Chapter 21
The next day, Nikki remained undecided if it was good the two of them were spending a few hours apart.
Breakfast had gone as it usually did, with Nikki putting a small glass of fruit juice on Gunter’s tray along with his coffee—a dragon could not survive on coffee alone—and Gunter complaining he didn’t need any fruit.
That was about all they said to each other, really.
Nikki was still a little too upset to really engage Gunter in conversation.
And mostly scheming on how to get around Gunter’s grand plans.
As they finished their food, Cameron stopped by their table, looking alert and cheerful. “Are you ready to head to the workshop?” he asked with a broad smile.
Nikki’s stomach squirmed around the eggs they’d eaten, but they put an answering smile on their lips and nodded. “Of course.” They pressed a quick kiss to Gunter’s jaw as they stood. “I’ll catch up with you later today.”
“Already? You’re leaving already?” Gunter demanded, sounding confused and more than a little disgruntled over the idea.
“We’re making the amulets today. You knew this,” Nikki reminded him.
“Yes, but you’re starting already?”
Cameron chuckled and stepped closer to Nikki. “Don’t worry, Gunter. We’ll take good care of them. Lisette thinks we should be done well before dinner.”
“Don’t forget to eat lunch,” Nikki admonished and then swept out of the dining hall with Cameron while Gunter’s mouth hung open in confusion.
Nikki was a little nervous about this, honestly.
A room full of mages was enough to put them on edge.
On the other hand, some of these mages had become friends.
And Nikki was tired of living in fear, tired of feeling like they needed eyes in the back of their head.
It was better to face the fears, prove there was nothing to worry about.
Right? No one had tried to harm them since entering the Burkhard Clan.
If Nikki didn’t start trusting now, then when?
And maybe Nikki was a little motivated about showing Gunter how wrong he was. Nikki was no longer the delicate person they’d come into the clan as. They’d grown and adjusted this much, hadn’t they? Take that.
Cameron explained the workshop they were gathering in was not the same one they used to make some of their health products, but rather a room for generic projects and testing new ideas.
Upon entering, Nikki’s first impression was cozy.
There were the standard tall, blacktopped tables covered with what they needed for the amulets, but there were also overstuffed, colorful chairs for relaxing in over in one corner.
Fresh flowers filled bright blue and yellow vases, and there were several woven rugs in a rainbow of colors on the floor. There was even a coffee bar.
Tall windows looked out on blue sky and mountains still tipped with splashes of snow. It was sort of like walking into a fairytale. Nikki half expected to see three plump fairies with tiny wings whizz through the room in a golden cloud of fairy dust.
Eight people were already in the room, working.
Cassie was curled in one of the chairs, holding a large mug of coffee in both hands like it was the key to life itself.
Lisette was flitting about the room in a flowing mint green dress that swirled about her ankles as she moved between the two tables.
She smiled and greeted them as they arrived.
Another female mage was seated on a stool, carefully weaving together a number of elements into a long, slender thread of leather. Cameron introduced her as Carla. The woman with the pale blonde hair greeted them briefly before turning back to her work.
Cameron then directed them over to the other table where a young mage sat. It looked as if he was preparing some of the elements to be used to make the amulets. The blond looked up with bright, sky-blue eyes, and Nikki couldn’t stop the gasp.
“Oh my! You’re gorgeous,” they said, the words tumbling from their lips.
But they meant it. His eyes were extravagantly kohled, reminding them of a cat’s eye or even the pictures they’d seen of ancient Egyptians.
His lips were a deep burgundy red, while his cheekbones were highlighted to make them look even sharper.
The young man leaned back and tossed over his shoulder at Cassie, “I told you it was a good day to go with dramatic eyes.”
Cassie snorted. “For you, every day is a good day to go with dramatic eyes.”
The young man did not appear deterred by this. He just smiled at Nikki. “Hi! We haven’t met yet. I’m North, Warin’s mate. Do you want to help me prep elements for the amulets?”
Nikki glanced over at Cameron and Lisette, not sure they should accept the offer or if they were expected to do something else.
Lisette smiled and gave a little wave of her hand. “That would be great. North can show you exactly what’s to be done. We’re going to switch up later. Everyone will be making at least one amulet today.”
“Really?” North asked in what sounded like a mocking tone. “I thought I wasn’t allowed to work with banshee screams.”
Lisette groaned. “What I said was you weren’t allowed to work with banshee screams unsupervised again.”
Nikki eyed him sideways as they slid into the stool next to North’s. Banshee screams, really?
North snickered and leaned close, dropping his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “Cassie and I were making a different kind of amulet, and it was my idea to use the banshee scream. Blew out windows in six of the rooms on this floor. Warin was so upset.”
“Sora also had to repair your hearing,” Lisette muttered.
North rolled his eyes. “I’m still learning this magic thing.”
That sounded totally like something Nikki would have tried. “Me too.”
“Awesome. You can learn with me. Cameron, Cassie, and Tori are all relatively new to the castle, but they’re all way farther along than me.”
The last of Nikki’s anxious butterflies seemed to flutter away with North’s excited words. There was something about the eager, sarcastic young man that felt like a kindred spirit. North had the same sort of vibe as Cassie—chaotic good. And those were Nikki’s kind of people.
North certainly helped make the hours fly by, since making the amulets was proving to be tedious work with no room for error.
Prepping the ingredients for just one took the better part of an hour, and worse was stringing out the lotus blossom silk that was being used to bind and shape the amulet.
The sticky crap broke if they weren’t careful, and they had a limited supply of long lotus blossom stems. If they had to send a dragon out to fetch more, they’d have to postpone the search for the Jaeggi by another day.
As they worked, Nikki tried to sneak in a few questions. “Um, is there any room in the castle that isn’t so…pretty? Something I can use as an art room?”
North blinked up at them. “Oh, there’s quite a few rooms that are more for storage than anything else. Especially in the top parts of the towers. You do art?”
“Yeah. Well, sorta. It was something I always wanted to do, but with the Jaeggi, the most I was given was pencil and paper. I’m just now really exploring other mediums. And I discovered quickly that paint gets…well, everywhere.”
North nodded in understanding. “Yeah, I can see that. After we’re done here, we’ll figure out a place for you to work in—a room that isn’t going to suffer from flying paint.”
“Ooh, a budding artist.” Carla gave them a wink. “That’ll be nice. Most of us—and by that, I mean me—do not have an artistic bone in our body. It’ll be nice to have an artist in the house who can do logos and stuff.”
Nikki hadn’t thought of it like that. That their art could be useful in some way. They’d just been overjoyed to finally have the freedom to do it.
“I keep seeing videos on paint pours.” Cassie waved at her phone to indicate where. “It’s becoming a thing these days. You tried that yet, Nikki?”
“Uh…no? I’m not sure what that is.”
“When you’re ready to take a break for a minute, I’ll pull up some images and show you. It looks like neat stuff. Paint definitely goes everywhere, though. Have you gone to the big art store over in Munich?”
This was news to Nikki that there was one. “No, only to the one in Sonthofen. Gunter took me there.”
“There’s one in Munich…Boesner, I think is the name?” Cassie tilted her head in thought. “Don’t quote me, I need to Google that. But that’ll be fun to hit if you want serious supplies. We should totally go shopping.”
Cameron snorted. “You always want to go shopping.”
“No lie detected.”
The group started discussing where Nikki could go, and set up the supplies that didn’t mean a hike across the entire castle.
The discussion warmed Nikki right down to their demented little heart.
They’d never had a group of people sit and actively think of them like this.
It was oddly empowering? Like a shot of confidence.
Nikki was smiling the entire time they discussed options.
By early afternoon, Nikki’s fingers were sore and their back hurt, but they’d enjoyed listening to the little bits of gossip and strange stories everyone told.
They were starting to feel like a part of something much bigger.
It seemed only natural for them to suddenly blurt out, “Does anyone else have trouble training their dragon?”
The room went deathly still, and Nikki could feel their cheeks flushing. Maybe they shouldn’t have said that.
Cameron’s loud bark of laughter broke the tension. “Oh my god, yes!”
“Seriously?” Nikki demanded. When they saw Cameron and Alric together, they thought they were always in perfect accord.