Solbourne Feast
Theodore couldn’t remember a time when Burden’s Moon wasn’t a grand affair in Solbourne Tower, and for that he would always be grateful.
His mother had apparently started the tradition of transforming the Tower for the holiday. Despite the fact that he had no memories of the woman who’d died to protect him, he felt a little closer to her when the lights and crystal moons were hung in the gleaming lobby.
Although elves primarily worshipped Glory, Burden had a special place in their hearts.
The god of home, hearth, clan, and responsibility, he was the consort to their beloved goddess.
The world rested on his shoulders, and if he hadn’t reached into the Earth to present his mate with a gift of jewels, elves wouldn’t exist.
And elves did nothing halfway, including celebrations.
Theodore passed beneath the massive chandelier hung above the lobby. He cast it an admiring look as he made his way to the bank of elevators that would take him home.
Made of hundreds of pine boughs, lit by artificial candles, and dripping with real crystal icicles and moons in different phases, it was a perfect centerpiece for the opulently decorated heart of the Tower.
“Andy’s outdone herself this year,” he noted, nudging Kaz.
His brother looked up with a grunt. “That’s a hazard. What if there’s an earthquake?”
“Not everything is a safety risk,” he shot back, nodding to the elves who stepped out of his way.
Even at the start of the holiday, the lobby was packed with jewel-toned people, and all of them watched him with varying degrees of reverence or hostility.
“Some things are just pretty, Kaz. Lighten up.”
His brother hit the up button on the elevator’s panel without looking away from the phone in his hand. “You work with my people long enough and you’ll reevaluate that stance,” he muttered.
The metal doors slid open. Theodore stepped inside with a barely audible sigh, the muscles between his shoulder blades relaxing a bit.
There were many things he loved about being the first in line to take over the territory, but the constant scrutiny wasn’t one of them.
Never, not once, did he get to truly breathe easy when he was out among the public.
The future sovereign didn’t get to be normal. He didn’t get to be unobserved. He didn’t get to show weakness or reveal how tired he was.
Especially when no one wanted him to take the job.
But when he stepped into the family’s private elevator, his brother by his side, he wasn’t just the sovereign-in-waiting. He was Teddy, and Teddy got to breathe.
Leaning against the elevator’s wall, he unsnapped the silver thistle pin that kept his starched collar in place.
It was on the tip of his tongue to ask Kaz about his team of feral assassins, but Theodore smothered the impulse.
It was a holiday. He’d spent too much of it working already. For one night, he wanted to just… be.
“Is Sam in yet?” he asked instead.
“Landed an hour ago,” Kaz replied, pocketing his phone. He tucked his big green hands into his beaten leather jacket and matched Theodore’s pose on the opposite wall. “So you know Winnie has him setting the table or something already.”
Theodore cracked a smile, but it was brief. “How long is he staying?”
Kaz shook his head. “Not long enough. A week, I think.”
Disappointment soured his stomach. Running his tongue along his upper fangs, Theodore tried to tamp down the impulse to complain.
Samuel had valid reasons for not wanting to stay in the city for even a moment longer than he had to, but that didn’t mean it hurt less every time he escaped to his compound in the desert.
Looking at his brother out of the corner of his eye, he asked, “You’re sticking around, right?”
Kaz shrugged. “Sue called and asked if I’d spend some time on the ranch, but I told her no.”
“She could come here,” he offered, as he always did. “Your family’s always welcome. I would love to—”
“Teddy,” Kaz gruffly interjected, “I know. But you can’t fix this for me, no matter how much you want to. Frances would never let Sue step foot in elvish territory, let alone come here.”
It wasn’t like Theodore could blame Kaz’s grandmother for her hesitation — or outright hatred — but it went against something fundamental in him to just sit back and do nothing.
He didn’t work as hard as he did because of some inherent love of responsibility or patriotism. He did it for the people he loved.
But what good did any of it do if his brother couldn’t embrace both sides of his family? Or if Samuel couldn’t bear to show his face in his own home? Or if Valen stayed up for days at a time, terrified of what would happen when the public learned of Delilah’s abdication?
What’s the point if I can never find her?
A sharp pain slid between his ribs as he reached out through the haze of great distance toward the beacon of light and warmth that was his consort.
Was she well? Was she surrounded by loving family, warm and safe during the darkest night of the year? It drove him mad to not know.
Theodore stared at his warped reflection in the elevator’s doors. They were slowing to a stop after the long, smooth climb toward the penthouse, but he felt like he’d left his stomach somewhere on the ground floor.
A heavy hand landed on his shoulder and squeezed. He looked up at his brother just as the elevator doors began to open.
“Hey,” Kaz rumbled, giving his shoulder a hearty shake. “Let it go. It’s a holiday. You’ve been working yourself to death. Just enjoy the night, huh?”
Theodore looked into the hard lines of his brother’s striking face.
Sometimes he wondered what it would’ve been like if his mother lived, or if his father never met Amira.
In a perfect world, his bastard father would’ve gotten his head on straight after he met his consort and abandoned life in elvish society.
Then they could’ve had it all: his mother alive, his brother unscarred, and Kaz still in their lives.
But it hadn’t worked out like that, and he wasn’t selfish enough to be ungrateful for the gifts he’d been given.
“Yeah,” he replied, summoning a smile. He clapped his brother on the shoulder with a playful growl. “C’mon. I’m hungry.”
They stepped out into the warded hallway.
One never truly got used to the oppressive, sinister air of that protective barrier, but they had a lot of practice ignoring it.
The men chatted amiably as they passed under the bloody sigils and into the much more hospitable main atrium of the family’s quarters.
Kaz let out a low whistle as he beheld the towering silver moon that had been erected in the center of the floor.
It was surrounded by what looked like every pillar candle in the city, as well as bouquets of seasonal flowers.
Garlands dripped from the massive glass dome over their heads, scenting the room with spicy pine.
Across the atrium, the door to the family’s main living quarters opened with a bang. Golden light spilled out across the floor, silhouetting Winnie.
“Boys!” she called out, her gorgeous face split with a grin. “Come on! Your brother brought a board game he says is Foresight and psychic-proof. We have to start soon so your grandfather can’t beg off with an excuse about an old man needing his beauty sleep again.”
Theodore tossed his head back with a dramatic sigh but he didn’t stop walking toward the woman who was, in all the ways that mattered, his mother. “Can’t I change into something comfortable first?”
He and Kaz bent down to press the required kisses to her deep ruby cheeks.
Winnie kissed them both in turn, as if it’d been weeks since she saw them last and not a day at most. “If you had been on time, you could’ve changed,” she admonished him before delivering one final smacking kiss to his other cheek.
“Negotiations ran long,” he sheepishly explained.
Fixing the collar of Kaz’s leather jacket, she demanded, “And what’s your excuse?”
“Vesta stabbed Arjun over control of the remote.” Kaz sent Theodore a pointed look. “I told you giving them free access to television was a bad idea.”
Winnie, long used to Fracture’s ways, simply rolled her eyes. “Well, you’re here, so I can assume no one died.”
“Not yet,” he sighed.
“Come on, come on.” She ushered them inside. Both men, fully grown and nearly twice her size, followed obediently after her as she led them down the hall decorated in dozens of Delilah’s paintings.
When they reached the lavish family sitting room, they were met with even more glittering decorations, a roaring fire, and nearly all the people he loved.
A low table had been set up where the usual coffee table normally sat, and it’d been covered in a white table cloth embroidered with silver moons.
Silver platters of raw meat, some seasoned and some left plain, were scattered across it.
Green candles in faceted crystal holders flickered between them and made the blood glitter.
Andy hovered by the overflowing drink cart, clearly whipping up a new holiday beverage that would get them all slammed well before any of them suspected, while Valen sat spread-legged on a leather armchair, looking sleepy-eyed and at ease for once.
Samuel stood with his back to the fire, a drink already in his hand, with his head bent toward Delilah. They seemed to be having some sort of intense conversation, but he knew it was useless to wonder what it was about. They wouldn’t explain even if he asked.
Those two shared a special bond that only two beings capable of Foresight could. If it brought them a little bit of peace to share some things only with each other, then he couldn’t fault them for it.
Mostly.
“At last, the wayward boys have arrived,” Winnie announced with a flourish.
Valen raised his glass with a grandfatherly grunt while his consort looked over her shoulder and called out, “Finally! Come grab a drink. And give me a kiss, for Glory’s sake.”