Page 100 of The Flame Game

Seventeen

You really are the reason you don’t get enough sleep.

We needed to use my wayfinder magic in order to locate the ‘resort’ Audrey had visited once upon a time. In the past few years, nature had done an excellent job of erasing the trail. The snow was deep enough Avalanche couldn’t navigate through its depths without disappearing, so my husband carried her while I transformed and made the journey as a cindercorn. Sunny and Blizzard bounded through the drifts, and for the first time since we’d started our trip, Sam let them off their leashes.

“Is that good idea?” I stared at Blizzard, who romped after Sunny.

I gave it five minutes before I needed to chase down my runaway pets.

“Sunny will keep Blizzard around, and Sunny won’t abandon you. And if I’m wrong, I’ll put on my fur coat and help you track them down.”

“Such a nice stallion. Yes, put on fur coat. I like stallion.”

“Tiffany’s right. You really are the reason you don’t get enough sleep,” he teased.

I flicked my tail. “Fur coat?”

“Maybe later. Work first, indulgences after work and we have someone to watch the pets and kids. You may have to survive, sadly, for a while.”

I could do sadly. “So much sadness.”

Chuckling, my husband stomped through the snow, cradling Avalanche close while the ocelot snuggled against him. I kept an eye on our puppies, who bounded through the trees and ran back to us before running off again like furry lunatics. “Puppies so much fun.”

“They really are. Your kitten is a little spoiled, too. She has decided it is nap time, and that I am present only to serve as her bed.”

According to my husband’s tone, there was nothing better than him being present only to serve as the ocelot’s bed. “You love kitty! But my kitty. You tool of kitty, so you prop-er-tee. You best prop-er-tee.”

Quinn chuckled. “I have no problems with being your property, especially as this means you’re also my property, and I enjoy our joint property arrangements. And if you don’t think you’re my property, I will implement particularly intensive corrective therapy techniques tonight to reinforce my claim.”

“Okay. You do that. After noo-dles with sea bugs. Need those or might perish from sadness.”

“As I can’t have my wife perishing from sadness, I will do my best to get you noodles with sea bugs tonight.”

I pranced in place and waited for Quinn to pick his way over the trail, following the glimmering path I’d created to guide us to our destination. Snow began to fall, and I dined on fallen trees to keep my heat levels up, although it didn’t take much to snort blue flame. “Tiny terrors make me hot,” I announced.

“Did you just call our children tiny terrors?”

“I snort blue flame with no effort. This is thing of true fear, terror for those who annoy me! They are the creators of blue flame. They tiny terrors. Very tiny right now. Do I get extra bite from Francisco for calling them tiny terrors?”

“Sure.”

“Tiny terrors much trouble. Think we find some-thing here?”

“I hope we find something, else I’ll have gotten a lot of exercise for nothing.”

“Pets happy, not for nothing. They have much fun. This snow? This snow is fun! Only fun because tiny terrors. Usually not fun.”

“I am grateful the tiny terrors turn you into a cold-loving cindercorn rather than a miserable one.”

“Much misery without tiny terrors.”

“I hope the sea bug populations can handle you and our tiny terrors.”

“Me, too. No sea bugs would be sadness.”

My magic led us deep into the woods to a clearing with several run-down buildings. Years of abandonment hadn’t done the place any favors, although the structures seemed sound enough except for the roof of one of the smaller buildings, which had begun caving in. “That building no safe.”

“We’ll have to be careful when we check around that one, yes. It looks like your trail is going inside the main building.”