The Flame Game (Magical Romantic Comedies #12) - R.J. Blain Page 0,79
the astonishment of the CDC. Then again, after the second chomp, your fur went blue-white hot and the napalm began combusting when it came in contact with you. They are speculating pregnant cindercorns run as hot as phoenixes.”
“Me the best cindercorn.”
“That’s not hard when you’re the only cindercorn below the age of several hundred to a thousand years old. Or so says Alan.”
“I young like filly!”
“Come on, my beautiful. They want to scan you and check your temperature before you shift.”
I trotted over to Alan and pranced at a safe distance while he played with his meter before holding it out. I tested a snort to discover I blew blue-hot flames still. “Use area scan. No meter survive that hot. I melt it. Over two thousand degrees because blue not orange.”
Alan nodded, adjusted the meter, and held it in my general direction. It remained silent. “Great job, Bailey. Stand still while we try to get a temperature check on you. Snort when I hold up my left hand, please.”
I waited for his signal and snorted on command, pleased with how hot my flames remained.
“You’re exhaling at just below three thousand degrees. Your internal body temperature is higher, and your coat temperature is moderating to a safer ninety degrees. If that isn’t magic, I don’t know what is.”
“Cin-der-corns best unicorns.”
“Just agree with her,” my husband suggested.
“I’m having a difficult time coming up with any reason not to,” Alan admitted, and he retrieved a blanket from his van. “Once you’re changed and dressed, the archangel wants your help with the gorgon. Wear clothes you don’t mind having to burn. He has informed us she will be defensive.”
“I just wear blanket,” I announced. “No ruin nice clothes with bile and blood. Yuck.”
“Can’t say I blame her. If you get some rope, we can make cleanup a snap.” My husband tossed the blanket over me. “Try not to roll in the snow while human. You won’t like it nearly as much.”
“Pets okay?”
“They’re enjoying a nap in the rental. Fortunately for us, the CDC has spare gas with them, so they’ll fill up our tank before we leave.”
“Run out of gas would suck.”
“Yes, it would.”
As there was no such thing as privacy when a full CDC team was in attendance, I forced myself to reverse back to human, a process that went faster and better than I expected. As warned, I didn’t like the cold nearly as much as when a cindercorn, and I jumped into Alan’s van to escape the snow. “Fuck! Shoes, Sam! Shoes!”
My husband dared to laugh at me. “I told you that you wouldn’t like the snow nearly as much when human.”
“I already said I’d reward you later.”
Alan handed me a pair of rubber snow boots and several pairs of socks. “You’d be upset if you ruined shoes you actually liked, so ruin these. Those have already seen more than any one pair of boots should ever see, so they would appreciate being retired.”
“Poor boots.” I pulled on the socks and stuffed my feet into the boots, which were several sizes too large. “And now that I’m oddly dressed, let’s get this show on the road. It’s going to take all day to deal with that many statues. Time’s wasting!”
The archangel pressed his hand to the gorgon’s wounded chest, and the stone reformed until no evidence remained someone had stabbed a sword through her. “I cannot take the memory of her injury from her while she is stone, and doing so might erase what you need to learn. As such, she will be hostile. I will do my best to limit how much damage she can do, but I can offer no more than that.”
“You’ve done so much already. Thank you.”
“It is an honor. It is rare we can help like this. Most simply do not ask. She is not human.”
“But she didn’t deserve this.”
“No, she did not. And that is why I can help. Your willingness to pay for the work was also a key factor.”
“Right. How much do I owe you?”
“Nothing. It was your willingness to do so that mattered. It would unbalance things if we were to require payment, for you will have paid too high of a price for what you do now and will do in the future. You have made her life your responsibility, and that is a far higher price to pay than any money.”
“Is that why Beauty and Sylvester were saved?”
“Their father would have paid far more than he had, and they were