AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Are we operating on the assumption that Octavia took it during the ceremony and brought Galen back?” Callie suggests.
Essos grabs a water and puts it in front of me, and I greedily drink it down.
“It makes the most sense,” Helene agrees. “Mom has never been patient. She’s always done what she wants when she wants. She probably saw a golden opportunity and took it. What else did we miss?”
I fill them in on coming downstairs to find Galen sitting at the table, how he grabbed me and I blew in his face.
“You just blew in his face, what, with your breath?” Callie asks, sipping her mimosa.
I’m jealous that I can’t self-medicate the way she can to deal with Galen’s return, but I have a better way to relax; I have Essos. What I need right now is to be bent over a table and fucked until I can’t remember my name.
Maybe I should drag Essos out of here so we can do just that.
“Yeah, and I felt a little weird before I did it. He was in my space, and I just sort of…reacted.” It’s a weak explanation, but how do you explain the unexplainable?
Everyone is quiet.
“Could it have been the baby?” Cat asks, gnawing on her lower lip.
Xavier looks at her, gaze drifting to where her teeth are pressing into her flesh, and I get the impression that he very much wants to be the one biting that lip.
“Could be,” Helene agrees, thinking it over and nodding her head. “When I was pregnant with Kristis, whenever I sneezed, it rained.”
Xavier snorts. “I remember that. Posey banned you from all events.”
I let the memory wash over me. Helene had just been starting to show, and Posey was hosting a garden party. I stared enviously at Helene’s bump every time she smoothed her hands over it. Between my envy over Helene’s pregnancy and my annoyance at Posey, I was in a ripe mood. The only thing that made it better was when Helene sneezed just before greeting Posey, dousing her in a quick spritz of rain. Since the rain came from Helene, she was left totally dry, but Posey was not so lucky. Her white dress was drenched to the point of becoming see-through. It was dismissed as a one-off until Helene’s next sneeze ruined the cake.
“It’s not like that stopped me from coming. I’m a queen too, and I swear she forgets that sometimes.” Helene’s trying to lighten the mood, and I appreciate her beyond words. Essos cups the back of my neck and begins stroking soothing circles on my nape.
“So, what, we think the baby can terrorize people?” I ask, alarmed.
Essos chuckles. “If our little girl can terrorize men by blowing a puff of breath in their faces, I will be one happy father.”
“You think that now,” Kai warns. “Until she’s sixteen, and you’ve banned her from going to Solarem for a party and she uses that little party trick on you.”
Essos covers my ears. “Shhh, don’t give her ideas.”
I chuckle and slip some bacon to Dave, who has been whipping me with his tail. Essos watches from the corner of his eye but doesn’t scold me.
His trailing finger makes its way to my ear, and he gently tugs on the lobe. “I’m going to steal my wife away,” he announces, keeping his eyes on me.
I turn to him and smile.
“You know she’s already pregnant, right? You’re fucking like teenagers who just discovered sex,” Xavier teases, but his gaze quickly slips from Essos and me to Cat, and I have no doubt he would love to discover sex in much the same way.
I push out of my chair. “He’s training me, you asshole.”
“Wow, if he’s training you how to have sex, things are more dire than I thought.” Xavier laughs at his own little joke, and I swear murder flashes in my eyes.
“Brother, you’re playing with fire. I won’t protect you from her wrath.”
Dion surprises us all by slamming a fist down on the table. “We don’t have time for cute games or banter. We don’t have time for training. Finn told me he hasn’t gotten a message to deliver all day.”
“I don’t see the problem,” Zara says as she steps outside. “Sybil and Estelle sent me to find out what all the shouting was about.”
“The problem, Zara, is that Finn would get messages all the time. Love letters and well-wishes that his little doves sent all over Solarem. I watched him show Cat how to create her own dove to send. He felt every message, every secret. He knew it all, but hasn’t gotten a single one all day. Now do you understand?”
“No, I don’t.” Cat takes the lead even as she glances around to confirm that we’re all just as lost.
