Chapter 568: Children and partners

Dean answered Sylvia’s call while Theodore was supposed to be having a quiet afternoon.

The distinction mattered because Theo had spent the previous twenty minutes moving wooden animals across the rug in front of the terrace doors while explaining, in considerable detail, which ones would be allowed to visit his black dragon when he was older.

Apparently bears were acceptable.

Ducky was not.

"No," Theo told the small black dog when it tried to nose one of the wooden wolves aside. "You don’t listen."

Ducky sneezed.

Dean looked away, but Theo took his smile as support.

His phone vibrated on the arm of the sofa.

Sylvia.

Dean accepted the call and leaned back against the cushions while Theo continued organizing his future expedition several meters away.

"You’re alive."

Sylvia’s face appeared on the screen.

She was sitting somewhere bright, probably near one of the southern windows of the Rohan residence, wearing a loose burgundy dress with her dark hair gathered over one shoulder. Pregnancy had softened her slightly around the face, although the expression she gave Dean remained entirely familiar.

"Barely."

Dean immediately sat straighter.

"What happened?"

"Thomas."

Dean relaxed again.

"That isn’t a medical emergency."

"It is becoming one."

A male voice came faintly from somewhere beyond Sylvia’s camera.

"You almost slipped yesterday."

Sylvia closed her eyes.

"I stepped on wet stone."

"You slipped."

"I did not fall."

"You caught the railing."

"That is what railings are for."

Dean pressed his lips together.

Theo looked up at the sound of Sylvia’s voice.

"Aunt Sylvia?"

Sylvia’s entire expression changed.

"There he is."

Theo abandoned the animals immediately and climbed onto the sofa beside Dean.

"Hello."

"Hello, sweetheart."

Theo leaned toward the screen.

"Do you have the baby?"

Sylvia looked down at herself.

"Yes."

"Where?"

Dean covered his mouth.

Sylvia stared at Theo for a second.

"Still inside me."

Theo considered that with the serious concentration he reserved for new information.

"Oh."

Thomas appeared behind Sylvia with a glass of water in one hand.

Theo brightened.

"Uncle Thomas."

Thomas smiled.

"Hello, Theo."

Sylvia accepted the water only after giving him a look.

"You see?" she told Dean. "This is my life now."

"You’re drinking water."

"I had water."

"You had half a glass."

Dean laughed.

Thomas ignored him.

"The doctor said hydration matters."

"The doctor also said I am healthy."

"And I intend to keep it that way."

Sylvia turned the phone slightly so Dean could see Thomas better.

"He followed me to the library this morning."

"You used the stairs."

"There are six steps."

"They are still stairs."

Dean sympathized with Sylvia more than he probably should have.

"I recommend threatening him."

"I have."

"Did it work?"

"No."

"Then threaten something specific."

Thomas looked offended.

"I can hear you."

"That is intentional."

Theo had lost interest in adult complaints and begun trying to position himself close enough to remain visible in the call while retrieving a wooden bear from the carpet with one foot.

Dean caught him around the waist before he slid off the sofa.

"Sit properly."

Theo corrected himself immediately.

Sylvia smiled.

"He’s gotten so big."

"I am four," Theo informed her.

"Yes, I remember."

"And I have a dragon."

Dean sighed.

Sylvia looked toward him.

"A real one?"

"We don’t know."

"Wonderful."

"That was approximately my reaction."

Dean shifted Theo more securely beside him before returning his attention to Sylvia.

"How are you actually feeling?"

"Good."

This time there was no complaint behind the answer.

"Tired sometimes. Hungry constantly. Thomas thinks I should exist within three meters of him at all times, but medically everything is normal."

Thomas leaned over the back of her chair.

"Very normal."

Sylvia glanced up at him.

"You sound disappointed."

"I am relieved."

The softness in his voice made her expression change despite herself.

Dean noticed.

He said nothing.

After several years of watching couples around them turn protection into competitive behavior, he had learned when mockery should probably wait.

Sylvia rested one hand over the small curve of her stomach.

"Seven reviewed the latest results too. He agrees with my physician."

"Then you’re fine."

"Yes."

Thomas muttered something about staying that way.

Sylvia ignored him.

"The other reason I called is Draxil."

Dean’s attention sharpened.

"The coronation?"

"In three weeks."

Arion had received the formal invitation two days earlier, although most of the details had still been under discussion between the imperial offices.

"Confirmed?"

"Yes. Amaru finally approved the date."

Dean smiled faintly.

That alone felt significant.

The man they had once dragged out of Snake Island half dead, chemically suppressed and surrounded by the remnants of his family’s cruelty, was about to be crowned ruler of Draxil.

"How large is it?"

"Very."

"Of course."

"Every major royal house was invited. Saha, Alamina, Palatine, Rohan, several eastern states. Draxil wants the coronation to make a statement."

"Arion and I are going."

"I assumed."

Sylvia’s mouth curved.

"Thomas and I will too."

Dean looked at Thomas.

Thomas looked entirely unhappy about the idea.

"You’re taking her?"

"I suggested she remain home."

Sylvia turned her head very slowly.

Thomas corrected himself.

"She declined."

"I am pregnant, not incapacitated."

Dean nodded in approval.

Thomas gave him a betrayed look.

Theo leaned toward the screen.

"Can I go?"

Dean looked at him.

"To Draxil?"

"Yes."

"We’ll see."

Theo accepted this more easily than expected and returned to arranging the wooden bear on Dean’s knee.

Sylvia’s expression became more thoughtful.

"There is going to be another complication."

Dean already had a suspicion.

"Nero and Sebastian."

"Yes."

Theo looked up immediately at the names but did not interrupt.

Sylvia continued.

"It will be their first official political appearance together."

Dean leaned back.

Sebastian’s transition had progressed steadily enough that the marriage was no longer distant planning. Everyone close to the family knew what Nero and Sebastian were to each other.

Draxil would be the first international apparition as a royal couple.

"That’s going to eclipse half the coronation coverage."

Sylvia laughed.

"Amaru knows."

"And he still invited them?"

"He specifically requested their attendance."

That sounded like Amaru.

Dean could already imagine the press lines.

Nero, the Sahan crown prince whose public image changed from that of an unusually powerful dominant alpha to the single enigma in the world.

Sebastian Fitzgeralt, Palatine ducal heir, now transitioning into the dominant omega secondary gender expected of Nero’s future mate.

"How is Sebastian handling it?" Sylvia asked.

Dean exhaled.

"Better than Nero."

"That is not difficult."

"No."

Nero had approached the entire transition and wedding preparation with the composure of someone who had spent years waiting for reality to finally catch up with a decision he had already made.

Sebastian, naturally, remained Sebastian.

He wanted control over his clothes, his title, where he stood, which protocols applied to him, what the media were permitted to ask, and exactly how much of his private relationship became public property.

Dean approved of all of it.

"I think he’ll be fine," Dean said. "He knows how to handle court. What he hates is being turned into a story."

Sylvia nodded.

"And this will be a story."

"A very large one."

Thomas moved away from the chair to answer something on his own phone.

Sylvia lowered her voice slightly.

"Do you think Nero understands how closely everyone will be watching them?"

Dean almost laughed.

"Nero understands."

That was exactly what worried him sometimes.

Nero understood attention better than most people.

He simply rarely cared unless it threatened something he valued.

Theo had gone quiet beside Dean, his wooden bear pressed against his chest.

"Papa?"

"Yes?"

"Uncle Sebastian is marrying Uncle Nero."

"Yes."

"At the coronation?"

"No. They’re only going together."

Theo frowned.

"That is confusing."

Dean smiled.

"Adults make simple things complicated."

Sylvia laughed through the phone.

"That may be the most accurate thing you’ve taught him."