Put back together

58. Alone together above the abyss

Logan woke up slowly.
He felt warm and safe as if he had fallen asleep while reading in an armchair in front of a fireplace.

His mouth felt dry and he realised that it had been hanging opened. There was dried drool on his chin and his vision was blurry when he finally opened his eyes.

He had to blink a few times until it cleared up and he became aware of his surroundings.

The memory of where he was and how he had gotten here hit him suddenly but the impact was softened by another wave of warmth.

Logan tried to move only to realise that he was leaning against Roman who in turn was leaning against him.
It would be impossible to move away without waking him up.

The book they had been reading had fallen off their laps and Elliott had taken its place.

Emile was asleep across from them, his coat rolled into an arm long roll and draped over his chest.

Logan frowned.
He couldn't imagine that being comfortable. It must fell like an arm or...

Or maybe that was the point. Emile probably slept with his husband on nights he was at home. Maybe he missed him.

Logan glanced over at Roman again.

Sleeping against him had felt nice and secure, but that was probably just because of their magical connection, right?

He wanted to tell himself "Yes" but it tasted like a lie.

Elliott began to stir and they pushed themselves up. They were about as big as a small lamb now and also about as heavy.

"Mum?" they asked quietly upon noticing that Logan was also awake.

"Yes?"

"Is it bad that the other one, Virgil, glowed too?"

"No, its not," Logan pet their head. "Why do you ask?"

"You didn't want to tell Dad and you didn't look happy when I told you," Elliott leaned their head against his hand.

"We were just surprised and Dad needs as much sleep as possible right now, but it's nothing bad. Don't worry," Logan tried to explain.

"And the yellow one?"

"The what?"

"The one who glowed with Virgil!" Elliott was getting a little frustrated.

"I didn't see Virgil glow," Logan said. "Can you describe the person who glowed yellow?"

Elliott thought about it.

"I know he had a weird thing on his head," they finally said. "It looked sharp and shiny."

"Do you mean a crown?" Logan asked.

"I don't know what a crown is."

Logan pulled his notebook out, careful not to jostle Roman too much and sketched a crown. It wasn't his best sketch but to be fair he had only seen a real one once and hadn't really payed much attention to it at the time.

"This is a crown," he showed it to Elliott. "They can look different, but that's the basic shape of one."

Elliott nodded eagerly.

"Yeah, he had one of those. A crown."

So King Janus was one of them too.

Weird, that they supposedly were spread over the Islands and then three of them were siblings.
Though Logan remembered Emile mentioning that Virgil wasn't really a prince.