Festivity Read online

  Litha’s scorched rosemary scent greets me before she wraps her arms around my waist, putting her head on my shoulder. “What are you daydreaming about?”

  “Daydreaming?” I put my hands over hers, loving having her against me like this.

  “Yeah, you seem lost in thought. What are you thinking of?”

  “We need a bigger dining room, and a bigger table.” I move her so I can wrap my arms around her, keeping her to my chest, burying my nose in her hair. No matter what products she uses, I can always smell scorched rosemary on her, and I love it, makes me feel at home.

  “Do you think we’ve got enough space for midwinter? I don’t think we’ve ever had everyone over here at the same time, at least not a group this big...” She lets out a slow breath. “I’m kind of nervous. This will be my first midwinter celebration, but also, this will be my first big holiday as a queen...”

  I tighten my arms around her. “Not just yours. This will be the first celebration where we’re all together. You as queen, Finn and Rune as kings, and Kit and me as kings-to-be. I’m just glad that we don’t have to have a huge celebration for it this year. Not yet.” I suspect that next year, after Kit and I have been crowned kings too, that we’ll actually have to have official celebrations and events and everything. Not just with our family and friends, but with everyone who is important to our kingdoms.

  We get away with it this year because the war only ended a couple of months ago, and everything is still new, and everyone is still rebuilding or simply trying to get back to normal. But we won’t be as lucky next year. Next year, it will be the whole ordeal.

  I’ve been part of it before, at my uncle’s side for many years, since I’m the crown prince, but I was always able to sneak away after a while. Only, from here on out, from next summer onwards, there won’t be any sneaking out for us anymore, then we’ll be the ones people will be attending at the celebrations.

  I look at Litha in my arms. No, they won’t be coming for me, or Rune or the others, they’ll be coming there for Litha. Because she’s special. She’s the one who was able to do what nobody had managed in centuries, she was able to bring everyone together, willingly, without too many struggles.

  Because of Litha, we’ve got peace in the kingdoms for the first time in centuries.

  3

  “I know you’d love to stay in longer, but it’s time to get out of the bath.” I stand next to the large tub with a towel, but Lynn and Dewy don’t move, staring at me defiantly. It was a struggle to get them into the bath, but getting them out after is even worse.

  “But it’s warm in here.” Lynn floats from one side of the bath to the other, her upper body human, but her lower body that of a dragon, giving her feet with webs between her toes and a tail, which she uses to navigate around the bath.

  Dewy sticks his head above the surface and sprays water at me before he quickly dives back under. Oh, that kid...

  I stick my arm into the water and quickly grab him, pulling him out of the water and he lets out an unhappy sound. He’s great at making really sad baby dragon sounds, which I’m pretty sure he does on purpose because some people do fall for it. Just, not me, not right now.

  I’m not happy either. I’m soaked, hungry and I just want to have dinner. We’ve been outside for most of the day. So I just want to snuggle up with Rune and Litha, warm up against them, not take care of the little rascals. I quickly wrap Dewy in a towel and he shifts back into his human form as I do so.

  Then I look at Lynn and with a grumble, she climbs out of the bath and I give her a towel too. I start to dry Dewy off, as Lynn can start by herself, she’s big enough for it.

  Blaze left the bath over half an hour ago, he wanted to do something else. It’s funny to see the siblings together, two water and one fire dragon. So, the things they prefer to do to relax and have fun is quite opposite too. They all love warmth and heat, but Blaze prefers to stay near fire and Lynn and Dewy tend to prefer being under a blanket or just sit in the bath for hours on end.

  There’s a knock on the door, and then it opens. “Everyone here ready to eat?” Litha steps inside and Lynn immediately goes over to her. “Hey girl.” Litha kneels down and helps Lynn dry her hair. “Did you have fun in the bath?”

  Lynn nods, smiling. “Kit is mean when he wants us to get out.” The little girl makes her best sad eyes at Litha, before giving me a glare.

  Litha looks at me and just smiles. She’s got enough experience with bathing them that she knows how hard it can be to get them back out. “Oh, is he?” She wraps the towel around the girl. “What are you going to wear for dinner?”

  “Nothing?” Lynn grins, but at Litha’s patient look she lets out a long sigh. “Something pretty.”

  “I was going for ‘clothes’, but that works too.” Litha grins back at her. “Let’s pick something out together.” She picks the girl up, who easily lets her, then Litha looks at me. “You taking that troublemaker with you?”

  “I’ll try.” I dry Dewy’s hair and then also pick him up. “So, little guy. Let’s get you into some clothes, and then we can go have dinner. What I can smell, it’s going to be good.”

  Although, looking at the boy, I’m not sure how long he’ll be awake. He’s looking very drowsy. Which is understandable, it’s been a very energetic day for him and he hasn’t even had a proper nap in the afternoon, as he normally does. So I guess he’s at the end of his energy, just like I am, though probably for different reasons.

  “Okay, clothes, food, sleep.” I snuggle Dewy, who lets out a happier sound, pushing closer to me.

  Then I follow Litha out of the bathroom, ready to be done with all of this and just be able to cuddle with my loves, without any more responsibilities.

  That would be a great thing, no more responsibilities. Though, I’m not so sure that’s going to happen any time soon... Midwinter is in a couple of days and we’ve got a lot to take care of, between Phoenix’ birthday and just general celebrations... We’re far from done.

  “Shhh.” Litha puts her fingers to her lips. The little dragons are already in bed, and we’re about to put the last touches to the decorations in the house. We wanted to make it extra special when they wake up, since they’ve never had a big midwinter celebration before. So, we’re sneaking up the stairs with garlands and all sorts of things, ready to put them up there.

  It’s almost midnight and we’re definitely at the end of our own energy, but most of the food is prepared for tomorrow and we’ve remodelled the living room so that we can have everyone over and will actually be able to sit them all. We had to borrow some tables from the halls of residence of the other students to make it happen, since nobody is staying there anyway, and with some tablecloths put over them, you don’t even recognise them anymore.

  It feels strange, hosting midwinter for the first time. It feels so grown up, even though I also don’t feel like a grownup at all, I sometimes still feel like a little kid. But here we are, we just started college at the end of August, found our mate at the same time, then saved the world a few weeks later, adopted a set of little dragon kids and now we’re going to be hosting our first midwinter celebrations...

  It feels like we did ten years worth of ‘adult experiences’ in just three or four months. At the same time, I’m just glad I’m not doing this on my own, or that this is a big official event with ambassadors and things like that. This is big but not ‘inviting ambassadors and having to wear formal clothes’ big. That step we can take next year, not this year.

  “Let’s put these up over the bannisters,” Litha whispers as she holds up a bright red glittery garland.

  I nod, accepting the other end from her and I tiptoe to the middle of the bannister, starting to wrap it around, while Litha does the same thing on the other half, we both work from the inside out.

  It’s fun to see Litha so excited about doing all this. I was never part of preparing for celebrations, I usually just accepted what my mum and her partners planned and what other people i
n the household prepared for us. I never considered that I’d one day be decorating my own house, with my own hands. But making the house all pretty and festive for the kids and even in some way for our friends and family, there’s a joy in it, and a pride, that I never felt before.

  As Litha comes over to me, holding another garland, I take her in my arms and pull her against me, her body so soft and inviting and I really want to sneak off with her, have my way with her somewhere away from here.

  We’ve barely been doing anything fun this last week, just too busy, and then at the end of the day, we’re so exhausted that we have no energy to do anything fun. But after tomorrow, everything should be much easier, we should have some time to ourselves again, until the school year starts, of course.

  Litha lets out a husky laugh, her hand sliding down my chest, before playing her fingers over my cock through my jeans. “Hmmm, are you keeping a present hidden there especially for me?” I feel the lust course through her. I’m not the only one who’s feeling the strain.

  “Maybe.” I kiss her neck. “We can try and find out.” I pull her against me more, kissing her neck again. “I think I know a place where we can be alone together.”

  But before Litha can answer me, something grips me around my ankle and I let out a surprised sound. Litha quickly puts her hand over my mouth, stopping the sound from waking the kids.

  When I glare down, Bane is scowling up at me from the stairs.

  “Decorating, no nooky,” he loudly whispers. “I’d like to actually sleep tonight, and not have to work until sunrise.”

  “I sleep better after some nooky.” I kneel down, grabbing his wrist and sending a wave of lust through him, let him know how much I just want some time with Litha, but he tightens his hand around my ankle even more and levels me a look.

  “Then do that after the decorating. But please get this over first...” He meets Litha’s eyes. “Phoenix is looking for you. Something about tomorrow. I have no idea, she wouldn’t tell me more.”

  “Thanks.” Litha steps away and hands me the last garlands. “I’ll be back as soon as possible.” She gives me a quick kiss and then darts down the stairs.

  I look at Bane again. I could feel the lust shoot through him as Litha walked past him, her scent turning him on like little else ever does. “Seems I’m not the only one who is desperate.”

  He lets out a soft laugh. “Yeah, but the rest of us know how to behave ourselves.” He winks. “But I may just see if I can steal her away later, if you’ve not finished up here yet.” And, with that, he lets go of my ankle and walks back down the stairs.

  Asshole.

  Why do they always give me the crap jobs? I want to do fun things too, especially when it means I get to be with Litha more, or with Rune. But Rune is doing stuff out back, making decorations together with Finn.

  Earlier in the year, they found out that Finn could use his electricity to turn sand into glass, and now they want to make a fake ice castle from glass out back, since that’s safer than an actual ice castle when we have multiple people who have fire controlling abilities, including a little dragon who doesn’t always know how to keep it in check, and also when we’ve got two little dragons who shouldn’t stay out in freezing cold for too long.

  But since I don’t have any cool elemental powers, I don’t get to join them... Boo.

  I go over to the next bannister, wrapping a silver garland around it. Let’s finish this quickly, so I can go do fun stuff.

  4

  I’m not sure how many hours I’ve slept when I’m woken up again, but it’s definitely too few. This time I’m not woken up by soft kisses and touches from Litha, as I tend to wake up to, but by two very excited little dragons, bouncing on the bed and nearly jumping on top of me from time to time.

  “Happy birthday! Happy birthday!” Lynn lets herself fall to her knees right in front of me as soon as I open my eyes. Well, these two at least slept enough, that should make today easier or could make it a lot harder...

  “Thank you.” I smile at her and she gives me a sloppy kiss on my cheek. Behind her, Litha is looking at me, her eyes all warm and soft, and any annoyance I may have had over having been woken up disappears.

  “Birfday!” Dewy also gives me a sloppy kiss on my cheek, as he leans awkwardly on my shoulder and his knee is on my hair, pulling on it painfully.

  “Thank you, little boy.” I love it when he speaks, as he’s still not very chatty, sometimes reverting to making dragon noises even in his human form. But after what he’s been through, we know that those things can take a while, we just have to keep kindly encouraging him.

  Then the little boy follows his big sister as they dart over to Litha, and I sit up, looking at the three of them. Litha is holding something behind her back and as the two little dragons reach her, she holds it out in front of her. Together, they bring it over to me.

  Oh. I hadn’t expected any presents, I had no idea they’d even planned any...

  “Happy birthday.” Litha’s voice is a little husky and I just want to kiss her silly. But I guess I can do that soon enough, as soon as I can get my hands on her while the kids are out of the room...

  “Thank you.” My own voice is huskier too now. Fuck, she turns me on so badly.

  “This is for you, from...” Litha shrugs slightly, her cheeks going pink. “From your family. From me and from all of us.”

  I blink, a little confused as to why she would act like that over a present. Then the three of them put the box on the bed and it seems pretty heavy. That makes me even more confused about what they came up with.

  Litha climbs on the bed next to me and I give her a soft kiss. “Good morning.”

  “Morning.” She laughs. “Now, open it.” She seems pretty excited about it herself.

  “Okay, okay.” I open the packing paper, but inside is a plain wooden box, not giving much away about what’s hidden in it. I find a mechanism for a lock at the front of the box.

  “I’ll get you a real lock for it soon,” Litha whispers and I glance at her. Ehh? Why?

  But I don’t ask it. Instead, I open the box and I immediately understand why she’d get a lock for it. Inside the box is a beautiful book. My heart beats faster and I’m almost getting emotional about it. This... I hadn’t expected this, at all... “Thank you,” I whisper the words, my throat all closed up from tears.

  I can’t believe she got me a highest priestess book all of my own. I’m not even officially her highest priestess yet, we’re doing the ceremony for that as soon as the whole crowning thing for Bane and Kit happens next summer. But she’s already gotten me my very own book.

  I turn to Litha, take her in my arms. I have no idea if she even realises how important this is. In this book I’ll write out everything magical I do for her as my queen, I’ll be recording everything, this will be a record of our lives together, our magical lives together. “Thank you so much.” Tears of happiness slide down my cheeks. This is big, so big, and so special, and I don’t know how to properly express to her how much I love her for this gift, how much I love her anyway.

  The outside of the book is made of preserved leaves in red, orange and yellow colours and there is a pentagram on it with precious stones on each end, and a single red stone in the middle. As I flip it open, I catch how everyone has put something of themselves in the creation of the book. Finn, Rune and Bane having worked together on the outside of the book. Kit’s beautiful handwriting on the first page ‘This book belongs to Phoenix, first highest priestess to queen Litha’. And Litha and the little dragons have decorated the rest of the first page with drawings.

  Oh, fuck. Now I’m going to be emotional all day, because this is such an important thing, but also, it’s such a considerate gift.

  “I’m glad you like it. I thought you deserved something amazing, since you’re going to be using it a lot.” Then she kisses my shoulder. “As soon as you’re ready, I’ve got another gift for you, something you can wear all day. Something very birthday-y
.”

  I laugh, looking at her. “What else did you get me?”

  “Just something pretty.” Her eyes sparkle and my body heats up. I have no idea what it will be, but if she looks at me like that right now, I’m sure that it has to be very pretty, and probably a little sexy too.

  Litha was right when she said that what she got me was very birthday-y. Apparently, they didn’t just get me a highest priestess book, but they also got me a beautiful red dress, it’s tight on top and flows out beautifully at the bottom of the skirt.

  It’s comfortable enough to wear all day and not too impractical when we’ve still got a party to host later. I almost physically feel Litha’s eyes on me all day, and when she gets close, she can’t seem to keep her hands off me either.

  As we’re about to start the big dinner, I’m just glad that everything will finally be over in another couple of hours... We ‘just’ have to get through dinner first.

  We’ve put the tables in a U-shape in the living room. The room isn’t long enough to put them all in a single row, plus, this way all five of us can all sit on one end with Litha, and everyone else is much closer to each other. Which is good, since we’ve got a huge group of people here for dinner all at the same time.

  Litha and I sit in the middle of the table, Litha because she’s the queen and me because it’s my birthday. Then on Litha’s side are Bane and Kit, since putting Kit and Rune next to each other didn’t seem like a good plan, and on my side are Finn and Rune. On the other side of our table, in the middle between the two side tables, are the three little dragons.