Chapter Eleven Zara #2
Meanwhile, Dr. Prynne probes that lump on Neo’s head, asks him a series of quiet questions, and shines her tiny beam into his patient eyes. As our resident healer, Ash moseys over to hunker down beside her and offer a second opinion.
But since our Seelie healer ultimately gave Neo the all-clear to get some shuteye last night, it’s pretty obvi our bookworm’s gonna be fine.
At last, even Dr. Prynne seems satisfied with Neo’s prognosis.
After the doc reassures him about his son’s solid health, Theo Mercury gravitates right to Zephyr. V gives me the lifted Romanov eyebrow, because I totally called that one. As independent ruler of Avalon, the Dark Fae King is the most politically significant of all my kings.
And Theo Mercury loves politics like a shark loves blood.
“We’re plannin’ to open gifts after dinner up at the chalet,” the senator says cheerfully to Zephyr. “But looks like y’all got a head start here, Your Radiance.”
“We merely exchanged Secret Santa gifts within the polycule,” Zephyr explains, at his most regal. “After all, ‘tis our first Christmas together as a family. Naturally, my bride wished to establish our holiday traditions.”
“Of course, of course,” Theo agrees heartily, with a respectful nod my way.
All the while, the senator keeps sneaking covert looks at the fur-lined leather slave collar and handcuffs, done in gorgeous green dragonscale, that Vasili commissioned from an Avalon craftsman for Zephyr’s Secret Santa gift.
Practically speaking, that gear is a gift for Ash too, since Zephyr is Ash’s dom, and the items were custom-made to fit the big man.
Zephyr hasn’t stopped stroking his gift since he unwrapped it. And while V was pretty casual about handing the loot over, I can feel through our bond that my snake is deeply gratified by Zephyr’s reaction.
Turns out another holiday tradition we’re establishing is second breakfast.
Max and Ronin sit down at the dining room table for an encore round of pancakes and bacon with the senator, RT’s moms, and the girls. I wander over too, just to be polite, and pour myself another glass of the pulpy fresh-squeezed OJ I can’t seem to get enough of.
Dez is passing the maple syrup to Racetrack when I catch the icy blue-white glitter of a diamond, striking against her sorrel skin, flashing on Dez’s finger.
Yeah. That finger.
“Nice sparkly you got there, Desdemona,” I point out, giving both girls an interested look.
“Crikey, isn’t it?” Dez glows happily and extends her hand to show off her ring. “Best Christmas surprise I’ve ever had in my life.”
“I popped the big Q last night,” Racetrack confirms around a mouthful of pancakes. “Lucky as fuck she said yes.”
“What’s lucky about it? I’m bonkers in love with you, aren’t I?” Dez says, with a dreamy look at RT from her big olive-green eyes.
While Lucius fetches a bottle of champagne from the cottage’s miracle fridge for a celebratory toast, the two girls snuggle together over their pancakes. Vasili finally saunters over, with a sleepy Gemini curled against his chest, and relinquishes the kitten into my arms for a cuddle.
Even now, my dominant alpha looks only minimally traumatized by his close encounter with a feline.
Relieved and thankful to see this latest evidence that we’re getting his ailurophobia under control, I scooch over on the bench to make room for V beside me.
“Good job with the kitty, Goblin King.” I tilt my juice glass toward him in a salute.
“It isn’t so much fear of cats, you know,” Vasili murmurs, under the general outcry that breaks out across the table, due to Ronin stealing Max’s last strip of bacon. “Not really.”
“Oh, of course not.” I snuggle a snoozy Gemini in my lap and lean into V for added closeness. “You’ve never been afraid of anything as long as I’ve known you. But, uh, you never really explained about the cat thing, so…”
Vasili sips his tar-black coffee, lids lowered to hide his eyes. “I had a cat once before, when I was very young. She was my first friend. And my only one, for quite some time.”
He pauses for another slow sip. I very carefully don’t push or probe the solid mental barriers he’s got up.
“Losing her was… not pleasant,” he says eventually. “So I promised myself I’d never risk repeating the experience. I suppose it was easier to cultivate a fear of cats than admit to a fear of loving them.”
My heart swells and rises, bumping against my esophagus like a hot-air balloon. For the second time this morning, my vision blurs with tears.
I know what it cost my snake to admit to having a weakness. A vulnerability of any kind.
I slip an arm around his slender waist and lean into him harder.
“You can love us all now, including Gemini,” I tell him softly. “It’s safe to love us, bad boy.”
“I know,” he answers, just as softly. Under cover of the table, his cool hand closes over my knee in a tight squeeze.
Then my snake gives me his sly sidelong smirk. “If I ever have cause to regret it, darling, Krampus will make you suffer.”
You’d think it’d be hard to laugh and shiver simultaneously.
But I manage that shit.
“Is that supposed to be a threat or a promise?” I nuzzle V’s sharp jaw with a snicker and a warning nip of my dragon queen shifter incisors.
“Try me and find out, do,” he murmurs.
We’re both joking.
Mostly.
With a generous second breakfast filling our tummies, the joint all tidied up, and our various Secret Santa gifts safely collected, our SUV is towed out of the ditch and confirmed to be still drivable.
Looks like it’s finally time to say goodbye to our enchanted Christmas cottage.
To my surprise, I kinda regret leaving the place.
I mean, all that holiday magic under the mistletoe.
The profligate granting of Christmas wishes.
Frenemy warlocks finally hooking up. Scorching Krampus fantasies fulfilled.
Plus total privacy from the witching world stalkerazzi and our curious witch academy classmates and everyone’s well-meaning parents.
This could definitely be a Christmas tradition worth cultivating.
But the senator has a houseful of VIP guests chomping at the bit and waiting with dwindling patience to hobnob with our famous royal asses at the Mercury chalet—including my dad and Vasili’s dad.
Totally understandable that Theo Mercury doesn’t want to leave those two, in particular, unattended for long.
Finally, we’re all bundled back into our boots and parkas and getting ready to wade through pristine drifts of sparkling snow to the road.
That’s when our magical Christmas cottage drops a last holiday tune onto the gramophone.
Turns out that song’s the perfect choice for me and this crazy quilt of warlocks and shifters and sex demons and Fae, all of us in this polycule, tightly stitched together into a family by love.
As we close the door snugly behind us, I’m singing along under my breath the cottage’s farewell holiday carol for me and all eight of my guys.
“All I Want for Christmas is You.”