Fairy Magic (26 page)

“But how do we do that?” Alex asked.

“Think of it like exercise. Magic is like your muscles. The more you work out—pushing your magic harder—the stronger your magic becomes. When you reach a certain level, you will have enough magic to sustain two forms at once. Your dragon will be able to hold its form for as long as your magic lasts. In my time, Dragon Born mages learned this when they were still children. They learned to embrace their magic, that giving their dragon side corporeal form was the most natural thing in the world. We used to fly great distances on the backs of our dragons. Hours and hours we flew.” The euphoric expression on his face died. “But that was long ago. The world has changed.”

“I think it’s high time it changed again. And this time for the better,” Naomi said.

Makani met her eyes, but he didn’t say anything for a while. Finally, he turned to the sisters again and said, “I am still too weak to show you what I mean, but I can feel my dragon finally waking up after the long sleep. He hibernated to conserve energy over the centuries in hell.” He smiled sadly. “I missed him. When I am back to my former self, I will show you how to bring out your dragons.”

“Thank you,” Sera said.

Alex took her sister’s hand. “We will need all the power we can get in the coming days.”

Makani piled more sausages onto his plate. “Yes, the earth is being ripped apart from all directions, and if we do not find a way to stop it, there will be nothing left for anyone. The veils between the realms are tearing.”

“So the dead will escape from the spirit realm?” Alex asked.

“Not just the dead,” Naomi told her. “Demons too. We need to repair the tears.”

“Tears? As in plural?” Sera paled.

Naomi nodded. “Yes.”

“How did that even happen?” Sera asked.

“It happened when you sent that demon back to hell,” said Naomi. “The aftershock of ejecting him from our world all the way into the core of hell ripped the veils between the realms.”

Sera’s mouth dropped open.

“You couldn’t have known,” Naomi told her. “And the demon gave you little choice. You couldn’t leave him to walk the earth, especially not
that
demon.”

“Which one was it?” Makani asked.

“Arkan,” Sera said in a hushed whisper, as though saying the name might bring him back.

“You did the right thing in sending him back to hell,” Makani told her. “Arkan can pull anyone out of any circle of the spirit realm. He has a great army. If you hadn’t stopped him, the earth would have fallen to him within days.”

“But how do we repair the damage I caused?” Sera asked.

“We cannot.” He looked at Naomi. “You can.”

“I?”

“Yes, the veils are made from spirit magic, the same magic inside of you. I have the knowledge to repair the tears, but not the power. That power is yours. You just need to find it.” He stumbled.

Naomi reached out to help him, but he’d already caught himself on the counter.

“You need rest,” she told him.

“Yes. And so do you if you are to send Darksire’s soldiers back to hell and repair the boundaries between realms tomorrow.”

“Oh, is that all?” She laughed. “Or do you want to add another impossible task to the list?”

“Let’s start with that, then see where we go from there.”

Naomi chuckled. “Come on, let’s get you to bed before you cook up any more crazy ideas.”

She led him to the east wing. At least she wasn’t alone in that part of the big, dark Gothic castle anymore. She showed him into a spare bedroom.

“Goodnight. See you in the morning.”

He took her hand as she turned to leave. “Naomi.” His eyes were dark and deep, simmering with words unspoken.

She felt a spark of magic brush against her skin. “Yes?”

“Demons aren’t to be taken lightly.”

She’d almost thought he was going to say something else, something more intimate. It was just as well that he hadn’t. Demons were a safe topic. There wasn’t anything sexy about them.

“In my time, demons were a regular occurrence,” he continued. “People summoned them too much back then. Amelia and I dealt with them.”

“When you worked for the Magic Council?”

“Yes, we were the perfect demon-hunting team. The Spirit Warrior and the Dragon Born. We tracked down the demons, sent them back to hell, and repaired any damage they caused to the veils.”

“That’s how you know so much about all this.”

“Yes, and it’s why I fight demons now. I saw what they can do. It’s also why the demons hate me so much. I banished so many of them to hell. And then I was banished to hell myself. Amelia brought me there. She went back to earth to save more Dragon Born. I asked her to do it. She never made it back to me. I later learned that Darksire had killed her.”

“So she might be in the underworld?” Naomi asked.

“No. She is gone.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It was centuries ago.”

“You miss her?”

“Some days. At first, she was all I could think about. I was consumed by my grief. But slowly, over the years, the pain faded. I turned my attention to fighting demons. Saving the world is a sizable distraction, but you know that already.” A small smile touched his lips. “You do it every day of your life.”

“I don’t save the world every day. Maybe just once a week.” She winked at him.

But his face was serious. “Maybe you don’t save the world every day, but you never stop trying to save people. To protect them.”

“I don’t do that as a distraction.”

“You are less selfish than I am.”

“I saw the look in your eyes when you saved your friends, Makani. Relief. Maybe this whole war against demons started out as a distraction, but it became more than that to you. You care about your friends and the fate of all those people you haven’t even met. You might be all dragon scales and fire on the outside, you might scare everyone—”

“Do I scare you?” he asked.

“Of course not. I’m a badass.”

He set his hand on her cheek. “And yet so soft.” He kissed her lips gently. “So sweet.”

His magic folded around her like a warm blanket. How could she feel magic outside the spirit realm? No, not magic. His magic. What the hell was happening to her? His magic teased her senses with an appetizer of sweet, delicious promises, making her long for the main course.

“You’re not ready.” He slid back, easing backward onto the bed. “Not yet.” His gold eyes, smoldering with wicked intentions, met hers. “See you tomorrow, Naomi.”

The word was loaded with promise. Promise of what tomorrow would hold. Her pulse racing, she hurried out of his room and ran to her bedroom. Once she was inside, the door locked behind her, she sagged against the wall to catch her breath. What was the matter with her? There was so much horrible stuff going on right now—demons, Darksire, criminals from hell—that she could really use a distraction. Makani seemed more than ready to give her one. He was the sexiest man she’d ever met. Why didn’t she jump at the chance?

Because you know you would lose yourself with him,
she told herself.
You would lose control. And Makani is right. Control is something you refuse to give up.

She should stay far away from him—really far away. Because every second that she spent with him, her control slipped further from her grasp.

* * *

Breakfast the next morning was pancakes, and Logan did the cooking. The assassin had missed his true calling. Instead of killing evil warlords, he should have become a chef.

“These are the best pancakes I’ve ever had,” Naomi commented as she took another bite of her buttermilk pancake.

Kai piled more sausages onto his plate. He didn’t say anything, but the look on his face spoke for itself. He approved of Logan’s cooking too. He handed the platter to Makani, who dumped the rest of the sausages onto his plate.

“Dragons,” Sera said, smirking.

“Sweetheart, you’re one too,” Kai told her. He passed her the other platter of sausages. “So eat up. You heard the man. You need to boost your magic if you want to let your inner dragon out.”

“I’m sure there was an innuendo in there somewhere,” Sera muttered to Alex, but she scooped a few sausages onto her plate anyway.

Alex snickered and took a few too. She stared down at the sausages, calculation gleaming in her eyes.

“You’re wondering if they’d taste better dipped in chocolate,” Sera said.

“You read my mind, sister.”

“Try this.” Naomi passed Alex the maple syrup.

Alex squirted a generous glop of syrup into a pile on her plate. Then she dipped a sausage into it.

“Much better,” she said, flashing Naomi a grin.

“Well, it is basically concentrated sugar.”

“Mmm, sugar.” Alex dipped a pancake into the syrupy glob. “My favorite food group.”

“How about pizza?” Sera asked.

Alex chewed that over for a bit, then declared, “Let’s call it a tie.”

“Pizza for dinner, followed by a few courses of dessert,” Sera suggested.

“Perfect,” Alex agreed.
 

“You two sure eat healthy,” Logan commented.

Kai and Makani grunted their agreement, their mouths too full to speak.

Alex laughed. “You three are sure ones to criticize. You’re putting away a few pounds of meat each.”

Logan shrugged. “My metabolism burns right through whatever I eat.”

“Maintaining muscle requires protein,” Kai declared. “So does magic.”

“I’ve been trapped in hell for seven centuries,” said Makani. “I need to replenish my magic. Besides, they don’t have proper meat in hell.”

“No meat in hell?” Kai asked, looking absolutely appalled. “Now
that
is eternal torment. Remind me never to go there.” He looked at the empty meat platters, then at Logan. “Are we all out of sausages?”

“There are more keeping warm on the stove,” Logan told him.

Kai rose from his seat. He returned from the kitchen with two huge skillets of sizzling sausages. Logan moved the platters aside, and Kai set the skillets down on the big wood trivets.

Kai gave Sera a meaningful look. She swallowed hard, her face scrunching up in concentration as she stared at the closest skillet. Then she waved her hand, and a small magic fire appeared beneath it, keeping the meat warm but not touching the table.

“Cool,” Alex said, lifting her hand. “I want to try too.”

Logan’s brows swept his hairline. “Try not to set the table on fire.”

She stuck her tongue out at him, then turned her attention to the other skillet. Naomi knew Logan was just teasing Alex about setting the table on fire—well, at least only eighty percent teasing—but she was actually concerned Alex might just do it. Alex was strong, but not subtle. When you wanted to kill a horde of monsters or blow up a house, she was the mage for the job. You didn’t call her when you needed to light tea candles. Naomi held her breath as Alex mimicked her sister’s hand wave, preparing herself to jump back quickly, but a tiny fire appeared beneath the skillet.

“No tables were harmed in the production of this magic,” Alex said, grinning at Logan.

“Astounding.” He took her hand, kissing the top. “I never doubted you for a second.”

Still smirking, she lifted his fingers to her lips. Makani took more sausages, his eyes trained on Naomi the whole time. Maybe he was thinking about those kisses they’d shared. Great, and now so was she. Makani winked at her, like he could read the salacious thoughts in her head. Ok, maybe he couldn’t read her mind, but he could read her magic. In fact, she was sitting at a table with four people who could read magic and one who was a master decipher of body language.

“So, has anyone heard from Eva or Marek?” Naomi asked them quickly.

“They’re staying with Marek’s mother,” Alex said. “After what happened to her, he doesn’t want to leave her alone again.”

“And the commandos?” Naomi asked Kai.

“They’re checking something out for me, following leads on the Grim Reaper.”

“Alden?” Makani asked.

“Yes.” Kai shifted his gaze to him. “You’ve faced him?”

“Not personally. But I knew a few people who did.”

“Do you have any suggestions?” Kai asked.

“Kill him.” Makani scooped up more sausages. “Before he gains a following and is too strong to kill.”

“It’s too late for that,” Kai said.

“Then you’re screwed.”

“Your use of the modern vernacular is astounding considering how long you’ve been in hell,” Logan commented.

“Does he whisper sexy things like that to you in bed?” Naomi whispered to Alex.

Orange juice squirted out of Sera’s nose.

“No, he just flexes his muscles, and I faint onto my back,” Alex said, grinning.

Naomi snorted.

“As I’ve told Naomi, the spirit realm is not disconnected from the earth,” Makani told Logan. “New people are constantly coming, spreading knowledge. There was a ghost around last week who was waxing poetic about the marvelous miracle of something called the internet. And cell phones. He was really excited about them.”

Even as he spoke to Logan, his eyes remained trained on Naomi. The way he was looking at her was downright terrifying, like he could see through every mental barrier that she had.

“We’ll have to get you one to play with then,” Naomi told him, covering her unease with a bright smile.

His lips quirked up, suggesting he’d like to play a different game.

“Just don’t let Alex touch it,” Naomi said quickly. “She’ll break it.”

“Hey,” Alex protested. “I’ll have you know that I haven’t broken a phone in a whole month.”

“That’s got to be a new record,” Sera said.

“I know.” Alex wiggled her fingers together in devilish delight. “Maybe I’ll even make it to two months.”

Magic exploded in the living room. The windows of the dining room shattered, sprinkling everyone with glass. A hard, throbbing pain pulsed in Naomi’s side. She looked down to find a shard of glass lodged between her ribs. She yanked it free, then looked through the window. On the lawn outside stood two dozen mages, fairies, and vampires. The sky above them was streaming with ghosts.

“I think Darksire has decided to pay us a visit,” Naomi declared.

CHAPTER TWENTY