AFTER shaking so many hundreds of hands that even Bethany was a little overstimulated, Math gathered her under his arm and signaled to his old buddies plus Willow and Ember, and then all six of them trooped after Bronwyn and Llywelyn to the king’s office.
Llywelyn pressed a key into Math’s hand. “Here, you are. If I may make a suggestion, live at your ducal residence and just keep the royal apartment for when you stay over for state dinners and such. Separate your work and life a little.”
Math nodded.
Bethany grinned.
The rest of them crowded into the small office. Bethany, Willow, and Ember were staring at the bookcases and magical artifacts in cases.
Willow turned around and asked Bronwyn and Llywelyn, “Are one of you a witch?”
Llywelyn said, “I’m a mage. I was inducted into the Half Moon Bay coven.”
“Oh, that’s right,” Bethany said. “Queen Bronwyn is the dragon of you two.”
Queen Bronwyn nodded. “But it’s just Bronwyn, now.”
“Oh, okay.”
The ex-queen sat in the second chair behind the wide desk. “I’ll have to get used to it now, too. It’s been a while.”
Llywelyn smiled at his mate. “It’ll be nice to be just the two of us again.”
Bethany’s mouth worked ahead of her brain. “Do you guys want to come to our handfasting tomorrow?”
Llywelyn’s smile broadened. “We haven’t been to a handfasting in years. Shall we?”
Bronwyn nodded. “We’d love to go. Thank you, dear.”
Llywelyn said, “I imagine the ceremony will quite cement the match for you witches, right?”
“Oh, the mating was enough, surely,” Bethany said, rushing to smooth everything over and made it okay. “But witches like parties, so we’re throwing a handfasting.”
“No, I meant your powers,” Llywelyn said. “Mating the dragon way stabilized your powers, but the handfasting ritual will cement the match so that your powers fully come in.”
“Wait,” Bethany said, peering at the ex-Dragon King. “What kind of a mage are you?”
“I’m an aura mage,” he said. “I read auras. Aura reading is within the healer specialty, but it’s distinct. Someone doesn’t have to be sick for me to read their auras.”
Bethany turned and called out, “Girls, you may want to hear this.”
Willow and Ember had turned away from the artifacts and walked over to the desk.
Math, Cai, and Arawn sat back in their chairs, watching the witches discuss the witchy things. Bronwyn had likewise settled in her chair.
Bethany told them, “He’s an aura witch. We don’t have an aura witch at the Desert Stars coven, do we?”
“Nope, never even heard of it before.” Willow asked Llywelyn, “And what are you seeing in our auras?”
“That you’re match witches,” Llywelyn said, his eyebrows darting toward the bridge of his nose. “Aren’t you?”
“I’ve never heard that term before,” Ember said. “What do you mean?”
“We often had match witches born into the Half Moon Bay coven,” he said. “And they’re always in trios, like you three.”
“But what’s a match witch?” Bethany asked him. “Like if you strike us, we burn?”
“No, no,” Llywelyn said, leaning forward with his reddened hands clasped on the desk. “Match witches don’t come into their powers before they’ve found their soulmates. It’s only after they’ve found their Ones that they show the full range of their magic powers. You might have noticed that your powers were more controllable when your mates were near you, even before you mated.”
Bethany said, “Like I summoned up the cleaning apparitions just fine when Math was there, but when he wasn’t, I got another dang glitterbomb.”
Willow smacked herself in the head. “And I brewed serpent vitamin potions fine when Arawn was hanging around the kitchen, but when he wasn’t, I brewed a potion that turned him into a humongous chicken.” She glared at Bethany and Ember. “And just to reiterate—”
“Yeah, we know,” Bethany said. “No one screwed the chicken.”
Ember rolled her eyes. “And my elementals behaved themselves in front of Cai, but when he wasn’t there, I got caught in dust devil and encrusted with dirt.”
“Match witches.” Bethany turned to Willow and Ember, who looked just as shocked as she was. “We’re not screw-ups. We’re not lazy or weak. We’re match witches.”
“Match witches,” Ember echoed, wonderingly.
Willow breathed a great sigh of relief. “We’re match witches.”
“And I imagine that after your handfasting ritual tomorrow,” Llywelyn said, “you’ll find yourself in full possession of your witchcraft and magical powers.”
“That seems kind of wrong,” Ember said, frowning a little. “It’s weird that we have to get married or else we don’t get our full witch powers.”
“Hey,” Cai spoke up. “Dragons have to mate or else we fall into senescence and die.”
Ember inclined her head and nodded. “Okay. There is that.”
Bethany could hardly wait for their handfasting the next day.
Later, as they left, Bethany noticed that Math was hanging back while Willow, Ember, and their husbands walked out of the office. When the others were far enough away, Math asked Llywelyn, “It was our mates, wasn’t it? That’s why the scepter didn’t choose us last time, and this time, it would have chosen any of us.”
“Of course,” Llywelyn said. “The scepter was designed to choose a mated pair to rule, not a king or a queen. Occasionally, it’s had to choose a single dragon, but the mating bond matures a dragon and finishes their evolution as a person. It chose Bethany every bit as much as it chose you.”
“What are we supposed to do for the next monarch, though?” Math asked Bronwyn. “The Dragon Scepter is gone.”
The ex-Dragon Queen smiled at Math and Bethany. “I’m sure you’ll figure out something. We’re retired.”