Secondly, a mage might be the mate for a dragon, but his real purpose in life was to cast spells, to work magic. Tori was a failure as a mage. While the Burkhard dragons might not have a problem with him being a man or gay, they would undoubtedly have issues with his lack of ability. After a lifetime of rejection from his clan, why the hell would he ever set himself up to be rejected by another clan? That was insane.
No, he was safer and better off on his own. No one to judge him. No one to call him a failure.
All he could do was ignore his hopeful stalkers and go about his own business. Really, finances alone forced him to be practical and not try to flip the tables on them somehow.
He entered the Uudenmaan TE-toimisto, an employment center, and went through the jobs listed there. It was a plain, red-brick building that looked rather governmental and efficient, and the interior matched.
Well, someone had thrown in octagonal stools of bright greens and blues to liven up the color scheme a bit, but the white walls and acoustic ceiling tiles and grey floor overpowered all color attempts.
He sat down on one of them anyway to review his options. Even a seasonal job would do at this point. He was quickly eating—no pun intended—through the money he’d gotten from Baldewin.
His motel was paid up for a week, so at least he had shelter. But constantly eating takeout was getting expensive quickly. He had no means of cooking at his motel room, so buying groceries wasn’t really an option, unless they were frozen meals he could reheat with the tiny microwave in his room. Which he did, as much as possible. But food was expensive.
Hell, life was expensive.
For one wild moment, he considered taking Baldewin up on his offer to go and see the clan, if for no other reason than they’d take care of his expenses for a few days while he waited to hear back from an employer. The hiring process was slow, sometimes taking months, and it was time Tori didn’t have.
But no. No, that was a poor life decision. He didn’t trust Baldewin and Warin enough to go with them, for one. For another, if things went poorly—and he fully expected them to—it would leave him stranded in a foreign country where he didn’t speak the language. And traveling back to Finland would be expensive as hell.
Besides, knowing his luck, as soon as he was out of the country, he’d get a job offer and wouldn’t be in the right position to take it.
Yeah, okay, no. Let’s not do crazy things, Tori.
He found three jobs he felt he had a good chance at, so he filled in the applications for those. By the time he was done, his phone was fully charged.
It was well past lunch time, and his stomach moaned plaintively. He couldn’t afford to feed it. One meal a day was all he could do, but water sounded like a good idea. Maybe with enough water, his stomach wouldn’t feel so lonely and rejected.
Tori turned in the applications and headed out. Water first, then back to the motel so he could do some laundry. His two other outfits needed a wash if he was to have clean clothes for tomorrow, and maybe he’d throw in the sheets this time, have clean bedding tonight. The one upside to the crappy motel was that it had its own laundry room.
He stepped out of the building, turned left, and almost ran smack into a delivery person hovering on the sidewalk. “Oh, excuse me.”
“Are you Nestori Taavi?”
Tori blinked. “Uh, yes?”
“Got a delivery for you.” He promptly handed over a white sack. “Have a good day.”
“Wait, I didn’t order this,” Tori spluttered.
“Someone called it in for you,” the delivery guy explained, already half-turned, impatient to get back. “Order’s paid. Just enjoy a free lunch.”
Tori had his mouth open to protest further, but he couldn’t manage a single word before the delivery man hopped on a scooter and sped off.
Someone ordered him lunch? Who in the world would—oh, don’t tell him.
He looked around suspiciously, eyes peeled for dragons. None were in immediate view, but that didn’t mean anything.
“I’m not a wild animal,” he said loudly. “Stop trying to tame me! I’m only going to eat this because I don’t believe in wasting food.”
No one answered.
Snorting, he took his precious lunch with him to a bench on the opposite side of the street. It was likely meant for people waiting on buses, but no one was there now, and he could at least sit and eat. Besides, the smell of warm bread, melted cheese, and beef was driving him crazy.
The food was still impressively warm, which meant the dragons had timed it well. How they’d done so, Tori didn’t know. How they managed to shadow him as he hopped all over Helsinki was another question. Were dragons ninjas? It would explain a lot.