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"That sounds like a good idea A cab will be fine They usually have their heaters up to eleven this tiot to the street, he did his taxi-su trick, and soon I was safe in the back of an overheated cab that s don," Owen told the driver, then he turned to o to your place or to mine?"

"Yours," I said without hesitation "You’ve got a fireplace and a cat, and I recall that you have at least one sweat suit that fits ave the driver the address, then he turned his attention back to loves off and wrapped his hands aroundthem to restore the warmth Of course, since this en, it had far ed on uncomfortably hot Before I had a complete meltdown, I pulled ainst his shoulder and let hi hih a hole in the ice that shouldn’t have been there faded rapidly In retrospect, it was a s this cherished

We reached Owen’s place, and a concerned Loony lare, then in short order there was a fire blazing in the living roo an armful of clothes that seemed to have appeared out of thin air "There should be some towels in the bathroo off I’m sorry, but I was only able to affect your clothes I couldn’t dry your skin very well" As I took the clothing from him, he added, "If you want to warm up with a hot bath or shower, you could do that, too"

I shook ain for a while"

It was the saiven me to wear the last ti to be a very bad habit for me I stripped off my mostly dry clothes, toweled off, then hurried to put the dry sweat suit on A pair of thick socks was sheer heaven to ed fro rooave one to like drink, full of spices and probably a bit of sorand in front of the fireplace, and Orapped an afghan aroundbeside me

With the hot drink inside ainst, I finally felt like asking, "What exactly happened back there?"

"I’ along--and you were doing pretty well--and the next thing I knew, you’d fallen through the ice"

"Correct ht? I’ve been there in the summer, and that’s a concrete slab they set an ice rink up on in the winter I shouldn’t have been able to fall more than a few inches, even if the ice ic, but I didn’t recognize the spell Not that it’s a kind of spell I’d want to spend a lot of tiht be useful if you were in a situation where you needed water, depending on whether it requires ice tohie to jolt him back to the present

The tips of his ears turned red "Sorry Anyhen you fell, it pulled ed to hold on to you, but I couldn’t get enough leverage to pull you out I ht have been re worked I’ to do with the spell on the ice, or what, but I was getting worried"

"I i helpless like that," Iinto the fireplace I thought I detected the tiniest flicker of a shudder in his shoulders

"But you did get ot me warm and dry, and now I’m okay, so it worked out" I left out the part about how spending the rest of the day snuggling with hiuess the usual suspects are behind this, huh?"

"Very likely I didn’t notice anything odd, but then, I often don’t when they’re usingbefore you fell?"