Embers (Scales 'N' Spells 4)

Gunter pressed his face into Nikki’s chest, but all he smelled was Sasha in the sweater. Gathering Nikki up, Gunter pulled Nikki onto his lap so he could press his nose into their neck. He breathed deep. Lightning, spun sugar, and maybe even the tiniest hint of his own scent. Yes, Nikki was theirs. Nikki was safe at Burkhard. Nikki would never be touched by the Jaeggi again.

“Well, ten is a much better starting place than twenty,” Cassie said with a relieved sigh.

“Nikki, can you give any more advice on the remaining ten?” Cameron asked.

Gunter felt a little calmer and could turn his attention back to the screen with Nikki, though he wasn’t ready for the mage to move from his lap. Not yet, at least.

Mentally, he memorized the locations remaining:

Valencia, Spain

Varde, Denmark

Boga, Romania

Samobor, Croatia

Bormio, Italy

Sazos, France

Senec, Slovakia

Minsk, Belarus

Varna, Bulgaria

Nikki sighed heavily and shook their head. “They all seem like viable choices to me. Normally, when there’s a major setback or problem, they will put some distance between the clan and the dragons as extra protection.

“So, we’re looking at Bulgaria, Belarus, and Romania as really good options,” Dimitri guessed.

Nikki was already shaking their head. “Normally yeah, but there’s nothing normal about Thomas and the other hotshots in the clan right now. They’ve been all edgy and twitchy for a year. Particularly since Sonthofen,” they finished, meeting Gunter’s gaze.

“Because of their defeat there?”

“Yes. And with Ravi, things got really amped up. Thomas and the others are desperate to get their hands on a dragon. Draining mages will tide them over, but they’re convinced if they can drain the magic from a dragon, they can destroy everyone.”

“Which means they’ll want to stay sort of close to Burkhard,” Cameron finished.

“Fantastic,” Cassie grumbled.

“They also like the heavily mountainous and wooded areas for longer-term meeting places,” Nikki added.

“That gives us Bormio, Italy with the Alps and Sazos, France with the Pyrenees,” Gunter said.

Dimitri stood and approached the screen, rubbing one hair through his hair. “I think that puts Boga, Romania, back on the list. That looks like a heavily wooded area to me.”

“What about Varde, Denmark? That’s kind of close to us,” Cassie suggested.

“Samobor, Croatia, doesn’t look bad either,” Cameron said. The mage made some notes on his tablet before turning back to look at them. “I think this is a good starting point for us. We’ll continue to run through this data and anything else we can find on the phone.”

“Are you taking this to the kings?” Dimitri asked as he looked down at the king’s consort.

“I am. From there, they can devise a plan for checking out the areas and seeing if we can locate the Jaeggi Clan.”

“If they’re going to plan a raid, I want in,” Dimitri declared.

Part of Gunter wanted to make the same declaration, but not now. All he wanted at this moment was to return to the library with Nikki and just enjoy the quiet and their presence. This…this was all too much for him.

Nikki leaned close, bumping their nose against his. “Gunter, can we go back to the library now?”

Gunter smiled, his heart melting a little bit as he stared into those wide, midnight purple eyes. They understood him so very well. “Yes, let’s go back to our library.”

“I’m starting to recognize that face.”

Gunter looked down at the grinning mage walking beside him and quirked one eyebrow in question.

“That is your grumpy face. I bet your dragon wants to set something on fire.”

“My dragon always wants to set something on fire. And Ravi would argue that my grumpy face, as you call it, is my normal face. Or what he refers to as resting dragon face.”

Nikki cackled and slipped their arm through his. Just the sound of Nikki’s laughter worked miracles, washing away some of his anger and frustration.

They made a dismissive noise and waved their hand. “Nah. The face you make when Ravi is around is your irritated, ‘I want to strangle him’ face. The grumpy face comes out whenever someone pulls you out of the library before you’re ready.”

Gunter stopped in the middle of the long hallway leading to Alric’s office and frowned at his companion. “I don’t look at you like that when you pull me out for meals, do I?”

Wrapping their arms around his waist, Nikki pressed a tiny kiss to the center of his chest. “No, you just look very confused about this idea of eating and that we should be doing it three times a day.”

Okay, that was a little better. He wasn’t really confused by the concept of eating meals. It was just the idea that enough time had passed since his last one to require yet another. When he was working, it felt like he’d just sat down and gotten settled in his book when Nikki would begin nudging him to grab lunch or stop for dinner.