Page 24 of Scales ’N’ Spells: Volume Two

“And how many times were you told not to touch the coffee?” Sora asked pointedly before taking another sip of his own.

“I can’t begin to tell you. Hundreds, probably. I had very poor impulse control when I was a kid.” Ravi shrugged before cutting into his breakfast. “I’m told we’re all like that on my father’s side.”

“And how is your father’s side?”

“It’s doing much better, thank you.”

Sora gave him a droll look. “You say that you had poor impulse as a child, but I doubt it’s improved much as an adult. You hopped on a perfect stranger’s bike.”

He gave Sora points for not pressing the question of Ravi’s parents. Sometimes, it was hard to talk about his birth parents. He took the conversational gambit and ran with it.

“Excuse you, reporters are scary. Wait, how did you know I was a dragon, anyway?”

“I did do some research before coming here. And your story of rescuing the plane is everywhere on the internet.”

“I didn’t know they were filming,” Ravi complained into his plate. “It was really, really foggy, okay?”

“Okay,” Sora agreed mildly. “You got raked over the coals for this, didn’t you?”

“Oh, so much.”

Ravi had to admit Sora was dead-on about his impulse control. It had not really improved that much since he was a kid. He’d just gotten better about foreseeing the consequences of his actions.

“But didn’t it turn out for the best? With dragons no longer in hiding, mages have a better chance of finding you.”

“Yeah. I mean, in that sense, it’s great. I think we needed something to pull us out of hiding. I just hope it goes smoothly. Alric’s already put his foot down. He’s not getting embroiled in politics. He said he’s got enough to manage with his own clan, which is fair. And he and Cameron are really keen on maybe having kids in the next two years, so they want to get the clan’s affairs stable enough that both of them can be hands-on with the day-to-day care.”

“You have enough mages to do a magical incubator?”

Seriously, was there anything about medicine this man didn’t know? Ravi once again nearly blurted out questions and barely kept them in check. He had to bite his tongue before one of them escaped.

“We’re partnering with the ice dragons to manage it. Taking turns, if you will.”

“Ah. That would be glacially slow, though. You’d only be able to have one child a year.”

“Yeah, hardly a baby boom, I guess. But it will feel like one to us after so many years of not having any.” Ravi shrugged and moved them on to a lighter topic. “So, yeah, more mages, kids, this place is going to feel like a nonstop party soon!”

“You are hereby banned from being the fun uncle.” Lisette joined them at the table, although she didn’t sit, clearly just stopping by for a moment. Her warning look at Ravi was not entirely in jest.

Ravi put a wounded hand to his heart, rearing back, aghast. “But there’s so many fun things to teach them!”

“Yes, that’s what I’m afraid of. No. I’m forbidding this right now. And Sora, please do not get sucked into his pace. We’re due in my workroom in twenty minutes.”

Sora blinked, then flipped his wrist over to check the time. “I’m so sorry, I have no idea how it got to be this late. I’ll be there.”

“Good.” She gave them a nod before beelining for the coffee.

Aww, party pooper. Ravi was enjoying his Sora time, thank you very much. He made a face at her back.

Perhaps Sora felt the same way about it. He gave Ravi a slight smile, eyebrow cocked in a hint of challenge. “You know, you still owe me a drink.”

Ravi perked up. Oh? Oh yeah? So that’s how this was going to go, eh. Ravi was completely on board. “I do, don’t I? How about you meet me for dinner, and I’ll mix you something excellent.”

“You’re on.” Sora chugged the rest of his coffee, standing.

Ravi waved him off before he could bus his own dishes. “I’ve got that. You don’t have a lot of time to get over there.”

“Thanks. I’ll catch up with you later.” Sora opened his mouth, closed it, unsure of how to leave and apparently unwilling to.