"What do you want?" I asked again, tired and cranky. I pocketed the bear spray for later. If one of them came at me, I was willing to risk it. As it was, they seemed to be fine keeping their distance even if they had circled me.
Eskal yawned. "We've already been through this. Only the power of a mortal witch can awaken dragon eggs. And we must have them. You will fetch them for us and we will make it worthy of your time. What do you wish? What do you dream of? I'll make it your reality, no questions asked."
"I want to be left alone," I said, meeting his gaze fully. I wasn't about to back down from some fire-breathing low-life, no matter how much his shitty shoes cost. "I'm not who you think I am. I'm not. I'm a scientist. Maybe I dabbled in some garbage when I was a teenager, but that's long done and over with. Everybody fucks around with a Ouija board a few times."
"You've done more than screw around with a Ouija board," Iyadre said.
I glared back at him. "It was an example, not an admittance. It doesn't matter what I have or haven't done. I don't want you people bothering me. I don't want you following me. I don't want you swooping over my hotel room-"
Eskal moved at blinding speed, grabbed my shirt collar, and pressed me against the nearest wall; that of a bank that was inconveniently closed. "You saw me last night?"
"I saw you last night. Put me down or I'll tell the whole god damned world what I saw."
His brows snapped together and he dropped me. He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and brushed me off. "My apologies. I wasn't certain it was you out there."
"Yeah, well. I wasn't sure it was you until you just confirmed it."
Iyadre broke out into a laugh but Eskal silenced him with a glare. That was it, then. Eskal was their leader. Did dragons have alphas? I had a general idea of the structure of the flights, based on the nonsense books I'd read over the years, but I wasn't entirely certain that it worked like that for them. It was possible that I was confusing it with a werewolf book I'd read some quiet, lonely night.
The rain continued to drizzle over us and I decided I'd had enough. I pushed past Eskal and wedged myself between Nariti and Iyadre, kicking my heels back to soak their fancy clothes just a little bit more.
This time, they didn't follow. I walked slowly at first. Wasn't that what you were supposed to do with predatory creatures? I was sure I'd seen that on an Attenborough documentary of some kind, probably about lions. They always seemed to be in Africa tracking this animal or that one. Then there'd be some kind of drama that brought the whole thing together and-
Why was I thinking about Animal Planet shows? I walked in the rain, trying to ignore it. It wasn't terribly far back to the bed and breakfast, but it was frustrating enough. If the dragons had just let me alone, I'd have remembered my umbrella. Instead, I showed up soaked to the bone and a little bit on the chilly side. After all, 75 in the sun was one thing. 75 on a breezy day while you were being rained on was something else.
I turned on the shower in my room and fell into the tub connected to it. There, I tipped my head back and let the hot water wash over me. My wet clothes dripped on the towel rack. Tomorrow would be another day; another long, hot, probably humid as possible summer day and I'd be back at work.
That meant that it was possible I'd have another run-in with the dragons, but I doubted it. Hadn't I made myself clear? They couldn't buy me back into their psychotic world, into a place where nothing made sense and science barely existed. The only people who really had any respect for science were the alchemists, and even then, it was a thin respect. They saw scientists as sort of second cousins that did something like they did, but not exactly.
Magicians, even alchemists, were arrogant people. They thought they knew how the world worked because of some senseless book that they'd read. I grabbed the soap and lathered up, sighing as the water grew even warmer. It was perfect, absolutely perfect, because someone had spent time understanding the science behind capturing water pressure and putting lightning in a jar.
Magic couldn't do that. It wouldn't bring me happiness, I reminded myself, and it was directly responsible for losing the only family member I'd had. I rinsed off and decided to leave my hair alone for the moment. I'd throw some dry shampoo in it tomorrow morning or, if I got up early enough, go ahead and do the whole wash thing.
The only problem with that was the fact that my hair tended to curl up if the humidity was too bad. It's not like anyone was looking at me at the site, anyway, but I still wanted to look presentable instead of having nothing but frizz sticking out everywhere.
Mind you, some girls could pull off that look. I couldn't. Plus, trying to comb it all back out? It was a nightmare.
I toweled off quickly enough and grabbed one of the spare robes that came with the room. It'd probably been used by hundreds of people in the past, but it wasn't threadbare and that was all I needed.
Outside, the storm took a turn for the worse. My window sill continued to leak, but it was well worth it to stay inside. Had I been smart, it was where I would have been all along.
My hands still felt like there were pins
