Dragon Proposing (Torch Lake Shifters Book 2) Page 4

  “Do you think they’re going to make an announcement about the marriage laws?” Leif asked.

  “Maybe,” Jake said, unwilling to speculate too much at this point. He wanted to believe that he was about to hear history being made, and the marriage laws being abolished. But at the same time, he couldn’t ignore the little warning bells going off in the back of his mind. It had only been a day since the protest, and a weekend day at that. How much progress could the High Council possibly have made on abolishing the laws in that amount of time? Not much, Jake supposed. If they were about to announce something in regards to the marriage laws, it wasn’t likely to be good news.

  “My fellow citizens of Torch Lake,” Councilor Morgan said, his voice booming through the speakers on Jake’s television. “Good morning, and thank you to all of you for your attention at this last minute press conference. The High Council wants all of you to know that your voices were heard and acknowledge at the marriage laws protest held this weekend.”

  “This is about the marriage laws,” Leif exclaimed, leaning forward in his seat and grinning. Jake did not share his enthusiasm. Rather, his heart sank further in his chest as Councilor Morgan continued to speak.

  “The High Council took the unusual step of meeting on a Sunday, because we saw how important and time sensitive the issues of the marriage law were. We spent yesterday poring over the laws, and what steps would be necessary to change them. There are quite a few laws on the books that require marriage, most of which were introduced centuries ago and are, admittedly, quite outdated. I, along with all of the other members of the High Council, was quite appalled at these laws. We all agree that they must be changed.”

  Councilor Morgan paused and looked around at the small crowd gathered below the steps of the High Council Building. Jake felt a small flicker of hope. Councilor Morgan had just acknowledged that these laws were outdated, and that the High Councilors were all in agreement on this. Perhaps it was possible that this press conference was going to bring good news after all.

  “As most of you know, the High Council agreed on Saturday to give this matter our immediate attention, and to work as quickly as possible to resolve it. We are committed to keeping this promise. However, as these laws stand, they may not be merely stricken from the books. If they are to be removed, they must either be replaced with new laws written by High Council members and unanimously approved by all council members, or notice must be given to all of the town’s citizens that the laws are schedule for removal from the official code.”

  Jake frowned. Was this good news or not? If the High Council needed to write new laws, or give notice, then they just needed to get on with it and get it done. It shouldn’t be that big of a deal, should it? And yet the Head Wizard was still speaking as though there was no quick fix.

  “According to our laws, the notice period must be thirty days long, giving ample time for citizens to comment on the proposed deletion of laws,” Councilor Morgan continued. Jake’s heart sank. He didn’t have thirty days. But surely, the other option, that of replacing the old laws with newly written ones, could be accomplished in less than thirty days. His heart continued to pound anxiously as Council Morgan resumed speaking.

  “The High Council will put the notice period into effect starting today. Thirty days from now, these laws will be deleted from Torch Lake’s official code, no matter what. We do realize that many of you do not have thirty days to wait, however, and so we will also work on writing new laws to replace the old ones, in hopes that the new laws will be ready and approved even sooner than thirty days. We caution you, though, that new laws must be written carefully and examined by the most knowledgeable lawyers in the city before they can even be voted on. We want to act quickly, but we must be careful not to hurriedly enact new laws that will turn out to be problematic or worse than the laws they are replacing.”

  “What could possibly be worse than a marriage requirement law?” Jake said angrily, throwing his hands up in frustration.

  “We want to assure you all that we are working as quickly as possible,” Councilor Morgan said. “But realistically, the most likely scenario is that we will be unable to write new laws before the thirty day notice period is completed. We expect that the marriage laws will be finally and completely abolished thirty days from today. Now, I will take questions from the press, if there are any.”

  Of course, there were many questions. Wizards and shifters working as journalists immediately began clamoring for the Head Wizard’s attention, but Jake sat stunned, staring at the television and feeling utterly defeated.

  “There’s still hope, right?” Leif asked. “I mean, how long can it take to write up a few laws and get them approved by some lawyers? Surely everyone will happily put their stamp of approval on anything that gets rid of these awful, outdated laws.”

  Jake groaned and put his head in his hands. “You don’t understand, Leif. It’s not so simple. Every new law has to pass through several rounds of approval by both lawyers and council members. It’s a rigorous process—one that was specifically designed to make sure that no one could quickly change laws to benefit themselves. In theory, that’s a good idea, but in practice it makes it highly unlikely that a law will be changed in less than thirty days. In fact, I’m pretty good friends with a bear shifter here in town who’s a lawyer, and he’s told me before that there are tons of running jokes in the legal crowd about how long it takes to change laws.”

  “But, really,” Leif insisted, although he sounded a little less sure now. “These laws are so obviously wrong. Any laws changing them should fly through the approval process.”

  Jake shook his head as he reached to point the remote up and turn the television off. He’d heard enough. He didn’t want to hear any more empty promises and jabbering from the Head Wizard. “Leif, there were laws on the books, from the old wizard codes, that made practicing dark magic legal under certain circumstances. Obviously, after the Great Dark Magic War, everyone wanted those laws gone. But the laws were written in such an iron clad manner that they could not even be deleted with a notice period like the marriage laws. They had to go through the formal change process. The High Council worked like madmen to get the laws changed, but you know how long it took them to do that?”

  “I’m guessing more than thirty days,” Leif said glumly.

  “Four months. Four months, Leif. With everyone working around the clock, fearing that dark magic would get a legal foothold before the laws were changed. If those laws took that long to change, there’s no way in hell that some stupid marriage laws are going to be changed in less than thirty days. I’m glad that these marriage laws will be gone in thirty days. Truly, I am. But it doesn’t do me one lick of good. By then, the People’s Governor election will be done. William Graves is going to go unchallenged, and he’s going to wreak havoc on this town for the next five years.”

  Leif made no answer. What was there to say? Jake’s chance at being People’s Governor had just gone up in smoke. He was going to be stuck here at the Dragon Utilization Department for the foreseeable future, doing nothing but training whatever new dragons occasionally arrived in Torch Lake. He’d lost an opportunity to make a real difference in this city that he loved so much.

  “Fuck,” Jake said when he finally found his voice. He usually tried to be a little less vulgar with his speech, but right now he didn’t have it in him to care about things like propriety. He felt shell-shocked, angry, and hopeless. How could this be happening? How could he find himself in the middle of the twenty-first century, with his career options limited simply by the fact that he wasn’t married? It seemed impossible, and yet, here he was.

  His phone buzzed on the desk in front of him, and he picked it up to see he had a text from Rachel. The text was only one word long, and he almost had to laugh when he saw what she’d written.

  Fuck.

  She knows as well as I do that this is hopeless, Jake thought. He felt even sadder then, thinking of all the others in Torch Lak
e who had just had their hopes completely, brutally crushed. But there was nothing he could do to help them, just as there was nothing he could do to help himself. His fate was sealed.

  Or was it? Jake sat up straighter as a crazy thought crossed his mind. What if…but no. He slouched down again, pushing away the idea. It was too crazy. There was no hope for him, or for Rachel, or for anyone else who needed the law to change before the next thirty days.

  “I’m going to take the rest of the day off,” Jake said, standing and reaching for his wallet and keys from a small tray on his desk. “There’s no way I’m going to be able to concentrate on work right now. I might as well go drown my sorrows in some Dragon’s Breath Lager.”

  Leif nodded, but still said nothing as he followed Jake out of the office. Leif didn’t follow Jake out of the building, and for that, Jake was grateful. Usually, he loved being surrounded by friends when he was at the Winking Wizard. But right now, he just wanted to be alone. He just wanted to drink some good beer and forget about the fact that there was an election for his dream job in less than a month—an election he could not participate in.

  Chapter Six

  When she left work, Rachel hadn’t intended to end up at the Winking Wizard again. She’d planned to go straight home and drink a bottle, or two, of wine from her pantry. She wanted nothing more than to forget about this awful day, and the awful announcement that the Head Wizard had just made. Tomorrow, Rachel would have to put on her big girl panties and face reality. But today, for just a few brief hours, she wanted to wallow in her sorrow and then drown that sorrow in alcohol. Surely, she was allowed this one day to mourn?

  She couldn’t go to her usual downtown bars. She’d had to fib and tell her boss that she didn’t feel well in order to leave work, so she couldn’t risk being anywhere near the office. The last thing she needed was for one of her coworkers to see her and tattle on her. Rachel had, in essence, just lost her inheritance. She couldn’t afford to lose her job, too. She’d decided that day drinking at home was her best option, but the closer she got to her apartment, the more depressed she felt about being shut up all alone with her sorrows. She made the last minute decision to catch a cab out to the Winking Wizard, the only bar she knew that was safely far away from downtown, and her coworkers’ nosy eyes.

  She’d half hoped to find Jake here, but the place had been almost completely empty when she arrived. And no wonder. It was only ten forty-five in the morning. The bar opened at ten-thirty, but only a handful of older wolf shifters were here, sitting in the corner and drinking coffee, not beer. On a normal day, Rachel would have been hopelessly self-conscious about drinking so early, especially when she was drinking alone. But today, she didn’t have the energy to care. She glanced at Jake’s usual table, which of course was empty now, among dozens of other empty tables. She briefly considered sitting there, but decided against it at the last moment. She doubted Jake would care, but sitting there might draw attention from the wolf shifters. If they knew that was Jake’s table, they might take it upon themselves to tell her that she was sitting in someone else’s spot. Rachel didn’t want to deal with reprimands, so she made her way up to the bar top and sat down, pushing away the strangely strong disappointment she felt that Jake wasn’t here. What had she been expecting? He was the Head Trainer at the Dragon Utilization Department. He had a real, important job. He couldn’t just take off in the middle of the day to drink, like some grunt worker.

  Rachel swallowed the taste of bile that rose in her throat at that thought. That’s all she was. A grunt worker. She’d had big dreams once. She’d wanted to open her own music store. She’d had such a clear vision of it in her mind’s eye—a beautiful showroom where gorgeous instruments were sold, and several private rooms in the back where she and other employees could give lessons to aspiring young musicians. But that dream had gone up in smoke this morning. Without her family’s fortune, Rachel had no capital. She had lost what little savings she had already, and she had no hope of accumulating more while slaving away for crappy pay that barely covered her living expenses.

  “What’ll it be?” the bartender asked. Rachel almost asked for a coffee, thinking that perhaps she should at least make an attempt to look like she wasn’t a complete loser here to drink away her sorrows before noon on a weekday. But at the last second, she decided she didn’t care what the bartender thought. He probably didn’t think much one way or the other, anyway. He was here to work and make a living, and as long as she tipped him, he probably didn’t give a rat’s ass whether she drank coffee or beer.

  “I’ll take a Charmed Star Ale.”

  “Coming right up.”

  While he filled her mug with the swirling purple ale, Rachel pulled her phone out of her purse and chanced a peek. No messages. She sighed and let the phone drop back into her bag. She’d been hoping for some sort of response from Jake—some sort of acknowledgement that he felt her misery, too. But so far, her one word text had gone unanswered. Perhaps he didn’t understand the seriousness of the situation. After all, a lot of shifters had no clue just how complicated it was to change laws in the wizarding world. She would have thought that Jake understood, given his position as a government employee. But perhaps his work was too far removed from the lawmaking branches of the government. Perhaps he, like many shifters, didn’t understand that a wizard law could never be changed and approved of in less than a month. It was downright laughable that the High Council had even mentioned changing the law as a viable option at the press conference today. They were trying to soothe nerves, Rachel supposed. But they knew as well as any wizard that the marriage laws would take months to change.

  Rachel knew they were doing the best they could by giving notice that the law would be abolished in thirty days. For many, this would bring relief. But for Rachel, and for all those who were already facing a ticking clock, the abolishment would come too late. Everything was lost.

  “Cheers,” the bartender said as he set down the Charmed Star Ale on a coaster in front of Rachel. He quickly made himself scarce, probably sensing that she just wanted to be alone. For a few moments, she stared at the swirling purple liquid in her mug, admiring its beauty. She was grateful that she knew at least one beer to order. The choices on tap here were overwhelming for anyone, but especially for someone who never drank beer. Perhaps she’d be drinking beer more often now, though. After all, it was cheaper than the cocktails she usually favored, and she was going to have to learn how to budget better.

  Rachel’s cheeks burned with shame at the thought—not because she thought she was above budgeting and saving money, but because she should, as a grown ass woman, know how to do those things already. Her parents had never taught her though. Hell, maybe they didn’t even know how. After all, no one in her family had needed to worry about money for at least the last five centuries, probably longer.

  Rachel took a long sip of her drink and wondered if she could make some money by selling off some of her designer clothes. People did that, right? She’d heard of people making a fortune off of selling stuff online. She was smart enough to figure out how to do that. And lord knows she had more than enough designer outfits, purses, and shoes. She had managed to save quite a few of them when she fled her old hometown during the war. It seemed ridiculous now that those had been the things she chose to save, but at the time she’d truly believed that she’d be back home soon and that all of her other valuables would make it through the war untouched. She’d only been concerned with having enough clothes to wear while she was gone. She hadn’t even taken any of her real jewels. The only pieces she’d brought with her were imitation rubies, emeralds, and diamonds. They looked impressively real, but they were only costume jewelry, and had no real value. All of the real jewels would now be going to her distant cousin, and there wasn’t a damned thing she could do about it.

  “Didn’t expect to find you here,” a familiar voice said, breaking into her mental attempts at budgeting.

  Rachel spun around in surprise
. “Jake! What are you doing here?”

  Despite everything going on right now, the sight of his face, crinkling up into a sad but amused smile, lifted her spirits and made her heart do a little flip flop.

  “I’m just visiting my usual bar, in hopes of drinking away this wretched day. But I thought this place wasn’t really your style.”

  He couldn’t hide the way his eyes took in her outfit, and she felt her cheeks heating up with fresh embarrassment. She was wearing designer heels several inches tall, along with a frilly dress that had probably cost more than his monthly grocery budget.

  “I thought this place was nice after coming here on Saturday. And, uh, I just came straight from work,” she said, feeling the need to defend her clothes, even though he hadn’t actually verbalized any criticism of her outfit.

  Jake shrugged. “Hey, if you like the place, I’m not going to argue with you about that. I just thought it wasn’t exactly up your alley. But those Charmed Star Ales do seem quite addictive. All the wizard girls drink them up like they’re soda pop or something.”

  The bartender was setting a mug of copper colored beer down in front of Jake, even though Jake hadn’t asked him for anything yet.

  “Thanks, Joe,” Jake said, then laughed when he turned back to Rachel and saw her confused expression. “I always drink Dragon’s Breath Lager. Joe doesn’t even need to ask what I want. Now, come on. Why don’t you join me at my table instead of sitting up here by yourself?”