Page 3 of Rescued By Her Guardian

The quill froze and he slowly lifted his head, his blue eyes sparkling as they always did, behind his glasses.

“And potatoes?”

She smiled broadly. “Of course.”

“Yes, then, that would be good. I don’t remember if I ate breakfast.”

“You didn’t. You just had me mix hot chocolate and coffee.”

His nose wrinkled. “That sounded better than it tasted. At any rate, when is the last time that you charged your magic? You look dull.”

“What?”

“I mean, I can tell that your magic is running out.”

“I haven’t recharged since last year, but I will.”

“See that you do, and soon. I don’t want my assistant to pass out from magic depletion.”

“I don’t want that either, trust me. I’ll be back from lunch in an hour, and I’ll bring your lunch with me.”

“And?”

She rocked on her ballet flats. “And I’ll schedule an escort with the Guardians to go to the Well.”

“Sooner rather than later.”

“Of course.”

As she turned to leave, he said, “And please bring me some cheesecake, but not the cookie dough one. I’ll be eating plenty of cookies in a few weeks.”

“Sure thing.”

She waved at Tami and Vera, the other office workers, and met up with Alder.

“Youdolook dull.”

“Alder!”

“What, it’s true. Your eyes aren’t as bright green as they usually are. But your hair sure is pink.”

He held the door for her and she walked out into the hall, grasping a lock of hair and bringing it forward to look at. She’d decided to try something new and had gotten some pink hair dye. She’d planned to dye her blonde hair pink but had chickened out and only dyed the ends.

She really did like it. It was fun and cute.

But Alder liked to tease her about it.

“You’re a reindeer butt.”

“You said that already. You need better insults.”

“You’re a shoebox.”

“What, square and empty?”

“Something like that.”

They reached the cafeteria, lobbing insults at each other as they usually did, and got in line with trays and utensils. The cafeteria wasn’t crowded yet, but it would be in another half hour when most of the toymakers would take their breaks and the room would fill with people and noise.

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