Page 235 of Scales ’N’ Spells: Volume One

Tori placed his hand on Baldewin’s chest, covering his heart so he could feel it pounding against his fingertips. “You know I can’t do that. Alric isn’t about to make Cameron remain in the SUV.”

The consort snorted. “He knows that I’d never stay put, so he’s not wasting his breath.”

“That is sadly true,” Alric grumbled.

“My entire focus is keeping the mages safe,” Gunter promised, and it helped to erase some of the worry from Baldewin’s face.

“Besides, you will need us to pick apart these wards if you want to have the element of surprise before you strike,” Evora said in a practical tone, which silenced any further discussion of the mages remaining a safe distance away from the fight.

Leaning back into the SUV, Tori pulled open the satchel full of supplies and started pocketing the elements he thought might come in handy in a fight. Captured sunlight had served him well in the past, and he could do fun and explosive things with cackle of a drunken gnome. He glanced across the backseat and caught a wicked grin from Evora before she reached into the bag and grabbed a few items as well. The mages had come to play. They certainly couldn’t leave all the danger and fun to the dragons.

At the edge of the parking lot, Tori raised his hands so the energy from the protection ward brushed against his palms. Evora stood on his right, while Cameron moved to his left.

The consort flashed him a nervous smile. “I’ve never done this before. Any advice?”

Tori winced a little. He came at magic a little differently than what he’d been taught. It made it somewhat hard to explain to other people. “I sort of see it like a knot I’m trying to unravel by working the spell backward. This ward was created sloppily and hastily. It’s loose. I can get this alone if you want to watch my back.”

“Got it!” Cameron agreed.

Tori turned his mind toward the ward, carefully poking at the loose ends until the entire thing started to unravel around the building. The Jaeggi were either struggling badly with their own magic, or they’d put up the ward as a last-ditch effort before turning their full attention to the mages in their grasp.

The ward was down in a matter of seconds, and the dragons closed on the small building from all sides. He caught a glimpse of the Valerii moving in from the rear of the building, while Alric, Baldewin, Ravi, and Gunter approached from the front.

Now that the protective spell was gone, there was no attempt to be quiet. There simply wasn’t time for it. The Taavi mages had been in the hands of the Jaeggi for hours now. If they weren’t all dead, it would be a miracle.

Angry shouts from inside the building were the first hint that the dragons had reached the Jaeggi. Baldewin disappeared from sight as he charged inside. Unwilling to allow his mate to jump into the fight without someone watching his back, Tori followed through the front door his lover had kicked in.

The building smelled musty and moldy after a lengthy period of neglect. There were a handful of shelves along the walls, but they were all empty except for a thick layer of dust. A mannequin missing its head and left arm lay on the floor. Apparently, the place had sold clothing of some sort at one time. At the back of the front room was an empty counter. The glass was coated in a thick film of dirt and dust, mostly hiding the interior that was now a home for bugs and rats.

Sounds of a fight drew Tori to the back of the building, right behind Alric and Ravi. The little wind dragon was sticking close to his king as his personal bodyguard, but the king was not about to stay out of this fight. He had a feeling Alric had a score to settle with these people after they’d taken his mate, and he wasn’t likely to feel at ease until they were all wiped out.

Tori’s heart dropped to his shoes when he walked into a large rear storeroom. Six Jaeggi. There were six fucking Jaeggi fighting against the dragons. The evil mages were still outnumbered, but it was like falling into a nest of vipers. Tori certainly hadn’t expected that many Jaeggi lurking in Finland. He’d been lucky to encounter only two in Helsinki and four in Poland.

For a moment, he could only stand back and watch as the dragons fought the Jaeggi in hand-to-hand combat. There wasn’t enough room for any of them to shift into their dragon form and not risk bringing the entire building down on their heads.

He was attempting to tear his gaze away to look for the missing Taavi mages when a Jaeggi with a shaved head and jagged scar across his throat prepared what felt like a particularly nasty spell, and his eyes locked on Baldewin, who was already tangled up with another Jaeggi.

“Fuck no,” Tori snarled.

All logical thought stopped in his brain, and pure rage took over. This asshole thought he was going to attack his dragon, hurt his mate? He was delusional. Plunging his right hand into the pocket of his jeans, he fumbled around for a moment until he came up with the element the angry part of his brain was searching for.

He thrust his left hand out toward Baldewin, calling up a ball of energy from his mate. At the same time, he smashed the glass vial in his right hand against the concrete. The ancient wild rose seeds were only meant as part of a cleansing spell, but when Tori barked out, “Resti gev adi,” directing the power he’d borrowed from Baldewin, vines the size of full-grown Burmese pythons shot from the seeds and snaked around the screaming Jaeggi. Thorns the length of Tori’s arm sprang from the vines and stabbed deep into the Jaeggi. In a heartbeat, his screams were silenced, and he stopped struggling against the vines tightening around him.

“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.