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They could be projecting, granted. Nikki hated being back here with a passion. It was a stark reminder that their days of captivity weren’t very far behind them. Nikki would prefer to never walk through a Jaeggi compound again. They weren’t sure if they were spooked, nauseous, or battling ghosts by being here. It felt like a combination of all three.
Nikki would need vodka after this. Strong vodka.
And a make-out session with Gunter.
“What’s wrong, Nikki?” Gunter asked quietly.
Nikki jerked their head around to ask why Gunter thought something was wrong, but the words stopped in their throat as Gunter lifted their joined hands and brushed a kiss across their white knuckles. Both a hint and a tender gesture.
A weak smile flitted across their lips. Nikki didn’t even remember grabbing Gunter, the move had been so subconscious. Nikki forced their fingers to loosen. “Sorry.”
“Nothing to apologize for. Is it merely being here? Or something else?”
“It’s stupid. I feel like someone is watching us, but I think it’s all in my head.”
Dimitri straightened from where he’d been inspecting something in the grass. The ice dragon slowly turned, his gaze panning over each of the buildings. “I don’t think anyone is here, but your brain could be picking up on a monitoring spell over the area.”
“Like they’re subconsciously aware of the spell?” Gunter asked.
Dimitri grunted. “The problem is Nikki lived with the Jaeggi a long time. They know a lot of the spells, but there’s probably more they’ve learned to gloss over as background noise. Small, low-level spells that don’t take much energy or elements.” Dimitri flashed them a reassuring smile. “It’s just a bunch of noise to you, so you tune it out.”
An exasperated sound escaped Nikki, and they leaned their head against Gunter’s arm. “Well, that doesn’t help us at all.”
“You’d be surprised. Just keep telling us what you’re feeling and seeing. Even if it seems silly. Could save our lives.”
“Got it,” Nikki said firmly. They would do whatever it took to keep them all safe.
The trio picked their way steadily across the field, pausing only when they reached the road running in front of the other building. There wasn’t much remarkable about it other than the fact it was painted brown while most of the other structures were concrete grey. It was as if the Jaeggi had simply wanted the building to blend into the background while all the others were permitted to stand out.
The roof pitched steeply with matching dark brown shingles while the windows were long and narrow. An average-sized man couldn’t have squeezed out of one. Nikki could and maybe Gunter, though it would take some work with his long arms and legs. Dimitri would never make it through.
Weeds poked through the broken sidewalk leading to the building, and the front door hung open in a macabre welcome. Going through the front door seemed like a bad idea. Dimitri appeared to agree. The dragon crouched on the road, scratching his jaw, and his narrowed ice-blue eyes swept over every inch of the place.
“Nikki, you seeing anything? Or feeling anything?” Dimitri inquired.
“I don’t see anything spell related. I feel death, destruction, and explosion.” They lowered their voice to the thinnest whisper. “And hate. The Jaeggi hated everyone so much. Other mages, dragons, even humans. If you weren’t a Jaeggi, they hated you. All that hate feels like it’s centered here.”
“With Thomas Jaeggi,” Gunter filled in.
Nikki could only nod. A lump had grown in their throat, threatening to silence them completely. They wanted to be away from here, be away from all the memories flooding in.
“Despite the open front door, there’s little evidence people actually left that way.” Dimitri waved to the grass and dirt. “No signs anything has been disturbed—certainly not by a large group of people attempting to escape with their lives. Do you know if there’s a back door?”
Nikki nodded and found their voice again. “Yep. There’s also a link from the main tunnel to this building, but I think there are several locked doors between the cells and this building. I only got through the first locked door once. They caught me at the second, and I think I still wasn’t even close.”
Gunter brushed another kiss across their knuckles. “And you never got inside?”
“Nope.” Why did the world get all warm and dreamy when Gunter did that? It was like they could completely forget about standing in a giant death trap ready to spring on them at any second. Gunter smirked as if the dragon knew exactly what he was doing, and Nikki snapped awake again. “I poked around the building on the outside, tried to peek in the windows, but never really saw anything interesting before they caught me. And they always caught me.”
Another low grunt left Dimitri and he pushed to his feet. “Going in is probably bad, but I think we can at least look around the back. Afterward, we’ll fly back to the castle. Tomorrow, we’ll return with a squad of mages to take this place apart,” he announced. “I know we’re short on manpower, but I don’t feel comfortable going farther than this without more people.”
