That evening, Sofia made a late night trip to the grocery store. Her pantry was down to only a few canned soups and a container of peanut butter, and she really didn’t want to order takeout again. The last few weeks had been stressful, leaving Sofia little time to think about preparing meals. But things were quiet for the moment. There were no Dark Warriors meetings, and the dragon trainees were off on their mission. Sofia had a little space to breathe, and she had a craving for a home cooked meal.
After throwing on a pair of old yoga pants and a hoodie, she made her way to the nearest supermarket. The place was gloriously empty, and Sofia found herself slowly wandering the aisles, throwing all kinds of things she didn’t really need into her cart. She planned to make something simple, like spaghetti with meat sauce and freshly grated parmesan, so the trip shouldn’t have taken very long. But she felt strangely soothed by the quiet store, with all its wonderful smells and colors. She paused at the magazine racks to browse over what she’d missed in the last two weeks. The store carried fully human publications as well as an assortment of magazines that were specifically geared to the wizard or shifter world. There were, of course, serious news periodicals such as the Shifter Times or the Wizard World Gazette. But there were also several fashion magazines such as Wizard Wear Weekly, Shifter Threads, or, Sofia’s favorite, a magazine combining the most popular of both wizard and shifter fashions, Magic Fashion Shifts. And then, if you were in the mood for some salacious reading, you could catch up with gossip by reading Beasts and Wizards Illustrated. Everyone knew that Beasts and Wizards was full of wildly exaggerated stories and overly touched up photos, but Sofia found herself browsing through it nonetheless. She had to admit that every now and then she enjoyed a bit of good gossip. Who didn’t?
Unfortunately, it was this very magazine that Sofia was happily reading when she glanced up and saw Leif turning down the magazine aisle. She froze, and told herself to look away and pretend that she hadn’t seen him. But it was too late. Their eyes had locked. Even though he looked about as unhappy as she felt that the two of them had run into each other, there was no denying that they were both here in the same aisle of the same damn grocery store.
Of all the places he could be on a Friday night, Sofia thought. What was he doing grocery shopping? Didn’t he usually go to that loud beer bar where he and his friends loved to guzzle down pints? Sofia struggled for a moment to remember the name of the bar. Something winking…Winking Wizard? Was that it?
It didn’t matter. Whatever the name of the bar, Leif was not there. Instead he was here, in the same grocery store as her, and glaring at her like she was somehow doing him wrong by merely being here. Heck, he didn’t own the grocery stores. She had just as much of a right to be here as him. She willed him to turn around and go to the next aisle, leaving her in peace. She’d been so enjoying her “me time” in the supermarket aisles.
But Leif didn’t turn around. Instead, after staring at her for several moments, he started walking toward her. Sofia felt her heart pounding in her chest, a mixture of anger, fear, and passion. Anger, because she just wanted to be left alone. Fear, because the anger she saw in Leif’s eyes terrified her. And passion because, no matter how much they disliked each other, Leif was undeniably handsome. He was wearing a simple gray hoodie now, but even that couldn’t fully disguise his large muscles and broad chest. He looked taller than normal as he leaned against the shopping cart. It was almost comical how much bigger he was than the cart. Sofia was suddenly aware of just how old her yoga pants were, and of the fact that she had no makeup on. At least her hair was halfway decent, pulled up into a neat ponytail. Not that any of that should have mattered. Leif hated her, after all, and she had to pretend to hate him back just as much. What did she care how she looked, then?
“Nice reading material you’ve got there,” he said with a sneer as he approached.
Sofia glanced down at her hands and felt her face go beet red. In her worry over her clothes, she had completely forgotten that she was holding a copy of Beasts and Wizards Illustrated in her hands. And she had definitely forgotten that it was currently opened to a page with the headline “The Secret Sex Lives of Four High Councilors—You’ll Wish You Could Get Under Their Robes Too!” The words were written in bold red letters, and Sofia quickly shut the magazine and shoved it back on the shelf, wishing she could melt through the floor.
“I wasn’t actually reading that. Just flipping through for pictures, you know.”
“Uh-huh. I’m sure most of the time you prefer high literature. You’re obviously very smart, since the High Council trusts your judgment so completely.”
Sofia sighed. “Leif, look, it’s Friday night and we’re both off the clock right now. Can we give it a rest? Let’s both politely acknowledge each other and then continue on alone with our shopping. There’s no need to argue about petty work disagreements right now.”
As soon as Sofia said the words, she knew they were a mistake. Leif’s eyes narrowed at her, and angry sparks flashed. Those sparks were becoming all too familiar. Sofia was beginning to think that at least ninety-nine percent of the time she’d spent around Leif had been spent with him mad at her. Now, he leaned in close to her face. She caught a whiff of his cologne, and despite the fact that she knew she was about to get chewed out, she couldn’t help but take a deeper breath and enjoy the scent. It was an earthy smell, one that brought to mind a walk through a grove of sandalwood trees. Before she could lose herself too much in his scent, though, his words brought her back to reality.
“It’s not a petty work disagreement. That’s the problem. It’s two dragons who are most likely going to move away from Torch Lake as soon as they’re back from their dark monster mission. That means we’ve lost two dragon shifters who might have been convinced to stay here permanently. Two dragon shifters who might have defended our city in the event of a dark magic attack. Two dragon shifters who could have made a big difference if evil tried to take our city. Didn’t the last war teach you anything? Even one dragon shifter can make a huge difference in battle. And we just lost two.”
Sofia found her own anger rising. She was tired of putting up a happy, professional front. She was tired of listening to Leif talk about how she didn’t understand anything. She understood far, far more than he knew. She stuck her chin out defiantly and shook her head.
“No. You are the one who didn’t learn anything in the last war. You should know by now that things aren’t always what they seem. You told me that it didn’t make sense that the High Council would give an emergency meeting to a junior audit officer. You told me that it didn’t make sense that they would pay millions of dollars to get dragons here, only to risk losing them by ending their training too soon. Think about it, Leif. If things don’t make sense, there’s probably a reason for that.”
“What are you saying,” he growled, his eyes searching hers. For perhaps the first time since Sofia had showed up by his truck, he looked uncertain instead of angry or annoyed.
“I’m saying, the High Council isn’t dumb. Don’t you think they’re smart enough not to make huge decisions about dragon shifters based on the opinion of one junior auditor?”
“You mean the lies of one junior auditor.”
Sofia sighed. She’d already said too much. Fueled by her frustration, and by the fact that she wasn’t wearing Vincent’s secret camera right now, she’d let down her guard and hinted at things that Leif could conceivably realize pointed to the fact that Sofia was a spy. Luckily for her, Leif seemed to be too furious to think clearly. He had his arms crossed now, waiting for her to deny that she had lied to the High Council.
Sofia had not lied, but she didn’t feel like defending herself to an angry dragon. Wearily, she shrugged and started to turn her shopping cart one hundred and eighty degrees, so she could walk away from Leif. “I never lied to the High Council,” she called over her shoulder.
Behind her, she heard Leif snorting again. “I’d have to be an idiot to believe that,” he said. “And I’m no idiot.”
Sofia sighed softly. She didn’t think Leif was an idiot. She thought he was brilliant, like most of the dragon shifters. Which was why she knew it had been a mistake to say as much as she had tonight. He was angry now, but when he calmed down and thought more carefully about what she’d said, would he figure out what she’d meant? Odds were good that he would.
Sofia clenched her teeth together, feeling suddenly nauseous. She was the one who was an idiot, if she thought she could hide the truth from a dragon.