“Oops,” Delilah said, covering her mouth with her hand.
Oliver’s gaze landed on Argyle, then slid to Becca. She offered up a fake innocent smile and gave him a finger wave.
Oliver closed his eyes and pressed his fingers to his temples. “Argyle, explain.”
Griffin stepped forward. “This is my fault, sir.”
Oliver lowered his fingers so that he could glance over them at Griffin. “It’s your fault that Argyle is in love with a woman named Pacey and apparently got her sister pregnant?”
Griffin shook his head. “You would never have learned about Argyle if I hadn’t fallen in love with Sofia and wanted to tell you because I don’t want to keep walking out on her. I want to stay with her. I want to mate with her. Her dragon thinks we’re fated, which I personally think is really cool. And, honestly, I want to give her a couple more kids. As many as she wants.”
Sofia could feel her own eyes growing wider and wider, but then she had to blink them rapidly against the tears filling them.
“I don’t even know what to say,” Oliver mused.
Delilah piped up. “You could say that you’ll relax your rules and let these two gargoyles stay in your brethren. I’m not remotely an expert on good people, but even I can tell that they both are the sort you’d want on your team.”
“Indeed they are,” Oliver said.
“I think we can still do our duty while having relationships outside the brethren,” Griffin said. “I’d at least like you to give us the opportunity to try.”
“Do you now?” Oliver asked, his brow arched again.
Griffin cleared his throat and nodded.
“So you’re going to let them stay on?” Delilah asked into the ensuing silence.
“I think it best if Argyle and Griffin and I have this conversation privately. Gentlemen?” Without waiting for confirmation, Oliver strode across the porch and down the steps to the driveway, disappearing around the house.
Argyle’s gaze swept over the group and then he turned and followed. Griffin paused. Sofia placed Penelope on her own two feet and wrapped her arms around his neck.
“I love you.” She kissed him and then released him. He pressed his fingers to his lips and didn’t move until she prodded him, nodding at the corner of the house where Argyle and Oliver had both disappeared.
After he left, Delilah asked, “Does your dragon really believe he’s your fated mate?”
Sofia sighed. “Yes.”
“Well, that’s sad.” Delilah flounced into the house.
Sofia looked around at the remaining dragons and Becca. “Where’s Trennon?” She wondered if she’d ever call him Dad. Would he want her to? Was it weird to have these thoughts as an adult?
Ketu said, “He went with Antoinette to lock up Darius. There is a special prison warded by witches and guarded by dragons. It’s south of town, in the swamps. They probably won’t be back for a few hours.”
“What happens next?” Sofia sked.
“We’ll try to rehabilitate Darius. If he isn’t receptive, he’ll spend the rest of his life in prison.”
If the man could be rehabilitated, it would surely be a long, drawn out process. Sofia didn’t know if she wanted that for him or if she preferred that he rot in jail. She had a lot of emotional scars of her own thanks to her brother.
“Come on,” Becca said, holding out her hand to Penelope. “Let’s go inside and find something to eat, and I’ll tell you all about being a Daughter of Light.”
“Cool,” Penelope said and she grasped Becca’s hand and let her lead her into the house.
Rahu stood there for a moment, watching them. “She’s going to be an amazing mom.” Shaking his head and with a small smile on his lips, he headed in after them.
Ketu patted Sofia’s shoulder. “For what it’s worth, I hope Oliver makes the right decision.” He followed Rahu into the house.
“Me too,” Sofia whispered.
Chapter Nineteen
It was well after dark by the time Griffin returned to the reeve’s mansion. He flew, because he was eager to get there, to see Sofia again. It felt like they’ve been separated for weeks instead of hours.
He summoned the magic, commanding his body to shift to his human form moments before he reached the house. He landed with a quiet thud on the wooden deck outside Sofia’s bedroom. A security guard positioned at the corner saw him, and Griffin waved. The guy nodded and leaned against the railing, returned to focusing on his phone.
Calling on his magic again, Griffin commanded the lock to twist free, and then he opened the French door and slipped inside.
Sofia sat on the bed, wrapped in a robe, wide awake.
“Um, hi,” Griffin said, pausing just inside the door.
“Took you long enough,” she said, affecting an awfully cute pout.
“It took a while to hash everything out with Oliver.”
“This long?”
No, actually, but once they’d worked out all the details, Oliver had insisted the three men share a drink, which led to two and then three and four. Good thing Griffin wasn’t a lightweight like Argyle, who was currently snoring on the couch in Oliver’s apartment.
Turned out, Oliver’s brethren didn’t actually spend all their time living as stone statues and hanging out in the City of the Dead.
Griffin motioned at the door behind him. “I was wondering if you’d like to go flying together?”
She canted her head, her fingers curling into the bedcover. “Y-you want to fly together?”
He nodded.
“Does this mean…?”
“That I want to mate with you? Yes.”
She stood. “But what about Oliver? Your job?”
Since she was apparently too stunned to come to him, he strode across the room and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her flush against his body and burying his face in her hair, breathing deeply of her scent.
