Page 46 of Scales ’N’ Spells: Volume One

“Correct. I’ve distilled this down to enhance its potency. And the carrier oil?”

“One, unless you’ve done something to it.”

“I have not.” Lisette went back to the island. “You’ll discover as you go that most potions generally have between three to five ingredients. Never more than six. Part of that is because most potion ingredients are powerful and you can’t mix too many together.”

Right, he remembered reading about this. It had been interesting to him and one of the facets of magic that made perfect sense. “I can see that. Anything over a twelve in power is an anti-spell, right? So if you have six ingredients all mixed together, and they’re all at least a two in power, you’re in anti-spell territory.”

“Close to it.” Lisette put the jars down and regarded him, her head canted. “So that made sense to you, did it?”

“Sure. It’s like making sure you don’t have too much power going through an engine. Too much power would tear it apart.”

Lisette gave him a nod, pleased. “Your engineering background is making this easier on you. Anti-spells often have a tendency to backfire on the caster. They’re unstable by nature and generally result in either complete failure or explosions. That said, there are always magicians who try for them, and sometimes they do succeed. I personally wouldn’t gamble on it, though.”

“Seems like a really poor bet to make to me.” Cameron imagined he’d have to be very desperate or crazy to try it. Mostly crazy. “Okay, so if everything here is a two in power, except the carrier oil, then it’s a seven in power altogether?”

“Correct. We don’t try to force something to be higher in power. It often has the opposite result of our goal. We instead focus on blending together elements that work well together.” Lisette pointed to each in turn. “The reflected sunlight works in conjunction with the frankincense to warm and relax the muscles. The untouched snow cools the inflamed areas and soothes the pain. The carrier oil is a vehicle to mix everything together and apply it to the skin.”

“And I speak a spell to put it together?”

“Not all potions require it. But it does work better in this case if a mage applies it, as our magic can give a gentle boost to the salve.”

Cameron thought about that for a moment. It would be hard to apply something on your own back, especially if it took up most of the left side. Alric struck him as fairly independent though, and extremely shy about letting anyone see his injured body. His suspicions stirred. “Is that really what it is? Or is that what you tell Alric so you can apply it for him?”

“You’re sharp,” Lisette approved, eyes twinkling. “I’ll let you apply this after we’re done making it.”

Oh-ho. Why him and not her? Unless…more suspicions stirred. “Lisette, by any chance, are you trying to play matchmaker?”

Lisette kept her expression prim even as she pulled out a stone mixing bowl from underneath the counter. “Stone works best for potion making. Polished stone, that is.”

Cameron made a mental note even as he pressed for the information he really wanted to know. Because he needed to get to the bottom of this before he dug himself into an embarrassing corner. “I’m asking because I honestly can’t read the man. He’s giving me very mixed signals.”

Her eyes cut to his face, examining him. “Are you interested in him, then?”

“Excuse you, the man’s so hot it’s a wonder he doesn’t set things on fire. Me—I’m talking about setting me on fire. And he’s charming, like seriously did he kiss the stone at Blarney Castle? And he’s protective and alpha in the very best of ways, not to mention he gave me that sweet, teasing kiss, and if you hadn’t been in the room with us at the time, I so would have jumped him.”

“You should have done it anyway,” Lisette answered baldly, eyebrow arched.

“Ha! So he is interested! Damn, I wish he wasn’t so hard to read.” Cameron considered all of this for a moment, running it through his head to see how viable it sounded. Alric would tease and flirt one second, disappear the next. Cameron had never dealt with a man who did this push-and-pull before. Or maybe it wasn’t even that. Maybe it was a culture gap? Did Alric possibly think Cameron was just flirty by nature and wasn’t really interested? There was also quite a bit of an age gap between them; maybe Alric thought him too young? But no, he’d kissed Cameron, so that couldn’t be it.

Was it because he hadn’t kissed back? Cameron hadn’t meant to give the wrong idea; he’d just been startled. And then magic. Magic was very distracting. But he’d strongly hinted about kissing dragons more and that Alric was handsome, trying to get his interest across. And still, Alric hadn’t made a move.

Cameron suspected something else was at work here. And he had a very dark suspicion as to what the hold-up was. “Lisette. Correct me if I’m wrong, okay? But you said Alric was body shy. Baldewin told me Alric doesn’t think of himself as attractive. And the man doesn’t seem to know how to approach me. Is this”—Cameron waved a hand toward his own left side in illustration—“the issue?”

Lisette sighed, her shoulders slumping for a moment. “He won’t say as much to any of us. Not even to Baldewin, and he and Baldewin have no secrets. But that’s what we suspect, yes. At least part of it.”

“And the reason you’re encouraging me is because he’s interested?”

“Yes. I think he likes you a great deal.” Lisette shot him a look as she opened the jar of carrier oil. “I do hope you’re good at taking the initiative. Now, focus. We are losing time. And the measurements on potions must be precise.”

Cameron focused and made notes. He’d been using the note section of his daily planner so far, but he really needed something else—an actual notebook for this sort of thing. Did mages in this day and time have grimoires? If they didn’t, could he convince people it needed to make a comeback? Because Cameron so wanted a grimoire.

The potion was easy to make. It reminded him of his halmeoni’s mixture of essential oils, actually. They poured it into a glass container with a screw top lid and then more or less speed-walked back up to the king’s wing of the castle. Lisette didn’t do more than briefly knock before sailing through. “Alric! I have your salve.”

“Thank you,” Alric’s voice floated toward her, sounding relieved. “There wasn’t much left in this jar. And I’m due for a—oh.”

Cameron rounded the open door leading into the king’s bedroom, and he could tell Alric was flustered and embarrassed to have him in there. The king was half-dressed, black slacks on and a shirt hanging on the tri-standing mirror nearby. Alric was expecting the salve, yes, and had stayed in this half-dressed state. But he did not want Cameron to see him shirtless, that was clear. The man couldn’t meet his eyes and he sat stiffly, head turning away.

Oh yes. Cameron saw the problem. He wished Alric would look at him because then he’d see that Cameron absolutely wasn’t disappointed. The damage on the left side was extensive, yes. The lines of injury were red in parts, puckered where things hadn’t healed right. The white lines of scars wrapped around his arm like a lightning strike across his skin. They didn’t detract from him—they enhanced the rest of his taut body. Alric clearly exercised on a regular basis, and it left him toned in a perfectly yummy way.