Sofia had seen the man do some pretty dirty stuff. Like break another dragon’s fingers because the guy had acted interested in some woman who probably meant nothing at all to Darius, yet Darius had demanded the guy apologize—to him. The apology hadn’t been up to his standards. And there had been the girl he’d gotten pregnant and then refused to acknowledge that the child was his—instead, with calculated determination, he had gotten the baby mama addicted to dragon’s blood.
Still, as horrible as those and the countless other cruelties he’d handed out were, they were a far cry from breaking into the reeve’s private residence. That would take planning and organizing, not bullying and physical pain.
She and Penelope were safe here.
“You okay?” Antoinette asked, closing the distance between them and placing her hand on Sofia’s arm.
Sofia nodded and waved at the French doors. “Griffin went to speak to his boss.”
“Ah.” That word sounded far too knowing for Sofia’s taste, but she did not ask Antoinette to expand.
“Where are the kids?” Sofia asked.
“In Henri’s room. They are both going to need baths soon. They’ve been playing non-stop all afternoon, and they got pretty sweaty.”
Sofia nodded. “Good. That means they’ll sleep well.”
“Henri asked if Penelope could sleep in his room tonight. I know you said you wanted her with you, but I’m putting it out there anyway. She’ll be as safe in there as she is with you. We have dragons who guard the perimeter of the yard all day and night. Plus, his room doesn’t have access outside, like yours does.”
Her dragon perked up for the first time since Griffin said goodbye. Maybe they’re fated mates, the beast whispered.
Sofia shook her head. Penelope isn’t a dragon.
Does that really matter?
Did it? Honestly, Sofia had rarely given thought to the idea of finding her own fated mate. She’d shunned her own kind as much as possible, other than when she was working at Mitch’s, and she knew better than to believe she’d find her mate in a bar. She’d been hit on plenty of times, but those guys weren’t looking for forever. They only wanted a few hours between the sheets. And she’d learned her lesson after sleeping with Griffin.
Well, to some extent, anyway.
“I’ll make dinner,” Ketu said from where he stood in front of the open refrigerator door, examining the contents, “if you two want to get their baths going.”
Antoinette arched her brows, but Sofia shrugged and followed the other woman up the stairs. “This all feels way too domestic for someone who is reeve,” she commented.
Antoinette chuckled. “The responsibilities of being reeve make me appreciate all this so-called mundane stuff. It’s nice to do tasks that are straightforward. Every decision I make as reeve has to be weighed against a dozen different scenarios and theories and potential outcomes. Not to mention, what will the colony think? Will they like this decision? And of course, there is never a consensus, so then I have to decide whether it’s worth pissing off X number of dragons each time. It’s definitely not a fun job.”
“Why do you do it? I mean, why did you take it on in the first place?”
“Well, at the time, Trennon was incapacitated, Darius was a drug dealer, and from the brief interlude you had with Delilah, could you imagine her running a dragon colony?”
Sofia snorted.
“Exactly. I was the next best option when it all went down. So the Elders assigned me as the interim until they could meet and figure out what to do going forward. Three months in, I realized that I liked making the improvements, doing things that made a difference in dragons’ lives. The positive impact outweighs the difficulty of coming to the decisions, most of the time.”
“I admire you,” Sofia said when they paused in front of the closed door to Henri’s bedroom.
“And I admire you,” Antoinette said, surprising her. “I’ve always had help raising Henri, even though his father wasn’t in the picture. But you’ve been doing it entirely on your own. And Penelope isn’t even a dragon, so now you have to help guide her through a way of life you probably didn’t even know existed two days ago.”
Sofia gave a nervous laugh. “That’s true. And I’m not going to lie; I’m petrified of that day when she leaves to do her duty as a Daughter of Light.”
“She’ll be fine. She’ll have the best training. Becca had only known about her magic for a few days and she took down a small nest of warlocks. Part of it was instinctual, but also, Argyle and his brethren are excellent instructors.”
“Thanks. That makes me feel better.”
“That goes for Griffin too.”
“Huh?” Sofia glanced into the other woman’s eyes.
Antoinette nodded. “It’s obvious he cares for both you and Penelope. He will protect you both with his life.”
Sofia thought so too. The problem was, Griffin did not have enough confidence in himself to trust his own instincts.
“He’s going to protect us by letting his boss assign a different gargoyle to watch over Penelope,” she said.
“That’s too bad,” Antoinette murmured, and then she opened the door and they stepped into a room with Legos and miniature race cars strewn all over the floor, with a young dragon and witch in the middle, having the time of their lives.
When Antoinette announced that it was bath time, both kids sprang to their feet, and simultaneously groaned when she said it would be in separate tubs. Maybe Sofia’s dragon was right about them being fated mates.
Was that even possible?
***
"I promise, we don’t usually eat dinner this late,” Antoinette noted as they sat down to eat burgers and salad.
“Hey, I’m not
