Breath (Scales 'n' Spells 2)

He might even have to consider…flying.

Well. This was turning into a hell of a morning.

Tori was exhausted, and it wasn’t even ten in the morning yet. It had taken some time to get things settled with the police. They’d insisted on getting statements and pulling CCTV footage. Tori really didn’t expect them to do anything else. They were just doing their jobs, after all.

But they also wanted to take Cassie to a hospital, and Tori had to explain repeatedly that they couldn’t help her.

The senior cop finally demanded to know just what kind of light show it was they saw on the security cameras. It felt rather like coming out when he told them he was a mage. That Cassie was a mage.

Despite the evidence, it had taken a while for them to wrap their heads around it. Tori had been forced to cast a small spell right in front of them just to move past that point so they would wrap things up.

He had no desire to stay in a place where he’d already been attacked. The police reluctantly let them go. Very reluctantly. In fact, Tori wasn’t sure if they were actually allowed to leave or if Baldewin had ignored the cops as he got them shuffled up to the hotel room. Tori didn’t know if it was paranoia, but it felt like Jaeggi eyes were watching him and Cassie. He wanted them both away from prying eyes.

For now, Cassie was tucked into bed with Sasha pressed as close as she could get without actually holding the mage in her lap. Tori sat in a heavily cushioned chair positioned at the foot of the bed, keeping a close watch on the young woman, while Baldewin’s deep voice rumbled with muted anger from the next room, occasionally punctuated by Warin’s baritone as he added to the conversation with curt tones. Neither of them was happy as they spoke likely to Alric or maybe other dragons back at the castle.

Lifting out of his chair, Tori crossed the short distance and placed a hand to Cassie’s forehead. She was finally warm, thank god. That unnatural clammy skin had faded. He could also sense her magical core, which had stabilized in the past couple of hours. It was muted and faint, compared to what it should be, but much better than the tattered, burned thing it had been before.

Seeing Sasha’s anxious expression, he assured her, “She’s doing fine. Her body’s warmed up, and her magical core is already recovering.”

Her blue eyes swept closed in relief. “Thank all wind and skies. Can I do anything to help her?”

“Keep holding her.” He turned to his seat with a slight grunt. “I know that doesn’t seem like much, but your bond with her is what’s giving her magical core the strength to recover. Direct contact helps. The longer you can hold her, the easier it is for her magical core to recuperate.”

Sasha blinked down at the woman curled into her. “Is it really? I’m glad, then. Is that what helped her when they were draining her of magic? Our bond?”

“In a way, yes.” And in a way, it had only prolonged the insanity. Given enough time, they might well have drained Sasha through Cassie. Seeing how worried she was, he wasn’t about to tell the dragon that. “It certainly gave her the strength to hold on.”

Her arms tightened around her mate’s sleeping form. “Thank you, Tori. You put yourself at considerable risk to help her. Our clan owes you a debt.”

With a snort, he stretched out his long legs in front of him. He felt tired both physically and emotionally, truth tell. Too tired to do much more than sit there. Fighting and emergency medical aid, then arguing with cops, had taken a lot out of him. “I consider it a debt repaid. Baldewin and Warin have already had to rescue me, remember.”

“Oh. That’s true.” She stroked blue hair lovingly away from Cassie’s face. “I wouldn’t have known how to help her. I’m one of the few born after the war, you see.”

He blinked at her. “Really? I honestly can’t tell ages with all of you.”

“Dragons age so slowly, after all. But yes, I was something of a miracle to my parents. They had been together only a couple of years when I was born. Dragons only go into heat every hundred years or so. Unless there’s some magical intervention going on, dragon children don’t occur more often than that. I was born a hundred and twenty years after the war, and it was a cause of celebration in the clan. But because I’m so much younger, there were many things I didn’t learn how to do. Like treating a mage that’s been attacked.”

“Because no one thought you’d need to know.” Tori shook his head in sad understanding.