance, a fact that spread a lovely warm glow inside me.
“Yes, I’ve accepted the fact that I’m bound to a man who is obsessed with cat videos, and who also just happens to be six or seven thousand years old, which let me tell you, is a bit of a mind .
.. er ... rush.” I censored myself when Aisling’s youngest ran up complaining that the others weren’t letting her shoot Anduin.
“Wow, he’s really that old? That’s like ... caveman times, isn’t it?” May asked, watching as Ava ran back with a fresh water pistol.
“Stone Age,” I answered. “He says he remembers when the mortals saw people he called proto-mages wielding metal weapons, which they then copied. I believe that was the start of the Bronze Age.”
“Proto-mages?” Aisling asked at the same time Ysolde said, “Someday, you should sit Yrian down and have him dictate the story of his life. I bet it was fascinating.”
“I plan on doing just that—” I started to say, but paused when Aisling’s phone sang out a chorus from a popular Romanian song I recognized from some twenty years before.
“I think I’d better take this. It’s Dr. Kostich,” she said, getting up and moving a few yards from the table.
“Have you met him yet?” Ysolde asked, not waiting for me to answer. “I used to be his apprentice, so I feel I have the right to say he is the biggest pain in the butt ever.”
“What?” Aisling almost shrieked the word, spinning around to look at the French doors leading into her house. “Right now? How many ... yes, but it’s not our fault. ... Well, that’s true, but ... fuck!”
The last word was spoken after she’d clicked off the call, her eyes scanning the yard. “Who wants cookies?” she bellowed across the sound of the kids playing.
All four of them turned with hopeful faces and cheers.
“Cookies and ice cream in the playroom,” she said, her eyes filled with warning as she herded the kids into the house, pausing to stick her head into the kitchen, no doubt to have her housekeeper send up the treats.
“What’s going on?” I asked when she raced down a back set of stairs after getting the kids upstairs to their play area.
“Grace is with them,” she told Ysolde before grabbing my wrist and hurrying toward the big room where the sárkány was taking place. Grace, I knew, was her nanny. “Houston, we’ve got a problem.”
“What?” both May and Ysolde asked, but she just shook her head, releasing me to dramatically throw open a pair of pocket doors.
Hunter was stalking around the room, clearly expounding on some point, but he paused in midstep when we burst into the room.
Drake rose at once, his eyes locked on Aisling.
“The kids are upstairs,” she told him, and something about the timbre of her voice sent goose bumps down my arms. “But I think they should go to the chateau. Ysolde, Anduin is welcome to join them, if you don’t want to send him home.”
Drake half turned away, making a fast phone call, while the other dragons all demanded to know what was going on.
“I don’t know,” Ysolde told Baltic, who’d moved over to stand next to her, a question in his eyes. “It’s something to do with Dr. Kostich, so it’s bound to be highly annoying.”
“Tell us what has happened,” Drake said, finished with his call.
Aisling took a deep breath, her gaze slipping from me to Yrian before it turned to her husband. “Dr. Kostich just called me to demand we do something about the mass of demons that have descended upon Suffrage House.”
Drake said nothing, just waited, but his eyes were narrow green slivers.
Her mouth tightened for a few seconds before adding, “He said that Bael was there, too, along with a woman he claims shouldn’t be in the mortal world.”
I’d moved over to lean into Yrian, but froze at her words, my gaze on him. Instantly, his fire roared to life, spreading out from his feet until I tamped it out by doing a little dance on it.
“Tenite,” he said, his eyes blazing a brilliant gold. “What is this Suffrage House?”
All the wyverns were on their phones now, obviously notifying people and hopefully rounding up help.
“It’s the Otherworld’s headquarters,” May said, looking worried. “Dr. Kostich is based there, although why Bael would want into the building is beyond me ... oh.” She exchanged a meaningful look with Gabriel.
“I think you’re right, little bird,” he said, nodding, then told Yrian, “There is a vault in the basement, one where artifacts are stored. Drake’s broken into it before, as has May ... but there is nothing of great value held there. Just minor relics, lesser grimoires, etc.”
“What would your brother want with minor relics?” I asked Yrian, one hand on his arm.
His lips twisted. “He wouldn’t bother with something insignificant. There must be something more to draw him.”
“Gabriel is correct. The truly valuable relics—such as the light sword that Kostich took from Baltic—are kept elsewhere. I can think of nothing held at Suffrage House that would interest a demon lord,” Drake said, looking thoughtful. “Unless something was added of late.”
Yrian stilled for a few seconds, then released a long breath. “He put it there. That’s why I didn’t feel its presence in the Duat. He hid it at this Suffrage vault.”
“Hid what?” I asked, then sucked in my own breath at the memory of our time with Allie and Christian. “The blood moon?”