Embers (Scales 'N' Spells 4)

Nikki quickly carried their newly acquired goodies over to the coffee table and spread them out. They snagged the bottle of captured moonlight along with the primer to double-check the spell. It seemed simple enough. A few leaves of cow parsley, a little essence of oleander, a dusting of moonlight combined with just a push of magic power and bam! Frozen bad guy.

Easy.

Except they didn’t have a bad guy to practice on.

Nikki looked around the room, their eyes catching on one of the throw pillows sitting innocently on the couch. Victim acquired. Mostly because the pillow couldn’t fight back. Grabbing the pillow with the little gold fringe, Nikki pulled a simple desk chair into the middle of the room and placed the pillow on the chair.

Excited energy zipped through Nikki as they snatched up the ingredients and moved several feet away. They weren’t quite sure what this would look like with a pillow, but they thought there might be a new stiffness or rigidity to its fluffy features. Or at least the fringe wouldn’t move when they blew on it.

Regardless, this was a good experiment.

Nikki mashed a sprinkling of moonlight into the plants and called on energy from their core. It buzzed and tingled, practically leaping to do Nikki’s bidding. Which was odd; Nikki felt like there should be something to direct it, instead of magic just coming out of their fingertips, but okay. If the magic wanted to be all feisty and shit, Nikki would roll with it. They infused the energy into the elements and threw it as hard as they could at the pillow.

It exploded.

That was bad.

A loud boom, like a sharp pop of noise, filled the room and Nikki’s ears. The stench of burned fabric followed in a close second, assaulting Nikki’s nose. The explosion didn’t put off much heat, fortunately—they didn’t think anything else would catch on fire. Maybe?

Excitement gave way to immediate panic, as the little pillow was no longer in this world. It was now a cloud of black smoke and singed feathers blown in every direction. Even the wood chair was now in splinters, looking like a giant had stepped on it.

Nikki’s desperate hope the explosion hadn’t been that loud was crushed when their door was thrown open by Gunter. The dragon’s hair was a mess and his glasses askew. He wore only a pair of soft sleep pants, revealing a lovely chest, but Nikki didn’t have the chance to ogle for long.

“What the hell happened?” Gunter demanded.

Nikki cringed. “Well—” Their explanation was immediately cut off by a round of hacking coughs. They hadn’t even thought of the smoke they’d breathed in.

Gunter didn’t hesitate. He swooped over and scooped Nikki up, carrying them out to the hall. Depositing them out of danger, Gunter returned to the chambers. Nikki rushed after them and stood in the doorway, watching as Gunter threw open all the windows to let the smoke out.

With the room airing properly, Gunter returned to the doorway. “What were you thinking?”

“I wanted to try a stun spell from the primer Lisette gave me,” Nikki admitted with a wince. Okay, maybe that hadn’t been oleander. Nikki made a mental note to visit in the daytime and get Tori to properly explain all the plants. They still wanted to use that spell, but maybe with less destruction of innocent pillows. They started to explain more but the pounding of feet down the hall drew their attention to the approach of a worried Baldewin.

Gunter sighed. “Baldewin and Tori have the room above yours.”

Baldewin reached them, looking around frantically. “What happened? I thought I heard a loud boom.”

“Everything is fine. Just a little accident,” Gunter said easily. Nikki could only stare open-mouthed at the dragon. He was covering for Nikki.

“But there’s smoke.” Baldewin pointed toward the haze that lingered in the room.

“It’s fine. I’ve taken care of it. Just an accident. Go back to bed. We’re all safe.”

Baldewin narrowed his eyes at Gunter, not seeming to believe him, and then looked at Nikki.

Nikki pasted the biggest smile on their lips and nodded, trying to look reassuring, while their heart still attempted to climb free of their chest.

In the end, the large dragon shook his head and sighed before he turned on his heel to return to his own chambers and his mate.

When they were alone again, Nikki looked up at Gunter, expecting a very loud and angry lecture. Not that they didn’t deserve it completely. This really was on Nikki’s head, as they should have double-checked the plant first.

“Nikki, no,” Gunter said gently. “I’m not angry. Just worried about your safety. Why don’t you tell me what you were doing?”

“It was a simple stun spell.” Nikki slipped around Gunter and darted back into the room. They picked up the primer that had gotten blown to the floor and showed the dragon the spell. Gunter read it over and then looked at the scorch mark on the carpet where the pillow and chair had been. Nikki pulled out their drawing, wanting to double-check the plants once more.