“We really don’t care what gender our mates are. I don’t know who told you otherwise, Tori, but they lied. Or they didn’t know better. All mates are welcome and celebrated.”
Tori’s fingers itched to snatch Baldewin’s phone away from him. He wanted to stare at the photo, to study every tiny detail. His brain argued that he wanted to uncover how it was a fake, but his heart was screaming for it to be true.
The silence stretched at the table, and Tori fought to keep his eyes lowered. Did Baldewin know the truth about him? Did he suspect that he was gay? According to his own words, he wouldn’t care, but maybe this was all a trick.
To his relief, Baldewin moved on. “I know this is a lot to take in, and you probably have so many questions. I’m happy to answer, but the important one is why Warin and I are here. We came to Helsinki to find you. We want you to come with us and join our clan because you’re out here alone, which is dangerous. And I truly believe you’re possibly a mate to one of my clanmates.”
A mate.
A dragon of his own.
Tori hadn’t even let himself daydream of such things in years.
But he couldn’t let himself get lost in that fantasy now. He wasn’t sure if he could trust every word out of Baldewin’s mouth, either.
At least part of what he said was truth, and Tori had been able to verify that. But the very best liars mixed in a little truth to make the lie more palatable.
And he had been taught so many things growing up that contradicted what Baldewin shared, he couldn’t just accept this new story.
He needed to sit on it, think about it, process all of it. Definitely do some more reading and figure out how much of what he’d been told growing up was wrong. A library was his next stop after this. If he was going to start a new life, the life he wanted, then he wanted to start it based on the truth. Even if he never went with Baldewin to find a dragon mate of his own, he wanted to know the truth as the rest of the world understood it.
Baldewin put the phone away. “Can I ask what clan you came from?”
“I’d…really rather not answer that question. I left them. I don’t want to be associated with them.”
Baldewin’s eyebrows did that twitching-frown thing, as if Tori said something deeply disturbing, but he was trying not to let it show. “You’re truly out here alone?”
Shit. He probably shouldn’t have said that. But it wasn’t like Baldewin hadn’t likely put it together yet, if he’d been following Tori around. “I can still work magic out here, so don’t think that makes me a soft target.”
“I’ve seen that firsthand, but I’m also glad to hear it.” Baldewin’s tone was transparently sincere again but also worried.
Tori eyed him back as he took another bite of the perfectly delicious pie. At least this conversation hadn’t ruined his appetite.
Why was Baldewin acting so worried? Did he really think Helsinki was that dangerous? It wasn’t like Tori was going around the bad parts of town, anyway.
Well, okay, his motel was questionable, but it wasn’t bad. Just rundown.
“You really think I’m in danger? I’m just job hunting.”
“I’d explain, but…” Baldewin broke off in a groan. “It’ll ruin what progress we’ve had this morning. I will say this. There have been several instances of mages being kidnapped, but we’re not sure to what purpose. Just that mages are being targeted. Please, be on your guard.”
Oh. There went his appetite. It was nice to know they could cover some ground that reduced the yummy pie in his mouth to ash. He swallowed the bite and gulped down some coffee to wash away the taste.
Someone was stealing mages. How was that even possible? Why would someone dare to do that? The one thing his clan and Baldewin seemed to agree upon was that mages were scarce. He might not care too much if the mages in his own clan disappeared, but he wouldn’t wish that upon anyone else. Or upon himself.
“Who’s kidnapping them? Why? Where are they being taken?”
Baldewin shook his head. “I have very few answers and mostly speculation. I can’t answer most of what you just asked as we’re still investigating it ourselves. But they took Cameron about a month back, setting up an ambush on the road and snatching him. We had quite the fight to get him back.”
Tori was glad he didn’t have either food or drink in his mouth. “Seriously? They took the dragon king’s mate?”
“They weren’t mated at the time; still dating. But yes. That’s how ballsy they are. You see why I’m worried about you?”
Maybe it would be better if he found another mage clan to stay with rather than be on his own. Of course, the kidnappers probably wouldn’t have much interest in a mage who couldn’t use magic effectively. Heh. For once, having crappy magic worked to his benefit.