Page 192 of Scales ’N’ Spells: Volume One

“Do you like your room?” Baldewin asked.

“Oh yes! It’s amazing. You didn’t need to put me in something so fancy. I would have been happy in a regular room.”

“That is a regular room. Obviously, Alric and Cameron’s rooms are fancier and bigger, but that one is pretty standard.”

“And if I lived here?”

“That would be your room. Unless…” Baldewin drawled, nudging a crispy Finnish meatball on his plate with his fork.

“Unless?” Tori prodded.

“Unless you had a mate. Then you’d decide whether you wanted to move into his rooms or if you wanted him to move into yours.”

Tori let his mind wander for a moment, trying to imagine what it would be like to have someone sharing that room with him. Of course, the only someone his mind was willing to conjure up was Baldewin.

And yeah, there was a part of him that really wanted to watch Baldewin getting ready in the morning for his job. Or watch him peel off his clothes at the end of a long day before crawling into bed with Tori. The mattress sinking under Baldewin’s weight before the dragon pulled him in close and⁠—

Whoa. Yeah, the dining hall was not the best place to be entertaining those thoughts. Food. He needed to concentrate on the food and the people.

Luckily, Warin dropped into an open seat across from him and started peppering Tori with questions about how he liked the castle, his quarters, and the food. Ravi drifted over a few minutes later with a chunk of bread clutched in one hand and what looked to be a massive drumstick in the other. He delivered a flurry of German to Warin, who grunted, and then waved the drumstick at Tori in greeting before drifting off to another table.

Oddly enough, it didn’t look like Ravi’s behavior was all that strange. People leisurely ate their meal and then remained at the table, talking to their companions, or drifted off to other tables to talk to more friends. It was all relaxed and friendly.

“Is every meal like this?” Tori asked.

“Pretty much. Each meal is served for about two hours. People drift in and out according to their schedules,” Baldewin replied.

“And there are a lot of people—like Ravi—who are here for the full two hours just to socialize,” Warin added.

“Oh good,” Baldewin said with a small sigh of relief. “Alric and Cameron stopped in for dinner. That must mean Cassie is fully out of danger.”

Warin snorted. “Lisette probably kicked them out so she could focus on healing Cassie without them hovering.”

The couple walked arm in arm down the center of the room, toward the exit. As they passed by their table, Alric bowed his head toward Tori in greeting, and Cameron offered up a friendly wave. Tori waved back, feeling a little in awe about the entire thing. It was one thing for Alric and Cameron to talk to him while he was in danger. But now that he was in the castle, he’d figured he’d be shuffled off to people who worked for them.

“Alric said he would be happy to meet with you tomorrow at your convenience. He understands that you would like to rest up today,” Baldewin murmured.

“That’s very considerate of him.”

Baldewin placed his hand on Tori’s forearm and squeezed. “You don’t have anything to worry about. You’re going to like him and Cameron, I swear.”

Tori opened his mouth to tease Baldewin, but the words got stuck in his throat as he watched Alric spin Cameron around and then pull him tight into his arms. The king proceeded to tango his mate out of the dining hall and down the hall while Cameron’s laughter rang out. Several people clapped, and a few others called out, but Tori didn’t catch what they were saying. From their smiles and playful tone, he could guess it was friendly teasing.

“Was…was that normal?” Tori finally choked out.

Warin snorted and returned to his soup. “For them? Yes. Definitely.”

Okay, then the royal family was certainly…interesting and in love. Tori could see it in the way Alric kept his arm around Cameron and how they looked at each other, as if they were the only two people in the entire world. Just completely lost in each other.

And then, of course, there was the playful applause from the rest of the clan for the couple. They were clearly happy for their king.

After dinner, which included a rather fabulous lihapullat, Baldewin showed Tori around the castle a little more. A very good thing, since he felt at least ten pounds heavier and wasn’t sure if he was going to fit into the lovely clothes Baldewin had recently purchased for him.

He marveled at the beautiful murals, the exquisite library, and glimpsed the warm and inviting classroom where Lisette taught all the new mages of the clan. It was vastly different from the grim and bleak classrooms Tori had known over his lifetime. But his worry remained that the classroom wasn’t going to make a difference when it came to his dyscalculia. The problem was the man, not the room, ingredients, or teacher.

When they reached Tori’s room again, he invited the dragon inside with a smile. It had been too long since he’d last managed to steal a kiss, and here, they were at least away from prying eyes. Tori’s heart pounded, and his palms grew sweaty as he watched Baldewin enter, his hands shoved into his pockets as if it was the only way he could keep his hands to himself.

“Are you sure your rooms are to your liking?” Baldewin asked for the third time since picking him up for dinner. “If you don’t like them, I could see about you being moved. I think there are some rooms on the higher floors if you’d like a different view of the mountains. Or⁠—”