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Math laughed. “You’ll like King Llywelyn. He’s a nice guy.”
“Do you have any hot, young royals like Prince Harry?”
Math gestured to the older man in the painting. “He thinks he is.”
“Maybe we should invite him to our wedding.”
Math raised an eyebrow at her. “Dragons don’t have weddings. It’s one of the benefits of magical matings. No ceremony planning.”
“Oh, wait right there, Your Grace Duke Draco. Witchesdohave weddings. We havehugehandfastings and invite every person you’re related to or ever met, usually in a barn with animals and dangling fairy lights. My parents willkillme if I don’t throw a wedding for them.”
“But dragons marry witches all the time, and no one has weddings.”
Bethany went on, “Not to mention Willow and Ember. They will definitely kill me if I don’t have a handfasting. We all promised each other when we were ten that we’d all be co-maids-of-honor at each other’s weddings, though we really wanted to have a triple wedding for the three of us. We pinky swore. I have to throw a handfasting so they can be my maids of honor.”
The door beside them opened.
A slim woman emerged. “His Majesty will see you now, Your Graces.”
“Come on,” Math said. “We can hash this out later.”
“Wewillhave a proper handfasting,” Bethany grumbled as they walked inside the king’s office. “I swear by all the goddesses, wewill.”
Inside, King Llywelyn, the man from the painting but slightly older, was sitting behind a giant desk. California sunlight streamed in the wide windows, and the surf crashed on the rocks below. He was a good-looking older man with a full head of silver hair and craggy cheekbones.
The king poured coffee from a silver service into china cups for them. “Good morning, Duke Draco. And this is Bethany Aura, the new Duchess Draco, I presume?”
“Pleased to meet you,” Bethany said, surreptitiously swiping some dust off the edge of the king’s desk as she curtsied. She was conscious of her dragon-bait boots as she sat, so she crossed her ankles to not draw too much more attention to them.
“And you as well. I trust you’re being properly introduced to dragon society?”
“Math’s friends Arawn and Cai have come over a few times. We’re throwing a big party next week.”
“I’m sure everyone will attend any party that Mathonwy throws,” King Llywelyn said. “Has he mentioned that he’s quite popular?”
She side-eyed Math. “I think that must have slipped his mind, too.”
“Oh, yes. He’s a member of a dozen committees and boards, and the chair of a fair number of them. Everyone wants to know him better or desires an introduction. He’s a social node, one of those people who knows everyone, and everyone likes them.”
Bethany slipped her hand into Math’s. “Yeah, I can see that.”
King Llywelyn smiled at them, his fingers interlaced and resting on his belly. “Your handfasting is going to be enormous, perhaps a thousand guests. Three-quarters of the dragon clan will clamor for invitations, plus your side, of course.”
Math raised his eyebrows. He insisted, “Dragons don’t have weddings.”
Bethany grinned. “We’ll have it as soon as I can plan it.”
Llywelyn grinned. “Ah, excellent. When the Queen and I had our handfasting—”
Math interrupted, “But dragons don’t do ceremonies. We’re too solitary for such large gatherings. Mating is a private and personal ritual. Surely, you didn’t have a wedding and all that.”
“I’m a mage,” King Llywelyn said. “Of course, we had a handfasting. Witches always have handfastings to celebrate a marriage. It’ll be in your hometown, Bethany?”
“Of course,” Bethany said. “I have lots of relatives and friends who would hunt me down and burn me at the stake, otherwise.”
“Can I only suggest that it’s in two-months time? We need Mathonwy here to finish getting the Dragon’s Den Casino ready to open.”
“I figure that will be just enough time to plan the wedding,” Bethany said.
