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“Condiments on the table,” she muttered in that toneless, nondescript voice. Between a whisper and a rasp, as if she couldn’t be bothered to form words.
“Any refills?”
The question was begrudging, more a statement or a dare. As in,I dare you to ask for anything else. I might stab you in the eye with your fork if you did.
Ben could use more coffee, but he gulped down the request. To be honest, the little woman was sort of frightening.
There was something about her…
Braver than he, or dumber, Ere had no issues making demands.
“I’ll have another cup of cocoa. Don’t be stingy on the marshmallows. I know Maddie has whole bags of them back there. Maybe you could make a heart with them in the bowl, so the heart melts when I drink it.”
Ere arched an eloquent brow as he spoke, as if daring her to deny his elaborate request.
Eve glared at him with narrowed eyes.
Ben couldn’t tell if it was her default resting-bitch-face or if she was particularly put off with Ere. She could give the Sphinx a run for her money.
In the end, Eve didn’t answer one way or the other, simply walking away.
“What was that?” Ben hissed as soon as she was out of ear shot.
“What?” Ere asked innocently.
“That.Heart-shaped marshmallows?”
“Well, it’s her specialty,” Ere replied, brows raised aloft in an expression of the utmost innocence.
Ben’s consternation must have shown on his face, for Ere added, “She always draws whimsical signs with marshmallows in cocoa. She knows how to make really cool patterns with the froth on a latte too. The other day, I swear I got the Egyptian symbol for lotus. It was a work of art.”
Ben frowned.
He never got anything special in his hot drinks. And he’d ordered plenty of lattes, cappuccinos and cocoas over the past couple of years.
Speaking of the devil…
Eve returned just then and plunked a gigantic bowl of hot cocoa in front of Ere. A circle of marshmallows floated on top.
But not in the shape of a heart as Ben first thought.
No, when he looked closer, it was the symbol for the Egyptian Ouroboros, which represented rebirth, the recreation of life and perpetuity.
Strange, Ben thought.
His research over the last two years indicated that the next “quest” might be for something from ancient Egypt.
The Secret Gift.
He’d accumulated many clues that pointed in the same direction. There was another earth-born dragon there, he was certain of it. Just as he was certain that the dragon was meant to be brought to the present.
Or found in the present, if the being lived.
What were the chances that a waitress in the middle of nowhere Yukon made symbols out of hot drinks to point him in that very direction?
Could be a coincidence, Ben thought. But then, as he learned over the course of his relatively short human life, as well as at least one incarnation of his past life, there were no coincidences.
Only Fate.
