Fairy Magic (24 page)

Makani stepped up to Valin, kicking him back down as he stumbled to his feet. Valin reached for his sword, but Makani got to it first. The warlord lifted his hands, trying to push out with his magic, but Makani swung down with the borrowed sword and cut off his hand. Then he punched through Valin’s chest, breaking his magic. He sucked up the fleeing magic, using it to recharge his own. The army stared at him in shock.

Naomi continued to chant the old fairy spell. Makani met her eyes, and she shook her head. She wasn’t quite done yet. He ran over to the fountain, breaking the chains holding his friends to the statues. Ignoring her injuries, Emma surged to her feet, embracing him. Bruce and Troy threw themselves at them, joining in. The soldiers were starting to mutter. Their initial shock had worn off, and they now realized they had Makani outnumbered.

Naomi ran into the square. “They’re coming for us,” she said between chants.

“Let them come,” Makani replied with ferocious glee.

The rebels nodded, drawing their weapons.

“I need more time,” Naomi said. She could feel the strands of the spell settling together. “Follow my lead.”

She stepped into the middle of the square and declared, “Dragon prince, I challenge you.”

All around them, the soldiers roared with laughter.

“You got stabbed in the back again, Makani,” one of them commented. “Maybe you should start checking behind you.”

Makani strode forward, his face impassive as Naomi drew her sword. Surrounded by a ring of warriors, they began to circle around each other.

“This is your great plan?” he muttered to her.

“I needed more time, so I had to improvise,” she replied with a wide smile.

“Emma, Bruce, and Troy are wounded. We have to get them out of here.”

“That’s precisely what I’m doing.”

“Take her or take her down already,” someone shouted.

Laughter rippled through the ranks of Valin’s soldiers.

Naomi swung her sword at Makani. He threw up his sword to block, the clash of their blades throwing her back. Damn. He hit like a battering ram. She could feel the power of the fairy chant flooding her. Faster and faster it coiled up inside of her, even as they fought.

“Now,” she said softly and touched his arm.

“Look at his tattoos!” a soldier shouted out.

Turquoise flames burst up on the glowing tattoos, spiraling outward. The magic wave shot out from him, hitting everyone in the square, knocking them unconscious. Except Naomi and Makani.

Makani looked down at his sleeping friends. “Nice going.”

She waved her hand, indicating the fallen army. “Hey, I just knocked out an entire army, saving you and your friends. A little gratitude would be appreciated.”

“Who’s going to carry them out of here?” he asked.

She smiled at him. “You look strong.”

A horn echoed in the still air, shattering the calm.

“No,” Makani growled.

“More are coming?”

“Yes.”

“How many?”

“Hundreds,” he said. “And they will be here any moment.”

She glanced down at the sleeping rebels. “I’ll carry Emma. Sure, she’s got like a foot on me, but I’ll manage. You can carry the guys and—”

“Naomi,” he cut her off.

“Yes?”

“We can’t run, not like that. We will never make it.”

“What do we do then?”

He touched her shoulder. “You know what you have to do.”

“Break through to the first circle,” she said.

“Yes.”

She drew in a deep breath, listening to the breeze, letting it calm her mind, trying to ignore the stomp of hundreds of footsteps.

“Naomi, we must hurry.”

“Navigating the spirit realm isn’t like crushing ribcages, Makani.”

She lowered to the ground, setting her hands over his friends. She concentrated on the gateway. It wasn’t so far away. The cloak was amplifying her connection to it—and to the first circle. She could feel it sizzling on the periphery of her magic. She drew in another deep breath, wrapping her magic around Emma, Bruce, and Troy. Then she pushed them through the veil.

She looked down at the ground. “They’re gone.” She grinned at Makani. “It worked.”

As the army entered the square, Makani jumped up. A shockwave of magic tore out of him, blasting back the soldiers.

“Now it’s our turn,” he told her. “Get us out of here.”

The soldiers were already jumping to their feet. They lifted their guns and fired from every direction. Naomi ran at Makani, tackling him to the ground. As they fell, she rolled her cloak over them both and slid through the stream of spirit magic to the first circle.

She landed with a thump on top of him. He looked up at her, the look in his eyes so intense that she couldn’t look away.

“That was a rocky landing,” he commented.

She leaned down, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. “I guess I need to practice a bit more.” She climbed off of him.

“Yes,” he agreed, rising to his feet.

He lunged forward, tackling her down.

“You do like it rough,” she teased.

“Not this time, my lady.” He pointed at the arrow wedged into the stone fountain behind them.

Then he turned his head, glaring across the mostly-intact central square of the first circle of hell. There, standing in front of the fountain, stood Cyrus. And he had his next arrow primed and pointed straight at them.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

War of the Realms

NAOMI JUMPED FORWARD, glaring at Cyrus. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“Get out of the way, Naomi,” Cyrus told her. “This has nothing to do with you. It has to do with him.” He glared at Makani.

“Do you two know each other?” Naomi asked Makani.

“No.”

“I don’t know him. I only know he is Dragon Born. An abomination. And that is all that matters,” Cyrus said, hate burning in his eyes.

It seemed he’d overheard her talking to Darksire after all. And now he’d taken it upon himself to hunt down the Dragon Born mage he considered a monster.

“Where are my friends?” Makani demanded.

“Oh you mean these sleeping beauties?” He stepped aside to show Emma, Bruce, and Troy tied up inside a shed behind him. He slammed the door shut. “This is how this is going to work,” he told Makani. “You’re going to throw down your weapons and hold up your hands. If I see even the hint of a spark of magic on you, I’m going to set this shed on fire.”

“You are sick,” Naomi told him.

“Just doing my job, love.”

His job? “You’re an agent of the Magic Council,” she realized.

“Bingo.”

“What were you doing at Nymphenburg Palace?”

“I was undercover.”

“You didn’t look too undercover to me,” she said. “You looked like you were being tortured.”

“I was tracking tales of a tear in the veil and rumors of prisoners who’d escaped hell. Things didn’t go as planned.”

“They discovered you. And tortured you.”

“I can endure torture,” he said coldly.

Naomi could believe it. Of all the people in that dungeon, only Cyrus had survived. So he must be strong. And now he was at full strength again. Thanks to her. A sick feeling twisted inside of her stomach. She’d helped a man who was hellbent on killing the Dragon Born.

“Maybe I’m not such a good judge of character after all,” she told Makani.

“The agents of the Magic Council are shadows, not people. They’re not real.” He glared at Cyrus. “They don’t count.”

“According to Article 1, Section 2 of the Supernatural Decree of 1347, all Dragon Born abominations are to be hunted down and put to death,” Cyrus quoted. “You escaped punishment before, but not again.”

Naomi stepped between them. “Leave him alone. He is not an abomination. The people who wrote that rubbish are.”

“I like you Naomi,” Cyrus said with a smile. “You got me out of that prison when things went south for me. But I will shoot you in the head sure as you stand if you do not get the hell out of my way.”

“You used me, and now you want to kill the only person who can help me defeat Darksire? You get the hell out of
my
way,” Naomi snarled, blasting him with Fairy Dust.

He flew back. Guns fired from the roof. Makani fell. Naomi ran for him, pulling him under a low roof. Out of range of those bullets, she looked at the wound in his arm.

“It’s not bad,” she told him.

His face contorted, agony rippling across it. “The bullet is strangling me with my own magic.”

“Not for long.” She pulled out her knife. “Do you want to bite into something?”

“No.” He struggled to speak. “Just get that thing…out of me.”

She dug out the bullet. It fell to the ground, clinking against the asphalt.

“It doesn’t look out of the ordinary,” she said. “I wonder what they did to it.”

“Coated it with Dragon’s Poison,” he told her.

“Dragon’s Poison?”

“It’s a potion that turns a Dragon Born’s own magic against him. In my time, the agents of the Magic Council coated their blades with it. It’s the most effective weapon against us.”

She met his eyes. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine.”

“Can you fight?”

“Are you honestly asking me that question?”

“Sorry, Your Majesty. I meant no offense.”

“Apology accepted.” Gold sparks sizzled in his eyes. “I promise to let you atone later.”

She snorted. “How magnanimous of you.”

He dipped his chin, and she couldn’t figure out if he was serious or if this was just another one of his games.

“Suggestions?” she said.

“I have several ideas for your atonement. All of them would require a wardrobe change.” His gaze slid across her body.

“I was talking about the gunmen on the roof.”

“There are only two of them,” he said, not missing a beat.

“Let’s blast them off the roof.”

“It would be my pleasure.”

As they rose to their feet, Cyrus jumped out of the building she’d hurled him into.

“How are you still standing?” Naomi demanded.

“Magic-proof armor.” A satisfied smile slid across his mouth as he indicated his fitted armor suit. “Only the best of the best from Drachenburg Industries. Just like that bullet my team shot your Dragon Born with. It weakens a mage’s magic. Even a dragon mage’s magic.” He smiled with sick pleasure.

When this was through, Naomi was going to have a few words with Kai about his company selling weapons to psychopaths.

The minions from the roof had jumped down. They closed in on Naomi and Makani from behind.

“In accordance with Article 3, Section 1 of the Supernatural Decree of 1347, I, a certified agent of the Magic Council’s paranormal police division, am sentencing you, Naomi Garland, to death for aiding a Dragon Born mage,” Cyrus said.

Makani’s hands closed around her shoulders. He dipped his chin, his eyes shifting to the agents behind them. She nodded.

Cyrus kept prattling on like he was in love with the sound of his own voice. “If you have any last words, please speak them now, so that I may enter them into the log of this event.”

“Cyrus?” she said.

“Yes?”

“Shut up.”

Naomi and Makani pivoted together, each launching a knife at one of the minions. Then they turned on Cyrus. He lifted his gun, but she blasted his hand with Fairy Dust, knocking it from his grasp.

“You’re not wearing any armor there,” she told him, smiling.

“He has bewitched you,” Cyrus said.

Naomi laughed. “I’m half-fairy. We can’t be bewitched.”

“The Dragon Born have dark, evil magic,” he said. “But we can cure you. If you help me bring him in, you will be forgiven.”

Naomi glanced at Makani. “Do you have any dark, evil magic?”

“Does burning up bigoted Magic Council agents who try to kill me count as dark and evil?”

“No. In my book, he’s fair game,” Naomi said, stepping aside.

Flames flared up on Makani’s hands.

Cyrus backed up. “You are putting your lot in with a monster? An abomination?”

“I expected more tolerance from someone with mixed heritage,” she said, shaking her head.

“I was bitten by a rogue vampire on the job. My magic reacted to the venom, turning me into a hybrid. It was not my choice.”

“You like drinking blood,” Naomi said.

“No. That was an act. I do that a lot. It’s understandable that you were fooled. Many people are.”

Naomi shook her head. “It was no act. I saw the relish in your eyes when you spoke of blood. The desire.”

“I am tainted, yes,” Cyrus said. “But I must atone for that through my work.”

“Careful,” she warned him. “You’re starting to sound a lot like those supernatural-hating extremists.”

“I am nothing like them. Those vile humans who have stolen and corrupted our magic will pay.”

“And so will you,” Naomi said as Makani blasted his body with fire.

The magic flames swallowed Cyrus up, burning bright and fast. By the time they burned out, he was nothing but a charred, blackened corpse on the ground.

“That man was too dangerous to keep alive,” Makani said, giving her a cautious look.

“I know.” She set her hand on his shoulder. “Cyrus would have killed you, and he wouldn’t have stopped there.”

Makani moved quickly, checking Cyrus’s two henchmen. “They’re dead.”

He stalked over to the shed and pulled the door open. Inside, his friends were just stirring into consciousness.

“Thank you.” Emma’s gaze shifted to Naomi. “Both of you.”

Bruce bowed his shiny head to her. “You saved us.”

Troy pulled Naomi in, kissing her.

“Ok, that’s enough,” Makani said as the elf’s hands started to wander.

Troy stepped back, winking at Naomi. She winked back. Makani glared at them both, a crinkle forming between his eyes.

Ah, jealous are you, Your Majesty? Ha!

“You three should stay here for a while,” he told them. “The first circle is safer than the second, especially with Bael’s army after us. We need some time to regroup and plan our next move.”

“It will get worse here too,” Naomi warned them. “If the demons have their way, there will be a war of the realms, and it will start in hell.” She looked at Makani. “Maybe they should come with us.”