Page 37 of The Accidental Dragon Baby

Ivo sagged, feeling even worse for Ace. He reached over and awkwardly patted Ace’s thigh. “I’m really sorry.”

Ace winced, then smiled. “I will accept all the comfort from you, even though it happened hundreds of years ago and I’d finally forgotten about it.”

“The rest of the family remembers,” Harvey whispered. “His parents tell that story every holiday.”

“Shut up,” Ace muttered.

A laugh burst out of Ivo. He clapped his hands over his mouth, except somehow, it helped to ease Ace’s frown.

“I’m glad it madeyoulaugh, at least,” Ace said.

“I have embarrassing childhood stories too,” Ivo admitted.

Ace perked up. “Oh?”

Before Ivo could pick out one of his own terrible stories, they pulled up in front of the largest department store in Cartfalls.

Ivo blinked. “What’re we doing here?”

Ace grinned and helped him out of the car. “We’re going shopping.”

“For?”

“You’ll see.” Ace wrapped his arm around Ivo’s waist, leading him toward the store where a lone shopping cart squeaked back and forth on the sidewalk.

There was magic in metals. It began as trace amounts of energy in metal ores, slowly concentrating as those ores were gathered and refined. By the time metal was pure enough to be shaped into objects, it carried a significant amount of magic. Some objects contained more than one metal part, though. When those parts moved together, it changed the magic, turningobjects sentient. It was how locks could smile, faucets could bite, and shopping carts frolicked and played.

Ivo’s heart skipped when the cart rolled hopefully up to them. “Can we have a cart?”

“Of course,” Ace said, grasping the cart by its handle.

The cart gave a happy shiver and flipped its wheels. With his other arm, Ace tugged Ivo and Mary into the store.

“Here,” Ace said when they’d separated themselves from the other shoppers. He pulled out his wallet and tucked a black credit card into Ivo’s hand. “Buy whatever you want for your nest. There’s a fifty grand limit, but I don’t think we’ll hit that here.”

“F-fifty grand?!”

“On that card, yes. But if we somehow go over, I have other cards.”

Ivo gaped, trying to wrap his mind around puttingfifty thousand dollars’ worth of stuffon a credit card. “Y-you trust me with this?”

“Yes.” Ace looked confused. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“That’s a lot of money,” Ivo mumbled.

Ace shrugged. “Not really. C’mon, let’s grab some things.”

He began pushing the cart as though he’d made the most ordinary offer. Ivo frowned after him.

Something darted across the corner of his vision.

When he turned, he found nothing between the aisles of jeans.

“Ivo?” Ace asked over his shoulder. “Is something wrong?”

Ivo scanned their surroundings. “I thought I saw something.”

Ace stopped to look, too. After a while, he shook his head. “I’m not picking up anything. Let’s keep moving.”

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