Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 140644 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 703(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140644 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 703(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
“I almost did lose you,” Baldewin admitted. “The metro station was packed with people. Fortunately, I kept track of your scent.”
Bless a dragon’s nose. Tori flashed him a quick smile. “Very fortunate, as the one spell I was able to pull off only bought me breathing room. It didn’t get me out of trouble entirely.”
“Yes, what did you do?” Lisette asked curiously. “Baldewin only said that you set the van on fire.”
“Oh. Well, I only had captured sunlight to work with. I had a vial in my pocket.” A little sheepishly—he knew he’d broken more than a few rules—he couldn’t quite meet her in the eye as he admitted, “I used a fire spell to ignite the engine compartment and blew the van to hell.”
Alric laughed in delight. “You’re a man after my own heart, Tori.”
Eh? Tori’s head came back up, and he stared in Alric in confusion.
“Of course you approve.” Lisette gave Alric a chiding look, much like a mother would a child. “As long as there’s fire and explosions, a fire dragon likes it.”
“I would like to point out”—the king said, his eyes dancing with mirth—“that historically speaking, blowing things to hell has worked out quite well for us.”
She just sighed and shook her head. But there was a trace of a smile on her lips, too. One that spoke of approval. “It was a very clever use of the sunlight. And that quick thinking likely saved you.”
Well, what do you know? It didn’t look like these two were nearly as strait-laced as his old clan leaders. Tori did have to ask, though, as the question plagued him. “It did mean revealing my magic and Warin’s dragon form, though. Um, all three times I encountered the Jaeggi, there’s been some pretty serious magic being thrown around. I guess I’m wondering how you’ll handle it?”
Alric’s laughter died, and he groaned. “It’s indeed a question.”
“Hoheit.” Baldewin shifted a little, drawing their attention to him. “I think it’s inevitable that the world discovers magic and dragons are not as extinct as they like to think.”
“Yes, it will likely come to that.” Alric made a face, nose wrinkled up. To Tori, he admitted, “After the Dragon War, we retreated into our homes to recover. We didn’t go out again for many years, as our loss and grief were too much. Because of that, the world assumed us all dead. We didn’t realize until we ventured out again.”
That was interesting. “So, it wasn’t a conscious choice?”
“No, not at first. After, yes. With so few mages left, we had little in the means of protection, and we weren’t sure what the stragglers of the Jaeggi Clan or its allies might do. We thought, why not let the assumption ride itself out for a few generations, wait for our enemies to die off of old age? And then we realized that there was less politics involved, and it was easier all around to stay as we were.”
“Um, but doesn’t that mean I’m messing that up?”
Alric waved his concern off. “I’m not overly worried about what you’ve exposed. In truth, this modern age is very hard to hide in. Social media alone makes it difficult. I’ve felt that our time in seclusion has been running out for some years now. We’ll ride it out for a while longer, simply because I have too much going on as it is, and I will not mix in the politics of the world until I absolutely have to.”
That was fair. In his position, Tori would likely feel the same.
Lisette cleared her throat lightly. “We got off track. The second time you encountered them, did they look the same to you?”
Tori blinked and refocused on her. “Yes. The third time, as well. And they didn’t really use much magic, which I found strange. They were obviously prepared to strike at us, but they were using things like tranq darts and didn’t seem to have any magical elements on them. And the fight at the hotel was weird, in retrospect. Four mages, all of them hovering around Cassie like vultures over roadkill. Even after I threw fireballs at them, they just focused on putting the fire out. They didn’t counter-attack. It was like they had nothing to fight me with. The only mage who used magic was the one pulling from Cassie, and even he did limited magic. Just a shield.”
Lisette scribbled this down and asked, “What spell did he use?”
“Personal deflective shield.”
“And the draining of the magic?”
“He used a paralytic spell on Cassie first, I assume to keep her from fighting back. Then he…” Tori frowned and thought about it. He didn’t want to say the wrong thing or give the wrong impression. “I honestly don’t know how he was doing it. I didn’t hear him say a spell. And the way his hands were, it was like he hid something under his palms, something I couldn’t see. I just saw magical energy pouring out of her, funneling into him. No. No, that’s not right. It wasn’t going into him. It was being directed into his hands.”