Bayne began to smile. And I was worried this week might be boring. I’ll prep everybody to take care.
In the dining room, the long, gleaming antique mahogany table had two place settings at one end.
They lived very informal lives in upstate New York. Even when they stayed in the penthouse in Cuelebre Tower in the city, more often than not, Pia chose to cook. But here in D.C., appearances were everything. He noted in approval the gleaming polished silver, formal bone china, and heavy cream linen napkins.
Two uniformed staff were in the process of bringing dishes of hot food from the kitchen—pasta with sundried tomatoes and garlic in olive oil, a kale and artichoke salad, ham sliced fresh off the bone, roasted potatoes, and green beans garnished with something colorful and red, perhaps peppers.
“Set another place at the table,” Dragos told one of the servers. She nodded and headed back into the kitchen. He said to Bayne, “Stay and eat with us. I want to hear about everything you’ve been doing and what you’ve heard so far.”
“You got it.”
“Make that two places,” Pia said to the server from the doorway.
She and Eva walked into the room. At first Pia made as if she might go to hug Bayne—something that was perfectly acceptable under normal circumstances, and very like her usual affectionate style with all the sentinels—but Bayne took a nimble step back, and she jerked to a halt and redirected to pick up one of the place settings.
It could have been ridiculously uncomfortable, but dancing around sensitive mating issues was such a way of life for the Wyr, everybody adjusted smoothly, and within a few moments, they were all seated at the table and serving themselves from the silver platters of food.
“Almost all the other demesne leaders have already arrived,” Bayne said, as he piled ham onto his plate.
All of the U.S. demesnes had committed to coming—Tatiana, the Light Fae Queen from Los Angeles; Ferion, the new Elven High Lord from Charleston; Dragos, as leader of the Wyr in New York; Isalynn, the head of the witches demesne from Kentucky; Jered, the current head of the Demonkind assembly from Houston; and even Niniane, the Dark Fae Queen from Chicago, had come, despite the fact she spent most of her time in the Dark Fae Other land Adriyel.
Dragos shook his head. All the demesne leaders convening in D.C. at the same time. That had never happened before. To anyone paying attention, that alone said more than anything else about how seriously the demesnes were taking the human unrest.
He asked, “Did Julian come?”
“Well no, not Julian,” Bayne replied. “He’s still adamant about taking a year off from the political scene, but Xavier is here as Julian’s regent and Nightkind representative. From what I heard, Isalynn was arriving sometime this afternoon too. Tric—Niniane and Tiago got in last night. Eva and I had dinner with them.”
“We ordered a shit ton of pepperoni pizza,” Eva said with a grin.
Pia’s tired face lit with pleasure. “I’m looking forward to seeing them. How are they?”
“Really well,” Bayne told her. “All the fresh air and potential assassinations in Adriyel are good for Tiago. And Niniane looks happy. Only it’s more than that.”
“How so?” Dragos asked curiously.
Bayne frowned. “I guess I want to say she looks settled.”
“I’m so glad to hear that.” Pia smiled.
Bayne helped himself to another slice of ham. “The not-so-good news—there are thousands of people outside the White House, protesting the summit. It’s been all over the news. There’s been backlash to that as well on the news, with some idiots on the other side putting down the human protestors for being close-minded bigots.” The sentinel looked at Pia. “I know you were looking forward to doing some sightseeing if you could find any time, but I don’t recommend it. Not for this trip.”