“That’s pretty sweet,” Shaggy Black Hair said, looking me up and down, and I knew he wasn’t just talking about my imagined culinary skills. “My band makes the rounds at a lot of restaurants around here. I could put in a good word if you need one.”
“Thanks.” I smiled sweetly, burying the urge to slam my heel into Iannis’s shin. I had no idea Mr. Ice King would throw himself into his role with such enthusiasm, or I might’ve thought twice about going out with him tonight. “So, how are things going for you two at the Academy?”
“Ugh.” Blue Mohawk rolled his eyes. “Don’t get me started. You’d think that the Mage’s Guild would stick to their own schools and apprenticeships, but a few of ‘em have been dropping in on the humanities classes at the Academy. They thumb their noses at science or engineering, take the best seats and most of them refuse to work with any of us humans.” He curled his lip. “They think that magic is the only viable way to accomplish things.”
“Well that’s just stupid,” Iannis chimed in, surprising me. His muscular thighs shifted beneath me, sending the butterflies in my stomach into a frenzy. “We have an electrical plant in Solantha that powers most areas of the city, including this building.” He waved an arm to indicate the bulbs hanging down from the ceiling.
I twisted in his lap to look down at him, and he simply stared up at me quizzically as if he couldn’t comprehend the skepticism on my face. It threw me off balance that he could understand the argument for technology so well, yet not permit much of it in the castle. Since I couldn’t call him on it, I turned back to the two humans.
“… yeah, and it doesn’t help things that those feckless shifters are always causing trouble, too,” Shaggy Black Hair was saying.
“Excuse me?” I said, a little too sharply, and the humans blinked.
Shaggy scowled at me. “There’ve been a lot of shifter-human fights breaking out on campus recently,” he said. “Some kinda drug’s been going around makin’ em crazy. Now that they’ve finally got a way to get high, they just can’t keep a lid on themselves.”
Blue Mohawk nodded, pointing to the shiner on his face. “Yeah, I got this from a rabbit shifter because I bumped into him in the hallway last week.”
My jaw dropped. “That’s crazy!” Rabbit shifters weren’t known for being particularly aggressive. I couldn’t imagine one getting into a fistfight over a simple accident.
Shaggy gave me the stink eye. “Seems like you’re defending the shifters, pretty lady. Don’t know if that’ll make you very popular around here.”
Iannis tightened his arms around my waist and straightened in his stool. “You’ll have to forgive her – she grew up in Rowanville, and as you know things are different over there.”
The two humans nodded. “I guess so,” Shaggy said suspiciously. “But still, you’d have to be blind not to see what’s been happening these last few days. These violent outbreaks are getting worse.”
Worry began to brew in my gut, and I stiffened. We were going to have to track down the source of these drugs, and soon, or the reputation of shifters as a race would be ruined. I squirmed in Iannis’s lap, suddenly tired of sitting here and making small talk, but he gave my hip a warning squeeze.
“Yeah, and worse, the mages aren’t doing anything about it,” Blue Mohawk added. Despite his shiner, he seemed more blasé about the whole thing, and simply sighed before taking a long drink from his beer bottle. “By the time they get around to it, there’ll probably be a civil war or something between humans and shifters. Lazy bastards are too busy up in their ivory towers, practicing their sacred magic spells, to think about anything else.”
“I’ll drink to that,” I said, raising my glass. I tossed Iannis the stink eye before downing my drink, happy that the hatred had been redirected back to mages again, who were clearly the root of the problem, and not shifters.
“Well, it was nice to meet you guys, but we’re catching a play later tonight with some friends and we’d better get going.” Blue Mohawk slid off his barstool, and Shaggy Black Hair followed suit. “See you around sometime, huh?”
“Yeah, see you.” Iannis lifted his beer to them in salute and took another long pull from it as they walked off.
A mixture of relief and triumph filled my chest as I leaned in to whisper in his ear. “See? I told you things are bad out here. I’m not the only one who hates mages.”
“Yes, and it seems that, at least in Maintown, mages aren’t the only ones who are hated.” He grinned at me.
Heat scalded the tips of my ears. “That’s not fair,” I said hotly.
He held up a long-fingered hand. “I know, I know,” he said. “All of this talk about drugs and shifters is alarming. It will be looked into.”
The gravity of his voice and expression settled me – this was the Iannis I knew. But before I could open my mouth, the bartender finally returned with our food.