Fairy Magic (18 page)

Naomi sighed. It just went to show that there were idiots in every realm.

“Look, boys, we can do this one of two ways,” she told them. “I can dazzle you with my friendly smile, and you let us pass. Or I can kick your asses. Seeing as we’re in a bit of a rush, I’d prefer option number one. I think you would too.”

Mr. Bold turned to the others, and they all laughed. The chuckles still buzzing on his lips, he spun around fast, launching his knife. Naomi caught it, and sent it back. It hit him right between the eyes, and he fell. Under normal circumstances she wouldn’t have been able to pull off something like that, but she felt faster here, like everyone without spirit magic was just a few steps behind her. It was a nice change of pace.

The other thugs didn’t waste time. They threw their knives all at once. There were too many. Naomi couldn’t catch them all. Margery stepped forward, flicking her hand. A wave of telekinetic magic spun the knives around and sent them back at the thugs. They all fell, dead before they hit the ground.

Margery turned to Naomi. “They should have taken your suggestion, dear.”

“People rarely do.” Naomi grinned at her. The old lady wasn’t nearly as uptight as she looked. “That was…wow. How do you still have magic? This place drains people fast.”

“I saved up a little and hid it away for just the occasion. A little trick I learned long ago. I was going to hit that Convictionite bitch with it if she ever dared to show her face here again.”

Not only was she not uptight, Margery Kensington, head of one of the world’s most prominent magic families, was a total badass. And her magic was just jaw-dropping awesome.

“You’re cool.”

The prim lady brushed the dust off her pants suits and said, “You are quite ‘cool’ yourself, dear. I had no idea your magic was so potent.”

“I’m still figuring it out,” Naomi replied. “Come on. We have a river of magic to catch.”

They hurried upstairs. As they ran outside, Naomi grabbed Margery’s hand and jumped into the river of magic. The Midnight Cape spread out like a shimmering sail of starlight, helping them navigate the stream.

By the time they returned to the necromancer’s hideout on earth, the Convictionite was dead. Marek stood opposite her, smoke sizzling from his hands. His eyes widened when he saw his mother.

“Sorry about the delay,” said Naomi, keeping her arm wrapped around Margery. The woman had wicked-cool magic, but her time in hell had taken its toll on her. “I had to find her. Then we had to fight off a band of dead mages who’d decided that building was theirs.”

Marek ran at his mother, throwing his arms around her as relief poured down his face. “Thank you,” he whispered to Naomi.

“Your mother is a force to be reckoned with,” she told him. “She rained down devastation on those thugs.”

“You were very good yourself, dear.” Margery coughed, clearing hell’s dust from her lungs. “Thank you for rescuing me from that horrid place.” Her heavy eyes shifted to the rest of the group. “Thank you all.” She gave her son a final squeeze, then turned and walked up to Eva. “I understand you played a vital role in all of this. Marek was right about you. And I was wrong.” She extended her hand to Eva. “Please accept my apologies.”

Eva was stunned into silence, and she wasn’t the only one. Marek’s mouth hung open. He’d probably never seen his mother apologize to anyone.

“I’d like to speak to you both,” Margery told them. “Could you see me back to my hotel room?”

“Of course,” Marek said, happiness washing away his shock. He wrapped one arm around his mother and the other around Eva.

“We would like to escort you as well. For extra security,” Tony told Margery.

“You work for Kai Drachenburg?” she asked.

“Yes, ma’am.”

She gave the commandos a long, assessing look. “Very well. You look capable. And besides, I fear it’s already too late for me. For better or for worse, I’m now in Drachenburg’s debt.” She inclined her head to Alex and Logan. “And in yours. Expect a call from me tomorrow.”

Marek, Eva, and the commandos walked out, leaving Naomi alone with Alex and Logan.

“Are you all right?” Alex asked.

“Yeah, though hopping realms really leaves you disoriented. And hungry.”

“I’d imagine so.” Alex linked arms
 
with Naomi. “Now, come on. I think dinner is in order.”

* * *

Naomi stood in front of her bathroom sink in her very own wing of the Gothic castle. When they’d first come to the castle having all that space to herself it had felt like a luxury, especially compared to her tiny apartment back in San Francisco. But the tall, empty halls had come to feel so lonely. Sure, the others were staying in the other wings, but the castle was so enormous that they might as well have been staying on the moon. She’d come to avoid her empty wing, spending most of her home hours in the big communal living room downstairs.

Alex and Logan were down there now making dinner. Ok, Logan was making dinner. You couldn’t trust Alex with so much as a can opener. She thought it was a weapon for killing zombies. Chuckling to herself, Naomi turned on the taps. As she splashed cool water onto her face, she stared into the mirror, focusing on that other part of herself, the part inside the spirit realm. Her vision blurred.

She saw blue and silver leaves. Ash-topped mountains. A big blood-red moon. The razor-sharp grass of the Fire Plains. Bands of men and beasts. The decayed ruins of a city that might have been Munich. Makani.

The magic between her and him cracked, hurling her back into the spirit realm. She sat beside Makani, looking out over the Fire Plains, the open expanse that separated the forest and mountains from the city. In the distance, the broken skyline shone in the crimson moonlight.

“You’re getting closer,” she said to him.

“Yes.”

“So am I,” she told him. “I have the Midnight Cape. I’m coming for you.”

He turned, a smirk tugging at his mouth. “You just can’t stay away from me, can you?”

“It’s the magic. I don’t really have a choice.”

“Keep telling yourself that.”

“Actually, it
is
the magic. A fairy linked us.”

Not that she wouldn’t have come anyway. He was right too. She couldn’t stay away. They’d been through too much together already.

“What do you mean,
linked
us?” he asked.

“Yesterday evening, just before I came here for the first time, a dark fairy attacked me. He cast some magic on me.” She held up her arm, brushing her finger across her skin. “Glowing blue symbols popped up. My gran looked at it. She says it’s an old spell the Dragon Guard fairies used to link people together. This fairy knew what I was. He linked me to you, so I could get you out of here. See, Makani, the Dragon Born still have friends in the world.”

“Very few friends,” he said. “It won’t be enough.”

“You sure are pessimistic.”

“I’ve spent the last seven centuries in hell. Of course I’m pessimistic.”

“It doesn’t have to be that way. The Dragon Born have more friends than you know.”

“It won’t be enough,” he said again. “The Magic Council made sure of that. I was there, Naomi, the day they turned against us. The day they branded us abominations. The day the countdown to our extinction began.”

“Why did they turn on you? Was it fear?”

“Fear and hate, that age-old recipe that never goes out of style, no matter what else in the world changes. Seven hundred years ago, it was an immortal named Damarion who fueled the fire for our destruction. With the Council’s blessing, he led the charge against the Dragon Born, spreading his campaign of death and chaos, aided by his most loyal servant Darksire. I once called Darksire a friend, but he turned on me. On all of us. He helped Damarion hunt down and kill the Dragon Born. So, you see, Naomi, even our friends won’t be enough, not when they can be corrupted. Like Darksire.”

“Darksire,” she whispered.

“You know of him?”

“Everyone knows about Darksire the Destroyer, the Harbinger of the Black Death. He plagued the world with his evil magic until the Magic Council entombed him. And now he is back. Several weeks ago in San Francisco, he brought a demon to earth. He corrupted…someone close to my family.” Stupid, easily-swayed Cloud. She shook her head. She didn’t want to think about him.

“Darksire’s magic brings out the darker side in people,” Makani said. “His magic corrupts all that is good in this world.” From the harrowed look in his eyes, Darksire had corrupted someone close to him too. “What happened to the demon?”

“My friend sent it back to hell. But in the process, she apparently damaged the protection between realms. There are now tears in the veil between the earth and the first circle. The veils between the other spirit realms are weakening too. They might tear soon.”

“And then the demons and their armies could escape to earth,” Makani said. “How do you know about this?”

“A ghost told me. And it’s already beginning. Darksire has been helping people escape from the first circle, building his army from the ranks of hell’s prisoners.”

“The first circle criminals are bad, but the ones on the deeper tiers are even worse. It takes a lot of magic to banish someone to the deeper levels of hell. Ejecting a demon is easy in comparison since the demon’s natural state is here. You’re just sending them home. On the other hand, a person’s essence will resist being sent here.”

“How do you banish a person to hell?”

“With spirit magic,” he said. “A lot of spirit magic.”

“Like mine?”

“Yes,” he said. “Spirit Warriors are extremely rare. So I wouldn’t tell the Magic Council about your magic unless you want to become the person who sends their convicted criminals to hell, to see the anguish in their eyes as they realize they’ve been sentenced to something worse than death.”

“I won’t do it.”

“Naomi, you know the Magic Council. They won’t give you a choice.”

He wasn’t wrong about that. The Council had a knack for convincing people to do exactly what they wanted. Margery sat on the Council. Naomi hoped rescuing her from hell wouldn’t come back and bite her in the ass.

“I’m not going to advertise my magic,” she said.

“That’s a start, but you would be safer if you stayed here with me.”

She laughed. “You think I’d be safer gallivanting through hell than remaining on earth?”

“You are a Spirit Warrior. You will end up gallivanting through hell either way. It’s just your nature. You should stay and help us. We could use someone with spirit magic.”

“Are you asking me to join your kingdom of demon hunters, Your Majesty?”

“Yes.”

“I came to hell to save you, not to put down roots,” she said. “We need to stop Darksire and repair the tears between realms before things get worse. Before people from deeper in hell escape to earth.”

“My fight is here.”

“You want to stay in hell?”

“The demons must be stopped. Darksire… well, he can rot.”

“You aren’t safe here,” she said. “Darksire is taking people out of hell. Don’t you want to stop him before he ruins more lives?”

“It’s not that I don’t want to kill that treacherous leech.” His eyes hardened with cold fury. “But I cannot abandon the fight here.”

“Don’t you get it? Earth and hell, Darksire and demons—it’s all one fight now, or at least it soon will be. Darksire already freed a prisoner from deep inside hell, someone named Firestorm.”

Makani rose to his feet, suddenly agitated. “Firestorm…” He shook his head. “No, I have to get to my friends. To save them. That is my fight.”

She reached out to him, but the magic snapped her back to earth.

Water gushed over the sink basin, pouring all over the bathroom floor. Naomi grabbed at the taps, turning them closed. Then she took a towel and began drying the water from the floor. She should never leave water running while she went diving in the spirit realm. As she rose again, her stomach growled. Using magic sure made her hungry. She’d go downstairs and eat something to replenish the magic she’d spent today. Then she’d use the Midnight Cape to get to Makani. She felt like she was meant to save him from hell. More than that, she had the feeling that he was the key to defeating Darksire.

* * *

After munching on a few appetizers, Naomi felt well enough to tackle anything—even hell.

“I think we should bring the artifacts to my gran,” she told Alex, nibbling on the end of a breadstick.

Alex had managed to save the Ornaments of the Dead, a set of mystical fairy artifacts. In the right hands, they could be used to fight the evils of hell. In the wrong hands, they would only unleash those evils onto the earth. Someday, when she understood her power better, Naomi might be able to wield them to fight inside the spirit realm. For now, though, they had to be kept hidden—all but one.

“She will see that they are kept safe for us,” Naomi continued. “The Magic Council is too volatile right now, thanks to the Grim Reaper’s attempts to infiltrate it. There are traitors on the Council. If they manage to get their hands on the Ornaments of the Dead, Alden gets what he wants. He gets his army of the dead.”

“If the Magic Council decides to use the Ornaments of the Dead to fight Alden or the Convictionites with their own army of undead soldiers, things will be no better,” said Logan. “That is too much power for anyone to have.”

“That’s why I think Gran should keep them safe for us until we can figure out how to use them. Well, except for one of the Ornaments,” she said, patting the Midnight Cape. “I need this one for myself. At least for a short while.”

“What are you going to do with the Midnight Cape?” Alex asked.

“I am a Spirit Warrior. I’m going to use this cloak to discover my power. I’m going diving in the spirit realm,” she declared.

Alex looked closely at her. “Are you feeling ok?”

“I’m not crazy. I need to get to the second circle of hell. I need to save him.”

“Your prince?”

“His name is Makani,” she said. “And he’s Dragon Born.”

Alex was chronically unable to stop moving for more than a few seconds, but that statement shocked her into stillness. “I’m coming with you.”