Embers (Scales 'N' Spells 4)

Nikki slipped inside and took in the room. A seating area to the right hosted two big, cushy armchairs with a table between them. The walls were entirely made of shelves, filled to the brim with every imaginable size jar and box. Spell ingredients? Looked like it. To the left, a stainless-steel table sat with a sort of mini-kitchen wrapped around it in an L-shape. A larger closet capped it on the end. Nothing looked dangerous, and everything was neat and put away.

There wasn’t a hint of machinery, either, aside from the stovetop in the corner. What…?

No, surely not. It just wasn’t obvious.

Nikki ignored the spell ingredients and went for the left side, digging through every cabinet, careful to put things back exactly as they were. They found more spell ingredients, cleaning supplies, different tools, cauldrons, a half-eaten stash of chocolates, all sorts of things.

But no machines of any sort.

Huh.

Was that true of every workroom?

Nikki left that one, went into the next room. Searched it just as thoroughly. Came up with the same results. Well, this one wasn’t as neatly kept and had slightly different spell ingredients, but it was the same in principle. They went on to the next, and then the last one on that stretch of hallway.

Six workrooms in, the obvious became apparent. Nikki sat back on their heels for a long moment, letting this settle in their head.

Magic, true magic, came from the core. Nikki remembered that vaguely from their childhood. Their parents had taught them little magics, simple things like cleaning spells. The Burkhards had more powerful magics, which had made Nikki wonder if that was still the case—magic coming from the core—or if their parents had been the exception to the rule. But they seemed to operate on the same principles. A mage used powerful ingredients, spells, and their own power to create magic. No other source of power was necessary.

This was something Nikki would need to study more. For now, they had the answer to the main question: Would the Burkhards use Nikki as a power source, too?

The answer was simple: No. They apparently had other methods. Nikki couldn’t find a single thing that even remotely resembled the devices the Jaeggi had used against them. Probably because the Burkhards didn’t need them. It did leave the question of how the mages worked magic instead. It didn’t make sense to Nikki.

Was it because they were mated to dragons? The Jaeggi liked to complain about their difficulty with magic, blaming the dragons for their issues. But Nikki didn’t think that was it. The Jaeggi’s magical cores didn’t look like the Burkhards’. They were a fractured, shadowy reflection of how other mages’ cores looked. Even Nikki’s own.

Shaking the thought off, Nikki rose and left the workroom. They had their answers, and it was a relief to know this wasn’t a place they had to immediately escape from. It was safe enough at the moment, giving Nikki breathing room to figure out what to do next. Nikki hadn’t been officially offered a place here, but Dominique had said they could stay if they so desired. And no doubt the kings would talk to Nikki eventually. They were interviewing each rescued mage one by one. Nikki’s turn might well be tomorrow or the day after.

When they finally did speak with Nikki, if asked, Nikki could give them a ready answer: Yes, they’d stay. For magic, for safety, and for the deliciously sweet dragon Nikki was crushing on.

Speaking of, it was time to go and sneak into Gunter’s room. Nikki had tried sleeping in their own bed since Gunter had been sweet enough to give them a room of their own, but…well, it was quiet. And the bed was cold. Nikki was used to someone sleeping in the same room as them. They couldn’t settle down at night being on their own like that.

And Gunter radiated delicious heat Nikki could bask in. The castle was too cold for little ol’ mages like Nikki.

That was their story, and they were sticking to it.

If Nikki chose to be introspective in that moment—they generally avoided doing so, it was painful—something else was at play here. The crush was true enough, but it went deeper than that. Gunter had proven on a battlefield that if something scared Nikki, he would act immediately in defense. Nikki had never been protected from anything in their life. To have that immediate, unquestioning protection was heady stuff. Nikki felt safer with Gunter than anywhere else. In this chaotic shift, with so much uncertain, Gunter was a safe bastion Nikki could cling to.

And the dragon let them. He might be perplexed and frown at Nikki as if he couldn’t figure out why Nikki kept hanging about, but he didn’t complain. And he didn’t shoo Nikki off. He really was very nice.