Radomir slipped through the door, settling on the edge of Jules’s bed, studying the floor and shifting nervously. Jules couldn’t recall Radomir ever being in here, at least not in recent memory. Had something else happened?
“We’ve reached a decision,” he said, a muscle flexing in his jaw. “But you’re grown now and deserve a say.” He met Jules’s gaze with watery eyes. “We’ve accepted that no one is coming for us, and we’re on our own. We’ve placed so much faith in the mage returning, in you having a special place in the fate of our world, that we’ve deprived you of so much. For that, we’re sorry. From now on, we’ll live like humans, with no more talk of leaving, for we now believe we never will. We’ve been here too long.” Radomir pulled him into a fierce embrace. “You’re all we have left, Jules. We can’t lose you too.”
The reality of having his own suspicions voiced out loud slammed into Jules like a brick to the face. They weren’t going back. Jules would never see the Adrakus he’d heard so much about. “What about my brother?”
Radomir eased his hold, cupping Jules’s cheek in a callused hand. “We can’t get any information about him without further opening ourselves to nearby enemies. The war extends beyond Adrakus. Courts fight among themselves even in Terra. If we interact with the world and don’t draw attention to ourselves, maybe you stand a chance of living a normal life. Or as normal as possible. Moira will have to maintain the spell on us so no one will ever know who we really are.”
“So, I should finish school and get a job?”
“If that’s what you want.”
Should Jules confess? “I…want a normal human life. One that includes someone to love.”
Radomir nodded. “I understand. I was lucky in that, as a beta, no one tried to arrange a mate for me, leaving me free to pursue Moira. How empty my life would’ve been without her.” He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.
“Will you two be okay?” Jules remembered his conversation with Elouan about having known family and lost them. Seeing the two people who’d been his rock for so many years despondent caused a throbbing ache in his heart.
Radomir gave a bittersweet smile. “We have to be, don’t we? What other choice is there?”
Jules embraced Radomir again, who’d always been the more stoic of Jules’s two guardians. No, not guardians. “Thank you. But if we’re not going back, you’re free of your obligation to me.”
Radomir paused a moment, then wrapped his long arms around Jules. “We’ll never be free. Not because your brother entrusted you into our care, but because we’ve come to love you as one of our own.”
Jules had often seen Moira and Radomir as more jailers than defenders. He’s been so wrong. Memories came to him: Radomir teaching him to fight, Moira letting a younger Jules help her bake cookies even though she’d probably rather have a sword in her hand than a spatula.
They weren’t jailers. Or guardians.
Moira slipped quietly into the room, sitting on the bed next to her mate.
They were family. Possibly the only family Jules would ever have. He said the words he’d not said nearly enough over the years. “I love you both.”
Moira and Radomir pulled him into a three-way hug. “You were never just an obligation to us,” Moira said. “You’re ourchild, and we love you. I wish you could’ve known your other brother and sister.”
Jules couldn’t say how long he stayed there, soaking in the warmth while Moira cried. Long enough for his own tears to flow.
Chapter Eleven
Elouan and Jules texted and video called on their cellphones, but a busy week didn’t allow them time to meet. Elouan caught sight of Jules once during lunch, but only in passing. Jules spent the weekend at home, leaving Elouan alone. He’d said something about Moira and Ray losing loved ones and needing his support. And since he’d not been at his normal spot at noon, did that mean he’d ditched classes too?
Yes, staying home to comfort his aunt and uncle was something Jules would do.
Elouan understood. He’d never really been alone back home, with courtiers and residents roaming the hallways of the castle at all hours and servants popping in. He usually spent time with Teron, often curling up in the furs together, though never for sex. Now, Curtis’s constant music, TV, or video games filled the quiet in the apartment.
When he was at home.
Dragons weren’t solitary creatures. Loneliness didn’t sit well. But Elouan longed for his own lair. Peace, quiet. Privacy. Maybe Curtis felt the same and was too good-hearted to say so.
Elouan paced the confines of the apartment, dropped onto the couch, then rose to pace again. How long had it been? Six months? Six months without flying. He needed to leave the city for a quiet place where he could be a dragon, if only for a little while, even if such a trip meant going alone. The cabin Leon mentioned might be an option.
Oh, to be home again and launch himself from a mountain peak anytime he wanted, either with his brothers or alone. Had Anrai mastered flying during storms yet? Had Teron gotten him to safety? What about Daire? No doubt he’d shifted and attempted to defend the court. Was he hurt? Captured? Killed? No, he couldn’t be killed. Elouan would know.
Goddess, he missed Anrai, Daire, and Teron. He missed his father. Hell, he hadn’t even gotten to stick around for his father’s funeral rites. He wanted, no, heneededto go home.
But what about Jules?
An image of Jules’s bright smile came to mind, of how he shyly turned his eyes away and how easily he blushed.
Would it be possible to go home and take Jules with him? Not a good idea. The court wouldn’t allow a king a human mate. But what if Elouan yielded his claim to the throne? No, he’d only give his cousin a legitimate claim, and there were no others. Maybe if he went to the sacred mountain and spoke with the Goddess. No, she’d already spoken. She’d named Father King of High Reaches, and Elouan heir after him.