shop to the new website so people could buy not only their health and beauty products, but also North’s adorable T-shirts.
“Has a certain mage cuddled you today?” North teased as he turned his attention to the next potential mage waiting to be tested.
Ravi didn’t even bother to pretend not to know who he was talking about. “We had a nice breakfast together.”
With about four other dragons at the table, his dragon mentally growled.
He loved his clanmates, but it was damn hard to get time alone with Sora. Not that he begrudged any of his clanmates the chance to find their mate, but couldn’t he call, like, finders-keepers with Sora? At least for a week? No, a week wouldn’t be enough. A month. Yes, he should get to keep Sora to himself for a month and then, maybe, he’d share.
Ravi watched closely as North placed the Noh amulet into a woman’s outstretched and trembling hand. The reaction was immediate—or rather, the lack of reaction was immediate. Nothing happened. No telltale green glow as the amulet reacted out to the mage’s own inner power.
No, the poor woman was not a mage.
In fact, very few of the people who’d been tested had proven to be mages, which wasn’t all that surprising. Even before the war, mages were only a tiny fraction of the overall human population. After the loss of the major clans and then the scattering of the remaining minor clans, the number of mages in the world had to have dwindled even more, but they weren’t gone.
North was proof of that. So were Cameron, Cassie, Ha Na, and Tori. They’d all come to the castle in the last year. A veritable surge in mages. That had to mean there were still many more out there in the world. And maybe there would be one out there for him.
Ravi’s gaze returned to the gathered masses stretched out in front of the gates to Burkhard Castle, only half-listening to North gently telling the poor woman that she was, in fact, not a mage, despite what her grandmother had told her.
Prior to being tested, everyone filled out a form giving basic family details, signed a release, and had their picture taken. North and Gunter were working on a massive database that would allow them to dig deeper into the genealogy and potentially locate more clans.
Between the people lined up outside the castle for the past few days and all the people taking the website quiz, Ravi felt sure that half the population of the world had claimed to be a mage. He couldn’t imagine how they were sorting through all this information.
The entire thing made Ravi’s head hurt and eyes cross. He didn’t do databases. He wasn’t even the biggest fan of computers. His smartphone was fine because it was loaded with games, but overall, he much preferred the job of protecting the royal family.
And helping the new mages get adjusted to the castle.
Like Sora.
He needed to find Sora, to check on him again. Not that he needed checking on. The mage was clearly comfortable around other mages and dragons. Sora had talked about growing up around magic with his family and clan, but he hadn’t given many more details than that. Of course, his magical prowess spoke for itself.
It was a shame he wasn’t willing to talk more about his people.
Maybe Ravi could get Sora to relax. A smile grew on his face. He was good at getting people to relax and laugh, but then he was fairly easygoing. Most people were intimidated by Alric because he was the king, or Warin and Baldewin because they were monstrously big. And Gunter…well, Gunter was just Gunter. That dragon was just weird.
Easing Sora’s concerns was a good step toward convincing his family to come out of hiding. Ravi appointed himself, by authority given to him by himself, to be the ambassador for this particular diplomacy mission. He’d work on winning the Vo family over via Sora. Yup, no problem.
It wasn’t like it was going to be a horrible hardship. Sora was an amazing guy with a pleasant smile.
Okay, so he was hot as hell, and Ravi wanted to wrap himself around the man’s body, but Ravi did not want to scare him off. That would be bad. Alric would be mad. Lisette would be furious. And Ravi would likely be heartbroken. The mage seemed far too interesting to lose.
It didn’t hurt that Sora seemed quite happy with his visits. For the past four days, they’d