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Sam winced a little. “Yeah, it is. But in a good way. Like I’m just finding my balance again—holy shit!”
Dimitri went into full protection mode, hands on Sam like he was ready to whisk him away somewhere. “What, what?!”
“I can feel it.” Sam’s eyes were wide with wonder. Nearly on the verge of tears. “I can feel magic moving through me. It’s like this warm, molten surge. I…Amaru, is it really?”
He clapped his friend on the shoulder, grinning. “Yeah, your core is already healing.”
Sora muttered even as his hand flew across the screen. “Core fusing back together, magical flow stabilizing, it’s almost like watching a baby’s magical core coming in at ten times speed. How the hell…?”
“I told you, cores want to heal. Given a chance, they’ll do it on their own. I’d say by this time tomorrow, you can work magic just fine.”
Ryu spluttered, “Tomorrow?!”
“Sure. I mean, if Sam wants to speed the matter up some, he can spend the rest of the day kissing Dimitri—”
Dimitri put a hand to his forehead like some wilting damsel. “I’m willing to sacrifice myself to the greater cause.”
His mate smacked him in the stomach with one hand, laughing.
“—but he’d be well by tomorrow even without the boost of dragon’s breath,” Amaru finished, deadpan. He had a feeling there would be no living with Sam and Dimitri for a while. Those two were already giddy.
“I thought the Abe Clan had done well preserving their medical knowledge,” Sora muttered, mostly to himself it seemed, “But this…”
“We didn’t know how to fix cores to begin with,” his father replied. His tone said he took his son’s point. “But agreed. Amaru, I’d like to stay and study with you for a while.”
“I accept all apprentices.” Amaru winked at him, getting a smile in return. “Come one, come all. Any clan who wants to send me people to learn how to do this, that’s probably the faster route. It’s not like I can travel the world and heal everyone. It’d take way too much time and I have my own clan here to rebuild.”
“Truly.”
Alric turned to Sora and requested, “We have already spoken about doing a student exchange for this very reason. Can I ask you to stay and learn on our behalf?”
“Even if you didn’t, Hoheit, I would stay.”
The king chuckled. “Fair enough. All right, that’s settled. What can we do to repay this learning, Amaru?”
“Uh, I’m doing this to repay you for getting my clan out of that insane sleep and rebuilding my clan,” Amaru said. These dragons, seriously, they were so hell-bent on protecting mages. All mages, apparently. “You’ve paid in advance. Cameron, not sure what else I can tell people listening.”
“How about location?” Cameron suggested. “And how long to stay?”
“Oh. Sure.” Amaru rattled off that information, then suggested for the other clans to bring samples of elements native to their area with them. Might as well broaden the knowledge base while they were at it.
As he talked, he kept one eye on Sam. He and Dimitri were canoodling without any care for their audience, the most blissful smile on Sam’s face as he laid his head on Dimitri’s chest. That expression alone was why Amaru loved his job. Bringing that kind of joy and peace to one who had nothing but anger and despair never got old.
He’d done well.
Life was hard when your mage mate was a rock star.
It took hours to pry Amaru loose from the all the mages asking questions about the elimination of the Jaeggi curse, cores, and other magical wonders known to the Sousa Clan.
They were excited for Sam and all the Jaeggi mages. Three more cores were healed that afternoon with Evora, Sora, and Ryu each taking a turn under Amaru’s guidance. Knowledge was spreading. Lives were improving.
Yeah, happy day.
He wanted his fucking mate.
And he wasn’t the only one.
Luka was leaning against the far wall, his arms folded over his chest as he grimaced darkly. The only thing he was missing was the storm cloud churning over his head.
“Okay! Okay! I think I need a break. We can heal a couple more mages this evening after dinner,” Amaru shouted in laughing tones.
Vasily took the hint and was already moving. He sliced through the crowd, scooped up Amaru, and tossed the giggling mage over his shoulder before making a break for the door. There were indignant shouts and more than a little mocking laughter, but he didn’t care. Amaru was in his arms—sort of—and Luka had fallen into step beside him.
“Did you miss me?” Amaru snickered, though he wrapped his arms around Vasily’s waist from behind and squeezed him.
“Missing you doesn’t begin to cover it,” Luka grumbled. “Since waking your clan, we’ve barely had a minute alone with you. We thought once we got you back to the clan house we’d have more time.”
