Dating A Dragon (The Mating Game Book 2) (5 page)

Her appetite was normal at breakfast, and her attempts at reproducing yesterday’s gust of frozen air had failed. She’d managed to make her coffee iced and not hot, and she’d frozen a tray of water into ice cubes – that was about as good as it got.

It was a Saturday, so the children weren’t in school. Apparently, during the week they went to school in town – on the south side of Lyndvale, at a public school where humans, shifters and fire dragons attended. It wasn’t that ice dragons couldn’t go, but they all lived in North Lyndvale, so that was where their children went to school. In the middle lived humans and shifters who did business with the dragons.

While Orion was in his office taking care of some mining business, Cadence went out to the courtyard behind the castle and watched Phoebe and half a dozen other dragonlings doing their fire training. They stood in a semi-circle around bales of hay, with half a dozen adults, and blasted the bales with their flames. Great. Ten-year-olds were more powerful dragons than Cadence.

Phoebe turned her bale into a mighty fireball, then waved at Cadence and skipped over to her.

“How’s your snow going? Are you doing any training?” she asked.

“No, but I probably should. Then I could be fierce like you,” Cadence said.

Phoebe beamed. “You should practice,” she said. “My mother says practice makes perfect. Here, blow out some cold air.”

Cadence blew a blast of barely frosty air, and Phoebe blew a puff of flame at it.

“Look, we made steam!” she said. “I’ll tell my science teacher.”

“Phoebe, get over here! Now!” a tall, lean woman called out to her sharply.

“But Mama, she’s nice,” Phoebe called back. “She’s not an evil word that rhymes with witch like you said. What word rhymes with witch, anyway? Oh, hi, uncle Orion.”

Orion strolled up to the group by the hale bales, hands shoved in his pockets. “Problem?” he said coolly to Phoebe’s mother, whose face was turning an interesting shade of red.

“Oh, no,” she muttered, “I just don’t want Phoebe to bother our guest.” She managed a pained smile, then dropped her gaze.

“The outhouses by the wheat field need cleaning,” he said to her. “Thanks for volunteering. For this entire week.”

She gasped in shock and anger. “I am royalty. I am the Lady Morning-Light, of the Glorious Crimson Flame.”

“And I expect you’ll have those outhouses so clean they’ll sparkle and smell like flowers.”

“But I— Yes, Dominus.” She nodded unhappily and turned and stalked off, leaving the courtyard. The rest of the group followed her, casting resentful looks at Cadence, except for Phoebe and a couple of the younger dragonlings, who waved shyly at her as they trailed after the adults.

Cadence stood up and shook her head.

“Can I talk to you, Orion?” she said.

They walked into the castle. “Orion, you can’t punish people into liking me,” she said. “I get it, we’re different types of dragons and there is a long, terrible history with my family.”

“They’re coming around,” Orion protested. “The serving staff have been talking about how courteous you are, and several of my family members said that – well – er – you weren’t what they had expected at all. They said that you were quite warm, in fact. For them, that’s a compliment.”

“But keeping me here may turn your clan against you,” she said.

“No, actually, the fact that your father’s clan is demanding I turn you over and I’m refusing is winning me a lot of points. Don’t worry so much. Let’s go into town and I’ll buy you lunch.”

His limousine driver, Frederick, was already waiting for them in front of the castle. They climbed into the cavernous back seat and he drove them towards Lyndvale.

She reached over to turn up the air conditioning on her side of the car. He snorted as he reached over and turned up the heat.

“Hmmph,” she grumbled as they drove. “Wimp. Can I knit you a sweater?”

“That was cold,” Orion said.

“That was terrible,” Cadence said. “
Pun
gent, one might even say.”

In response, he turned the temperature up a notch.

She rolled down the window. “Good thing we don’t actually plan on mating. You’re far too hot-blooded.”

Once Frederick dropped them off on the main street, though, she had to admit that Lyndvale was enchanting. Cobblestone streets, brick buildings, and old-fashioned streetlamps gave it a turn-of-the-century air. Stores had big wooden signs hanging out front, with hand-painted lettering.

Hanging from many of the streetlamps were banners for an upcoming Festival of Fire and Ice. There were pictures of an ice dragon and fire dragon facing each other, drawn in a medieval style. They were blasting fire and ice at each other respectively.

“So what will they have at the festival?” she asked as they strolled down the street together.

“Well, it’s the first time we’re holding this festival. There will be food and drink prepared by dragons, an ice-sculpture village and ice-sculpting competition, fire dancers, dragon rides, lots of booths with dragon tooth and dragon scale jewelry.”

“That actually sounds amazing,” Cadence said.

Orion looked unconvinced. “In theory, yes,” he said. “Supposed to bring in more visitors and also to improve dragon-human relations. It’s going to draw tons of tourists, which is a major industry for this town. The Dragon Elders were hoping it would draw the clans together, having to work on a project like this. It’s really hard to get fire and ice dragons to work together, though. The planning committee is fighting constantly.”

“Ooh, look, a tourist booth,” she said. The booth was, of course, shaped like a dragon’s head. It was divided into two sections, with a partition between them.

The left side of the booth was occupied by a female ice dragon with a dragon-shaped name tag identifying her as Darlene, and the right side was occupied by a female fire dragon whose name tag identified her as Laetitia. Both women looked to be in their sixties, although they were undoubtedly much older. Laetitia had her hair piled in a big beehive, and Darlene’s hair was done in a sixties-style flip, with a broad lime-green headband.

They each had baskets of brochures sitting next to jars of dragon-shaped lollipops. Laetitia’s advertised South Lyndvale, and Darlene’s advertised North Lyndvale.

“Hello, Dominus Orion,” Laetitia said, nodding respectfully. “I see you’ve brought a guest. Welcome! First time in town?” she added to Cadence. “You’ll want to head south. There’s a wonderful fire show that starts in about half an hour, and the Fatted Calf restaurant is second to none.”

“Oh, but what you’ll really want to see is the live ice-sculpting show,” Darlene the ice dragon interjected. “And the best home-made ice cream and slushees you’ll ever taste.”

Laetitia glared at her, and then coughed and “accidentally” set fire to several of the ice dragon’s brochures. “Sorry, I must be catching a cold. Probably proximity to ice dragons. So unhealthy.”

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.

“She’s not going anywhere,” Orion said, stepping in front of her. “Because in fact, she may already be fertilized with my eggs.”

“What?” Humphrey gasped in outrage. “You…you bespoiled her?”

“Oh, puh-leeze,” Cadence snorted. “I was bespoiled when I was in high school. And it’s happened several times since. I’m more bespoiled than milk left in the hot sun for a week, in fact, so I’m no good to you. You should just fly on back home.”

“There has been no wedding,” Humphrey continued, ignoring her.

“Doesn’t matter. Doesn’t affect what happened in my bedchamber. The law says that if she is carrying my eggs, then nobody else can claim her, and tests won’t show whether she’s carrying those eggs or not for several weeks. So flap off, Humphrey.” Orion’s eyes glowed red. “Or we can take to the sky right now.”

Humphrey took a step back, eyes flashing blue with anger, and a cold cloud of vapor rushed from his nostrils.

“This is unprecedented,” Humphrey spluttered. “It is outrageous. I shall demand the Elders hand her over to me.” He stormed off, with his men following him.

She was too shocked even to fight over the temperature as Frederick drove them back to Garrison Keep.

“Are you sure you want to go that far?” she asked him. “What will happen in a few weeks when it turns out that I’m not carrying your dragonlings?”