Page 42 of Scales ’N’ Spells: Volume One

“Excellent. Cameron, welcome. Do you have a little time to spare?”

Remembering what Baldewin had said before, Cameron made sure to use a compliment. “I always have time for a handsome man.”

Alric flushed a little. He sat at a polished wooden table, a laptop in front of him and a stack of very old books next to him. Cameron’s compliment wasn’t baseless, as Alric did look yummy. He wore a dark grey cable-knit sweater that did delectable things to his complexion and made Cameron’s fingers itch to card through his hair. Maybe he’d find a way do that.

“Then please, join me.” Alric indicated the chair next to his.

Cameron did so, but warned, “I don’t actually know that much genealogy off the top of my head. Halmeoni’s the one who keeps track of it for my family. If you really want to dive into this, it’s best to get her on the phone with us.”

“But isn’t it late, where she is?”

“Nah, it’s only early afternoon. She’s most likely watching TV.” Cameron leaned a little into Alric’s side so he could pull his phone out of his pocket. Why yes, he did do that deliberately. And Alric smelled amazing. “I like your cologne, by the way.”

A trace of color painted high on Alric’s cheeks, and he couldn’t seem to quite meet Cameron’s eyes. “I’m not wearing any.”

“Is that right?” Cameron wanted to pinch his cheeks, and ruffle his hair, and maybe squeeze him. How did this man stay adorable like this? It killed Cameron slowly that he couldn’t mess with him like he wanted to. They’d need to be a little closer, Cameron judged. “Then definitely don’t wear any.”

Alric turned a little redder.

Mindful that Dieter watched them—and the man’s eyebrows were in his hairline, eyes amused and a little wide-eyed—Cameron decided to let Alric off the hook. For now. Hopefully he’d gotten his point across that he liked what he saw. He pinged his grandmother via chat. Poke.

The response was in seconds. Poke. What’s up, favorite grandson?

Dragons want to trace our family tree, Cameron typed back. Call?

Halmeoni broke speed records, she called so quickly. Cameron bit back a chuckle as he accepted the call and Facetimed her. “Hey, Halmeoni. This is King Alric”—he panned the phone so she could see Alric—“and this is Dieter. Meet Noh Ha Na.”

“Lady Noh,” Dieter responded with a polite inclination of the head. “I’m honored. Is this a bad time to ask for your help? We can do this on a different day.”

“No, no, I was just watching boring television. This is far more interesting. And important. Cameron mentioned to me the importance of genealogy when it comes to the magical clans. Just one moment, I’ll fetch my books. How far back do you need to trace?”

“It’s not a matter of how far back,” Alric explained. He took the phone from Cameron so he could prop it up against the stacked books. “It’s the side-branches. We’ve looked at your family before, the main descendants, but no one showed any talent.”

“This was about six generations ago, Halmeoni,” Cameron tacked on. “And we’re not main, right? You told me that once.”

“No, dear, we’re a side branch,” her voice floated back to them. “Hold on one moment, I’ve got this all in binders; I can fill in the gaps, I think.”

Yeah…this was going to take a while.

Cameron blew out a breath, a little nervous about this whole idea. Baldewin and Ravi had talked him into coming out onto the playing field with them. Apparently, back in the old days when they had lots of mages and dragons, they had their own sport. They’d explained the rules, and it kind of sounded like Quidditch and soccer combined. The dragons had a ball they tried to get through multiple hoops around the field, goalies guarded each one, and mages flew with the dragons, both trying to knock the other players in the air off-kilter, but get their own balls in through the hoops. It sounded totally fun, but now they didn’t have enough people to form two teams, which was sad.

At any rate, they wanted to both give Cameron a chance to fine tune his magical control by throwing a ball around and give them all a chance to cut loose and have a little fun. Cameron perched up in the stands next to one of the goals to give himself the right vantage point, and both Baldewin and Ravi were in full dragon form. He’d not seen Baldewin’s dragon form before. It was rather impressive, truth to tell, sort of matching the man’s human form. He looked solid, like a scaley bulldozer, his skin so dark in hue to look blood red. Stretched out, he could probably measure a football field in wingspan alone. Cameron felt like taking a picture, then gave into the impulse of snapping a shot of them lazily doing loops around the field, ready for Cameron to get the massive red ball into the air.

The ball was built for abuse, that was obvious. It was made of metal with a thick rubber coating. And it still had some questionable dents in its sides. Cameron sucked in another breath, and spoke the spell. “Vente anti gev adi.”

The ball shot up straight into the air, soaring high above his head. Ravi shot past him in a blur of blue, snatching up the ball and heading straight for the goal.

Cameron had been told Ravi was the fastest in the clan, but Baldewin was no slouch in that department either. He chased right on Ravi’s tail, almost biting at it. No wait, he was biting at it.

“No biting!” Ravi called back.

“There are so many bad jokes I could make,” Cameron laughed, watching them zoom for the goal. “Oh my god, seriously. It’s a shame they can’t hear me up there otherwise I’d let loose.”

Ravi got the ball into the hoop, Baldewin having to swerve at the last second to avoid sending himself into the same hoop. Then they looped around in a tight circle, and the ball was tossed back to Cameron.

This too, he had to use a wind spell for, as the ball would flatten him or break an arm otherwise. Cameron aimed the spell dead center of the ball, batting it back. “Vente anti gev adi!”

It went harder and farther than he intended to, and he winced a little. Cameron was channeling the fresh mountain air to power the spells, and it was strong today, gusty. He’d misjudged the power level a little. It was a two in power, sure, but a storm was coming in, and so it was edging closer to a three. Maybe a 2.5 or something.