Chapter 70 – The Rotisserie Diplomacy

The dragon-woman’s wings cast shadows across the ruined parking lot.

Heat shimmered off her scales in visible waves. The asphalt beneath her feet had turned to bubbling tar. Smoke poured from her nostrils with each breath. She looked like the apocalypse wearing a sports bra made of molten metal.

“Kai Evans.”

Her voice boomed across the lot. Deep. Resonant. Probably designed to make armies scatter.

“I am Ignis, Queen of the Southern Wastes, and I have come for you.”

I adjusted my grip on the grocery bags Sarah had dropped. The marshmallows had survived. The eggs probably hadn’t.

“Cool entrance. Very dramatic. You melted my ice cream though.”

She blinked. Confusion flickered across her reptilian features.

“What?”

“The ice cream. Inside. You melted the entire frozen section with that landing.”

Sarah moved between us, her form rippling. Extra limbs started sprouting from her shoulders. Her jaw unhinged slightly.

“I will consume her.”

“Hold that thought.”

I studied Ignis more carefully. The scales. The wings. The fire. All very impressive. But something was off. Her ribs showed through the scales on her torso. Her arms looked thin. Her face had that hollow quality that came from missing too many meals.​

“When was the last time Solomon fed you?”

Ignis recoiled like I’d slapped her.

“That is none of your concern, demon.”

“That’s a non-answer. Which means it’s been a while.”

“I am here to take you into custody. Surrender peacefully or—”

“Or what? You’ll burn down a grocery store? There are still people inside.”

She glanced at the building. Flames licked at the edges of the melted roof. Customers huddled near the far exit, phones out, recording everything.

“Collateral damage is acceptable.”

“Not to me it isn’t.”

I walked past Sarah, ignoring her hiss of protest. The heat intensified as I got closer to Ignis. My shirt started to singe. The plastic grocery bag handles melted. I dropped them and kept walking.

“Stay back.”

Fire erupted around her body. A warning. A threat display.

I stopped about ten feet away. Close enough to see the exhaustion in her eyes. The way her wings trembled slightly. The collar around her neck glowing with ugly purple light.

“You’re starving. Dragons your size need what, ten thousand calories a day minimum? Solomon’s been feeding you maybe a quarter of that.”

Her expression cracked. Just for a second. Surprise, anger, and something that looked like relief.

“How did you—”

“I work with monsters. It’s my job to know what they need.”

The flames around her dimmed. Not extinguished. Just less intense.

“You think kindness will save you? I have my orders.”

“Yeah, I can see that.”

I pointed at the collar. The runes carved into the metal pulsed in rhythm with her heartbeat.

“Slave collar. Compliance enchantment. Probably tied to pain receptors. You don’t follow orders and it hurts like hell.”

She said nothing. Her jaw clenched.

“That’s messed up, by the way. Treating you like property.”

“I am his weapon. His to command.”

“You’re a person. Weapon or not.”

I turned and walked toward the grocery store entrance. The automatic doors were half-melted but still functional. Sarah followed me, her form stabilizing back to human.

“Kai, what are you doing?”

“Shopping. We came here for food and I’m not leaving empty-handed.”

Behind us, Ignis sputtered.

“You dare turn your back on me?”

“You’re not going to attack. You’re too hungry to waste energy on a fight.”

I stepped through the ruined entrance. The produce section was a disaster. Melted fruit. Charred vegetables. The entire deli counter somehow survived intact though. The rotisserie chickens still turned on their heated rack, golden and perfect.

I grabbed one. Still warm. The smell hit me immediately. Herbs and spices and perfectly crispy skin.

I walked back outside. Ignis hadn’t moved. She stood in the same spot, wings half-extended, staring at me like I’d grown a second head.

I held out the chicken.

“Here.”

She looked at it. Then at me. Then back at the chicken.

“What is this?”

“Food. Rotisserie chicken. Lemon pepper seasoning. It’s pretty good.”

“You’re trying to poison me.”

“With grocery store chicken? That’s the lamest assassination attempt in history.”

I tore off a leg and took a bite. The meat was tender. Juicy. Exactly what you’d expect from a bird that had been rotating under heat lamps for three hours.

“See? Not poisoned. Just delicious.”

I held the chicken out again. Ignis’s eyes locked onto it. Her nostrils flared. Saliva dripped from her fangs.

“I don’t need your charity.”

“It’s not charity. It’s basic decency. You’re hungry. I have food. Math is simple.”

Her stomach growled. Loud enough to echo across the parking lot.

Sarah tugged my sleeve.

“This is a trap.”

“Probably. But she’s also starving and that’s not okay.”

I stepped closer. The heat didn’t bother me as much now. Immune to eldritch nonsense extended to dragon fire apparently.​

“Last chance. Take the chicken or I’m eating it myself.”

Ignis’s resolve shattered. She snatched the bird from my hands and tore into it like a starving animal.

【Ignis PoV】

The flavor hit me like a physical force.

Meat. Real meat. Cooked with spices and care and actual seasoning. My taste buds lit up with sensations I’d forgotten existed. Salt. Pepper. Herbs I couldn’t even name. The skin crackled between my teeth. The juice ran down my chin.

I didn’t care. I couldn’t care. This was the first real food I’d eaten in weeks.

Solomon fed us. Technically. Nutrient paste delivered through tubes twice a day. Enough to keep us alive. Never enough to satisfy. Never enough to restore full strength.

Hungry soldiers are obedient soldiers. He’d said that once. Hungry weapons don’t rebel.

I hated him.

The realization crashed through me with the force of revelation. I hated Solomon von Astoria. I hated his voice. His commands. His cold eyes that looked at me like I was a tool in a shed.

This human. This Kai. He’d asked when I last ate. Like it mattered. Like I mattered.

The collar around my neck pulsed. Pain shot through my nervous system. A warning. A punishment for disloyal thoughts.

I bit into the chicken again. The pain faded. The flavor overwhelmed everything else.

The collar cracked. A hairline fracture spreading across the enchanted metal. The binding spell weakened. Not broken. Not yet. But damaged.

Loyalty couldn’t survive in the face of lemon pepper seasoning.

I looked up at Kai. He stood there, hands in his pockets, watching me with an expression that wasn’t fear or disgust. Just mild concern.

“Better?”

I swallowed the mouthful of chicken. My voice came out rough. Emotional.

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why feed me? I came here to capture you. To hurt you.”

He shrugged.

“You’re following orders. Bad orders from a worse person. That’s not your fault.”

“I’m a weapon.”

“You’re a dragon. Dragons are cool. Also, you looked hungry and I’m not a monster.”

The simplicity of it broke something inside me. Years of conditioning. Months of abuse. All of it crumbling because one human treated me like I deserved basic kindness.

Tears ran down my scaled cheeks. I couldn’t stop them. Didn’t want to stop them.

I devoured the rest of the chicken. Bones and all. Dragons don’t waste food.

When I finished, I looked at Kai again. Really looked at him. Not as a target. Not as an enemy. As the first person in years who’d seen me as something other than a tool.

“I pledge my loyalty to you, Lord of Flavor.”

The human-girl thing beside him tensed. Her form rippled with hostile intent.

“She lies. Her kind always lies.”

“Sarah, be nice.”

“She tried to kill you.”

“She tried to follow orders. There’s a difference.”

Kai crouched down to my level. I’d collapsed to a sitting position at some point. Exhaustion and emotion combining to rob me of strength.

“You don’t have to pledge anything. You can just leave. Find somewhere safe.”

“Solomon will hunt me.”

“Then stay. I’ve got room for one more disaster in my life.”

The collar pulsed again. Stronger this time. Trying to enforce the original command. Capture the target. Return to base.

I couldn’t. Wouldn’t. The binding spell was too damaged now. My will reasserted itself.

Magic surged through my body. Transformation magic. The kind dragons used to navigate human spaces. My form compressed. Wings folded. Scales smoothed.

A minute later I stood four inches tall. A small red lizard with vestigial wings.

Kai picked me up gently. His hand was warm. Safe.

“That’s one way to solve the transportation problem.”

I crawled up his arm and into his shirt pocket. The fabric smelled like him. Clean. Human. Completely unlike Solomon’s sterile command center.

Sarah glared at the pocket.

“I do not approve of this.”

“Noted. We’re still keeping her.”

“She will betray you.”

“Maybe. But right now she’s just a hungry lizard who needed help.”

The human-thing made a frustrated noise but didn’t argue further.

Kai walked back to his car. The parking lot was chaos. Fire trucks arriving. Police setting up barriers. News vans pulling in with satellite dishes extended.

We left before anyone could ask questions. The car started with a cough. The radio played old rock music. Sarah sat in the backseat, watching my pocket with murderous focus.

I curled up in the warm darkness. Full for the first time in months. Free for the first time in years.

The Lord of Flavor had saved me with rotisserie chicken and basic human decency.

I would die before I let anything hurt him.