Epilogue
Six months later…
Gunter rolled his eyes at himself as he trudged up the stairs to what had once been the ballroom. Why he’d thought to check the mage workshop or the greenhouse for Nikki was beyond him. The sun was setting, and his mate liked to end the day in one place.
The nursery.
From the doorway, it took Gunter only a second to spot the lithe blond standing beside Sora and Ravi as the wind dragon cooed and made funny faces at the large bassinet-shaped incubator.
Even from across the room, Gunter could see the warm golden glow that surrounded it, protecting and nurturing the occupants inside.
Gunter quietly crossed the room and stopped at the overstuffed chair currently occupied by Sora’s mother, Yuki. While it took a minimum of seven mages constantly feeding a single incubator energy, usually only one or two mages were present most of the time to watch over the infants.
“How are the little ones doing today?” he asked, barely talking over a whisper. There was something about the atmosphere that demanded a low speaking voice.
Yuki looked up from her knitting and smiled. “Less trouble than the parents.”
Gunter bit his bottom lip to keep from laughing and admired the tiny booty she was working on.
In the past five months, Yuki had pretty much moved into the nursery and produced a steady stream of booties, caps, sweaters, and blankets, as if the little ones were in danger of freezing to death once they came out of the incubators.
Well, at least one of them definitely wouldn’t.
Gunter gazed around the room, smiling at the transformation that had taken place. Several shelves had been moved in along with a couple of sturdy tables. The shelves were stocked with countless magical supplies, while the tables were used for pulling together those spells.
Another corner had been filled with two large, comfortable couches and three matching chairs for the visitors and the mages on duty.
While all of that didn’t exactly demand a lot of space, the red dragon currently curled around one of the incubators did.
From the moment his and Cameron’s child had been conceived, Alric’s dragon had become demanding and outright stubborn.
Nearly half of every day, Alric spent it in dragon form with his large body almost completely wrapped around the incubator.
As it was, a mage had to step over his tail to approach the bassinet.
But even from across the room, Alric looked like he was at peace.
A dragony smile was on his lips, his eyes closed, and his mate sat on the floor with him, leaning against his side.
It had been so long since a fire dragon had been born, and even longer since an incubator had been used, he wasn’t quite sure if this was normal behavior.
Ravi didn’t feel the same need to spend his days in dragon form wrapped around his children’s bassinet.
“Alric give you any trouble today?” Gunter asked. He smirked as one eyelid rose to reveal a large, slitted blue eye glaring at him.
Yuki made a dismissive noise. “He’s a pussy cat. My son is the handful.”
“All I said was I wasn’t sure if you were keeping it warm enough for them,” Sora said huffily. “They’re wind dragons. They won’t have the same internal body temperature as a fire dragon.”
It was becoming harder and harder not to laugh. However, his own mate had noticed his presence, so he stepped away from Yuki and walked over to join Nikki with Sora and Ravi.
“Are you done causing mischief?” Nikki asked with a lift of one arched and delicate blond brow.
“I was only trying to tease Alric. Ruffling Sora’s feathers was just a bonus.”
Nikki huffed but quieted the moment Gunter stepped up behind them and wrapped his arms around their waist. He looked down at the twins sleeping within the bassinet.
They were pointed in opposite directions like a little yin and yang, but it looked as if they were holdings hands.
They were both still bald, but Gunter was expecting both children to be born with thick black hair like their parents.
They were hitting right about the five-month mark.
Despite Cameron’s demands to have babies right after defeating the Jaeggi, it had taken them roughly a month to make all the necessary preparations.
At least half of the dragons had left over the past few months, but many lingered.
Gunter suspected they were waiting to welcome the new baby dragons into the world.
Gunter couldn’t deny he tingled with excitement to hear them take their first breaths out of the incubator, their first giggles, even their first cries.
Sasha had been the last dragon born to the Burkhard Clan, and that had been more than four hundred years ago.
The castle needed to ring with the cries and laughter of children again.
“They’re beautiful,” Gunter murmured.
“Of course they are,” Ravi replied with a wide grin. “They look like him.” He pointed at the mage at his side, the mate who made the wind dragon shine even brighter.
“Oh, no. They’ve definitely got your nose,” Sora whispered, pointing to the baby on the left.
Ravi leaned in a little closer, squinting. “You think?”
“I’ve got it! I’ve got it!” called a happy voice. They all turned to see Sora’s father, Ryu, practically dance into the ballroom while waving one arm in the air. “I’ve got the names. Augustus and Julia!”
“As in Caesar?” Sora choked out.
“You want to name your grandkids after salad?” Ravi demanded.
“No,” Sora said flatly, still watching his father’s approach.
Ravi shook his head. “Next thing you know, he’s gonna want to call them Ranch and Thousand Island.”
Gunter nearly choked on his laughter and had to step away from the bassinet. Nikki followed him, snickering softly. Since the children had been conceived, Ryu and Yuki had been helping to come up with names for their grandchildren. From Gunter’s understanding, nothing had made the short list yet.
With his arm around Nikki’s shoulder, he helped his mate step over Alric’s tail so they could approach the bassinet of the Burkhard heir.
At the same time, Cameron pushed to his feet and joined them by the incubator to smile at his child.
Alric stirred slowly, yawning wide enough to reveal teeth and fangs.
“They’ve been a bit fussy and restless today,” Cameron murmured. He smiled over his shoulder at his mate. “Alric thinks our baby can sense the snow falling outside and wants to play in it like all good little fire dragons.”
“Soon, little one,” Nikki cooed. “Soon we’ll make all the snow people and have snowball fights.”
Gunter’s heart swelled to see the look of pure joy and love on Nikki’s face.
Soon, they would have their own little one to love and spoil.
There had been some initial talk of having children immediately, but that talk quieted when Alric and Cameron conceived.
Gunter had a feeling it was the fear of caring for something so small and fragile, but Gunter didn’t doubt Nikki would want one for their family.
They were still talking about the number.
Nikki had budged so far as to come down one.
Gunter didn’t know if he had the energy for nine children, but his mate was enthusiastic and apparently determined.
Finding his mate was not the only reason he’d come to the ballroom.
Gunter turned his attention to the dragon watching his child with such happiness and serenity.
“I spoke briefly with King Rodrigo and Queen Ha Na this afternoon.” He paused and looked at Cameron.
“She sends her love and promises to make the return trip to Burkhard a month before your child is scheduled to be born.”
“Oh good,” Cameron muttered. “Then she’ll be able to tell me how to raise our child in person rather than sending us both a dozen texts each day with parenting advice.”
Gunter wasn’t touching that one with a ten-foot pole. “The reason for the king’s call, Hoheit,” he started, and then paused.
“Really, Alric.” Cameron shook his head at the dragon. “You could at least change back into your human form while Gunter’s discussing clan business. You’ve been hiding out in here most of the day.”
The dragon huffed, but Alric did shift into his human form. He straightened his tie before wrapping his arms around his mate. “I haven’t been hiding. I’ve been protecting our child.”
Cameron said nothing. He simply smiled and wrapped his arms around his mate’s shoulders, pressing his forehead to the side of Alric’s head.
“Sorry about that, Gunter. What did Rodrigo want?”
“Not a problem. It seems the Valerii are having some troubles. He wouldn’t give me or Dieter any specifics,” Gunter relayed.
He’d just happened to be in Dieter’s office, going over some reports, when Rodrigo had called.
Gunter had offered to deliver the message since he was on his way to locate his own mate.
“Does he need some assistance? I can talk with Baldewin and have some dragons in the air first thing in the morning.”
Gunter swelled with pride at his king’s ready assistance. They’d come a very long way from the old days of clans barely speaking to each other. Now, they were friends as well as allies, where they would both offer ready assistance.
“Not that I’m aware of. I think he just wishes to discuss the matter with you first. He was wondering if you’d be available for a call later this evening. I think he mentioned after you had dinner.”
Alric nodded. “I’ll text him shortly. Tell him I’ll be available for him. Thank you for relaying the message.”
“Do you need anything else this evening, Hoheit?”
Alric shook his head. “No, thank you. Go spend some time with your mate.”
What an excellent-sounding idea. Gunter caught Nikki’s hand, and they smiled up at him. Was that a hint of mischief in their eyes? With that look they would be lucky if they made it back to their apartment. It was more likely they were going to end up in a broom closet again.
“Gunter, I’ve been thinking,” Nikki said as they stepped out of the ballroom hand in hand.
“You’ll understand if this concerns me.”
Nikki ignored the teasing and continued, “I really think I need my own space to grow more trees. My alder tree and I have talked about this, and there needs to be more room. I think I’ve figured out how to shape the wood for wands and such.
But if I’m going to be doing that for the other mages, I’ll need more than one tree to work from. ”
Gunter’s head snapped around. “Do you really think you figured it out?”
“I actually convinced the alder to give me a branch the other day. No tools, it just dropped it in my hand. So yeah, pretty sure I can do this.”
Gunter’s smile took over his face. “I knew you could figure it out. I’ll speak with Tori, see if there’s space you can expand into. Nikki, I’m so excited for this!”
Nikki’s grin stretched from ear to ear. “Me too. And the more I think of all the mages coming to us, and how they’ll need wands crafted just for them, the more excited I become.”
“The world will be filled with mages again.”
“And hope. With mages and dragons comes magic and hope.”
Gunter stopped in the middle of the hall and pulled his wonderful mate into his arms. Leaning down, he pressed a kiss to their lips, his heart swelling with a love he’d never thought he’d get to feel. Yes, the dragons—and maybe even the world—had found hope again.
And it’d all started because a man who didn’t know he was a mage went to a festival.
Scales ’N’ Spells is now complete, but the dragon party isn’t over!
Jump into the Wings ’N’ Wands series and read all about the ice dragons, starting with Ruins.