Chapter 2
Chapter two
Ice & Intrigue
Yuri
Icarefully slathered more of the soothing ointment the fire drake had given me over the tender pink skin of my palm. The hint of unbearable heat instantly faded away, and I sighed in relief. It was hard enough staying cool this far south of the permafrost without having burned skin.
I had been so tired after arriving in Willowmere last night, but I had still stayed up till two in the morning working on this article that had been due at noon.
I had only been even more exhausted when I got up a few hours later to continue working in the diner, whose wifi was more reliable than the inn’s.
If only I hadn’t been so sleep-deprived, I would have heard the waitress’ warning about the hot plate, or failing that, I would have kept a layer of scales on top of my skin.
But that took a lot more concentration, and I had just felt so exhausted…
My older brother would have taken me to task for making such a foolish mistake, and for not keeping a protective layer of scales over my skin when a fire drake, our ancient enemy, was near. Fortunately, he was far from this place—at least, for now.
As I rewrapped my hand with the cloth strips, my mind kept returning to the way Mei had drawn the painful heat out of my hand. The amount of control and precision that must have taken was astounding—one misstep, and she could have seriously injured me—or herself.
And I couldn’t get her question out of my head either: “I just…drew the heat into myself, with my magic. Don’t ice dragons do the same with the cold?”
If ice dragons really could do that, it was news to me. Was that sort of magic not possible with frost? Or was it simply that no one in my fleet had ever bothered to do so for me?
With a sigh, I lay back on the inn’s much-too-soft bed. The ceiling fan rotated in lazy circles above my head, but at least it kept the air moving and the temperature mostly bearable.
At least I had gotten the article in on time. With the payment from it, I should have enough to last me a couple of weeks—if I spent it exclusively on the room and some food.
Freelancing was challenging, but I would take human clients with unrealistic expectations over an entire fleet of snickering and sneering ice dragons any day.
I clutched the bottle of gel in one hand, running my fingers over its cool plastic shell. Hopefully, the tip I had left Mei would help cover it—even if it meant skipping dinner today.
My stomach growled, but I ignored it. Instead of protein, tomorrow I would order something a bit more filling. Maybe something with lots of bread, or pasta.
But then I scowled. Why was I planning on returning to that ancient-looking diner?
Sure, there weren’t exactly very many options in a town as small as Willowmere, but there were other options. Options that weren’t absolutely loaded with spice and served on burning plates.
My fingers tightened around the plastic bottle. It would be rude not to return it to her, once the burn was healed…which would most likely be fairly soon.
I grimaced as I recalled my overreaction from earlier. The burn was honestly quite mild, and it hardly hurt compared to most of the injuries I’d had in the past. I had simply been surprised while I was under a lot of pressure.
Still, I really shouldn’t have lost my temper like that. I laid my arm over my tired eyes. Mei had seemed calm on the outside, but I remembered the way her jaw had flexed in anger, and how the temperature around her had risen so sharply.
Maybe tomorrow, I would go to the Italian restaurant to work and get my load of carbs for the day. It would be better if I had fewer…distractions while I resumed working on my book.
I set the gel on the bedside table, made sure my laptop was plugged in, and turned out the lights. I was determined to write a full chapter tomorrow.
And yet, despite my bountiful motivation from the night before, the following afternoon I found myself sitting in front of a blank screen. Even the stupid cursor had stopped blinking at me, as if it had given up entirely on waiting for me to type something.
Sighing, I shoved another bite of my chicken alfredo pasta into my mouth. It was exactly the way I liked it: lukewarm, with barely any garlic and nice and creamy. But for some reason, it didn’t taste quite right. Almost like it was missing something.
I quietly scoffed to myself. What was wrong with me? I had been eating food like this my entire life and loved it right up until… Golden eyes flashed through my mind, accompanied by the sensation of searing heat and a spark of magic.
I held up a hand to flag down my waiter. “I’ll take the check, please.”
After paying and forcing myself to finish the rest of my lunch, I packed up my laptop and left the restaurant. I wandered along the main street, pausing when I caught the scent of coffee on the wonderfully chilly November breeze.
I followed my nose to a coffee shop called The Broom & Bean, which must have been owned by a witch, given the shop’s name.
Sure enough, when I went inside I spotted a young witch brewing coffee and manning the till.
She was pretty, with long raven hair and vivid turquoise eyes, but she didn’t have the unpredictable intensity the fire drake waitress had possessed.
Shaking my head to clear it of such ridiculous thoughts, I joined the line and waited for my turn to order.
The place was certainly eccentric, with overstuffed armchairs and strange enchantments all over the place.
The roaring fire made the interior rather stuffy, but if I could sit outside on the patio and still use the shop’s wifi, that shouldn’t be an issue.
Though for some reason, the black cat in the corner kept staring at me.
What was it with felines and their judgmental stares?
“I can help the next in line!” called the witch.
I stepped forward, and scanned the menu briefly. “I will take an iced pumpkin spice latte with extra cream.”
“Coming right up.” She gave me an icy smile, and purple magic glowed as she made my order while I paid.
Now that I got a closer look at her, I was fairly certain I had seen this witch at the diner yesterday. Wasn’t she friends with Mei? My spine stiffened. She probably remembered my little outburst, then. Perhaps coming in here had been a mistake.
“Here you are.” She handed me my drink, and I took it cautiously. She wouldn't have…done something to it, right? To get back at me on behalf of her friend?
“Thank you.” I took the cup gingerly in my non-bandaged hand, and went to find a seat on the patio.
After I sat down, I popped the lid to take a look at the drink, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. I didn’t sense any magic coming from it, either. I put the lid back on and took a tentative sip, only to be pleasantly surprised. This was probably the best iced latte I had ever encountered.
I opened up my laptop, ready to get to work, only to discover that the shop’s wifi connection outside was so terrible that my device couldn’t hold the connection. I tried moving it as close to the wall of the building as I could, but that didn’t seem to make much of a difference.
My only two options were to sit inside by the fire and possibly irritate the witch or go elsewhere in search of better wifi.
I huffed in frustration and slowly closed my laptop, returning it to my bag. The very first time my brother had caught up to me, I had learned the hard way that saving my work to the device itself and even to a flashdrive was meaningless if both were destroyed at the same time.
Now, I only ever used writing tools that saved to the cloud. No device? No flashdrive? No problem. Finding steady wifi could be inconvenient, but it was much better than losing all of my work and having to start over from scratch—again.
And fortunately for me, my family was still living in the stone ages, so they assumed destroying the devices themselves was all they needed to do. If I acted devastated enough, I could usually slip away while my brother was gloating and purchase another inexpensive laptop.
I scowled and tapped my fingers on the tabletop. If I didn’t want to melt inside The Broom & Bean, then my only other option was to go back to the Hearthstone Diner. The food was spicy, but at least they had both air conditioning and wifi.
My mind made up, I stood, grabbed my bag and my iced latte, and walked along the main street to the diner. As I walked, I told myself that the only reason I was going back to that den of fire drake food was for the wifi.
And for nothing—or no one—else.