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Taking their hand and picturing unsexy thoughts, Gunter pulled himself together by painful degrees. He was lucky his brain worked well enough to remember to grab his tablet. Gunter opened the door and stuck his head out, glancing up and down the hall. Yes, it looked like he and Nikki had been making out, but he really didn’t want to be caught creeping out of the storage closet.
“Hey, Gunter!” Baldewin called out with a knowing grin on his face before Gunter could jerk his head inside again. “You coming to the meeting? Nikki with you?”
He couldn’t think fast enough. It also didn’t help that Nikki slipped through the narrow opening and smiled up at the other dragon as they waved. “Hey! We’ll be there in a second.”
Baldewin’s low chuckle followed him into Alric’s office, where he was undoubtedly telling everyone who would listen that he’d just caught Gunter coming out of the closet with Nikki. Lovely. Yes, he wanted everyone to know Nikki was his, but there had to be a more dignified way of doing it.
Though, dignified had flown out the window with that stupid drunk video. He needed to pay back Cassie for taking the damn thing.
But all that was forgotten when Nikki smiled up at him. “Ready?”
“Yes, I am.”
Gunter took Nikki’s hand, and they walked into Alric’s office together. Instead of the informal setting of the last gathering in this room, everyone was already finding seats around the long table. It felt like all eyes were on them, grinning, but Gunter’s embarrassment was immediately replaced with concern as Nikki’s hand tightened around his. They were making great progress when it came to being more comfortable around other mages and dragons, but this meeting of kings was still an overwhelming experience.
“My apologies for our tardiness. I held Nikki up,” Gunter said. A choking laugh escaped Nikki, and Gunter smirked at them. Maybe that was a little too on-the-nose, but the others didn’t need to know.
“You’re not late. We’re still getting settled,” Cameron said as he pulled out the chair on Alric’s right. On Alric’s other side sat Dieter and Lisette, while Baldewin had settled next to Cameron.
Nikki led the way to the table and actually stopped next to the open chair beside Lisette. “Are these seats taken?” they politely asked, the tiniest waver in their voice, but they still met Lisette’s thrilled gaze.
“No, you and Gunter can definitely sit there.”
“Thank you,” Nikki replied as they slipped into the seat.
Gunter naturally took the one beside Nikki. He leaned over and brushed a tender kiss across Nikki’s temple. He was so proud of the mage, he couldn’t have stopped himself even if he’d thought to try.
The rest of the seats were filled out by the other dragon kings—Chalo, Roca, and Rodrigo—as well as Dimitri. It seemed the Ice Dragon King’s right-hand warrior was determined to take a very personal approach to stopping the Jaeggi.
“Thank you for meeting me on such short notice,” Alric opened.
“Well, with the information Cameron sent around, how could we not?” Roca chuckled, holding both of his hands out open in front of him.
“These are some excellent leads,” Chalo agreed. “We will get them at last.”
Gunter looked down the table at the silent king of the Ice Dragons. Rodrigo was not the type to remain silent for long, and right now he was wearing a very skeptical expression.
“You don’t think we’ll find the Jaeggi Clan at these locations,” Gunter said to Rodrigo.
The ice dragon lifted one narrow shoulder. “It is possible.”
Alric huffed and rolled his eyes. “Spill it. Don’t make us drag it out of you.”
Rodrigo’s lips twisted into a smirk before he sobered again. Gunter had not failed to notice that after the past year, Rodrigo and Alric now bickered like old friends, or even brothers. It was almost hard to believe they’d ever been adversaries. Of course, dragons lived an incredibly long time, which created ample opportunity for scales to get ruffled and feelings hurt.
“We don’t know the owner of the phone or what his task was for the clan,” Rodrigo began. “What if he was not returning to the clan when he was lingering in these locations?”
“You think that Jaeggi might have been tracking down mages instead?” Nikki asked.
Rodrigo’s cool expression immediately softened when he looked at Nikki. “I think it is a possibility. I’m afraid that if we go searching these locations, all we might find are the remains of old mage clans the Jaeggi have already terrorized.”
“I think it is a possibility for some of them,” Lisette conceded. “I also think it’s very possible they have a glamour for seeking spells. It makes little sense otherwise, as we’ve searched for them often.”
“Obviously so, as you didn’t realize the Jaeggi were living in your own backyard until they attacked,” Dimitri drawled.
Gunter sucked in a harsh breath, and the tension pulled bowstring-tight in an instant. Before Alric could even slam Dimitri for such a comment, Rodrigo smacked his tracker on the back of the head.
