Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 129584 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 648(@200wpm)___ 518(@250wpm)___ 432(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129584 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 648(@200wpm)___ 518(@250wpm)___ 432(@300wpm)
The shouts and the sounds of footsteps died, until Ravi couldn’t hear anything over the pounding of his heart. It was as if all the Jaeggi fled the bunker, leaving him alone with the other prisoners.
“Ravi! Ravi! I got it!” Nikki’s excited voice jumped and danced through the window.
There was a scrape of the metal lock turning in its casing, and the door was jerked open to reveal Nikki’s smiling face. Their long hair was in a tangle, and there was a smudge of black dirt or soot across their face, but otherwise they looked fine.
“Thank goodness!” Ravi sighed.
It took three tries to get the key into the first manacle. Nikki wasn’t particularly tall, and Ravi was stretched just high enough off the ground to make the whole affair awkward. But with some cursing and sweating, the first manacle was unlocked.
Ravi groaned with relief and pain as he was finally able to lower his left arm to his side. He allowed himself only a moment before he grabbed the key to work on his other arm.
A second explosion rocked the compound, and the earth gave a long, slow, rolling roar as if someone had woken a giant under their feet. Ravi turned wide eyes to see Nikki’s matching startled expression.
“That—that was not me,” Nikki said as soon as they could manage the words. “I only set up one explosion. And it was a tiny one.”
“A tiny one?” Ravi squawked as he jammed the key into the second manacle. They needed to get moving, now.
“Yeah, I only used a little bit of reflected sunlight. And I scratched together a handful of griffon feathers. I didn’t think it would be so big.”
Ravi shook his head. He wasn’t nearly as knowledgeable about elements as the mages, but it sounded like Nikki was lucky they hadn’t torn a black hole in the world. Everyone was going to be a lot safer when Nikki had been trained up a bit by Lisette.
“I have a feeling the second explosion came from my family,” Ravi said as the lock finally clicked and the manacle opened. Pain shot through his other shoulder, and his calf muscles burned as he at last settled flat on his feet. He swayed a little, and Nikki was right there, wrapping an arm around his waist to steady him.
“Okay?”
“Yeah, just need a second. Did you remember to grab some clothes for me?”
“I did, but I don’t think you’re going to be too excited about them. I couldn’t find yours.”
Ravi shook his head. “Pants. Pants would be nice. I’m afraid of all my important bits freezing off. My mate really appreciates those parts.”
Nikki slowly released him, flashing a nervous grin before moving over to the knapsack they’d dropped upon entering the cell. Ravi placed one hand against the cold white wall to steady himself. Too many hours of hanging up like a side of beef, not to mention being underground, had left him unsteady on his feet. If he could get aboveground, breathing fresh air, he would be fine.
After some digging, Nikki tossed him a pair of somewhat dirty jeans. Ravi didn’t care, as long as they covered him and…okay, problem.
Ravi pulled them up to his waist and looked down at his feet, swallowed by six inches of denim. They were way too long, not to mention that a second Ravi could have climbed into the waist. He gathered the excess jeans in one hand and looked at Nikki, who was standing and had pulled the knapsack onto their back.
“Did you steal these from a giant?”
“You really don’t want to know where I got them,” Nikki muttered, not meeting his gaze.
Yeah, Nikki was right. He didn’t want to know. With the Jaeggi, it was a safe guess the previous owner probably wasn’t alive any longer.
Ravi started to reach for Nikki to usher them out of the cell when a sharp sensation had him gasping. Sora. Sora was there.
And he’d just started tapping into Ravi’s dragon power to fuel his own spells. Ravi leaned back against the cell wall and had to blink back an unexpected swell of tears. His mate. Oh, god, it was like a constant flow of love and support. The connection ran so deep and was so intimate that it was knocking the wind out of him.
He’d listened to Alric, Baldewin, and Warin swapping stories about their mates tapping their energy for the first time, or the slow trickle of power that constantly ran from the dragon to the mage. There had been such a glow of happiness and pride on their faces. This was such a big part of what a dragon was born to do, and Ravi hated to admit that he’d been envious.
In all the chaos and excitement at the castle, the topic of Ravi supplying power to Sora hadn’t come up. They’d simply forgotten. Sora had been casting spells almost as long as he’d been walking, and he’d never needed a dragon to support him.