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“That was not the real plan,” Dom told me. “That was plan B. To tell you the truth I had hoped that your brother and your cohorts would do a better job and it wouldn’t come to that.”

“I guess Drake is even more of a scary motherfucker than we thought.”

“Indeed.” It was only one word, but he said it like he was actively planning the other man’s demise.

“Were you really ready to kill Tianlong and go to war?”

He didn’t hesitate. “I’m always ready for my tap on the shoulder.”

That sounded familiar. “You quoting Churchill to me?”

He smiled and it was beautiful. God, I’d missed him. “Maybe,” he said.

“If you’re going through hell, keep going,” I returned.

His smile grew. “That’s the perfect quote for you.”

“And what’s a good one for you?”

“My tastes are simple: I am easily satisfied with the very best.” As he said it he touched my face, and we shared a moment that only lovers with a lot of history between them could.

The spell was broken as a silver van skidded to a stop in front of valet.

The doors opened and an unconscious Caleb and Christian were set on the ground in front of us by a few of the Chinese dragons’ henchmen. Sven was bound but awake, and when they set him free he didn’t so much as look at his captors. He looked completely unfazed by the whole thing.

I had an ugly thought.

Sven, predictably, read my mind before I could speak. “I didn’t betray you; I just let them take me peaceably. I didn’t see the point in bloodshed when Lynn wasn’t even there. Caleb and Christian had a different approach. They’re bespelled, but it’ll wear off in a few hours.”

“What exactly happened?” Dom asked him.

“Drake was ready for us, I suppose. Caleb and Christian wanted to fight, but I just wanted information. He bespelled them before any of us could react, he’s a very scary creature, and he and I had a chat. He has Lynn but she wasn’t there tonight. He hasn’t harmed her. In fact, he’s infatuated with her but their relationship seems to be… complicated.”

“He told you all that?” I asked him, my mind going over all the information he’d spewed out, but mostly I’d just felt a flooring relief since he’d said the words he hasn’t harmed her.

“Of course not,” Sven said cheerfully. “He told me some of it and I picked the rest out of his brain. Telepaths are rather handy, aren’t they?”

Caleb and Christian were sent to the infirmary while they slept it off, and we finished debriefing Sven until we were satisfied and let him loose for the rest of the night. Kind of. I was sure Dom had set a tail on him, but I wasn’t going to ruin the surprise.

It had been a strange, long day, and we wrapped it up by visiting Conan.

I lay on the ground beside our egg and wrapped myself into a ball around him.

Dom wasn’t hesitant this time, joining me, wrapping himself around both of us, his hand covering mine and squeezing. He was speaking softly into my hair in Druidic, and I didn’t have to ask to know that it was something terribly romantic.

Conan was quiet, which wasn’t unusual. He spent most of his time asleep, incubating until he was ready to join us.

Our hands were touching on the glowing golden surface. “I hope he looks like you,” I said into the quiet.

I felt his whole body tense then release, his breath expelling roughly into the back of my head. He’d liked that. I fed him a bit more. It was only the truth. “I didn’t let myself ever think much about having children, but when it entered my mind in the years since I’ve known you I always saw a gorgeous black-haired boy with mismatched eyes. If I’d ever let myself wish for something, it would have been that.”

A furious, impassioned stream of Druidic was his response. I didn’t make him tell me what it meant. I got the gist of it, and everything was more beautiful in druidic anyway.

“I bet you didn’t picture anything like this when you thought about having children,” I said. I was fishing. This had to be so odd to him. It was odd to me, and I was a dragon.

He kissed the back of my head. “I didn’t. But I’m not complaining. I’ve longed for this, a child with you, whatever the means of delivery.”

Something occurred to me. “Do you have any other children?” I had been gone seven years, and he had been by all accounts promiscuous.