Page 268 of Scales ’N’ Spells: Volume One

North didn’t say anything. Not that his mother needed him to respond to carry on a conversation. She finished up telling him what his father had been doing—cleaning out the garage—and that Mrs. Mason from church had a niece who would be just perfect for Freddie.

The horrible call ended at last and North could only sit there. A rock weighed down the pit of his stomach, and his heart was breaking. The truth was that he hadn’t had a plan for after he found a dragon. He’d just been sure that if he found the dragon who owned the scale then everything about his life would change. But how?

His mother was right. Being a mage wasn’t a job. It wasn’t a career. It wasn’t going to pay the bills or give him a place to live. Maybe Lisette might be willing to teach him, but would he actually be able to stay here? Of course Cameron lived here. He was bonded to the king. And his sister was with a member of the royal guard. But what about him? Could he actually get a job in the castle?

Hell, he’d scrub the king’s toilet every day if it meant getting to learn magic.

And the bonus, of course, would be getting to see Warin every day. Not that a dragon would likely want to be with a guy who scrubbed toilets.

But what about his family? It wasn’t just that they were his only source of income at the moment. He had a duty to his family. He did work a lot of hours every week at the family concrete company. Even if his mother didn’t much care for who he really was, he had to believe she really did want the best for him. She wanted him to have a safe future. And for her, that meant a house, wife, job, and kids.

What did North have right now?

A dwindling bank account and very limited future prospects.

Maybe she was right. Maybe he was simply dragging his feet. What was he going to do with magic and dragons? What kind of future was that?

As much as he hated the idea, maybe he should go home and forget about Burkhard Castle.

And Warin.

North sat at the big dining hall the next morning, pushing porridge around in his bowl instead of eating it. He kept staring at his phone, black and silent at the moment. He’d texted his mother the name of the town and the nearest airport last night, then immediately wished he hadn’t. Because doing so broke his heart.

But still, what choice did he have?

Someone dropped into the seat next to him, and North looked around, only partially out of curiosity. Mostly out of instinct. He didn’t at all feel connected to the space he was in just then.

Ravi looked back at him, concern cutting lines across his face. “Did someone die? You look really depressed.”

“No,” North denied even though it felt like it. “No, my ma called last night. She’s fed up and demanding I come home immediately.”

“Fed up…? I’m not following.”

“She never wanted me to go on this trip. Was really, super against it.” North struggled to put this all into words, to explain.

“Warin,” Ravi called. “Come here, you need to listen to this.”

Warin was here? How lost in his head was he that North hadn’t realized it?

He was indeed, looking far more alert and energetic than North felt. Warin had coffee and a plate overflowing with an omelet in his hand. He put both on the table, sitting across from North with worry written all over his face. “What’s happened?”

It was somehow even harder to look at Warin and explain. “My ma called and demanded I come home immediately. Today, in fact. She never wanted me to go on this trip, and she’s at the end of her patience.”

Warin stared at him with a growing frown. “But you don’t wish to return home.”

God, how true those words were. “No. But I’m really low on options. See, my parents aren’t…aren’t magical? They’re not mages, but I don’t mean that exactly, it’s just that there’s no room for magic in their lives. They only know their simple lives, with their business and their church and their family. That’s all they’re comfortable with, and they refuse to think about anything else. So to them, this trip wasn’t a fantastic journey. It was a strange thing I kept insisting on. I almost had to sneak out of the house to actually leave on it, that’s how against it they were. And now I’m….”

Ravi bumped his shoulder, encouraging him. “What?”

“I’m really low on money.” The words tasted like acid in his mouth. “And I don’t want to leave, I really don’t, because all of you are amazing. But I don’t see how I can stay. It’s not like I can work here.”

Both dragons stared at him with perfectly blank expressions. Then in growing confusion before glancing at each other.

“Uh…” Ravi dragged out the sound, scratching at his head. “I feel like a miscommunication happened somewhere.”

“It obviously did,” Warin agreed. “North? Of course you can work here.”

North blinked at him. Blinked again. Those words didn’t compute for a moment. “What? How?”