Embers (Scales 'N' Spells 4)

But Nikki was paying attention now, keenly so. It looked rather like one of those magic detectors they used to test possible new mages. But something about it was different. It glowed a little differently to their eyes—as if it had not only Nikki’s magic, but possibly dragon’s breath as well? Something in there glowed red. “Uh, no? Why would I recognize that? What does it do?”

“Ah, of course, it is something rare. It’s something we had to develop after we had that last dragon with us. Prior to that, we had no need to test if someone was bonded to a dragon or not. My apologies, I forget you left us before this was made.”

Otto lifted the device in the air to display the screen. It showed a very vivid green, red hues swirling throughout, with the word Bonded in clear white lettering.

Oh. Yeah, that would make it pretty obvious.

They’d taken a typical mage-detector and tweaked it so it could detect dragon energy as well. Nikki had more than their fare share of that with Gunter’s bond tightly tied into their magic. It probably hadn’t taken the Jaeggi much time or ingenuity to make that tweak.

Damn. No wonder Nikki hadn’t been able to bullshit them even a little.

“You’re bonded to a dragon,” Thomas repeated, and his smile couldn’t even be called one anymore. It was a feral stretching of skin over teeth, like a predator faced with tender prey. “I’d love to know who. But there’s an easy way to find out, isn’t there? Because I’m sure, being so newly bonded, your dragon mate isn’t far away. Of course he isn’t, not with you in such a dangerous place like this.”

Nikki really didn’t like where this was going. Really, truly, this just sounded bad. They had magic and a spell element on them, as a sort of last resort thing. Nikki had come in prepared. But they really didn’t want to tip their hand, as what they’d been able to bring in with them was only enough to stop some bad guys. Not all bad guys. And it was flashy enough to call the whole place down on their head. Nikki would prefer for that to be Option B. And they would have already run for it except for that gun. Thomas might not be willing to shoot them right now, more interested in information, but that could easily change if Nikki tried to make a run for it.

Thomas was not exactly predictable some days.

And since the universe had apparently used up all of Nikki’s good luck for the evening, Nikki wasn’t about to push it.

Thomas gestured Emerson forward. “Grab him. Slap cuffs on him, I don’t trust him to not wiggle free of us somehow. He’s a slippery one.”

“You too?” Nikki groaned theatrically. “Come on, just one of you, use my correct pronouns! It’s not that hard!”

Emerson ignored them, coming around Nikki’s side to roughly grab both arms, slapping a zip tie around their wrists and tightly binding them together.

“It disturbs me you have these on hand,” Nikki said. “Like seriously, who just carries around zip ties the perfect size to use as handcuffs? I bet you’re a kinky motherfuc—ow! I need circulation, you know!”

Thomas came in closer, finally holstering the gun at his waist. “Aren’t you curious what we’re going to do with you?”

“It’s probably something bad,” Nikki said heavily, with a deep sigh that they felt to their core. They were a little scared because anyone in these guys’ custody had the right to be as nervous as a fluffy bunny in a wolves’ den, but having that backup plan also gave them enough confidence to stand their ground. “And I have anxiety already, so I don’t actually want to know.”

“Tsk, tsk.” Thomas wagged a finger at him.

Wait, people actually said that? Not just made the sound?

Focus, Nikki.

“I’m not doing anything bad to you,” Thomas corrected, and cackled a little. “I’m just going to take you back to your mate.”

For the second time that evening, Nikki felt a shot of cold terror stab through his chest.

Oh shit. Gunter.

This…would not end well.

Gunter paced like a caged animal, back and forth, and he couldn’t seem to make himself stop. It was odd, as he wasn’t the one caged, of course. The Jaeggi town was the one under a restrictive ward. He’d shifted back into his human form the moment he landed with Nikki so he could hold them one last time before they slipped away on their mission. He’d remained human so he could pace without tripping over one of the many dragons who filled the forest around the Jaeggi town.

Well, maybe it was the secondary ward the Sodalicium’s mages had set up that made him feel this way, but he doubted it. Gunter glanced overhead. There was a faint shimmer there, just visible against the night sky, but you had to really look to see it. They’d done their magic well. This might well be the first large-scale magical working Europe had seen in centuries.