Page 17 of A Dragon's Miracle (Fires of Fate)
Ryan
Iputmy phone away and cursed. I'd really tried not to cough while talking to Finn, knowing he would worry, but there'd been no stopping it. The vial of medicine Jin had given me was empty already and I had nothing else to make me feel better.
And now Finn was going to come here with cold remedies as if those were going to help anything.
Only because you haven't told him what's really going on.
Sighing, I did as Finn had told me, changed into my pajamas and went to bed. If I took it easy I could maybe last a bit longer until I had to see Jin again.
Not that I had anything to trade Jin for. I hadn't even thought about stealing the latest item on his wish list yet. Not with how things had been between me and Finn. It occurred to me that I might have a chance at that dinner party his mother was arranging, but I really didn't want to think about it. I didn't want to steal from Finn or his family anymore. It was bad enough that I'd had to break his heart.
No, this had to end.
I had to talk to Jin and negotiate another deal. And if he didn’t want to negotiate, well… we all had to face our fears some time.
In the end, it took Finn nearly two hours instead of the promised one to knock on my door, but punctuality had never been his strong suit. I padded over to the door and opened it to see my friend with a huge grin on his face. Despite everything, I had to smile back at him. It was impossible not to.
“Hey, Ryan,” he said before he sauntered into the room and put a basket full of things down on my small dinner table. Something smelled suspiciously like chicken soup. He turned to me again. “Don't just stand there, sick boy. Sit down.”
I sat at the table like a child who'd been ordered to dinner. Sometimes, Finn sounded exactly like his mother.
He lifted a pot out of the basket and carried it over to my kitchenette, where he put it on the stove, probably to reheat.
“Did your mom make that?” I asked.
“No, I did. I figured I had to try again after last time was such a disaster...”
I cringed at the memory. “It's not--“
“No, it's not traditional food. At first I was going to make something spicy again, as that's what we eat when we're sick, but then I remembered that you're human.” He gave me a slightly embarrassed smile. “So I googled what you guys eat when you have a cold. And I found recipes. It took me a while, but I think it's edible. Probably. But you're already sick anyway, right? I can't make it worse.” He stuck his tongue out at me and then turned back to the pot.
“You really didn't have to.” My chest hurt, and I wasn't sure whether it was because of my cancer, or a side effect of the meds I’d been taking, or because Finn was just too damn sweet. It had to be difficult for him to be here after I'd shot him down, and still he was doing everything to make me feel better.
“I wanted to,” Finn said simply. “You know, I thought, maybe Zed could help you. He has some healing powers.”
“No!” I said quickly. Too quickly, because Finn shot me a surprised look. But I had quite enough of dragons with healing powers. And if Zed touched me he might realize that I was suffering from something far worse than the common cold. “We don't need to trouble Zed,” I said.
“I'm sure it wouldn't be any trouble.” Finn filled a cup with water and put it in the microwave.
“No magic,” I insisted. “It's going to pass naturally.”
“Alright. I'm not going to force you to see Zed or anything. I do want you to eat this soup, though.” He took a spoon out of one of my drawers and tasted it. “Still hot. You ready to eat?”
I agreed, because what else could I do? And he served me a bowl. The stuff was actually edible. It was probably not the best chicken soup I’d ever had, but it had been made by Finn, for me, and that definitely made it the most special. I only wished I was actually suffering from the kind of thing chicken soup could help with.
“How do you like it?” Finn asked, while also serving me a cup of some kind of tea.
“It’s great.” I gave him a smile and suppressed another cough.
“Good.” Finn smiled. “I'm sure you'll feel better in no time.”
I smiled back at him. Iwouldfeel better in the morning. These spells never lasted too long. Not at first, anyway. I had a bit of time before I had to crawl back to Jin and do things I didn't want to do in order to feel better.
But I didn't want to think about that tonight. Tonight I just wanted to eat my soup and talk to Finn and pretend like I really had a cold and everything was going to be fine.
“What kind of tea is that?” I asked.
“Velzen tea.”
