“Sera, are you all right?”
She peeled her face off the rock beneath her. Except it wasn’t a rock. She was lying on top of Kai, and he looked as smug as a kitten who’d caught his first mouse—or a dragon who’d caught his first sheep. She scrambled away from him, landing on her butt. She was still too dizzy.
“What was that?” she asked, her voice hoarse. She looked away from the wall. With the pain gone, she couldn’t believe she’d ever fantasized about smashing her head through it.
Kai pushed up to sit cross-legged opposite her. “That was all the magic in the room, bounced off the iron bars a million or so times. One of the first things a mage learns is how to block that out, for reasons you can now appreciate.”
She looked at the three commandos, who were standing at the other end of the room, leaning against the wall, their backs to her. “And what’s wrong with them?”
“They’re recovering.”
“From what?”
“From that wave of exquisite magic you released. It was…overwhelming.”
“You don’t look overwhelmed,” she said.
“Of course I am.” His eyes dilated with magic, he lifted his hand to her face and brushed it softly against her cheek. “Are you ready to continue?”
“Are you?” she shot back, not even knowing what possessed her to say it. The dragon sure had a way of getting under her skin like no one else could.
“No, but I’ll manage.” He leaned in and kissed her once on the lips, feather soft, before pulling back. “If you three are sorted, let’s head into the basement.”
“Sure thing, boss.” Tony cleared his throat. “We’re ready.”
The other two nodded, then they all walked toward the staircase that led to the basement—or dungeon, as it very clearly was. Moss was slowly consuming the brick walls, turning them from a warm gold-red color to putrid green. A web of cracks spread across the length of the tunnel’s floor. Flickering wall lamps hung between tall doors that looked like the moat gates of a castle. Nothing about the atmosphere was particularly welcoming, and Sera felt a new wave of claustrophobia rush through her.
“I don’t like how this feels.” She said it so quietly that she didn’t expect anyone to hear.
Proving that a dragon’s hearing was as keen as his magic, Kai replied, “They’ve invited in dark magic.”
“Dark magic? Like a demon?” she whispered.
“I don’t know. It’s…old. And powerful. It could be anything ancient: an artifact, a spell, a demon.”
“A dragon?”
“Perhaps. But if they’d found a real dragon, I think most of the city would know about it. Dragons aren’t subtle creatures.”
“Neither are mages who shift into them,” she muttered under her breath.
Kai said nothing, but the subtle twitch at the corner of his mouth told her he’d heard surely enough.
They passed several rooms, some empty and some stocked with piles of wood. Oak, like at the Palace, and a lot of it. The mages were planning on brewing up some heavy duty protection magic. The question was why? What were they trying to protect?
“We’re close. There.” Kai pointed at the closed door at the end of the tunnel. “They’re in that room.”
Tony pressed his hand to the door. “I see eight mages.”
“There should be dozens. Where are all the rest?” Sera asked.
Kai shook his head. “I don’t know. But they can’t be far away. Callum, come stand in front with me. The two of us are going to put up a wind barrier to shield us from whatever magic they try to throw at us.”
As Callum moved beside him, Kai continued, “Dal, I need you to cast a protective net behind us, just in case some of their friends are hiding back there, ready to rush us.”
With Dal in place, Kai hit the door with a blast that ripped it off its hinges and shot it into the room. Subtle he was not. It was no wonder he liked tanks.
The wind barrier roared to life as they stepped into the room. Behind them, a net of sparkling gold lights materialized. Sera didn’t know what it was, but something told her it could take a whole lot of damage. They were as ready as they’d ever be to take on the mage zombie cult.
Except the mages didn’t attack. They just stood there, their crazed eyes watching them with demented delight. And it was only when Sera tried to take her next step that she realized why.
Her foot wouldn’t move. Around her, Kai and the commandos jerked, also stuck. Sera looked down, but what she saw wasn’t tar, or quicksand, or even magic tar or magic quicksand. It was something a million times worse: glowing glyphs. She didn’t even have a chance to kiss that dingy dungeon goodbye before she and the others were sucked up into darkness and spit out into another dingy room.
Sera fell forward, tripping over a pile of broken bricks, but at least she managed to stay on her feet this time. She realized how irrelevant that was the moment she got a good look at the room—and the army of mages before her. She reached back and drew her sword. She’d never taken on this many mages, especially not ones juiced up on some crazy mix of joo joo. But as Kai was so fond of mentioning, he could just turn into a dragon and step on them. The three commandos didn’t strike her as lightweights either. Kai Drachenburg was not the sort of man to employ lightweights.
Sera looked back at Kai, knowing that he’d shoot her a confident smirk. But he wasn’t smirking. He wasn’t even standing. Kai and the three commandos were lying unconscious on the floor, and she was all that stood between them and the army of mad mages.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Immune
THE LINE OF mages parted, and Olivia the crazy telekinetic stepped through.
“Now, aren’t you interesting,” she said, looking Sera over. “Why aren’t you napping?”
“I don’t nap.”
Olivia arched a perfect eyebrow. “Oh, no?”
“Nope, no naps,” Sera told her. “I usually don’t even go to bed before midnight. I’m firmly in the insomniac camp.” She was spewing nonsense, but none of that mattered. She had to keep Olivia talking long enough to…
To what, Sera? So what if you’re good with a sword. There are two dozen of them, and only one of you. Every single one of those mages is drunk on magic. You don’t stand a chance.
Sera knew the voice in her head was right, but she ignored it anyway. She had to think of something. If she couldn’t fight, maybe she could at least figure out a way to wake the others. Five to twenty weren’t great odds, but it sounded a whole lot better than one to twenty.
“Insomniac, you say?” Olivia laughed. “More like a freak of nature. That sleeping spell was cast by seven first tier mages. It even works against smug mages who fancy themselves a dragon.” She sneered down at Kai before returning her haughty gaze to Sera. “But not you. What are you?”
“Sera Dering, mercenary.” Grinning, she pushed out her hand. “Nice to meet you.”
Olivia turned up her pouty little nose. “What are you, retarded or something?”
“I have no magic, and I kill monsters for a living.” Better to let them think she had no magic. After a lifetime of pretending just that, it was an easy act to play. “My intelligence has been questioned on occasion. And my sanity too.”
“It’s no wonder Kai has a thing for you. He’s a deranged little dragon,” said Harrison, stepping up beside his sister.
“She’s a regular nutcase herself.”
Harrison’s eyes panned down Sera’s legs. “I think she’s rather cute actually.”
“Please. Don’t tell me you’re chasing after Kai’s leftovers.” Olivia frowned. “Again.” She swept out her hand.
The pile of bricks beneath Sera’s feet tumbled down, and with all the grace of a tripped elephant, she landed hard on her butt. Above her, Olivia snickered.
“She’s nothing special. A freak. And one who is in desperate need of a makeover.” She looked down on Sera, distaste oozing out of her exfoliated pores and dripping off of her. “My dear girl, hasn’t anyone ever told you that the ghetto look is out this year?”
Yeah, Olivia Sage really needed a punch to her pretty face. Sera was happy to deliver it, but not just yet. She’d never cared what stupid mean people thought of her, and she wasn’t going to start now. But maybe she could use this to her advantage. Sera gave her torn, dirty clothes a mortified look and scooted away from the telekinetic princess.
“Are my clothes really so bad?”
A predatory gleam flashed in Olivia’s eyes. She thought she had her. “Not if you’re fashioning yourself to spend your life as a hobo. But why anyone would
choose
to spend their life in such idle, filthy laziness I cannot even imagine.”
“Oh.” Sera scooted back again. “Well, I was planning on buying some new shoes.” Scoot, scoot. “After I get paid for this job.” Scoot, scoot. She bumped against Kai. Bingo.
“I have a feeling you won’t be getting paid, dear.”
Sera stretched her hand back to touch Kai’s arm. She could feel the thin film of foreign magic wrapped tightly across his skin. Whatever it was, it sure was potent. That must have been the seven-mage sleeping spell. Funny, it had bounced right off of her. She’d never been immune to magic before. Maybe it was a fluke, a side effect of her weird magic. Or was this because Kai had told her to turn her magic barrier inside out? Was she reflecting magic like the prison bars had done to her? If so, her shield wasn’t affecting any of the mages in the room. She didn’t see anyone keeled over in pain.
“Soon Kai won’t be in any condition to pay you,” continued Olivia.
Which meant they expected to either bankrupt him or kill him. Kai had too much money and magic to make either of those an easy feat.
“Hush, you’ve already said too much,” Harrison scolded her.
“She won’t be around to tattle.”
“I don’t know. She might still be useful.”
“Useful as what? Planning to clean her up, put her in a lacy nightie, and use her as your bedroom battle maiden ornament?”
Harrison frowned at her. “Don’t be crass.”
As they were busy bickering, Sera slid her fingers along Kai’s wrist, tugging on the magic layer. A corner came loose, and she grabbed onto it, slowly peeling the film away. She unraveled it strand by strand, piece by piece, until she could feel him start to wake up.
“Getting defensive of your new ornament, are you?”
“Why do you always have to be the center of attention, Olivia? Why?” Harrison demanded.
“This isn’t about me.”
“No, it’s not. But you’re trying to make it be.”
One of Kai’s eyes blinked open, meeting Sera’s gaze. She gave his hand a squeeze, willing him to brush off the final remnants of the sleeping spell.
“Oh, I’m sorry if you can’t seem to get Mom and Dad’s attention, no matter what silly nerd award you win,” Olivia said.
“They know they don’t need to worry about me. They’re too busy cleaning up after your messes anyway. It must be exhausting to be a nonstop, one-person train wreck for the tabloids.”
Kai kept his eyes on Sera as a ring of fire flared to life around the mages. The Sage siblings just kept on bickering, completely unaware that they’d been cut off from their army.
“You’re just jealous that you don’t get to be in the newspaper.”
“I’m on the Magic Council. I have no need to toss my panties at the media to get their attention.”
“I never—”
“Don’t even deny it. It made the front page of Supernatural Times.”
A sly grin spread across Olivia’s coral lips. “Oh, right.” She shrugged. “What can I say? The reporter was hot.”
“I can’t believe you managed to get the Priming Bangles out of Kai’s vault without making out with his guards.”
Harrison turned, and his exasperation melted into cold fury when he saw his army trapped behind a wall of fire. He spun around to glare at Sera, and his mouth flopped open when he found Kai standing beside her.
“You’re supposed to be asleep,” Harrison told him.
“The bed you provided was uncomfortable.” Kai looked at Sera. “Try to wake up the others.” He turned back to Harrison. “You will tell me what you’re planning.”
“You don’t give orders here, Kai.”
Deep vibrations echoed beneath the ground, rumbling the floor under their feet.
Harrison folded his arms across his chest. “And you’re not going to intimidate me.”
Having freed Tony from the sleeping spell, Sera set to work on peeling it off of Dal. “Threaten to step on him,” she told Kai. “That’ll make him talk.”
“I thought you didn’t approve of stepping on people.” His magic was freckled with amusement.
“For those two, I’m willing to make an exception. Especially her.” Sera glared at Olivia. “She said I looked like a hobo. And called me a bedroom ornament.”
“Why on earth would you do a thing like that?” Kai asked her.
Olivia shrugged. “I speak only truths. I can’t be blamed if she doesn’t like it.”
“You’re lucky she didn’t hack your arm off with her sword,” Kai told her.
“That brute?” She sneered at Sera. “She wouldn’t even dare.”
A tendril of fire snapped at Olivia’s arm, making her squeal and hop away. Kai looked back at Sera.
“Hey, stop hijacking my fire.”
Despite his reproving words, he sounded more intrigued than annoyed. Sera didn’t have a clue how she’d done it. She’d had a cruel desire to crack a fiery whip at Olivia, and the flames had simply complied. She helped Callum up, then reeled in her magic again. Letting it out had been a very bad idea. Her magic had a will of its own. Now that it had played a bit, it didn’t ever want to go back inside and hide.
“She’s insane,” Olivia whined, massaging her arm. “Kai, are you going to let her treat me like this?”
“You stole from me, and you want my sympathy?”
She pouted out her lips. “Yes. We’re equals. The magical elite. We play. We fight. We make up.” Olivia pointed her fake fingernail at Sera. It was a top-of-the-line fake fingernail, but it was fake nonetheless. “She is not our equal. She is a nobody. You don’t need to slum it with that trash.”
The flames snapped out at her, and this time it wasn’t Sera’s doing. The fire began to twist until a funnel of flames broke off from the barrier, skating toward her like an enraged tornado. Olivia planted her feet and refused to move. She glared at Kai through zigzag-cut bangs.