Chapter 5
Shit. I can’t believe I just did that.
His wyvern glared at him, eyes burning with fiery rage. Well, I certainly can. Your oafishness knows no bounds. This annihilation of our mate’s cooling contraption has ensured that we will be alone for all eternity, and deservedly so.
Calvin fought the urge to rub at his temples. He knew that his wyvern knew what an air conditioner was, but now was not the time to delve into the mysteries of why it acted the way it acted.
Because, as irritating as it was being, it was right. He had definitely, one hundred percent, destroyed his mate’s air conditioning unit in the middle of a heatwave.
He didn’t believe in curses… but, he conceded, he was going to have to believe in this one. He liked to think of himself as a logical person, but sometimes there came a point where the less logical option became the more logical one.
So. The magical glowing lady in the forest – whatever she was – has actually cursed me, because I didn’t bring her a tribute or solve her riddle. Fantastic. Great. Just what I needed.
Still, coming to this conclusion didn’t help him with his immediate problem.
“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” Diana said, coming up next to him and giving the unit a gentle whack.
She sighed, then turned to him with a smile. “Ha, it’s like you’re cursed or something! ‘Breaker of Hearts and Electronics.’”
She paused, and Calvin could almost see her berating herself internally.
Breaker of hearts? Me? Well, I certainly won’t complain if that’s how she feels. Though I’d hope I’d be doing the opposite of breaking it.
It was a relief, at least, that she wasn’t angry – not that he thought she would be the type to get upset with him. But then again, she didn’t know that he was the reason for it.
And what if this curse permanently broke whatever he touched? He’d buy her a new A/C if he had to, of course, but he also knew that she wouldn’t let him pay a single dime. It could be that he’d just saddled her with a huge expense.
I can’t believe I was so careless. I was so close to making it out the door.
As he stood and stared at the broken unit in dismay, Diana blithely went on, “Well, we’d definitely better make sure to get you to the B&B. Hell, I’m starting to think that maybe Ash and I should have a campout in the back yard tonight ourselves. It’d probably be cooler than staying in here.”
She was right – the house was already starting to warm up again.
Calvin stared blankly at the A/C unit, desperately racking his brains.
Think, Calvin. Think. There must be something you can do.
His wyvern sniffed, its contempt clear. There is something… but, as always, you are too dunderheaded to recognize what is directly in front of your inferior human eyes.
The wyvern’s tone was entirely uncalled for… but clearly it had an idea. Calvin knew better than to actually ask it outright what the idea was – even if it deigned to give him the answer, it would make him pay for it via snide remarks for at least the next three weeks.
Okay, he thought. What is it that a wyvern would think to do in these circumstances that a human would not?
… And then it hit him.
One of his powers as a wyvern was the ability to generate cold. In his wyvern form, it extended as far as being able to breathe ice if he so chose.
As a human, his powers were less impressive.
He could turn his breath cold, but that probably wasn’t incredibly useful in this scenario…
unless he wanted to stand in the corner with his mouth open like one of those laughing clown games at carnivals where you put the balls in their mouth, and slowly turn his head back and forth to more evenly distribute the cool air.
Probably Diana would start to question his sanity after a few minutes of that.
However, there was one other thing he could do – and it might just work.
“I’m sorry to ask,” he said, with an awkwardness that wasn’t entirely feigned. “But would you mind if I used your bathroom before I go?”
“Oh, of course! Sorry, I should’ve told you where it was.” Diana indicated the entrance to a hallway at the back of the room. “Just down the hall, second door on the right.”
“Thanks,” Calvin said. “I’ll be right back.”
He walked down the hall, trying to look natural about it. Or as natural as someone could look, anyway, when they were surreptitiously cooling another person’s house with their supernatural powers.
He turned his head, making sure that he was out of view of the others, and then gently brushed his fingers against the sides of the hallway, summoning the coolness and letting it spread out from his fingertips and through the walls, willing it to run all the way around the house.
Nothing too strong – he didn’t want to freeze her pipes or damage anything, after all – but hopefully a couple of minutes of gentle cooling would be enough to make the house pleasant for the rest of the evening.
He could already feel it spreading throughout the house – it was a cool relief, after the humid warmth of the day. And it would linger for hours. It was magical, after all, and it would take a little more than the warmth of the day to dissipate it.
He quickly gave the toilet a flush and ran some water from the faucet for a few seconds, just to keep up the ruse, and then went back out to the living room, resting his hand back on the A/C unit for good measure.
Now that he didn’t have to worry about breaking it anymore, he could at least continue to cool the house while he was here.
He peered at the unit, pretending to inspect it.
“I don’t know what the problem is, but I can come back tomorrow and have a look at it, if you like,” he said. “I can be pretty handy with mechanical things.”
When I’m not breaking them, at least.
Not that he actually knew much of anything about fixing air conditioners, but the last thing he wanted was for her to spend money calling out someone to get it repaired, especially since it was possible he’d broken it for good.
If he could buy some time until tomorrow so he could get his head on straight, then he could talk to Diana in private, let her know that he was a shifter and they were mates, and also inform her that he was apparently cursed.
What could possibly be so difficult about any of that?
He internally grimaced a little.
And… if I am cursed… how am I going to get it lifted? Assuming that it’s the kind of curse that can be lifted….
Diana looked surprised, but also pleased – though she quickly schooled her features. “Are you sure? No, I couldn’t possibly ask you to come back.”
“It would be my pleasure,” he said, smiling – though he knew that before he did anything with Diana, he’d need to figure out what was going on.
Maybe if he went back to the spring where he’d first seen the mystery glowing woman and got down on his hands and knees and begged her, she’d lift the curse?
Calvin didn’t like his chances. But he had to try.
“Oh well, then, who am I to deny you your pleasure!” Diana said quickly, and Calvin tried – and probably failed – to hide a smile.
Diana shivered suddenly, running her hands up and down her arms. “Brr! I can’t believe how quickly it’s cooling down, even with the sun still out – I might have to get a sweater. Are you sure the A/C isn’t working?”
“Pretty sure, yeah,” Calvin said, taking his hand off the unit and stopping the flow of coolness from his fingers. “It’s not making even the slightest sound.”
As if on cue, the house itself seemed to groan, a series of pops and creaks running through the walls and along the ceiling.
Whoops, I may have overdone it a little, he thought guiltily. Though at least hopefully this means that they’ll stay cool for the evening.
What do you mean, ‘overdone’? the wyvern demanded. We should give our mate all the frigid air she could desire!
Do you want her to freeze? he snapped back. Not everyone likes the cold like you do!
“These old houses,” Diana said, casting her eyes upward. “Not that I can blame it, if the weather is changing this quickly.”
“It’s a lovely house,” Calvin said – and he was telling the truth. Sure, it wasn’t particularly large, and it didn’t look like something out of a magazine… but that was all part of the charm. It felt lived in, and well-loved.
Diana laughed. “Yeah, some people pay hundreds of dollars to get that chic ‘artfully peeling paint’ look, but it turns out that you can get the same effect for free just by… not ever re-painting the house.”
“I like it,” Calvin said firmly.
Diana’s cheeks flushed a light pink, and she ducked her head – but not before Calvin caught the hint of a smile on her lips.
“Well,” she said, raising her head again after a moment. “Not that I want to kick you out or anything, but if you insist on walking, you’d better head off now.”
Calvin nodded. “Agreed. Thank you for your hospitality – it really has been wonderful to meet you.” He turned to smile at Ash. “Both of you.”
“It was good to meet you, too,” Ash said. “Thanks for your help with the crossword.”
“Uh, ‘help’ might be a bit strong,” Calvin said, laughing. “I’m still not really sure I get it.”
Ash smiled shyly. “The clue was ‘Analyze dusty bananas’ – so you have to re-arrange the letters of ‘dusty’ to get another word for ‘analyze’, if that helps.”
“Huh,” Calvin said, thinking it over – and then, he got it. “It’s ‘study’! I mean… it is, right?”
He couldn’t say that being a construction site foreman gave him much opportunity to think about anagrams.
Or riddles, he thought ruefully, as the predicament he was in thanks to the weird woman at the pond came back to mind.
Ash’s smile got wider, his eyes sparkling. “Yeah! You got it!”
“Well, it’s easy to get it when you have a good teacher,” Calvin said. “Though I think it’ll be a while until I’m up to your standards.”
“We can keep practicing,” Ash said sincerely. “If you want to.”