Page 150 of Scales ’N’ Spells: Volume Two

“My mom made it sound so magical and wonderful. A dragon searching for his one true mate, a mage who could cast the most amazing spells. Just looking at each other, the mage and the dragon would fall hopelessly in love. The dragon would scoop up the mage and fly them both to his castle, where they would live happily ever after and have lots of little baby dragons.”

Gunter made a note. A pretty fairy tale. He hoped Anika had known the truth about mages and dragons. Their forever love was truth, but both had suffered greatly over the centuries thanks to the Jaeggi. She’d likely spared her child that ugliness, fully intending to tell them the truth when they were older. Gunter mentally sighed.

Unless she hadn’t realized dragons were still alive. Then she’d very likely believed it all to be fairy tales and not truth. It was a shame Jan and Anika would never know their precious child was safely in the hands of dragons, who would cherish and protect them for the rest of their days.

Nikki suddenly gasped, causing Gunter to jerk his head up.

“What’s wrong?” Gunter demanded.

“I just had a thought.”

“What?”

“Ravi mentioned that sometimes a surrogate or a magical incubator is used when a mage can’t carry a baby.”

“Yes,” Gunter cautiously agreed. Dear god above, he didn’t need to have the talk with Nikki, did he? It wasn’t likely something the Jaeggi would have bothered to discuss.

Nope. Hell to the no. Not happening. He would go fetch Lisette or Alric or someone else. But not him.

“When a mage gives birth to a dragon, is it in dragon form or human form? Are they born like regular babies, or do they grow in eggs?”

Gunter released a loud, long breath and nearly dropped his head to the desk. He felt almost lightheaded with his relief.

Dodged that bullet.

“Babies. Human babies. The mages do not lay dragon eggs.” He paused and pushed his fingers under his glasses to massage the bridge of his nose. The tension that had magically disappeared with Nikki’s touch was back in force.

Nikki released a sigh and slumped in their chair. “That’s good to know. It would be like a horror movie with those itty-bitty baby dragon claws poking at the mage’s belly. And what if the baby sort of hiccups and blows fire inside the mage? That would be like the world’s worst heartburn.”

Gunter could only blink at that. “Nikki, your mind is a scary place.”

“So I’ve been told.”

Probably many, many times.

Dropping his hand to his lap, Gunter tried to put the conversation on course again. “Do you remember anything else about your parents? Or what they might have told you? Do you remember grandparents or maybe aunts and uncles?”

Nikki shook their head. “Nope. It was just the three of us. There was zero mention of any other family. I kind of got the impression my parents weren’t originally from Ridderkerk, but I don’t know anything more than that. It was all sort of vague mentions of needing to learn where something was, or that it wasn’t like home. I don’t remember them mentioning where they grew up.”

Gunter nodded and made a new note. He might be able to pull records such as birth certificates or maybe a marriage license to help track down the rest of Jan and Anika’s families. If there were grandparents or even siblings, they might be happy to know Nikki was alive and thriving. And it would give the Burkhard dragons a new avenue to research for more mages.

“I will say that you speak impeccable German. Do you remember any Dutch?”

The mage frowned, head shaking a little from side to side. “Not really. Bits and pieces, but I haven’t spoken it in years. They didn’t like me speaking it because so few of them spoke Dutch. They immediately started teaching me German.”

“I could—” Gunter broke off as his eyes truly focused on the bit of fabric in Nikki’s lap. It wasn’t just some random scrap. Nikki was holding his sweater. His favorite sweater. It had disappeared off his chair and he’d been looking everywhere for it over the past week. “That’s my sweater!”

Gunter jumped to his feet and closed the distance between them, his hand outstretched to take his sweater. With eyes wide and face flushed, Nikki jumped and scooted half behind the chair, the sweater clutched to their chest with both hands.

“Now, Gunter, share!” Nikki flashed him a teasing grin. “It’s cold down here. And you don’t need it; you’re a warm fire dragon.”

“Nikki, it is one of my very favorite sweaters, and I will have it back.” Gunter tried to reach around the chair for it, but Nikki continued to elude his grasp, which was damn impressive since Gunter was a good half-foot taller.

“I can always give it back later. When I’m not cold.” Ducking under his arm, Nikki deftly climbed across the table without dislodging a single paper or book and hopped down on the other side.

“Nikki!” Gunter shouted.

Nikki glanced over their shoulder, teasing grin in full force.