Citrine’s eyes narrowed. But when I brought over her bowl of hot chocolate, she drank it all without a single word.
It was one of the most delicious moments of my life. And when I looked across at the younger princess, I could see from her smile that she understood it completely.
It didn’t take long for my family to devour the entire tableful of chocolate treats that Marina had brought from the Chocolate Heart. Silke made certain that the royals had some, too, serving all of them with a flourish. The king ate his chocolate tart with obvious appreciation, the crown princess’s eyebrows rose higher and higher as she ate three chocolate-almond conceits in a row and I saw something very near bliss on Princess Sofia’s face as she slowly drank her cup of hot chocolate, visibly savouring every sip.
The lord mayor, of course, claimed that he wasn’t hungry, until a meaningful look from the king changed his mind. But the sulky expression on his face at the end, as he used his spoon to scrape up every last, nearly invisible speck of chocolate cream from his glass, was even more satisfying than any applause could have been.
When Grandfather had emptied his very last bowl, he let out a sigh that billowed warmth across the square and made my brown dress flutter. ‘Well.’ He looked down at me indulgently, with a thin line of smoke dribbling happily from his snout. ‘It seems to me, hatchling, that you haven’t done so badly for yourself after all.’
Aunt Émeraude said, ‘It will certainly be useful to have someone in the family who can make that for us!’
‘Oh yes,’ said Aunt Tourmaline. ‘Deliciously useful.’
‘But I’m not going back with you,’ I told them. ‘You do understand that, don’t you?’
Grandfather’s eyes narrowed. His snout lowered. ‘You may have lost your proper shape, due to typical human trickery –’ his voice deepened into a snarl, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw the king flinch – ‘but you are still our own hatchling, to be guarded and cherished. Do you expect us to leave you here, unprotected, among strangers?’
‘It’s my territory now,’ I said. ‘And they’re not strangers to me. They’re not even all that different from dragons. Not really.’
The king coughed pointedly, stepping forward. ‘Er … as happy as we are that you’ve found comfort in our city, young lady, we wouldn’t like … that is, if your family truly desires –’
‘No,’ Mother said abruptly. ‘She shouldn’t come back.’
This time, I was the one who flinched. It was only for a moment, of course. Then I lifted my chin and put on my fiercest expression, shoving down the pain and reminding myself that this was exactly what I’d wanted. ‘That’s fine,’ I said stiffly. ‘I know I never did what you wanted.’
‘Child …’ Mother stretched her long, gleaming, blue-and-golden neck across the square until her great golden eyes were looking directly down at me. ‘Haven’t you ever listened to a word I’ve said? I always wanted you to find your passion. Now that that has finally happened, why would I be cruel enough to pull you away from it?’
Oh. Suddenly, my throat felt choked with something that I couldn’t understand.
‘You’re not angry?’ I said, my voice small. ‘Or disappointed in me? Again?’
She shook her massive head, but her gaze never wavered from my face. ‘I have rarely felt so proud of anyone in my life.’
That was it. My throat closed up entirely.
Marina spoke from behind me, looking straight into my mother’s gaze as I forced back the sudden moisture from my own eyes. ‘Don’t worry,’ Marina said. ‘We’ll take care of her.’
‘Did you really think we’d leave her without any protection?’ Grandfather snorted, a low growl rumbling through his throat. ‘If our hatchling is to be left in this city after all, we’ll be keeping a very close eye on it from now on.’
‘You will?’ The king’s voice came out as a near squeak, his face paling.
‘Absolutely.’ Grandfather’s tail lashed dangerously. ‘If any enemy army ever thinks of attacking, they’ll change their minds before they come within fifty miles of our hatchling, I can promise you that!’
‘Oh. Oh!’ The king blinked rapidly. ‘Well, in that case –’ his lips stretched into a wide, beaming smile – ‘we would be more than happy to enter into an alliance with your family!’
‘Indeed.’ The crown princess smiled coolly as she looked across my family’s massive armoured bodies. ‘And I think we can safely promise you that your, ah, hatchling will be well cared for in her new home, under our own royal protection.’
‘Ahem …’ Silke cleared her throat delicately. ‘Unless the Chocolate Heart goes out of business, you mean, because of persecution and rumours, so Marina and Horst and Aventurine all have to flee the city?’
Every dragon head in the square swung around to stare at her. Snarls tore through the air.
‘What are you talking about?’ Grandfather demanded. ‘Out of business? Persecution? Rumours?’
‘No!’ The king started forward, waving his arms desperately. ‘Ahaha. No, no, no. There’s nothing at all to worry about, my very dear … friends. After all, why on earth would the Chocolate Heart go out of business when it famously makes the best hot chocolate in the city? There may have been a few mistakes made in the past, but –’ he puffed out his chest – ‘from now on it will have my personal patronage, and there is no other chocolate house that can boast of that! In fact, I believe the Chocolate Heart will soon be the most successful chocolate house in this city, as well as the best!’
‘Mmmph!’ The lord mayor let out a muffled groan.
The crown princess turned to give him a long look. ‘Isn’t that right, My Lord Mayor?’ she asked gently. ‘Don’t you want to reassure our new allies too?’
His shoulders sagged. His chest rose and fell. Even his big floppy hat seemed to sigh. But finally he gave us all a sickly-looking smile. ‘Of course,’ he said. ‘The Chocolate Heart will have all of our wholehearted support.’
‘Excellent,’ hissed Mother. ‘And we’ll see that for ourselves, of course, as we’ll be making regular visits from now on.’
At that the king began to tug at his neck-knot, looking more than a little green. But a canny gleam lit up the crown princess’s eyes as she stepped forward and began to talk smoothly about trade agreements and safe passageways. Soon she and Citrine were involved in a long and exquisitely courteous debate, while my mother and grandfather listened with sharp attention and my aunts whispered together in a language of their own that no one else had ever managed to understand …
And I was left standing at the sidelines with Silke and Marina, watching it all with deep satisfaction.
‘I know exactly what my next handbill is going to say.’ Silke held out her hands as if to frame it. ‘“The chocolate shop that saved the city! Chocolate so good, it melted even a dragon’s heart!”’
Marina rolled her eyes. ‘More nonsense,’ she muttered. But then she smiled at both of us indulgently. ‘I hope you’re almost ready to go home,’ she said, ‘because apparently, we have a lot of work to do.’
When we walked back into the kitchen of the Chocolate Heart an hour later, the first thing I saw was the presentation pot of hot chocolate that I had used earlier that day, still sitting on the counter. I scooped it up, starting for the sink.
‘Hold on.’ Marina spoke from behind me. ‘Aren’t you going to taste it first? There’s still a full cup’s worth left at least.’
‘But it’ll be cold by now.’ I frowned. ‘How can I learn anything from that?’
‘Actually –’ Marina studied me, her expression enigmatic – ‘I think we might all learn quite a lot. You see, I’ve been thinking.’ She nodded at Silke. ‘You remember what this one was jabbering on about earlier?’
‘I beg your pardon!’ said Silke, throwing herself down on a chair. ‘I’ve never jabbered in my life! I often talk at length, of course, but it’s always interesting, and –’
‘About Aventurine’s hot chocolate,�
� Marina interrupted. ‘How it made you want this place to succeed, when you’d been ready to abandon it before.’
‘Oh. That.’ Silke shrugged and tucked her hands into her pockets. ‘Well, that part’s absolutely true.’
‘Hmm.’ Marina turned back to me. ‘Well, I didn’t feel any different after I drank that first hot chocolate – but then, I wanted to save this place already. Horst went wild over the taste of your tarts, though, even though they were so burned they should have tasted like ash. Looking back, I think I probably should have tried them, too. Because …’
She gestured towards the chocolate pot. ‘I drank a cup of that hot chocolate today,’ she said, ‘and I can tell you, I was feeling heartily discouraged before I began to drink. There was a whole bunch of dragons getting ready to burn down the city … we were losing this chocolate house, no matter what … and worst of all, I’d had to use a substandard recipe for a chocolate custard, just to make this fellow happy.’ She jerked her shoulder towards the doorway where Horst stood.
‘Ahem!’ said Horst, shaking his head at her. ‘It was not a substandard recipe. I liked it!’
‘As I said.’ Marina crossed her arms. ‘But then I drank that hot chocolate. And within the first two sips, I was feeling more confident than I ever have before in my life – and believe me, that is saying something. All of a sudden, I knew I could do anything I put my mind to. Even cooking for the king, when the summons came. I didn’t feel a single moment of nerves.’
A shiver brushed down the top of my spine. ‘What are you trying to say?’
‘What I’m saying,’ she said steadily, ‘is that I’d be very interested to hear what exactly you were thinking about when you made that particular pot of hot chocolate.’
‘I …’ I shook my head, feeling dazed, as I tried to remember. It all seemed to have happened a very long time ago. ‘I think I was deciding … that I could be whatever I wanted to be. A dragon and a girl. Both of them, together.’
‘Mm-hmm.’ Marina nodded. ‘I thought it might have been something like that.’ She scooped a porcelain cup off from the rows of hooks on the closest wall and held it out to me. ‘Here,’ she told me. ‘Pour yourself a cup. But I think you’d better drink it outside, just in case.’
There was a distant buzzing noise in my head as I accepted the cup from her.
Vaguely, I was aware of Silke talking excitedly nearby as I poured myself the hot chocolate, but I couldn’t take in anything that she said. I couldn’t even think. I didn’t want to. I was afraid to let my mind take in Marina’s words. Afraid to believe …
Holding my mind as still and frozen as a block of ice, I walked through the swinging doors into the main room, balancing the full cup of liquid steady in my hand. I pushed open the front door of the Chocolate Heart and stepped outside into the chilly late-afternoon air. For once our busy street was empty. Maybe everyone was still hiding under a bridge or inside their houses, waiting to find out if they were safe.
I was glad that no one else was here to see me.
But I didn’t let myself think about why that might be as I lifted the cup to my lips and took my first sip of the cool, sweet, spicy chocolate. Then I gulped the rest down in one long rush.
A burst of flame filled my mouth as the chilli exploded against my senses.
My eyes closed. A wave of warm, pure certainty flooded through me. My mouth fell open in amazement.
This was right. This was me. How could I ever have doubted it?
And: Was this really waiting inside me all along?
I tilted my head back and roared with joy as my wings exploded from my sides, wide and strong and perfect as ever. Claws shot out from my hands as I erupted outwards, suddenly just as big on the outside as I’d always felt inside.
Warmth surrounded me. Power filled me.
I flexed my long, sharp claws and opened my eyes to look down on my second family. Horst was staring, open-mouthed, through the glass of the chocolate-house window. Silke stood outside beside me, bouncing on her heels and laughing with delight.
‘Aventurine!’ she yelled. ‘You’re massive!’
Standing in the open doorway of the Chocolate Heart, Marina gave me a small satisfied smile and a nod. ‘Well?’ she said. ‘And how about the rest? A dragon and a girl, both at once, remember?’
Oh. I’d almost forgotten. But there it was, clear and bright within me. I closed my eyes, focused …
And there they were again, when I looked: my small and clever human fingers.
I would never manage any proper cooking with dragon claws, after all.
Silke grabbed my hand, whooping with delight. Two weeks ago, I would have pulled away; now I wrapped my human fingers around hers to hold on tight. Joy filled me as I looked up at Marina and thought of my mother, who was already planning her next visit to the city.
I might have a new home, but I hadn’t lost my first one after all … because that food mage had passed on more to me than he’d ever intended in that first, panic-filled moment of transformation. Now my wings were waiting for me whenever I wanted them.
It was almost too much happiness to contain. But I was a dragon and a girl, and I was strong enough for all of it.
Horst shook his head and smiled as he stepped outside to join us. Wrapping one arm around Marina’s shoulders, he raised his free hand to point at all the windows that had been flung open up and down the street, and at all the neighbours who were staring out at us in silent shock.
‘Somehow,’ he told us, ‘I’m guessing this is going to be a very interesting week for our chocolate house. And I think it may finally be time to hire more staff.’
CHAPTER 24
‘This is so unfair,’ Jasper told me six weeks later. It wasn’t the first time he’d said it, and I knew it wouldn’t be the last.
It made me tingle with wicked delight every time.
He sighed as he licked the last of the hot chocolate from around his snout, shifting in his cushion of gold coins and sending them skittering across the cavern floor. ‘You were never even interested in humans, unlike me!’ he pointed out. ‘And now you get to be one, whenever you want. But Mother won’t even let me visit you there! She says she’s still not sure it’s safe.’
‘It’s safe,’ I told him. ‘You can trust me on that. Those royals are determined not to displease us, now that they have a dragon guard for their capital city. Every other kingdom is jealous of them – and apparently it’s wonderful for trade.’
‘Hmmph.’ Moodily, Jasper scraped at the mound of gold coins with his claw. ‘That Princess Sofia of yours has some interesting theories on the differences between draconic and human scholarship. It would be nice to get to talk them over in person instead of having to stick to letters all the time.’
‘I could always turn you human for a day or two, if you wanted,’ I offered. ‘I’m getting better at that sort of thing.’
I hardly even flinched any more when I remembered that I was a terrifying food mage. It helped that Marina genuinely didn’t care, just as long as I didn’t let my new-found powers make me lazy in her kitchen.
And that was never going to happen. I knew what I could do nowadays, and it only made me work harder than ever to control myself. I would never change anyone else against their will, the way that I’d been changed all those weeks ago.
Silke insisted that she didn’t mind having been my first victim. After all, deciding to support the chocolate house had brought her more chocolate in the last seven weeks than most people ate in their entire lifetimes. Also, she’d negotiated herself a fabulous salary as Horst’s new assistant … although she’d insisted that it be a part-time role. She could never stay in just one place for a whole day. But she was a brilliant waitress for the chocolate house whenever she chose to be there, and her handbills brought in more and more new customers every day.
So, no, I didn’t feel guilty about what I’d done to my first real friend … but I had learned to be very careful.
Still …
my brother didn’t need to know that, did he? Tongue in cheek, I grinned at him, making my voice sickly sweet. ‘I probably wouldn’t accidentally turn you into a slug,’ I told him, ‘just by thinking the wrong thing as I was making your hot chocolate. Although if I did –’ carefully, discreetly, I shifted to one side, bracing every muscle for action but innocently holding his gaze all the while – ‘would it really make all that much of a difference?’
‘Arrrrgh!’ Smoke flying from his mouth, Jasper leaped for me.
But I was already moving.
Just as I’d planned, my brother landed on the prickly mountain of diamonds, emeralds and other gemstones that rose just behind the spot where I’d been sitting a moment earlier. He came out sneezing, shaking his head and roaring louder than ever, and he pounced on my back as I fled, snorting smokeballs.
Soon we were rolling around and around on the floor, sending tiaras and precious stones flying into the air.
‘Children!’ Mother sighed heavily as she crawled into the cavern, squeezing her glittering bulk through the main entryway. ‘Can’t I ever trust the two of you to behave together?’ Shaking her head, she dropped what she’d been holding. ‘Here. We brought back food from the hunt for you both.’
Abandoning Jasper, I pounced on the feast. He grabbed the other end of it, and we grinned at each other in perfect accord over our delicious meaty meal.
It wasn’t human, of course. My family had a new rule about that. Humans were not always to be avoided – not any more – but they were never, ever to be eaten.
Dragons always protected their families.
An hour later, it was time to go. I hooked the handle of my empty hot-chocolate pot over one claw and hung the sack that had held my family’s other chocolatey treats over another.
‘Be good,’ Mother told me as I left the cave. She gave me one of her sternest looks. ‘Make us proud, and remember: you’re coming back here on your very next afternoon off!’
‘I will,’ I promised. ‘I always do.’
The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart Page 18
