Page 4 of Becoming D'Vaire
“The spell might not work properly, and you’d wind up with a messed-up dragon. He might not even have fangs.”
“He has to have fangs.”
“Indeed.”
The pair walked toward the house, and Delaney peered up at him. “You sure I can’t have fangs?”
“Pretty sure.”
“Okay,” he said in the most forlorn voice Vadimas imagined a child of his age could manage. He might have been feared by everyone around him, but there was plenty of evidence to suggest it was not doing much to dampen his personality.
“Remember, your dragon will.”
“Yeah.” Delaney was quiet as they stood on the back deck and waited for Ms. Simmons to answer Vadimas’s knock. “Vadimas?”
“Yes, Delaney?”
“Will you be my friend?”
“I willalwaysbe your friend, Delaney,” he told him seriously.
Delaney nodded and grew silent for several minutes while Vadimas wondered where the hell Ms. Simmons was, and then he asked, “Will there be milk at school?”
Vadimas chuckled as Ms. Simmons finally arrived to allow them entry. “Ms. Simmons, I’ve decided young Delaney will find school more to his liking. There’s plenty of milk there, and he’ll need it for his cookies.”
“Cookies!” Delaney yelled as he let go of Vadimas’s hand and tore into the house.
“No cookies until we get your things,” Vadimas called out after him.
“Thank you, Prism Wizard. I really hope you’re able to fix him at school.”
“Fix him, Ms. Simmons?”
She leaned in close. “Prism Wizard, there’s no such thing as a dark wizard.”
“Fate has decided differently, and we’re always to follow her dictates. The boy told me his name was Scary.”
“Prism Wizard, that’s what his previous orphanage told me to call him. It’s on his identification card.”
Vadimas lifted a brow and fixed her with a stern look. “You thought that was appropriate for a child of any age?”
“Well, no but—”
“Ms. Simmons, this orphanage is supposed to be a haven for children. I suggest you remember that, or I’ll be shutting the doors. I plan to keep an eye on the welfare of the kids in your care. Is that understood?”
“Of course, Prism Wizard.”
“I’d suggest you get used to the idea of a dark wizard. Young Delaney’s going to be a powerful sorcerer. Someday he’ll be High Arcanist, someone who will help me run the Spectra Wizardry. It might not be a smart idea to make an enemy of him at the tender age of four.”
“Of course, Prism Wizard,” she repeated with her head bowed.
Vadimas made a note to look in on the other children in Ms. Simmons’s care, and he was going to have words with all the people Delaney had been placed with. In the meantime, he had a child to get settled at the Academy of Wizards and a young mind to expand. He was going to make sure Delaney understood that there were no limits for him, that he was an asset to wizards everywhere.
Chapter 2
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“I’m worried about Grigori,” Vampyress Irina Volkov told her mate.
