Victor

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Victor caressed Debbie’s bulging belly, loving the feeling of its ripe curves. She laid her hand over his.

“Twins,” he murmured, marveling. They’d only learned that the day before. “I suppose it runs in your family.”

“Double the trouble,” remarked Debbie.

“Perish the thought,” said Victor wryly. “But seriously, it’s been more peaceful of late. We’ve gone an entire day without hearing a single—”

CRASH!

A small silver dragon hurtled through the window, hotly pursued by an even smaller golden dragon. Tiny cubes of safety glass flew everywhere.

The golden dragon caught up with the silver dragon, and both dragons fought briefly in midair before tumbling to the ground. They landed heavily on the thick carpet, then promptly began rolling around on it, talons flashing and wings flapping.

Debbie flicked Victor’s arm. “Never say it’s getting peaceful. That’s just asking for it.”

Victor sighed, then shrugged. “I’m sure Eugenia would say it’s good for the economy. Safety glass manufacturing is booming.”

Together they strode to the rowdy dragons. Moving as one, Victor grabbed the silver dragon by the scruff of the neck, and Debbie did the same to the gold dragon. And together they yanked their battling offspring apart.

Both dragons instantly transformed, the silver dragon into a seven-year-old boy, and the golden dragon into a five-year-old girl.

“Mommy,” Natalia, formerly the golden dragon, whined. “Valentin started it!”

“Did not!” Valentin, formerly the silver dragon, instantly retorted. “Natalia started it. She touched my gold nugget!”

“I wouldn’t want your gold nugget!” Natalia shrieked. “I have a bigger one!”

“Do not!”

“Do too!”

The children became dragons again, and started to fly at each other. With the ease of long practice, Debbie and Victor snatched them out of the air before anyone could get bitten or clawed.

Holding the little dragons at arms’ length, each parent addressed them firmly.

“Stop fighting, or I’ll confiscate the nugget,” Victor said.

“Yours too,” said Debbie.

“And that window comes out of your allowance,” added Victor.

“Yours too,” added Debbie. “And stop ditching your babysitter!”

“Where is she?” Victor asked.

The kids transformed again, leaving their parents’ hands gripping the back of their collars. When Debbie and Victor released them, their children shot them sheepish glances.

“Well?” said Victor.

“We didn’t ditch her,” said Natalia. “She couldn’t keep up with us.”

“Of course she can’t keep up if you fly,” Debbie said, sounding exasperated. “And you’re the ones who begged her to babysit. She’s not going to do it again if you keep flying away from her.”

“I’m sorry,” said Valentin.

“Me too,” said Natalia.

“Really truly sorry,” said Valentin.

“REALLY TRULY sorry,” said Natalia.

“Can we do something to make up for it?” asked Valentin.

“Weed the garden?” suggested Natalia. “Wash dishes?”

“Ooh, I know!” exclaimed Valentin. “We can help Granny Phronsie with her potions, for the whole time she and Auntie Eugenia and Uncle Radu and Artur and Andrada are visiting!”

“Yeah, the potions!” squealed Natalia. “Artur and Andrada have all the fun. They have Granny Phronsie around all the time.”

Victor smiled. He and Eugenia had been lucky to escape getting married to each other, but he liked her as a person and was glad that his children and hers got along so well. Eugenia and Radu’s daughter Andrada, a bronze dragon, was only six months younger than Valentin, and their son Artur, a golden dragon, was one month older than Natalia. And Eugenia too was pregnant again. It would be a race to see who gave birth first, her or Debbie.

His children began to chant, “Po-tions! Po-tions! Po-tions!”

“Enough already,” said Victor, laughing. “Yes, if your mother agrees, you can go help Granny Phronsie, and we’ll say no more about docking your allowance or confiscating nuggets.”

Debbie visibly forced herself to keep a straight face as she said, “I agree, but Granny Phronsie has to tell me you really were helpful, and not just getting underfoot. And I will check with her!”

Her children nodded eagerly.

“And can we have pastries with Great-Aunt Agatha afterward?” Valentin asked. “We promise to eat our carrots at dinner without complaining.”

“Ugh, not carrots,” Natalia protested.

“Carrots and no complaining, or no pastries,” Victor said firmly.

Natalia folded her arms. “I hate carrots!”

“Would you rather have beets?” Debbie asked.

“Ugh!” said Natalia.

Teasingly, Victor suggested, “Parsnips? Turnips? Rutabagas?”

“Ugh! Ugh! Ugh!”

“Mangelwurzels?”

“UUUUUGGGHHH!”

Valentin glared at his little sister. Then a sunny grin came over his face. “Guess you won’t get any pastries, then. Two of everything for me!”

Grudgingly, Natalia said, “Carrots and no complaining. But no mangelwurzels!”

“You don’t have to have any mangelwurzels if you eat the carrots,” said Victor.

Natalia beamed. Then she and her brother transformed into dragons and zoomed out the broken window.

“Do you even know what a mangelwurzel is?” Debbie asked, smiling.

“Other than some kind of root vegetable?” Victor shook his head. “No, and neither does Natalia, I’m sure. But they sound unpleasant, don’t they? Aunt Agatha used to threaten me with them when I was Natalia’s age to make me eat other vegetables.”

“Aunt Agatha sure is enjoying her retirement. Grandchildren to spoil, and no kingdom business to deal with.”

Just then, Chloe came panting into the room. “I’m sorry! They flew away from me.”

Debbie smiled at Chloe. “Don’t worry about it. They do that.”

The tiny child Debbie had met on an airplane so many years ago had grown into a leggy, confident teenager who alternated spending her summer vacations with her grandparents in Paris and her aunt in Rodica.

Once Debbie’s identity had been publicly revealed, she and Victor had invited Chloe and her aunt to visit them at the palace. Chloe soon became one of the lucky kids to whom Victor—and Debbie—gave rides on dragonback. And when she got old enough to take an interest in expensive Paris fashions, there was nothing she liked better than babysitting two lively dragons and earning her pay in gold.

Chloe looked around. “Where’d they go?”

“They flew out to Granny Phronsie’s kitchen... lab... whatever it is,” said Debbie. “So take a break.”

Victor counted out four gold coins for Chloe. “Here you go.”

Chloe looked at them doubtfully. “You said you only needed me for three hours.”

“Combat pay,” said Victor.

Chloe pocketed the coins with a laugh. “Thanks, Victor. That’ll go toward my Parisian shoe fund. I’ll just go make sure they don’t accidentally turn themselves into toads.”

When Chloe closed the door behind her, Debbie plunked down on a lush velvet sofa. She gave a rueful glance at the floor. “Should’ve made the dragonlings sweep up the glass before they left.”

“I’ll do that. You rest your feet.” Victor went to the closet, grabbed a broom, swept up the glass, and dumped it in a gold-plated wastepaper basket.

“The glamorous life of a king,” remarked Debbie.

“It’s about to get two times more glamorous.” He sat down beside her, lifted her feet into his lap, and began to massage them.

“Oooh.” Debbie relaxed into a puddle of bliss at his touch, as if she was melting into the couch. Lazily, she said, “Got any more names?”

“I do,” Victor said immediately. He’d been thinking about it ever since they’d found out. “How about Sorin and Sonia if it’s a boy and a girl, Sorin and Sergei if it’s two boys, and Sonia and Silvia if it’s two girls?”

“Hmm. I like them, but if we get two girls or two boys, how will Sergei or Silvia live it down if they ever find out their names were your second-favorites? I can hear it now: ‘You like my sister’s name better!’”

“We’ll tell them we liked both names equally, and we tossed a coin to get the hypothetical boy-girl set.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

“You look hot,” Victor remarked. “Want something to drink?”

“Yes, please.”

Victor got up, took a bottle of forbidden fruit juice from a cooler, and poured out two glasses. He handed her one, then raised his. “To our family, soon to be even bigger and noisier!”

“To our happily ever after.”

They clinked their glasses. The juice didn’t seethe and hiss like dragonfire, but it was scarlet as burning coals, and the aroma was almost as intoxicating. Victor breathed it in before he drank, letting it conjure up wonderful memories of Debbie sitting in the palace garden while he fed her bites of forbidden fruits.

He set down his glass and kissed her. Victor could taste the intoxicating flavor of forbidden fruits on his mate’s lips. Her fingers strayed upward, to caress his cheek. He reached down to toy with her bedecking gift.

Debbie drew in a breath that grew faster as he continued stroking her necklace. Now that her inner dragon had been released, any gold she wore was almost like a second skin. 

“Just one of the little perks of being a dragon,” Debbie murmured. “Like being able to share the open sky with my husband.”

“Happily ever after?” Victor asked.

She leaned back against his chest. “Happily ever after with my dragon king.”