Origin (Scales 'n' Spells 1)

Thanks to Cassie’s weird fascination with strange YouTube videos and challenges, he knew exactly how to get free of the duct tape without a knife. One bored weekend when they were both home from college, Cassie had Cameron bind her hands and feet with duct tape to see whether these video instructions actually worked for escaping. Their parents had been less impressed, thinking it wasn’t the most productive use of their time for a Saturday night.

Getting back to his feet, he lifted his hands high above his head and then brought them down, forcing his elbows to go past his ribcage. It took several tries with this sharp, jerking motion, but the tape finally ripped. Using his teeth, he worked on tearing the tape away from his wrists until he was free.

He wadded up the tape, tossed it to the floor, and waited with his breath held for someone to storm in and tape him up again. Or maybe they’d use something like rope or handcuffs. He had tricks for those as well thanks to Cassie, but the duct tape was by far the easiest for him to escape from.

But the door never opened. Mages didn’t rush in to stop whatever he was planning. If they were watching him, they obviously didn’t see him running loose in the room as a threat.

Good. They could just keep underestimating him. If they knew about him and his sister, it was likely they already knew he’d not been raised with a knowledge of magic. Probably thought he was just some normal, boring human.

Well, this boring human wasn’t going to simply escape from their clutches. He was going to make them pay for ever threatening his clan and his dragon. They were his family, and nobody fucked with his family.

But that wasn’t going to be the easiest of tasks. He was essentially just an apprentice when it came to using magic, and these mages clearly had a lot more experience than him.

However, he did have a shiny new master’s in mechanical engineering that could be of use as well. Maybe a combination of the two could work to get him out of this damn building. He loved Alric, but he was not waiting around for his mate to show up and rescue him. He was not going to be bait and let Alric walk right into a trap.

Trying to make as little noise as possible, Cameron hurried over to the tables at the far side of the room. This place might have been used as a workshop of sorts judging by the flotsam he found. The tables were covered in random bits of scrap metal, screws, a few rusty tools, and…bullets. There weren’t many. Just a handful of different sizes. But bullets meant a tiny amount of gunpowder and copper casings. Definitely useful. The primer would also have a useful chemical compound, but he wasn’t sure he’d be able to get at it without the proper tools.

He snatched up all the bullets he could find and continued to search the room. Moving around the tables, he approached a pair of metal shelves. They were dusty and didn’t have a lot on them, except for the bottom shelves. They both held medium-sized boxes covered in even more dust. Looking back toward the door, he carefully pulled one of the boxes off the shelf and lifted the flaps. His heart flipped over and Cameron had to bite his lower lip to hold in his cry of joy. Cleaning supplies. Really old, nasty cleaning supplies. They were perfect.

Of course, he could hear his Introduction to Mechanical Engineering professor smugly pointing out that he should have gone into combustion and the environment as his area of focus rather than mechanical design, but Cameron would manage. He’d aced his chemistry coursework. Add in a little magic and he could…well, he wasn’t going to try to make a bomb. He was just as likely to blow himself up as he was the Jaeggi, but he certainly had what he needed to make some small explosives and maybe even some smoke bombs. Distractions and chaos. That’s all he needed to get away from these assholes. Once he was back with Alric, the Burkhard clan could deal with them on more even footing.

Placing the bottles and containers of cleaning supplies on the table in front of him, Cameron started mentally pulling together a few possible designs for devices. The trick was holding the chemicals apart until he was ready for them to mix or ignite. Lisette had taught him an incredibly easy bubble spell that could be used to hold the materials, but it would mean pulling power from Alric.

Out of all of his plans, this was the part that scared him the most. His magical connection had steadily grown with Alric. Cameron wasn’t at all used to the idea of having it, although the connection was definitely there. But when he’d drawn that energy from Alric, the dragon had always been somewhere in the castle near him. What if he was too far away now? He could feel Alric’s emotions, but they were faint, almost a ghost in his chest. He didn’t know what he’d do if he reached out now and couldn’t feel Alric’s power. Would it be like losing a limb?