Breath (Scales 'n' Spells 2)

“Holy shit,” Baldewin exhaled.

Tori blinked slowly, as if waking from a nightmare, and looked up at his mate. “He was going to kill you,” he simply said, and he knew that no matter Baldewin’s reaction, he couldn’t regret what he’d done. The Jaeggi had meant to hurt his dragon, and his dragon needed to be protected no matter what.

“Thank you,” Baldewin said with a shaky smile.

“Tori,” Evora called out. “Do you know the spell for Titan’s Shield?” She held up a vial of troll skin flakes. Tori grinned and dug into his pocket for the captured sunlight he’d grabbed from the satchel.

Crossing over to where Evora stood, he prepared to pull the stopper free. Titan’s Shield was a basic spell he knew the mechanics for but had never attempted to cast, thanks to the restrictions of his teachers. Now he had no doubt that he could do it. Not after what he’d already accomplished since coming to stay with the Burkhard Clan.

“I will cover the Valerii dragons if you can get the Burkhard dragons,” Evora said as she prepared the vial of troll skin.

Tori nodded, mentally pulling on Baldewin’s energy again. The power curled and brushed against his mind. There was a strange sense of joy and exhilaration that came with the dragon’s power, as if the dragon himself was happy to be helping Tori in this way. Did he feel the same sense of completion that Tori did when he shared his energy?

Evora opened the vial, and Tori released the captured sunlight. As one, they said the spell command.

Titan’s Shield wasn’t an overly complicated spell, but it was one few mages had managed to cast in the past several centuries, simply because it required so much power that a mage had to draw energy from a dragon. Without a dragon, a dozen mages at least needed to chain together their own power, and even then, it wasn’t as strong as what a bound mage could cast.

Tori grinned like a madman as he watched the beautiful golden shield fall over the dragons and Cameron. His new clanmates were now as invincible as he could make them. The spell wasn’t perfect. It could be stripped away by an accomplished mage, but these Jaeggi were now on the run and had little chance of beating the dragons.

With his dragons protected, Tori turned his attention to locating the missing Taavi mages. It didn’t take much. They were gathered together in the far corner, their faces bruised and dirty. The girl held one of the male mages in her lap, his face slack. From across the room, Tori couldn’t tell if he was dead or merely unconscious.

He carefully worked his way around the room, trying to stay out of the line of fire as the dragons took down the Jaeggi. When he finally reached them, he knelt down and pressed two fingers to the side of the unconscious mage’s neck.

“Nestori? What are you doing here?” Panu asked with a hint of surprise and maybe disgust in his voice.

“The dragons and I are saving your asses,” Tori snapped.

“Is he going to die?” Tanja asked.

Markku’s pulse was thready and faint but still there. His skin was cold and clammy. It was clear his magical core was damaged much like Cassie’s had been, though not to the same extent. They must have reached them in time. Tori shook his head. “No, but we need to get him back to Nuorgam and the healers as soon as possible.”

“It was like they sucked the power straight out of him. What the fuck!” Panu cried, but Tori largely ignored him as he glanced back at the dragons. They’d managed to destroy all but one of the Jaeggi, who was on his knees in the center of the largely destroyed room.

“Stay here,” he barked and pushed to his feet. He walked over to where Baldewin and the other dragons were standing around the Jaeggi. The man with shaggy black hair stared up at them, blue eyes blazing with hatred.

“You dragon cowards! You can kill me, but it’s not going to stop our clan,” the Jaeggi snarled.

“Why are you attacking mages? What can you possibly hope to accomplish?” Rodrigo demanded.

The Jaeggi laughed, the sound pitched high and a bit hysterical. “Accomplish? We’re going to destroy all the dragons. You’re the ones who broke our power. You’re the ones who ruined our lives. We want you dead. All of you dead!” He paused, and his grin cut like a gaping wound across his face. “But first, we’re going to drain all the power out of you and every fucking mage that exists in the world. We’re going to be the most powerful creatures on this planet. We’re going to remind the humans what it was like to have mages in the world. The Jaeggi will rise up and take control of all.”