Chapter 2 #2
Dutton didn’t hesitate. He rushed into the building, his magic reaching instantly for the flames that were already crawling up one wall.
The small blaze was alive with energy, and after putting the barbecue fire out earlier, his reserves were a bit drained.
He narrowed his focus on the flames licking the wall, shut out the rest of the world, and imagined the fire shrinking smaller and smaller until it was once again contained in the metal garbage can.
He took a step forward, both hands outstretched as he imagined a bucket of water splashing on the small fire. The fire extinguished suddenly with a hissing sound as if he’d actually doused the flames with water. All that was left was gray smoke trickling up from the ashes.
Dutton glanced around, blinking through the smoke that was stinging his eyes. When he was satisfied the fire wasn’t going to flare back to life, he stepped back out into the fresh air. He coughed multiple times before he was able to take a large gulp of fresh air.
“You saved my store!” the woman who’d been on the phone exclaimed, clutching his arm. Her blondish gray curly hair was swept up into a messy bun, and she wore tortoiseshell glasses. “I don’t know how to thank you.”
He stared at her hands wrapped around his arm and noted this was the second time he’d had an older woman hanging off his arm that day. “You could offer me pie,” he teased, trying to ease her obvious distress.
“Pie?” she asked, looking confused.
He glanced at her shop. “You do sell pie, don’t you?”
“Oh, right,” she said with a laugh that sounded a little hysterical. “I suppose one from the freezer wouldn’t be ruined. Let me just go grab it. What do you like?”
Dutton shook his head and gave her a small smile. “I was joking. You don’t owe me anything.”
“Of course I do. You kept my shop and the ones around it from burning to the ground.” She let him go and said, “I’ll just get the sampler.”
“But—” It was too late. The woman disappeared into the smoky shop.
Sirens sounded from down the street. In no time, a fire truck, along with the local sheriff’s cruiser, parked right in front of where he stood.
“Is anyone in there?” a man dressed all in yellow and wearing a hard hat asked.
“Yes. The woman who works there just went back inside. But the fire is out,” Dutton said.
The fireman nodded once and ran into the shop.
Drew Baker stepped out of the sheriff’s vehicle and walked over to him. “Dutton,” he said, his brows pinched. “Everyone okay?”
“As far as I know,” Dutton said, pushing his hands into his pockets.
Drew Baker, the sheriff of Keating Hollow, seemed like a decent guy.
He knew him a little bit from hanging out at the Keating Hollow Brewery, but authority figures had always been somewhat of a trigger for him.
While he didn’t have an issue with the sheriff personally, he wasn’t exactly aiming to be friends with the man either.
“Can you tell me what happened?”
Dutton explained that he was driving by when he felt the fire and then saw the smoke, so he stopped to help put it out.
“You’re a fire witch, then?” Drew asked.
“Yes, sir,” he said.
“Then it’s lucky you were around, wasn’t it?” Drew made a few notes on a tablet and then looked up when the firefighter emerged from the shop.
“There’s magic all over the site of the fire,” the firefighter said. “We’ll need to call in the Magical Task Force.”
“It’s because Mr. Williams here is a fire witch and put it out for us,” Drew said.
Dutton’s shoulders relaxed a bit. He hadn’t had the best experiences with law enforcement officers, so to have one take his version of events at face value was a huge relief.
“We still need to call them,” the firefighter said.
“It’s a newer policy if the magical signature doesn’t match one of the firefighters on staff.
Ever since that large fire burned over a hundred thousand acres last year, the higher-ups have been keeping track of all the fire witch activity in the state. ”
“Seems like a waste of time to me,” Drew said with a frown, “but regulations are regulations. I’ll give them a call. Any idea what started it?”
The firefighter shook his head. “We’ll need to get forensics down here to answer that one. It started in the garbage can next to the register. Not exactly a hot spot for a spontaneous fire to break out.”
Drew nodded and added that tidbit to his notes.
Dutton cleared his throat. “I have somewhere to be, so I’ll leave you guys to it.”
“Can I just get your number?” Drew asked. “The MTF will want to talk to you as part of their investigation.”
Dutton swallowed a sigh and ignored the ache that had formed in his gut as he wrote down his name and number for the sheriff.
“Thanks again,” the firefighter said. “You really helped us out today.”
“I was happy to,” Dutton said and walked to his car.
Before he could get the door open, the woman from the shop came running out. “Wait! You can’t forget your pie sampler.” She thrust a large pastry box into his hands and then pressed up onto her tiptoes to give him a kiss on the cheek.
“Thank you, ma’am,” Dutton said.
“Call me Milly,” she said. “And you are?”
“Dutton Williams.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Dutton. The next time you come in, if I’m not here, you tell the girls I said you get the Milly special. Understand?”
“What’s the Milly special?” he asked.
“A free pie. Pick anything you want. A Good Samaritan is always taken care of at my store.”
“That’s kind but not necessary,” Dutton said. “I’m also a small business owner and—”
“I won’t take no for an answer,” she said, shaking her finger in his face. “We watch out for each other in this town, and while I can’t control fires, I do make the best pie in six counties. We all do our part.”
Dutton chuckled. “Yes, ma’am, Understood.”
“Good. We’ll see you next week.”
Dutton waved at her as he drove off and tried to forget about the impending call from the Magical Task Force.