Page 31 of Dragon Fires Everywhere
I try not to wrinkle my nose at the fact they’re allwomen. Ellowyn’s clientele is primarily women.
I check the customer out with my sunny smile. Azrael comes behind the counter and stands entirely too close to me, but ifI make a point of moving away from him, he’ll see that as a win. So I don’t.
“In another life, I would have made an excellent merchant, don’t you think?” he asks me lazily after the woman leaves.
“Did you charm her into buying all that?”
“Of course.”
I shake my head. “You can’t use magic to get people to buy things.”
“Why not?”
“It’s... not right.”
“She wanted tea. I convinced her to get the tea she needed. Ellowyn earns money from the purchase she made. Explain to mehow this is not right?”
“You didn’t give the woman a choice.”
“I knew what she wanted.”
“I’m going to have to side with the dragon on this one,” Ellowyn says as she waddles over to us. Her hand is resting on herbelly. Her expression is one of amusement. “You’re welcome to play merchant in my shop any time you want, Azrael.”
Azrael beams at me. “See.”
“It’s Pete,” I tell Ellowyn. “Just Pete. He’s a regular oldPete.”
“Pete the dragon? I like it,” Rebekah says as she saunters in. “I walked past Confluence Books and it’spacked.”
“We’ll head over there right now,” I tell her. I say goodbye to Ellowyn and baby and then motion for Azrael to follow me.
“You know, you can go back to Wilde House,” I tell him. I even put on my airy, dreamy smile for him. “Take a break. Have somelunch. Enjoy yourself.”
I think mention of food will sway him, but he frowns down at me as we walk over to Emerson’s shop. Where he stops with meoutside. “I do not like this little act of yours,” he tells me.
He opens the door to Confluence Books and gestures me in.
“What act?” I return, frustrated that he knows Ihavean act.
I walk under his arm and into the shop. It is teeming with people and immediately gives me a sense of claustrophobia. ButI wave and smile at Emerson directing traffic in and around the counter, and don’t give Azrael the chance to respond.
When I make it through the throng of bodies to Emerson, she leans close to my ear. “Can you put the children’s section torights? One of those damn Blanchard demon spawn tossed every stuffed animal into the canopy and knocked at least half theshelved books to the ground.”
“We’re on it,” I assure her. The Blanchard children are indeed demons, figuratively anyway, and I do not allow myself to thinktoo much about the last time I saw their mother, Cailee.
Heaving about on a couch with my boyfriend.
But I’m here to help Emerson, not brood over my so-called romantic life. And the children’s sectionisin shambles. There are at least two toddlers throwing tantrums and one baby screaming its head off. I smile at everyone anyway,and begin to tidy up while offering the occasional reading suggestions, the careful redirection of a wild toddler, or an answerto a frazzled parent’s question about the parenting section.
After a while, I realize that Azrael has followed me, buthe isn’t talking to anyone or apparently exuding any charm whatsoever. He’s putting books back on shelves and giving threatening looks to any child who dares reach for one. Before I can scold him for that, an unholy screech pierces the air.
A child—one of Cailee’s blond-haired, blue-eyed terrors—thunders over to a rack of books. He reaches out, shoves it, and thewhole thing goes toppling over.
With only seconds to spare, I manage to snatch a little girl out of the way.
The boy turns, clearly looking for another rack to topple. I send out some magic that will keep all the books in place andhand the startled little girl off to her mother, but before I can do anything else, Azrael has plucked the Blanchard boy upand off the ground by the back of the collar. I leap forward. “You can’t—”
The child starts screaming and struggling. Azrael looks like he’s going to eat him.
