Page 74 of Becoming D'Vaire
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Hours later, Grigori was deeply troubled by his desire to ensure Delaney’s life included everything he wanted. He’d teleported to D’Vaire after sharing a lovely meal with his family where he filled them in on the details of his upcoming ceremony. Grigori was greeted with an enthusiastic kiss from Delaney, then found a cuddly familiar on his shoulder.
However, his pretty mood popped like a bubble when they started talking. He was thrilled to be handed one of the new D’Vaire stones, but it was the subject currently being discussed he would do without given the opportunity.
“Is Dre’Kariston sure he wants to wait to shadow walk? He could move it up a day instead,” Grigori tossed out, treading carefully as he rubbed a hand over Delaney’s leg. The wizard was sprawled out over him on the couch. They’d ditched their shoes, and his initial intention was to get them undressed, but that was not anywhere on his radar now. He hated to think of Delaney on the other side of the veil for any reason at all.
“Yeah, another day isn’t going to matter. Besides, it gives us more time to fine-tune our plans for how we’re going to root Carvallius there.”
“This is something you really want to do?”
Delaney nodded with a smile. “Absolutely. It’s so cool. It’s one of the perks of being a dark caster. I’m lucky enough to have a powerful enough necromancer who can take more than one person with him when he crosses.”
“This is safe?”
Delaney’s grin disappeared. “Shit, you’re worried. Dre’Kariston said Somerly was shitting bricks over him going again. We talked about this before, and you seemed okay with it. I don’t want to make this a thing between us. If it bothers you, I can stay here. I mean, they’ll tell me all about it, and I’m just going to explore. They don’t need me to be there for any of this.”
The wizard’s willingness to drop his idea of going made Grigori feel small and awful. “No, I think you should go. I’m nervous but not like sweating-profusely-going-to-faint-any-minute crazy. I trust you, and I trust the Arch Lich.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, I can’t keep you from doing things because it’s not something I’d want to do or because I’m scared. This is something you want, so I think you should go. Somerly and I will just hold each other tight until our men return from their trip.”
“You might be careful embracing him too snugly. Dre’Kariston’s got a lot of power, he might flatten you.”
“Well, then I hope you like it on the other side of the veil, because he’ll send us both there, and I won’t have you saying ‘Oh, for fate’s sake, Grigori, now we’re fucking dead and this place sucks.’ ”
“I won’t. I’ll start out by reminding you that you missed our first date,andyou got yourself killed by cuddling the fuck out of Somerly.”
Grigori kissed his welcoming mouth. “I only cuddle the fuck out of you.”
“Then we just might be safe. You sure you don’t want me to skip it?”
“I want you to go. Well, no…that’s a lie. I don’t want you to go. I want you to stay here with me but I’ll get over it, because that’s selfish. You’ll only be gone for a little while, then you’ll have this amazing experience to tell me about.”
“It’ll be okay, I promise.”
“Just like when I drink from you the first time.”
Delaney pressed their lips together and snuck in his tongue. He pulled back after their kiss ended. “Your brother’s idea is great. I think it’ll work. We’ll set our phones and the alarm clock. We won’t be able to ignore all that fucking noise.”
“I had the same idea as Nikolai,” Grigori complained.
“Too late, he said it out loud first.”
“My family wasn’t happy I left you at home.”
“We’ll make it up to them. Do dinner or something.”
Grigori nodded, pleased his family was important to Delaney. “We’ll have to arrange our schedules. In the meantime, they’re excited about spending the weekend at D’Vaire and finally getting to meet T’Eirick and Saura.”
“I can’t believe we’re going to be mated so soon. Terrifying thought but you know, beautiful and shit too.”
“Delsaurus?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m going to use that plug on you tomorrow.”
