Origin (Scales ‘N’ Spells #1)

Chapter 1

A lric Burkhard, King of the Fire Dragons, had a duty to love and protect his people. All of his dragons, no matter how much they might irritate him. Like now. He reminded himself of that quite firmly.

Because he was about two seconds from wringing Ravi’s neck like a chicken’s.

“— I swear, ” his friend and bodyguard said earnestly over the phone. Ravi seemed to realize Alric was about two seconds from bashing him over the head and then retreating to the castle. “ It was a mage. A full-blown mage. Would I lie to you ?”

“If it meant getting me out of the castle and into the festival, yes, yes you would.” Alric drew on his patience. It was currently in short supply. “If you smelled a mage, then where is she?”

“ Have you seen the streets right now ?” Ravi protested.

“ I can lose my own nose in this crowd ! It’s why I called everyone down to search too.

I mean, I’m totally happy to see everyone in the festival, don’t get me wrong, but I wouldn’t lie to you about spotting a mage.

That’s beyond mean, and I’m not mean. Impulsive maybe.

Perhaps a touch impatient, but I wouldn’t be mean, right ?

Right. She’s totally here, I swear on the left toe of my legless teddy bear.

I’m just having a little difficulty picking the scent back up, but I swear to you she was near the beer stand, y’know, the one that’s across the street from the bakery and— ”

“Ravi, breathe,” Baldewin reminded patiently from beside Alric.

Baldewin was always patient and calm. It was part of the reason why Alric had asked him to be his personal bodyguard so many years ago.

That and people normally took one look at Baldewin and reconsidered whatever nefarious thing they had in mind.

The man was over six feet of solid muscle and had a deadpan attitude that gave him the aura of an immovable object.

Walls of concrete had more give than Baldewin.

It was tempered by his good-natured humor, in evidence now in his grey-green eyes and the slight quirk of his full mouth. “You’re remembering to breathe, right?”

“ Fuck you, people don’t forget to breathe while talking, ” Ravi shot back.

There was a snort from Dieter. “ I don’t believe you, young dragon. I’ve seen you almost pass out while talking a mile a minute. ”

“ I was concussed !” Ravi howled, a whine in the words.

“Ravi, focus.” Alric took in a deep breath himself, trying to scent the air without being obvious about it. The world at large thought dragons were extinct, and it was a rumor the remaining dragon clans encouraged for the simple fact that it made life a little easier.

Revealing himself at the festival was something he very much wanted to avoid.

The annual Dragon Festival was in full throttle, the city streets packed with an estimated fifty thousand people, and it was literal chaos.

People from all around the world had gathered here for the three-day event.

For a town that normally had only twenty-thousand inhabitants, the additional influx of people strained the seams to bursting.

Alric’s normal approach to surviving the Dragon Festival each year was to hide in his castle, in the mountains, with several bottles of select wine.

He drank steadily through the event until it—and his hangover—had mercifully passed.

He avoided the festival with more dedication than humanity would a plague.

And yet, here he was in the middle of it, on the streets, with people packed in against him on all sides. If Ravi had said anything aside from the word ‘mage’ he wouldn’t have moved from the castle. But that single word was enough to mobilize the entire clan.

They hadn’t seen a new mage in over five hundred years. Alric had prayed, and hoped, and searched for mages for so many years he’d almost given up on it entirely. Hearing of a mage here, so close to his home, was as incredible as it was odd. Why now? Why here? Surely it couldn’t be coincidence.

Assuming Ravi was right.

For the young dragon’s sake, he’d better be. Alric really would wring his neck if he’d gotten all of their hopes up for nothing.

Also, fortunately for Ravi, none of the revelers seemed to be paying much attention to them.

They were too focused on enjoying the festival to the fullest. Dragon masks—most of them colorful, gaudy, and covered in sequins or glitter—were either on people’s heads or shoved to the side to give the wearer room to eat.

People flocked to different stands offering merchandise and souvenirs.

Mostly dragon-themed, naturally. The statues and pictures depicting the dragons were a little off, even accounting for artistic license.

Then again, the Dragon War had ended five hundred years ago, and the dragons had disappeared more or less at that time. Old records and depictions were all that modern people had to go off of. It made sense nothing was quite right.

Alric moved through the streets, trying to squeeze between groups of people, Baldewin his dedicated shadow.

There was likely no danger here, but the royal bodyguards were not in the habit of letting their king wander around alone outside of the castle.

And bodyguards came in handy. Alric may or may not have used his friend’s bulk as a trail blazer. Once or thrice.

He kept the phone to his ear, keeping tabs on people even as he scented the air with every breath. “Lisette, anything?”

His senior mage sounded a little dragony herself in frustration. “ We’re getting readings of magic, yes. But there’s so many magical elements in play down there it’s like trying to find a particular drop of water in the ocean. ”

“Would it help if I ordered all the dragons back out?”

“ No, not really. Frankly, at this point I think you’ve got a better chance than we do of finding her. Our seeking spells just aren’t that accurate unless we have a focus. ”

Alric grimly acknowledged this with a grunt. He knew that, all too well.

“ I say keep searching. If Ravi’s caught her scent once, surely he can do it ag— ”

“ FOUND HIM !”

Alric’s head snapped up and in the direction he could hear Ravi. He’d been loud enough that even above the din the crowd was making he still heard the man’s voice. “Where?!”

“ Front of Petratschek—excuse me, coming through, move, move, move !”

Alric wasn’t far from there. He and Baldewin moved as one, fighting through the crowd, trying to cross the small square parking lot and to the clinic in question.

Even as he fought through the crowd, his mind couldn’t help but question the pronoun.

Had Ravi said him ? A male mage? It was rare—most mages were females—but not unheard of.

Alric didn’t care, gender wasn’t relevant.

Just finding a new mage was cause for celebration in and of itself.

It meant magic wasn’t dead after all.

It meant his people had a chance.

Between one heartbeat and the next, he spied Ravi.

The little wind dragon was practically glommed onto a taller man, his slender frame vibrating with excitement.

With his curly dark hair standing up in interesting angles, and the overwhelming words pouring out of his mouth in frantic German, he probably looked like someone wired… or on drugs.

At least, the man he held onto obviously had that impression. His body language shouted discomfort as he leaned away from Ravi, trying to pull his arm free.

Alric stole a moment to get the man’s measure, to catch his scent for himself before trying to pull Ravi off.

The scent was strong, unmistakable—like the sky right before a storm, lightning poised to strike.

That kind of charged, power-enriched air couldn’t belong to anyone else but a mage.

Ravi was right on that, and Alric owed him an apology for accusing his excitable bodyguard of pranking him.

On the heels of that impression was another Alric hadn’t quite expected: the mage was attractive .

He looked of Asian heritage, black hair swept back from his face in a romantic fall that brushed his collar, highlights of brown catching the rays of sunlight, flattering his olive skin.

He was taller than Alric, athletic in build, dressed in jeans and a white, form-fitting button-up shirt.

Dragons were, by nature, pansexual. Alric had never really paused and thought about that much, or considered if he had a type.

All he’d ever really wanted was a mate, consort, lover, and best friend.

If that person came as male, female, non-binary, gender fluid, or something else entirely, he frankly did not care.

But hot Asian men wearing glasses? That could totally be his type.

Shaking his head, he pulled himself together and strode in. “Everyone, we’ve found him. Retreat to the castle.” Pocketing the phone, he ordered, “Ravi. Desist.”

Ravi, normally good about obeying orders, only turned his head, greeting Alric with a bright smile. “I told you I wasn’t pranking you!”

Ravi would never let them forget this. Sighing, he waved Baldewin forward. The bodyguard did so, wrapped Ravi up in a bear hug, and carted him off with Ravi kicking his legs and spluttering protests.

The mage watched this retreat, body language relaxing as his shoulders came down. In a very American accent, he said in English, “Phew, thanks. I was beginning to wonder what virgin I’d have to sacrifice to get him to let go.”

Alric didn’t know whether to feel bad or relieved that it was very likely the mage hadn’t understood a word Ravi had spewed at him. Pulling up every ounce of charm he possessed, Alric bent a smile on the mage. “Sorry for my friend, I think he’s enjoyed the festival too much.”

It was the right tactic. The mage relaxed his guard completely, returning his smile. “Oh, thank god, your English is amazing. Yeah, I think he mistook me for someone else? My German isn’t great, but I thought I caught something about magic? I’m assuming he’s a LARPer or something.”