It was hard to sit there perfectly still when he wanted to drop his head into his hands and curl into a little ball. So much of his life, the isolation of his clan, had been built on the idea that dragons were evil betrayers. If that wasn’t true, what was?
Rage washed through his veins, leaving him gritting his teeth. He didn’t know what to believe, who to trust. Well, that answer was easy and obvious. He could trust only himself. He needed to research more. The dragon could be telling the truth, or this could all be an elaborate lie. He just didn’t know anymore.
Baldewin slid his phone back over to rest in front of him. “Hmm. Odd, come to think of it, we had to teach the others the same history. Do they just gloss over the reason in school when they teach it?” Baldewin scratched at his chin and drank some coffee. “I feel the sudden need to go investigate this.”
“No skin off my nose if you want to leave now, but pay me first.” The sooner he was rid of this dragon, the sooner he could conduct his own research. There had to be a library around here somewhere. Libraries were always free. Websites were easy to create. Books took longer. Books were safer.
“Nein, I still have thirty minutes with you. I plan to use them.” Baldewin tucked his phone away and leaned forward, both arms resting on the table. “Now, you’ve read for yourself we weren’t the bad guys. Does that make you trust me a little more?”
“Not one iota.”
Well, sort of.
Fuck! He didn’t know what to think any longer. His clan lied to him and treated him like shit. Dragons were supposed to be evil. He’d grown up believing that. He couldn’t suddenly stop and trust a dragon without real proof. Right?
Of course, Tori wasn’t about to give Baldewin the impression he suddenly had a leg up. “I still don’t understand what you want from me. I’m not a girl, I can’t give you kids, so why pursue me?”
Baldewin blinked at him as if he’d spouted something nonsensical. “Of course having children is important, but it’s only one reason why we cherish our mage spouses. Our mages bring joy and magic to us. Without them, we’d be lost.”
That sounded more poignant and sincere than Tori had expected. It was almost as if Baldewin spoke on a personal level. It disarmed him enough that he didn’t immediately counter with some sort of sarcasm. “Even a male mage, huh.”
Oops, sarcasm slipped out anyway.
“Is that what you have been taught? That male mages have no value?”
“Yes,” Tori hissed, anger and frustration bubbling up beyond his control. “Everyone knows that most dragons are males and you need a female mage. I’m a male mage. I can’t give you a baby. You can’t impregnate me, and I can’t give you a baby dragon. Besides, dragons aren’t gay.”
“Pansexual, actually,” Baldewin snapped, his grey-green eyes narrowed to an almost warning look. “We’re generally born pansexual, but if a dragon was born gay, we wouldn’t have a problem with it.”
Tori’s mouth dropped open, and he swore his chin nearly hit the table. Was Baldewin getting snippy with him? Did he think Tori was actually homophobic?
The dragon continued grumbling under his breath. “I wish I knew who drummed it into your head that male mages have no value.” He grabbed his phone, unlocked it again, and swiped through it. “They’re a damn fool, whoever they are. Here, look at this. This will show you better than any words I can offer. The man on the right is Alric, my king and my best friend in the world. The one on the left is his mage-mate, Cameron.”
Tori stared at the picture on the screen, and for a moment it felt like he was almost having an out of body experience. The king of the Fire Dragons was handsome, in a darkly-colored way with hints of grey at his temples and laugh lines around his eyes. His husband was very attractive, dark hair falling around his face in a gentle wave and a bright smile that bordered on an outright laugh. They looked both confident and happy, the king standing in the circle of his mate’s arms.
“A…a male mage is your king’s mate? Are you fucking serious?” Could he even believe it? A male mage would never have achieved this kind of power in his own clan. Males were only good for producing more female mages and assisting with spells.
Was this real? Could Alric and Cameron be just close friends? It would be an easy way for Baldewin to pull a quick one over on him.
But as soon as he thought it, he discounted it. The two men were so comfortable in each other’s space. There was an intimacy captured and preserved in that image. It was a closeness he’d seen only a couple of times in his life and always between a heterosexual couple.