EPILOGUE ONE
BECKET
“It’s a shame the men can’t have their fun ‘beat the ever-living tar out of each other’ time, because Archer is always so much calmer after he recovers, but I gather a decision was made to forgo it so that Yrian wouldn’t be tempted to join in.
” Thaisa popped a chocolate-covered strawberry into her mouth after speaking, bliss spreading across her face.
“It’s hard to say no to a demigod, even one as nice as Yrian,” Aisling said, nodding as she perused the offerings. “OK, pairing tortellini with salami, cheese, and roasted peppers on a skewer is sheer brilliance. It’s like an antipasto plate on a stick!”
“Yum,” Jim said, its nose in the air as Aisling selected a few bits of cheese crostini for its plate. “Love me some salami!”
“Salami is on your naughty list,” Ysolde said as she helped herself to some of the fruit skewers, including one of the melon and prosciutto offerings I had just consumed with very unladylike haste.
“Aisling, the esquites are fine for Jim to eat, since they’re just corn fritters, but that lime dip has garlic, so be warned. ”
“Esquites!” Jim said, doing an excited dance as Aisling added watermelon and corn fritters to its plate. “I’ve said it before—Soldy does the best noms.”
“Most of this is from Pavel, who just started the fancy cooking course we gave him last Christmas, so he’s very inventive with appetizers right now,” Ysolde pointed out as the other women, now with loaded plates, murmured agreement with Jim.
I settled down with a big serving of street-corn nachos, and managed to wrest my mind from the food to say to Aisling, “It may be hard for you to say no to Yrian, but I assure you, I don’t have any such problem, and I told him yesterday that there was no way in hell—”
“Abaddon,” Jim interrupted somewhat indistinctly around a bit of cheese.
“—that he is going to fight anyone until he’s completely healed up,” I finished with a little glare at the demon.
“And speaking of you and Yrian, as membership lead, it’s my pleasure to officially welcome you to the Mates Union,” Aisling said, sipping some of the ice-cold champagne that Ysolde had passed around.
A smattering of polite applause rippled around the table, hindered mostly by the food everyone was consuming.
“As is traditional when a new mate joins, we have a few questions,” May said, peering at a strawberry feta dip before spooning some onto her plate.
“What kind of questions?” I asked, suddenly wary.
“What sexy time with a demigod is like,” Jim said with a rusty heh-heh-heh chuckle. “Do they do it better than others? Is there a magical O thing happening? Does it involve fire?”
“Right, that is the limit. I warned you earlier that you were being rude when you made comments about the likelihood of Yrian being insane because his mom clearly has issues, and you know better than to say something so out of line. You may spend a little time in the Akasha to go over your bad behaviors,” Aisling said, standing up in order to banish Jim.
It had just enough time to snatch up its plate before it was sent away.
“I’m so sorry, Becket. Jim isn’t normally this obnoxious. Please ignore its rudeness.”
“Am I late? Dammit! I am!” Charity emerged onto the patio where we were all seated, her smile twisting a little when she glanced at her watch. “I thought telling Stewart that it started half an hour early would get me here on time, but I was wrong.”
“Actually, you’re right on time. We started early, because Pavel is working on appetizers in his Cordon Bleu course right now, but there is plenty of food, so dive in,” Ysolde said, pouring Charity a glass of champagne.
“Oh, good, then my plan worked after all. Goodness, it all looks so delicious. My compliments to Pavel. Is that strawberry and feta with balsamic vinegar? I recently introduced the First Dragon to balsamic vinegar, and he’s become very fond of it.
” Charity loaded her plate, and sat down with a smile shared amongst us all.
“And how is the First Dragon?” Phyllida, whom I had met earlier when she arrived with her dragon, Bastian, seemed fairly shy, but there was something about her that kept catching my notice.
I realized after a few attempts to study her without being obnoxious that she had an interdict bound upon her.
I wondered what that was about, but didn’t feel comfortable enough to ask.
“Well. He left this morning to help find his grandnephews, the Sons of Horus. And if it sounds like I capitalized those last words, it’s because I did.
Horus is the son of the First Dragon’s brother Osiris, and his sons are troublemakers from way back who left their afterlife and are now in the mortal world.
The First Dragon said they hadn’t done anything wrong yet, but he emphasized the word yet, and we all know what that means. ”
“He’s usually right about that sort of thing,” Ysolde said, nodding.
“I can’t stand this,” Aisling said suddenly, getting up and pulling out her phone.
“What’s wrong?” May asked her.
“I feel guilty about sending Jim to the Akasha for lipping off. It normally isn’t quite that obnoxious, and it just struck me that it’s probably acting out because it’s worried about Desi and Parisi.
I think I’ll ask Amelie if she can take it for a couple of days, so it can chill and relax without worrying about what’s going on with family. ” She moved off to make a phone call.
“There’s so much happening of late,” Phyllida said quietly, popping a bit of melon in her mouth.
“What with fiery furies out after Yrian’s blood, and Deus escaping and going to ground so that even Bastian and the blue dragons can’t find him, and Jim’s parents and all.
It’s terribly exciting, but I’m really not used to such an adventurous life. ”
“And then there’s Yrian’s kitten,” I said, glancing at my phone to check the time. I’d made an appointment for Yrian and me to visit a shelter that afternoon, in order to look for a companion for his kitten.
“Yrian has a kitten?” Phyllida asked, her eyes wide. “I’ve never heard of a wyvern liking cats. I mean, Bastian loves all animals, and I’d like us to get a couple of dogs once our home in Oregon is finished, but it just seems kind of odd that someone as powerful as Yrian would fall for a kitten.”
“I have zero doubt that the kitten will wrap him around its little finger. Or rather, claw. He loves cats,” I explained.
“He said watching cat videos kept him sane while he was imprisoned. When we saw one for sale in the Duat, he couldn’t resist. It’s at a very expensive cattery in London for the few days we’re staying here, because Pavel’s mate, Holland, is allergic. ”
“Right, Jim situation sorted. I gave Amelie temporary powers over it, and she was going to summon it right away because she’s taking Cecile out for a day trip down the Seine, and she said Jim will enjoy that.
What did I miss while I was giving in to demon lord angst? ” Aisling asked as she retook her seat.
“Yrian loves cats. Phyllida wants a couple of dogs once her house is built. This lemon pepper hummus is to die for,” May summarized, dipping a piece of naan into the hummus. “Also, Deus is still missing, and I don’t know what’s up with Yrian’s mom.”
“No one knows, other than she’s definitely not in the Duat anymore,” I answered, a pang of worry souring the content feeling that had settled on me once we’d arrived at Ysolde’s house.
“Also, I’m hoping that Yrian will want us to live in England.
We haven’t talked about where we want to end up finding a home, but I’ve always been an Anglophile. ”
“Are you American?” Phyllida asked. “You sound like you are.”
“Technically, I was born in Peru, hence my surname, but we lived in Northern California for most of my childhood,” I answered. “My mom and I were both addicted to British TV shows, though.”
“Being in England would make you handy for mates’ meetings, although the really big ones we do what the men do, and have a Zoom call.
The more social ones, like this, are in person only,” Aisling commented, glancing at her phone when it pinged.
“Oh, good, Amelie already has Jim, and says it’s flaked out on the floor next to Cecile, happily bitching about its life. ”
“Who is Cecile?” I couldn’t help but ask.
“An elderly Welsh corgi,” May answered. “Aisling and Jim are working on a way to make her immortal, because Jim says it won’t be able to go on if it loses one more person it loves.”
“That’s so sweet,” I said, blinking back a few tears.
“It is, and Amelie is go with the immortal-corgi idea, since obviously we would take her in if anything happened to Amelie, but it’s still a pain in the bitch to get someone to work with us on the immortality spell.
” Aisling gave me a wan smile. “If you know of a magister who is open to that, please let me know.”
“Magister? A mage, you mean?” I asked.
“No, magisters are different. They’re kind of specialized mages,” Ysolde answered.
“They are pretty rare, since their field of study takes centuries to master, but that’s why people go to them for the really big spells.
Dr. Kostich studied under a magister for a couple of hundred years before he shifted over to work on his archimagedom. Who needs more Bolly?”
I looked at Charity, who, when she noticed, cocked an eyebrow at me. “I’m willing to bet the First Dragon has the ability to make a dog immortal,” I told her.
“I’m sure he does, but whether or not he would is another question,” she parried, then to my surprise smiled broadly. “And I’m equally sure that any other demigod probably has that in his wheelhouse, as well.”
“Oooh,” Aisling said, her gaze on me. “That’s an idea. Would you mind asking Yrian? Or I can, if you didn’t want to get involved.”
“I don’t know that he has that sort of power,” I said slowly, musing on the idea. “I can’t see him refusing if he did. I’ll ask him later.”
“We’d be infinitely grateful if you could,” Aisling said, looking hopeful. “Jim is in despair as each year passes and Cecile gets more and more frail. We really need her immortalized now, before she gets more infirm.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” I promised.
“I’m surprised we don’t have Pixie in our midst, not that she’s a mate, but still, this is an informal gathering,” May commented.
“That would have something to do with yesterday, which Brom and Pixie spent not talking to each other. There was some sort of a disagreement, with the result that Pixie holed up in her room and refused to come out, and Brom stormed around being so dramatic, Baltic sent him off to work on his archery with one of Drake’s men.
This morning heralded the return of Pixie to public spaces, since Karma told her to make herself helpful, and we had her underfoot all morning until I remembered that she likes cooking, too, so she spent a much more fruitful time helping Pavel in the kitchen.
I believe the hummus was her own recipe. ”
“Please pass along my admiration for the hummus,” I said, plopping more of it on my plate.
“What about your band?” Thaisa asked as we all continued to munch. “That is, what will you do now that you and Yrian are together?”
“Oh, I angsted over that while Yrian was recovering, but as soon as he was able to focus on something other than healing all his wounds, he pointed out that there was no reason I couldn’t still sing with them, so long as he was around to protect me.
As it happens, it’s kind of a moot point.
One of my bandmates is dating a woman from the band who won the contest, and she texted me last night asking if I minded if Arwen—the girlfriend—joined the band.
After a discussion, we decided that Arwen would take over my spot for most of the gigs, and when I wasn’t helping Yrian deal with his crazy mom and that Deus guy, I could pop in and perform with them.
They said so long as I give them glamours, they’d all be fine with that arrangement.
” I smiled, remembering how happy the ladies were that we’d worked everything out.
“In green dragon news, I caught Drake castle shopping online.” Aisling pursed her lips for a few seconds before laughing with us when we all gave in to mirth.
“He claims it will be handy to have should someone else try to attack the sept, but we all know the real reason he wants a freakin’ medieval castle. ”
“Jealousy,” May said, nodding.
Thaisa giggled, then said, “If we’re giving mate updates, here’s mine: Archer says he and Hunter are going to the Duat so they can dance on Xavier’s remains, but really, I think they just want to make sure that his body parts are secure in a way that makes certain he won’t ever be resurrected.”
“I don’t blame them at all,” Ysolde said, making a face at the empty bottle of champagne. “We all hope he stays dead. The light dragons are doing our thing—right now, that includes hosting Yrian and Becket, which I think is a perfect way for Baltic and Yrian to bond.”
“They seem to be an awful lot alike,” Phyllida said, pushing away her plate as she leaned back in the chair. “Both are kind of intense and watchful, if you know what I mean. Lordisa, I am so full, I’ll have to be on the treadmill for a whole week to work off this lunch.”
“Same, girl, same,” Aisling said. “And I agree that Baltic and Yrian are similar in that regard, although Yrian seems a bit ... er ...”
“Quirkier, I believe, is the word you’re searching for,” I told Aisling with a raised eyebrow.
Charity laughed as Aisling gave a little eye roll. “It is, in fact, exactly the word. He is quirky, but that’s part of his charm.”
“It is,” I agreed, and also leaned back, filled with good food, friendly and supportive company, and the knowledge that the love of my life was indoors having some male-bonding time.
I remembered the nightmare that was my life before Yrian, and sent a wave of happiness out into the universe in thanks.