Darlene sneezed and froze the fire dragon’s brochures in a block of ice. “Whoopsie. My allergies.” She sniffed. “Can’t imagine what I’m allergic to,” she said, with a twitch of her nostril. “Maybe all that sulfur.”
Laetitia gasped in outrage and sucked in a mighty breath. “Sulfur! Why, I never! I’ll have you know—”
“Ladies!” Orion snapped. “Are we going to have to build another tourist booth? Because it’s getting expensive.”
They glared daggers at each other, arms folded across ample chests, and ignored him.
“I can’t wait to see both sides of town,” Cadence said quickly. “First some dinner in the south, then some dessert in the north.”
“Or you could just eat dessert on the fire side of town – they have fantastic crème brulée!” Laetitia called after her as she and Orion hurried north.
“The baked Alaska in North Lyndvale is to die for!” Darlene yelled.
“Good lord, is it always like that?” Cadence stifled a laugh behind her hands.
“Worse, usually.” Orion shook his head. “That fire dragon back at the booth is my great aunt Laetitia, by the way. Yep. They go at it like cats and dogs.”
“Hmm,” Cadence mused. “You know, I think I might like to volunteer to be on the planning committee for the Fire and Ice Festival.”
“Really?” He stared at her in astonishment. “After what you just saw?”
“Well, it wouldn’t be dull,” Cadence said with a laugh. “And remember, events planning is my thing, and this would be something to put on my resume when I leave.” The thought of leaving, oddly, made her a little sad.
Orion shook his head. “I guess so,” he said doubtfully. “Which committee would you volunteer for? The fire side or the ice side?”
“Isn’t there a neutral zone?”
He scoffed. “Neutral zone? Hello, have you met my family?”
“Right. Well, I will try very hard to work with both sides. Maybe I can get them to cooperate with each other.”
He patted her shoulder. “That’s adorable. Do you also believe in pegacorns?”
“Shut up. The pegacorn is my spirit animal. I had a stuffed pegacorn when I was a little girl. There have been successful matings of pegasi and unicorns, you know.”
“In the laboratory only. Doesn’t count.”
“You just had to get the last word in, didn’t you?”
He smirked at her. “It’s the Dominus in me.”
They managed to enjoy their dinner and dessert without any further incident – but that was when their luck ran out.
The streets were filled with dragons and shifters and humans strolling through town, shopping, chatting. As Cadence and Orion headed back to the center of town to meet Frederick, a cluster of unfriendly looking men stepped out of an alleyway and blocked their path. Their eyes flashed blue – ice dragons.
One of them, Cadence recognized – unfortunately. Humphrey Leominster. Five hundred years old, looked about seventy. He had white hair and sharp lines creasing his forehead, and he looked down his long, aristocratic nose at her. He was obscenely wealthy, and a distant relative of hers through her father’s clan. He had his own clan on the other side of the north mountain range.
He stalked up and tried to grab her arm. Orion let out a warning blast of flame and leaped in front of her.
Several fire dragons hurried over to back Orion up, and stood glaring at the ice dragons, with smoke drifting from their nostrils.
Humphrey haughtily pulled a rolled-up parchment from a cardboard tube, and unrolled it. It was written in blue ink that glittered.
“This is a proclamation from the Elders,” he said. “It states that I may claim her as my mate, since she is long past the minimum age of first mating…”
“Hey! I’m freaking twenty-five!” Cadence glared at him. Was a five-hundred-year-old actually calling her long in the tooth? Or long in the fang, as the case may be?
Humphrey continued. “And she has not yet elected to declare an interest in any other available mates from the appropriate clan. Any eligible ice dragons may meet me in the sky if they wish to battle for her. That is, of course, assuming that she is not fertilized with my eggs first. And since that will happen tonight in my bedchamber, she shall be my eternal mate.”
“Fertilize? Your bedchamber? Your eternal mate?” Cadence said in horror. “I would literally rather hurl myself off a cliff right now, and I do not know how to fly.”
“Not an option,” Humphrey sneered. “Not before you’ve given me at least half a dozen dragonlings, including a male heir. After that, I may hurl you off myself.” He looked her up and down. “Of course, as long as you are my mate and therefore representing my clan, I will need to have my tailor destroy every piece of clothing you own and design you more appropriate garb.” Ugh. Five-hundred-year-old who had clearly not evolved with the times. And also, Cadence absolutely meant that about hurling herself off a cliff.