Chapter 25 #2
Once Rhaz had a cup in his hand, he leaned back in his chair and sipped it slowly. He’d not flown like that in a long time, but it felt good. He was also going to have to train to keep his strength up in case he had to fight.
Ezriel was itching for one. But he hoped it didn’t come to that. Especially since they weren’t sure what it was they might be fighting.
Once he got a look at it, he might be able to guess. But if it was a creature he was unfamiliar with, as he was sure it was, he didn’t know its strengths or weaknesses.
This could pose a problem. And of course, Basil knew it. Everyone knew it.
He and Aaron were the two most powerful supernaturals among them, but they couldn’t risk Aaron in a fight. They would have to come up with a plan to make the Nemthra stay behind, keep him safe, but also give him a purpose so that he didn’t feel like he was being treated like a child.
“Good afternoon,” Anon said as he entered the kitchen. “Ah, good. You’ve got some coffee. I am sorry I wasn’t up earlier to make you some.”
“Basil took care of it,” Rhaz said, holding up his cup.
“Did he now?” He turned to the gnome, who was standing on his perch in front of the stove already cooking. “Thank you, Basil.”
Basil turned to Anon, gave him a curt nod, but said nothing more.
Rhaz arched an eyebrow. He noticed Basil wasn’t quite as snippy around Anon lately. Maybe it was because he was taking part in the risk Rhaz was facing while locating the creature. Who knew?
“Well, we’ll have to figure out when we can have another go. But first, we’ll speak with Emory,” Anon announced.
“Good idea. I was thinking the same thing.” Rhaz took another sip of coffee and closed his eyes.
He missed Phin, of all things. How strange.
He opened his eyes and noticed Anon staring at him. “What?”
“Oh, nothing,” Anon chortled. “Just wondering what’s got you looking a little... what’s the word? Despondent? Lonely?” he sang.
Basil’s head snapped toward him. “I am sorry, my prince, but soon we will be home, and you can marry your beloved.”
Rhaz spewed coffee everywhere. “What? Basil, are you deranged?”
“No, my prince. Just a hopeless romantic.”
“Romantic?? You’re a two hundred-eighty-seven-year old bachelor.”
“Yes, well.” Basil shrugged. “I can live vicariously through you once you marry the princess.”
Rhaz was tempted to shift and, in one quick puff, incinerate Basil. But he liked him too much, so he wasn’t going to do that. “Do not speak her name in my presence again. Do you understand me?” he said, his voice stern.
“Oh. Uh. Yes, my prince.” He turned back to the stove and stirred whatever was in the frying pan. It smelled like potatoes.
“Oh, there, there, Prince of Dragons,” Anon said in a low voice. “I see what’s starting here.” He made a tsk-tsk sound and shook his head. “But fear not. You’re not the first to succumb.” He patted Rhaz on the shoulder, turned, and left the kitchen.
Rhaz had no idea what he was talking about and frankly didn’t care.
All he really wanted to do was see Phin.
Rhaz ate his breakfast, went upstairs, changed his clothes, combed his hair, and headed out the back door.
Anon was washing the van.
“And where are you off to, Prince of Dragons?”
“I am… taking a walk.” His hesitation made it obvious it wasn’t exactly true. He hated when he hesitated.
“Really?” Anon sang. “Well, tell Phin hello.” He got back to washing the van.
Before Rhaz could talk himself out of it, and wind up getting teased by Anon, considering he guessed where he was heading, he started off.
When he was a few blocks away, Rhaz smiled as he sniffed the air and followed his nose to Phin’s house. It was Sunday afternoon. Surely she’d be home.
He crossed a street, started down another, and spotted her car in the Ironwoods’ driveway.
His heart skipped, and Ezriel started turning in circles, chasing his tail.
“Calm down, boy. I am just being neighborly. Yes, checking on her. That’s all.” Before he knew it, he was at their front door knocking.
Barbara answered. “Rhaz! What a pleasant surprise. Come in.”
“Phin!” she yelled over her shoulder. “Company!” She had the manners of a peasant, but she was nice enough.
Rhaz stepped inside.
Bill came around a corner, obviously coming from the kitchen.
“Rhaz, I thought I heard your name. Barbara, look, it’s Rhaz. Here to see Phin?” he asked hopefully.
“Bill, I let him in,” Barbara stated.
“Oh yes, of course. He didn’t let himself in, did he?” Bill chuckled and then yelled, “Phin! You’ve got company!”
“All right, I’m coming!” Phin yelled from somewhere above them.
Rhaz looked up the stairwell and smiled. “How is everyone today?”
“Oh, we’re just peachy,” Barbara said. “Phin’ll be right down. She’s probably doing a rapid primp.”
Rhaz didn’t know that word. “Primp?”
Barbara winked. “You know, dolling herself up.”
His eyebrows slowly rose, and he fought the urge to ask questions. He would ask Phin instead what a primp was.
Phin came bounding down the stairs and stopped halfway. “Rhaz! What are you doing here?”
“I came to see you.”
“Oh. Um.” She smoothed the front of her pink blouse. “How nice. Well, here I am.”
She came down the rest of the stairs and stood before him. “Let’s go!” She grabbed him by the hand and pulled him out the door onto the porch. “Bye, Mom! Bye, Dad!”
Rhaz suddenly noticed she had a little purse with her, as the women called them. She headed straight for her car. Did she think someone else was coming?
“Have you eaten?” Phin asked.
“I just did.”
“Oh, darn. Well, would you like a milkshake from Frosty’s?”
He liked the hopeful look in her eyes. “I’d love a milkshake from Frosty’s.”
She opened the passenger door for him, then ran around to the other side and hopped in. Why was she acting so strange?
Her mother and father came out onto the front porch and waved at them. “Be careful, dear, wherever you go, whatever you do,” Barbara called.
“Yes,” Bill said with a little wave. “Be careful.”
“Be careful?” Rhaz repeated silently. “What are they talking about?”
“Nothing,” Phin blurted. She started the car, backed out of the driveway faster than she should, and with a screech of tires took off.
“Phin, what’s wrong?” he asked. “Are you okay?”
“Yes. I am fine. Never better.” She took a deep breath, then two more. “Happy thoughts. Calm. Calm. Calm.”
“Phin,” he said more sternly, “what is wrong?” Even Ezriel’s head came up.
She took another deep breath. “It’s my parents. They’re driving me crazy.” She hit her hand on the steering wheel a few times. “Gah!”
“What are they doing?” he asked, perplexed.
“They’re driving me nuts about you. They think you’re my boyfriend. No thanks to Jessica. Oh my gosh, I’m going to kill her.”
A slow smile formed on his face. “What makes them think that?”
“Because Jessica said she caught us holding hands yesterday. I tried to explain to her that all you were doing was helping me down the sand dune. She knows what a klutz I am.”
Klutz. That was another word he’d have to ask about, but later. “And because we held hands, she told your parents we are boyfriend and girlfriend?”
“Yes. Ridiculous, I know.” She bit her lower lip, and he caught the disappointment in her eyes.
Another smile crept over his face. “So if I reached over and held your hand, like this...” He put one hand over hers. She tended to drive with one hand on the steering wheel, the other resting on her leg. “Does that mean we are boyfriend and girlfriend?”
“Um, no,” she said. “It means you have your hand on top of mine. And if I didn’t know you, I’d probably slap your face.”
He drew his hand back. “Oh yes, of course. It is wrong of a gentleman to do such things, is it not?”
“Yes.”
“But what if we are friends?”
“Well, that’s not so bad. But still, a male friend would not hold the hand of a female friend unless he was helping her down a sand dune. Get me?”
“Ah, yes,” he said, still smiling.
She was so flustered her face was turning bright pink.
“And this bothers you? That I am not your boyfriend?”
She slammed on the brakes. They both flew forward and then back against their seats. “Oh my gosh, you too! Stop it! Just... just stop it!”
“But why does it upset you so much?” he asked, truly perplexed at this point.
“Because it just does, okay? Golly.”
He laughed, put his hand over hers one more time, and gave it a gentle squeeze. “For what it is worth, Seraphina Ironwood, I enjoy holding your hand.”
He drew back and kept his hands in his lap, watching her out of the corner of one eye. He shouldn’t be doing this. He knew better. But he couldn’t help himself. He was drawn to her. She was so different from the ladies of the court.
He’d never met anyone like her. She was adorable, feisty, filled with determination and grit, yet she was such a delicate little thing. What a treasure he’d found.
Ours, Ezriel said.
“I am beginning to agree with you.”
“What was that?” Phin asked.
“Nothing. Everything is fine.” He looked out the window so she wouldn’t see his blush. Everything is just fine, he told Ezriel.