Page 3 of Dragons & Dumplings
But if I did that, he’d probably sue. Or worse, leave a bad review.
With an internal sigh, I placed the plate behind his laptop with a halfhearted, “Careful, it’s hot.”
He scowled, and absently reached for the plate with one hand, while still typing with the other. The instant his snowy skin clamped onto the heated ceramic, he hissed in pain and quickly withdrew his hand to his chest.
He finally looked away from the screen and turned his furious, ice-cold eyes on me. “Why didn’t you warn me it was hot?!”
I just stared back at him. “I did. Just now.”
“No, you most certainly did not!” he retorted icily.
“Oh, yes she did! Evenweheard her,” chimed in the regulars seated in the booth next to him. I gave them a thumbs-up and made a mental note to give them some free dessert.
“Why did you ignore my warning?” I bit back.
“I— I didn’t mean to,” he mumbled, looking down as pink stained his pale cheeks. He clutched at his hand, which was indeed starting to blister. “How am I supposed to make my deadlinenow?”
Some of my inner fire banked at the look on his face. It wasn’t like I didn’t understand how deadlines and pressure could make even the most patient dragon a little crabby. With a long-suffering sigh, I grabbed his water, which only had ice chips left in it now, and held out my scale-less hand.
“Give me your hand.”
He stared at me like I’d grown a second head. “What?”
“Give. Me. Your. Hand,” I repeated.
When he tentatively held it out, I grabbed his wrist. A jolt went through me at the contact, at the cool and calming balm of his skin and the magic that lay beneath it. At the same time, it felt like a flicker of my own fire went out to him, warming the ice in his veins. The startled look on his face told me he had felt it, too.
Shaking off my surprise, I carefully dipped his hand into the cup, not caring about the water sloshing onto the tiles that I would have to mop up later. The crease between his brows immediately eased in relief.
“Wouldn’t it be better if I just conjured a ball of ice to hold?” he asked.
I shook my head. “That would make it much, much worse, because of the huge temperature discrepancy. To treat mild burns like this, it’s best to hold the affected skin under cool, not cold, running water.”
“I imagine you’ve had plenty of experience with burns.” A little bit of that sass crept back into his tone.
“You don’t know the half of it.” My serious tone seemed to throw him off. Carefully, I set the glass, with his hand still in it, on the table. “Just keep your hand there while I go get some bandages for you.”
I kept my own personal stash in the backroom, so it only took me a moment to grab what I needed. When I returned to his booth, I gently removed his hand and patted it dry with a towel. He winced, but didn’t complain.
I probably shouldn’t, but… “I’m going to draw out the heat. It might sting for a second, but it will feel much better afterwards.”
I closed my eyes so I could focus on sensing the heat that lingered in his skin, radiating out from the burns. It felt like his own magic was fighting it, but to little effect. It seemed ice dragons reallywereweak to fire, even more so than I expected. Even a regular human’s skin would not have been burned as badly as his was. Using my own magic, I pulled the heat from his wound, allowing it to settle across my own skin like a warm blanket. After all, this level of heat was nothing to a fire drake.
When I opened my eyes, I found icy blue ones only inches away. I jerked back, nearly dropping his hand in surprise.
“What did you just do?” he whispered, his voice shaky. “The heat, the pain…it’s gone.”
“I just…drew the heat into myself, with my magic.” I frowned. “Don’t ice dragons do the same with the cold?”
He looked away first. “Right. Of course.”
Trying to ignore this man’s strange reactions, I squeezed a huge dollop of gel out of my aloe vera tube and slathered it all over the burn. I then carefully wrapped his fingers and palm with bandage strips until every last shred of pink skin was covered.
“You seem like you’ve done this before.” This time, there was nothing condescending about his tone.
“I’ve had plenty of practice.” I belatedly realized I was still holding his hand, and released it. The instant I did, my temperature rose, and snowflakes formed on his eyelashes.
Huh.
