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“Nothing in my life will ever be as exciting as that,” Billie sighed as she, Lefric, and Olympus walked up to where Hayk and I were standing.
“That is something that you should be grateful for,” Magnus told her, walking a hair faster than the rest of them were.
That meant he reached me before the others, though everyone, including Jorgen and Hati and their entourage, weren’t close behind.
“Well done for speaking out at the right time,” Magnus said, planting a hand on my shoulder. “That took a great deal of bravery.”
I blew out a breath, feeling as though I might sink into the ground. “It didn’t feel brave to me,” I said. “It felt foolish.”
“No, it was brave,” Hayk said, squeezing my hand and looking at me with admiration and lust in his eyes.
“Listen to your sweetheart,” Magnus said with a wink. “He’s right.”
I thought about saying Hayk wasn’t my sweetheart, but he sort of was.
Instead, the thought that had occurred to me in the middle of the drama recurred, I asked Magnus, “You already knew, didn’t you?”
Magnus’s expression spread into a sly grin. “Of course I knew,” he said. He leaned closer to me and said, “Ludvig told me about General Rufus’s plans yesterday, when Constantine and the Hakobyan healer were settling him into his accommodations.” He straightened, then added, “Though I hadn’t really put two and two together where the destruction of the mountain pass and its effect on the spies littering our frontier are concerned until you spoke. Ludvig seems to believe it is merely a rumor, and so did I, until now.”
I glanced down. “I feel more than a little foolish for thinking Dmitri was the only one who knew what General Rufus was up to.”
“Where is Dmitri anyhow?” Lefric asked as he and the others came near.
My friends seemed to suddenly realize Dmitri was gone, though they searched the dark for him all the same. I glanced to Peter, interested to know how he felt about the man who had caused him so much hurt escaping. Peter didn’t look surprised, and he and Neil weren’t searching the shadows with the others.
That made me whip back to Magnus, eyes wide.
“You were never planning to kill him, were you,” I said, yet another realization bowling me over.
Magnus’s expression turned deadly. “I wanted to. Believe me, I wanted to.” He glanced to Peter and Neil by his side. “Someone convinced me it wouldn’t be worth the fuss.”
I figured it had been Neil, though I supposed there was an outside chance Peter had found it in his heart to forgive Dmitri.
“You needed Dmitri to believe you would kill him to stop him from causing more trouble,” I said, putting a few more pieces together.
“Why, Anton, you make it sound as though I am a schemer,” Magnus said, breaking into a wide smile.
“You are such a schemer,” Peter murmured by Magnus’s side, shaking his head.
Magnus laughed. “What’s done is done,” he said, stepping back from me and turning to Jorgen and Hati, who had walked up to his side. “We have other things to concern ourselves with now. Lord Vikhrov is unavailable, but perhaps another member of his family will find accommodations for your party for the night? It is quite late.”
“I can help with that,” Olympus said, striding up with Lefric behind him. He reached for Jorgen’s hand, then shook it heartily when Jorgen grasped his. “It is good to see you again, Jorgen Iceblade. Welcome to my home, if you can even call it a welcome.”
“Oh, we have all been deeply entertained by this greeting,” Jorgen said, laughing. “And perhaps tomorrow, once our meetings begin, you can explain a bit more about what the fuck has happened here this night.”
“There will be time for every sort of fuck tomorrow,” Magnus said, sliding his arms around Peter’s and Neil’s sides and pulling them close. “But for now, I should very much like to retire to my guest quarters so that I might fall asleep with my husbands’ arms around me. It has been a long and exhausting day.”
“It certainly has,” Hayk murmured against my ear as everyone began to wander off toward their various houses for the evening. “I’m so exhausted that I don’t think I even have it in me to fuck you again tonight.”
For whatever reason, that made me laugh.
“I don’t think I could get it up if you shoved a rod in my cock to keep it pointing skyward,” I said.
“I’ve done that before, you know,” Hayk said, draping his arm over my shoulder as we headed across the patio in front of Olympus’s house.
I flinched in horror and turned to him with wide eyes. “You have?”
Hayk nodded and hummed. “It is a singularly odd sensation,” he said. “Equal parts pleasure and discomfort. You want it to end as quickly as possible, and you want it to go on forever at the same time.” He tilted his head to the side with a smile as we crossed into the house, then said, “I would do it again in a heartbeat.”
