* * *
"Normally, I am happy to rise. That has changed." Rigo was talking before my eyes opened. I heard and understood, for the most part. He just wasn't used to someone taking this long to wake.
"Give her a minute—she wakes very slowly," Drew chuckled at the side of the bed. I caught his and Drake's scent, now—they were making up for last night. I was scowling when I opened my eyes.
"Honey, what do you want?" I gave Drake a baleful glance.
"Breakfast at the strawberry farm," Drew said. "Get your clothes on, itty-bitty pants."
Rigo managed to chase the twins out so we could get a shower; he didn't want to rush off to breakfast, either. When we arrived at the strawberry farm, I saw that Shadow had come to breakfast. At least his father and grandfather hadn't come.
"Baby, I want to talk to you after we eat," he said softly as Drake and Drew managed to herd me to a chair between Shadow and Rigo. I felt like smacking my twins for doing this to me. This should have been Rigo's time. Yeah, I felt awkward over the whole thing. Cheedas and two assistants had been brought from the palace; they were happy to be cooking on the light side of the planet for a change.
"Raona, you are not eating." Cheedas tapped the island in front of me. That's where we were having breakfast—the overly large island in the kitchen.
"I'm not very hungry," I said. I didn't want him to feel bad—I had a monopoly on that emotion right then.
"Here," Shadow lifted our plates and folded us away. We ended up in my suite.
"This isn't awkward or anything," I muttered, folding arms tightly across my chest.
"Lissa, this is a f**ked up mess." Shadow set our plates down on my bedside table and reached out for me. I wasn't sure I wanted to be touched by anyone from Grey House right then. "Baby, please don't pull away from me." Shadow wasn't letting me get away. "I know Dad and Grampa have managed to do major damage. Tell me they haven't killed our love. Tell me that." He pulled me against him and kissed the top of my head. I was crying by that time. Shadow was telling me how much he loved me. Telling me he should have come himself, instead of allowing his father and grandfather to deliver the news. Especially when I was so weak.
"I won't be going back to Grey House," I tried to wipe tears off my face. Shadow did it for me. "And when am I supposed to answer to the f**k up on Cloudsong? When, Shadow? Your grandfather and father dragged me into that mess, didn't they? I don't see them here, apologizing."
"They want to, but I didn't think you'd be willing. Not for a while." His gray eyes were troubled as he tried to lift my face to look at him. I was having difficulty with that.
"What are you going to do with Melida? What do your father and grandfather plan to do with her?"
"Ship her out of Grey House as quickly as possible, but we have to get this other thing resolved first."
"And what if we're forced to hand our profits over to Cloudsong for the next fifty years?" I asked angrily. My Casino owners wouldn't stand for that, and I didn't expect them to.
"Dad and Grampa hope to make some sort of deal—offering five years instead of fifty, and see where that gets us."
"Nobody here would settle for even one year, let alone starting the bidding at five," I tried to extricate myself from Shadow's embrace. "The Casino owners make good money, but they'll leave this place behind if they find out this is in the works. Cloudsong may cut its own throat where Le-Ath Veronis is concerned."
"I'd like to go back in time, snatch Findal up and beat the hell out of him," Shadow muttered, pulling me closer. "And I know I shouldn't be thinking this, but I'd honestly like to punch Dad and Grampa Glendes both."
"Yeah, I know about the betrayal from the father bit," I bumped my forehead against Shadow's chest.
"We can go stand outside the Green Fae village," Shadow suggested. He'd known what I was talking about. That's how we ended up standing under my favorite tree while a light rain fell around us. Shadow has some wizard's trick where he can shield himself and anyone standing with him from the rain, so we were dry as we watched the village. Little was going on since it was raining—the Green Fae work in sunlight, mostly. It gives them their power. Since we didn't see any sign of Toff and Redbird, I folded Shadow to my beach house, where Poradina and Evaline were. The apprentice surrogate Larentii was there with them, so I introduced myself.
"Thank you for sending Daragar," Poradina was extremely happy with the Larentii, I could tell.
"I didn't have anything to do with that," I gave her an honest answer. Shadow had a light in his eyes as he watched the two women. Well, it was a bit soon, I think, for him to start talking surrogate with me. He and I had other business to take care of before we considered that—if we ever did consider it.
"Yes, Connegar mentioned this to me, when I was learning with another surrogate. I asked to be assigned and Connegar, Reemagar and Ferrigar all thought it a good idea." Daragar smiled brightly. He was more than eight and a half feet tall and had the bright blue eyes all Larentii had, although his blond hair was nearly white. He had it short and it was so thick it stood straight up on his head.
"Are you doing well—do you need anything?" I asked.
"We are doing very well." Poradina liked where she was, I think, as did Evaline. "I was worried we'd be stuck somewhere in the dark, with nobody paying attention to us. Everybody pays attention to us. Karzac and Daragar check on the babies constantly and make sure we're healthy. Karzac doesn't mind telling us if we're not eating right, too." Poradina was grinning.
"Yeah, there's no way to hide anything from him, all right," I agreed. "You don't get into an argument with him, either. I wouldn't know what it was like to be right all the time, like he is."
"What is it like—to have so many mates?" Evaline asked.
"Amazing, most of the time," I answered truthfully. "Until they all disagree with me at once, anyway."
"I haven't met this one." Evaline nodded toward Shadow.
"Yeah, well, this is Shadow Grey."
"One of the Grey House Wizards?" Evaline sounded impressed.
"Yeah. One of those." I didn't sound so impressed.
"I'm in the dog house right now," Shadow admitted, a wry grin on his face. He hadn't spoken before this.
"You are residing with domesticated pets?" Daragar wasn't sure of the idiom.