Baldewin shoved Warin away from him. He didn’t need the dragon growling in his ear as he spoke to their king.
“What?” Alric gasped. “A spell? He cast a spell?”
There were some sounds like a scuffle in the background of the call, and he clearly heard Cameron’s voice demanding Alric put them on speaker.
“Are you shitting me? The new mage cast a spell?” Cameron demanded a second later. “Whoa, that’s kind of hysterical.”
“It does make me grateful you didn’t know magic yet when we spoke to you in the castle the first time,” Alric murmured. “I’m assuming both you and Warin are okay. You weren’t harmed?”
“No, we’re both fine, Hoheit. Simply surprised.” Warin paced away from the table, swearing again. Okay, so maybe they were a little more than surprised. A little shocked and insulted, too. What mage didn’t want to know a dragon?
“And the mage? Did he look hurt? Or scared?” Cameron prodded.
“More…angry. I’m inclined to think that he hates dragons. If you could have seen his expression, heard his voice when he said ‘dragons,’ you would have thought we were to blame for every slight and ill-fortune he’s suffered in his life.”
“So, I take it he rejected your offer to talk,” Alric said.
Baldewin snorted. “He said ‘no’ much like Cameron did that first day in the castle but with magic.”
“What is your plan for moving forward?”
Baldewin sighed and glanced over at Warin. The dragon seemed to have calmed, his expression more of worry and frustration now. He’d wager that Warin was feeling more embarrassment at being caught by the spell than any real anger.
“I am reluctant to confront him at his motel. It is clear he doesn’t want anything to do with us. I don’t think it will help our cause to make him feel even more threatened. We will back off for the rest of the day. Maybe try to keep an eye on him from a distance so we know he is safe. I will attempt to speak to him again soon when he’s had time to calm down.”
“That sounds like a wise course of action. Take your time and keep us posted.”
“I will, Hoheit. Could you also ask Lisette to notify us if it looks like he’s leaving Helsinki?”
“I will pass along your request. Good luck to you and Warin. Be safe, and protect that mage.”
“We will. I swear it.”
Baldewin ended the call and lowered the phone to the table, staring at the dark screen for a moment. The only question was how were they going to get close enough to the man to speak to him without being hit with another freezing spell…or something even more dangerous?
Tori wanted precisely three things out of this day. One, to get a job. Money was past tight at this point. Two, to drink coffee as black as his soul. Three, for no one to pet his peeves.
So, it was only natural for the dragon to show up again to further annoy the crap out of him. There could be no other explanation than bad karma from a previous life coming back to haunt him with a vengeance.
As proof to this theory, the dragon came to him before he had coffee.
Of course the dragon was freaking back. The lizard pretending to be a sexy man—and Tori needed to have a word with his libido—had been haunting his every step for the past four days.
He and his companion hadn’t done anything so bold as to attempt to speak with him again, but there was this feeling that he was being watched even when he couldn’t actually spot either of the dragons.
And then there were the gifts.
Money had finally gotten tight enough that he was now playing his guitar in locations frequently traveled by cruise ship tourists. More than once, he’d found that people had dropped twenty euro bills into his guitar case. Tourists didn’t toss in bills. Only coins. And no one mistook a twenty euro note. Not repeatedly.
One of the dragons had obviously done that, but he couldn’t figure out how he’d missed his approach. Had he gotten a human to drop it in his case?
Part of him hated that the dragons thought they could buy him so easily, but the starving, scared part of him was grateful for the cash. It guaranteed he had a roof over his head and food in his belly for a little while longer.
And then there were the socks.
A day earlier, he’d been in the park filling out another round of applications, trying to keep an eye out for those damn dragons, when a little girl ran up and dropped a brown paper bag on the table before running away again with a giggle.
Jumping to his feet, he’d turned around, sure this had to be the doing of those dragons, but there was no sign of them. He’d sat and carefully opened the bag to find thick wool socks with black and grey stripes. A short note accompanied them.
The evenings are cold.
~Baldewin
Tori had nearly laughed aloud. Cold? This was nothing. The temperature at night was downright balmy compared to winter nights in Nuorgam. Ridiculous dragon.
But still…the socks. Money was easy. It didn’t require any deep thought or planning. The socks, on the other hand, were different.
This Baldewin had to think about whether Tori was comfortable. Maybe he knew there was no carpet in his room, and he was worried about Tori walking barefoot across the tile floor. The dragon had picked out these particular thick, soft socks for him. He’d written the note and enlisted the help of the little girl so Tori couldn’t possibly turn him away again.
It was a small, stupid gift, but Tori had found himself swallowing hard against the lump that formed in his throat. When was the last time someone had given him such a gift? Never from a friend. He’d gotten a few when he was a kid from his parents. At least before they discovered he was gay and a mage without useful magic.
But this couldn’t continue.
The dragons were just trying to get past his defenses. They thought he could be bought easily, and they were wrong. He’d use them for what he could get, and as soon as he could, he was going to disappear.
He just needed to get better at spotting them. For the past four days, he’d constantly looked over his shoulder and jumped at every damn shadow, expecting a dragon to suddenly materialize. He was exhausted with worry.
That only put him in a bad mood when the dragon boldly walked toward him. Was this the dragon who’d given him the socks? Baldewin?
Tori eyed his approach and debated what to do. He had no real elements on him to work with, so magic was very much out. He could try coshing the guy over the head, which, heh, would be comedic if nothing else. Tori was maybe half the guy’s size. Were all dragons built solid like that, like a brick wall with legs?
That probably wasn’t fair.
He was handsome, Tori could give him that. The dragon had at least six inches on him in height and was nearly as wide as a car. His black hair was buzzed short, and black square glasses stood out against his rich, amber skin. There was dark stubble lining his strong jaw.
Everything about the man—er, dragon—should have been intimidating. And he was. This creature was definitely intimidating. There was no question he was powerful. Tori would have undoubtedly avoided him even if he didn’t know he was a dragon.
But there was something in his grey-green eyes, something in the way he looked at Tori, that made him sure the dragon wouldn’t hurt him.