Chapter 94: Everyone Heard

Chapter 94: Chapter 94: Everyone Heard

Sebastian had barely finished half his breakfast when his phone began vibrating beside the coffee pot.

Morning light filled Villa Petrana’s private dining room, slipping through the open terrace doors and warming the pale stone floor while a mild sea breeze disturbed the linen curtains. Their flight was scheduled for later that afternoon, and the villa had been awake since sunrise with luggage being collected, medical equipment packed, and Nero’s security team behaving as though transporting Sebastian to Altera required preparation for a small military campaign.

Sebastian glanced at the screen.

"My parents."

Nero looked up from the schedule open beside his plate.

"That was quick."

Sebastian accepted the video call.

Trevor appeared first, seated in one of the Fitzgeralt residence’s private sitting rooms, where the light beyond the windows was already considerably warmer and lower than the morning sun surrounding Sebastian. The eight-hour flight between Fitzgeralt territory and Saha came with enough geographical distance that Sebastian had learned to check the time before calling home.

Lucas entered the frame almost immediately.

"You’re going back to Altera today."

Sebastian smiled.

"Good evening to you too."

"It is evening here. You had all morning to tell us."

Trevor leaned back against the sofa, looking considerably calmer than his husband.

"We heard through the royal household."

Sebastian glanced across the breakfast table.

Nero continued cutting his toast as though palace communications had nothing whatsoever to do with him.

"Yes, we leave this afternoon," Sebastian confirmed. "Claude and Roberta cleared the flight yesterday."

Lucas’s expression tightened.

"And you’re staying where?"

"At Nero’s palace."

"His Crown Prince residence?"

"Yes."

Trevor’s brows lifted slightly, although whatever significance he attached to that information remained politely unspoken.

Lucas was less subtle.

"You’ve never stayed there."

"That is partly why I want to."

"When can we come?"

Sebastian sighed into his coffee.

"You cannot. You are eight hours away by air."

"That has never stopped your father from boarding an aircraft."

Trevor turned his head.

"Why am I suddenly involved?"

"Because you would come with me."

"That part is true."

Sebastian laughed despite himself.

"You’ll see me after Nero’s birthday. I’m not disappearing again, and I’m cleared to travel now, which means visiting you is actually possible."

Lucas studied him through the screen.

"You look better."

"I am better."

"Are you actually better, or are you saying that because you don’t want us worried?"

Sebastian looked toward Nero.

The prince had stopped eating.

"You can ask the obsessive witness."

Lucas immediately focused on him.

"Nero."

Nero shifted his chair slightly so he was properly visible.

"He is doing well. His readings have remained stable, he has been cleared for the flight, and both physicians approved the transfer to my residence."

Sebastian took another sip of coffee.

"There. Royal certification."

Lucas seemed considerably more satisfied hearing precisely the same information from Nero, which Sebastian decided was insulting enough to address another day.

Trevor smiled.

"Message when you land."

"I will."

"And enjoy Altera."

Sebastian’s gaze moved briefly toward Nero.

"I intend to."

By the time the call ended, his latte had cooled enough that he considered asking for another.

His phone rang again before he managed it.

Sebastian looked at the name and laughed.

"Dean."

Nero’s attention sharpened.

"Is Theo with him?"

The question came so quickly that Sebastian glanced up.

"Yes, godfather, I imagine your favorite person is with him."

Nero looked entirely unapologetic.

Sebastian answered.

Dean appeared on-screen from a bright sitting room Sebastian recognized as one of the guest suites used by them in Altera, dressed casually in a pale sweater with his blond hair loose around his forehead.

"You’re coming back today."

Sebastian rested his elbow against the table.

"Did everyone coordinate these calls?"

"We arrived in Saha yesterday."

"You what?"

Dean smiled.

"The birthday party wasn’t cancelled."

Sebastian understood immediately.

"So you assumed Nero was coming back."

"And if Nero was coming back, you were probably coming with him."

"That is an alarming amount of confidence in my medical clearance."

"Arion said Nero would move the entire celebration to Villa Petrana before attending without you."

Across the table, Nero considered that.

"He is not wrong."

Sebastian shook his head.

A small dark-haired head suddenly appeared at the bottom of Dean’s screen.

"Uncle Seb!"

Sebastian’s entire expression softened.

"Theo."

Dean barely managed to reposition the phone before his three-year-old son climbed onto his lap, wearing a dark green shirt and one sock, apparently having abandoned the second somewhere during the morning.

Theo leaned toward the camera.

"You coming?"

"I am."

"Today?"

"Yes, but late."

Theo frowned with the uncompromising disappointment available only to small children.

"I wanna see you."

Sebastian smiled.

"You’ll see me tomorrow at Uncle Nero’s party."

Nero had already abandoned any attempt to pretend he was not listening and leaned closer.

Theo spotted him immediately.

"Godfather!"

Nero’s face transformed.

There were very few people in the world capable of stripping the Crown Prince of Saha of every layer of cultivated menace in less than a second.

Theo was one of them.

"Hello, little beast."

"I’m not a beast."

"You were last time."

Theo considered this accusation seriously.

"I’m big now."

"You are three."

"I’m very big."

Nero nodded with appropriate gravity.

"My mistake."

Sebastian watched him and felt an embarrassing amount of warmth settle in his chest.

Dean shifted Theo more securely against him.

"Arion wants to come over after you land."

"No."

Sebastian’s answer made Dean laugh.

"I told him you would say that."

"I want one evening to settle into Nero’s palace before everyone descends on us. You will all see me tomorrow, and we can meet properly after the party when I’m not surrounded by half of Saha."

Theo looked offended.

"I come."

Sebastian nearly surrendered immediately.

"You are unfair."

"I come see Uncle Seb."

Nero looked at Sebastian.

Sebastian caught the expression and immediately understood that he had no support whatsoever from that direction.

"You are his godfather. Help me."

"I haven’t seen him in months."

"You are useless."

Theo grinned.

Dean laughed.

"We’ll wait until tomorrow. He needs to sleep tonight anyway, regardless of what he thinks."

"I don’t sleep."

"You fell asleep eating a banana this morning."

Theo looked betrayed by the disclosure.

Sebastian laughed.

Then Dean’s expression softened.

"You really are all right?"

The question carried more weight than the earlier teasing.

Sebastian nodded.

"I am. This time Nero can vouch for me too."

Dean’s eyes moved toward the prince.

Nero answered without being prompted.

"He’s safe to travel, and I’m not letting him out of my sight."

Sebastian glanced sideways.

"That second part was not medically required."

"No one believes that matters anymore," Dean said.

Sebastian decided not to dignify that.

Theo pressed both hands against Dean’s phone.

"Tomorrow?"

Sebastian smiled.

"Tomorrow, sweetheart."

"And Godfather?"

Nero leaned into view again.

"I’ll be there."

That appeared to satisfy him.

When the call finally ended, Sebastian set his phone face down and reached for his coffee.

It vibrated almost immediately.

He stared at it.

Nero glanced toward the screen.

"Who now?"

Sebastian did not check.

"I refuse to find out until I finish breakfast."

Nero smiled and pushed the untouched pastry plate closer to him.

Outside, the villa staff continued preparing for departure, while somewhere in Altera’s palace a three-year-old was already waiting for them, and, eight hours away by air, Lucas was probably calculating the earliest acceptable date for a visit.

Sebastian took a bite of pastry.

Returning to Altera had apparently become a family event before he had even reached the aircraft.