Fairy Magic (31 page)

“It’s my only way in too.”

“You are a Spirit Warrior,” said Gran. “You can go in yourself. You don’t need a cloak for that.”

“I can’t do that yet.”

“You have accessed spirit magic,” Makani reminded her. “Soon you will have the magic to cross realms.”

“And what if I can’t? This cloak is the only way I can help you help your friends against the demon’s armies.”

“I know you will be able to do it. And I will help you.”

“But Darksire did a spell on me so I was partially there. Can’t he just do that again to someone else?”

“It was a Dragon Guard spell. He linked you to me. It only worked because I am Dragon Born and you are a Spirit Warrior. He won’t be able to use that trick again now that I am out.”

“But—”

“You still want a crutch, but you have to let go,” he told her. “The cloak is just a prop. You can do the magic yourself. It’s inside of you.” He took her hand, setting it onto her chest.

“Ok.” Naomi pulled off the cloak and quickly handed it to him, before she could change her mind. “Break its magic.”

Makani took the cloak into his hands, folding it over. He poured magic over it. She felt the sharp crack of snapping threads the moment he broke the spell of spirit magic cast over the cloak. Now, it was only a normal cloak. He handed it over to Gran.

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Naomi told him.

“I think he does,” said Gran. “You need to banish the criminals back to hell. You might not have that sort of control yet, but you do have the power inside of you.”

“We will figure it out,” Makani promised her.

“But what if we’re too late?” she asked. “What if I can’t figure out how to use spirit magic?”

“Maybe if we had something to focus your magic, giving you access to the power you already have inside of you, it would be easier.”

The beginnings of an idea took root inside of her. “I think I know just the thing,” she told him.

The only problem was convincing Kai Drachenburg that she hadn’t lost her mind.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Magic Primed

“ARE YOU COMPLETELY out of your mind?” Kai demanded.

Naomi could almost feel the heat of his angry words rumbling across the phone line from half a world away. But considering what she was asking him for, he was actually being quite calm.

“I am not giving you the Priming Bangles,” he told her. “They caused enough trouble, and they are now tucked away where no one will get them again.
Ever
.”

“I don’t need them to take over the world and wig out on magic. I just want to focus my magic so I can close the tear and send some bad people to hell. Unless you know someone else who can do that.”

“This is dangerous magic, Naomi. Are you sure you want to play with it?”

“It is my magic. I am a Spirit Warrior. Do you know another?”

Kai sighed. “You are the only one I know about. They tend to hide themselves. The Council likes to use them to journey through hell and to sentence criminals to that realm. The job is not easy on your sanity, I’m told.”

“I must be crazy then.”

“If the wrong people get their hands on the Priming Bangles, there will be hell to pay,” Kai told her.

“If I can’t close this tear, Darksire’s army will grow, the veils between realms will rupture, and hell will quite literally come to us.”

Silence hissed over the phone line.

“Kai?”

“Fine,” he agreed. “But you can’t tell anyone that you have them, or people will flock to you to steal them. Bad people with powerful magic.”

Why couldn’t bad people ever have weak magic? Or at least medium magic? Why did they always have to have booming, banging, end-of-the-world magic?

“I won’t say a peep,” she promised.

“I’m sending you the Priming Bangles, but you’d better be damn sure that you can protect them from ending up in the wrong hands.”

“I have a dragon on my side.”

“That will do,” he said immediately. “Expect a delivery from me in the next two days.”

* * *

Naomi and Makani were staying in another abandoned warehouse. This one was fancier than the last. It had an apartment at the back, complete with a bedroom, a full bathroom, and a kitchen. And furniture. It was nice being able to eat at a table again.

They hadn’t left the warehouse in the two days since they’d come here. Gran’s potion was masking their magic, but Darksire and Firestorm had spies all over the city. If they went out, they could be spotted. And they weren’t ready to take on the Harbinger of the Black Death and the Dark Angel.

Kai’s delivery hadn’t arrived yet, but that didn’t stop Naomi from practicing her magic with Makani’s help. So far, she hadn’t accomplished much except to get a big headache. Makani tried to convince her she was making progress. Ok, really slow, painful progress. And he was a slave driver.

They filled the time between migraine-inducing magic sessions by sparring in the large garage. Makani’s idea, not hers. No one in their right mind volunteered to spar with a dragon. But Makani had declared her fighting skills in need of work. He seemed to forget that he had seven centuries of experience on her. She knew it had been a good match when he declared her performance adequate.

Today was not one of those days, Naomi thought as she hit the stone floor for at least the hundredth time this afternoon. He was kicking her ass from one end of the warehouse to the other.

“Get up,” Makani told her.

Naomi tried to push up, but her arms collapsed under her own weight.

His bare feet stepped lightly toward her. She peered up from the ground into his face.

“Lying there will only get you killed.”

Thank God he wasn’t such a hard ass in bed. She managed to roll over, her muscles screaming in protest.

“You wouldn’t kill a helpless, cute half-fairy.” She batted her eyelashes at him.

He chuckled. “You are certainly cute, but hardly helpless.” He extended his hand down to her.

She took his hand. As he pulled her up, she threw herself against him, tackling him to the ground. She fell on top of him, quickly pinning his limbs to the floor.

“I win,” she declared, smirking down at him.

He didn’t look concerned. “I could throw you off of me any time, Goldilocks.”

“But you won’t.” She leaned down to whisper against his lips, “Your need to protect people overpowers your need to win.”

His hand grabbed the back of her neck, pulling her against him. He swallowed her protest in a kiss that left her gasping for breath—and sanity. When the mists of madness had settled, she realized he was on top.

“Cheater,” she said, pouting out her lip.

His hands traced up her arms to her hands, pinning them to the floor. “It looks like I win.” His mouth dipped to her neck.

“I have you right where I want you, dragon.”

“Oh, really? And where is that?” His mouth trailed up her neck, his lips closing around the thumping pop of her pulse. He drew the skin into his mouth, flicking the pounding vein with his tongue.

“I…”

His lips hovered over hers. “I’m listening.”

Naomi gasped as a warm breeze slid across her chest, zipping down the front of her tank top. “Since when can you do that?”

“It’s all about precision, my lady.” His mouth dipped again, kissing her between her breasts. “All about making your magic be a part of you, a natural, fluid extension of your body.”

Her back arched as his tongue dove beneath her bra. His magic slid down her stomach like a wildfire pouring across the open plains. She tried to push against him, but his hold on her hands was too strong. She might as well have been chained to the floor.

“You are a wicked man,” she told him, nipping at his lip as his mouth drew near.

“And you are a wicked woman.” He kissed her gently on the cheek. “That’s why we make such a great team.”

“We really do.”

A loud, precise knock sounded on the garage door, echoing across the garage. Saved by the bell—err, knock. She didn’t know how much more of this torture she could endure. Makani liked to string her up until she couldn’t take another second, until she was a quivering mess, moaning for him to release her from the torment. He said he was teaching her to let go. She had a feeling he just enjoyed seeing her lose control. Though, admittedly, her magic was slowly getting stronger. Makani was a have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too kind of dragon. She wondered if there was any other kind of dragon.

Makani looked down on her, smiling. “You are so beautiful.” He stroked his hand down her cheek.

The knock sounded again, louder this time.

“Shouldn’t we get that?” she asked. “It’s probably Kai’s delivery.”

“Probably.” He kissed her one last time, then pushed up to his feet. He walked toward the door, grabbing his sword along the way.

Naomi followed. “I don’t think Darksire’s minions would knock. It’s not his style.”

“No, it’s not,” Makani agreed. “But you can never be too careful.”

He slid open the door a crack, just enough to see the person on the other side. It was a man in a dark t-shirt and a pair of stone-washed jeans. He held a wooden crate in his hands.

“Delivery from Drachenburg Industries,” he said.

Naomi took the crate from him—and nearly dropped it. Damn, it was heavy. She hadn’t realized it because of the purely casual way he’d been holding it, like it was a bag of groceries.

“Do you need me to carry it in, miss?” He smiled pleasantly.

“No,” she said, handing it over to Makani before she embarrassed herself any further. Heavy lifting was not her forte. Making smart ass delivery guys squirm like a worm on a hook, on the other hand… She laughed maniacally inside, resisting the urge to rub her hands together with diabolical glee. That would have just been too cliche.

But before she could unleash her charms on her unwitting victim, Makani said to the delivery guy, “Thank you. Now go.”

Mr. Stonewashed Jeans turned and left. He didn’t even look offended. If he worked for Kai, he was surely used to the brusqueness of dragons.

Naomi slid the door shut. Makani carried the box to the middle of the garage, then set it down. Naomi reached for the latch, but a spark of magic snapped at her hand.

“It’s been sealed with magic.” Kai’s magic, no doubt.

Makani stared at the box. It began to buzz. His eyes narrowed in concentration. The box shook and hopped atop the garage floor like an earthquake was going off inside of it. Sweat trickled down his arms to his clenched fists. Finally, the top popped open and the box fell silent.

“That seal was surprisingly hard to break,” Makani declared. “Your friends are fortunate that Kai is on their side.”

“We all are.” She peeked into the box. Two pairs of thick gold bracelets lay inside. “Do you know how to use these?” she asked Makani.

“Yes.” He took out one pair of the bangles, placing them around his wrists. “And this is going to hurt.”

She put on the other pair. “Me or you?”

“Both.”

* * *

Makani was right. Using the bangles made it feel like the skin was being burned off her flesh while her lungs were slowly liquified and her blood brought to a rolling boil. But as long as she held her breath and didn’t think about it too much, it wasn’t all that bad.

Along with the bangles, Kai had sent a contact number for some of his agents in Munich to help them infiltrate Darksire’s base at Nymphenburg Palace. So, Kai Drachenburg had his own army. And Makani had his own army. And Darksire had an army. Every freaking person had an army. Naomi would have to think about getting her own army too.

Kai had five special agents in Munich, and three of them were women. The two mages looked as buff as the guys, but the fairy was about Naomi’s size. Short, cute, and blonde, her name was Jen. She was a hoot. She got bonus points for not hitting on Makani. It wasn’t until she started hitting on Naomi that she realized why. Makani got a kick out of that.

“Are you ready?” he asked Naomi.

She adjusted her jacket sleeves down to cover the Priming Bangles on her wrists. While Kai’s agents fended off Darksire’s forces, Makani was going to stick by her side during the fight, guiding her spirit magic to punch Darksire, Firestorm, and their army of criminals back into hell. Then she just had to seal the tear, and they could all go home. Simple, right?

“I’m ready,” Naomi told Makani. As ready as she’d ever be, anyway.

Kara and Ophelia, the two female telekinetic mages, stopped in front of the gate around Nymphenburg Palace. The metal rails began to shake, and then they split out of the ground, landing on the pair of guards who’d come to check out the commotion.

Naomi’s team streamed through the opening in the gate, running toward the house. Link and Lolek, the vampire brothers, took the lead, tearing down the disoriented guards. They cleared a bloody path to the front doors. The telekinetics broke it open, and they all streamed into the palace.

Here, the guards were less disoriented, but the five agents were thoroughly brutal. Naomi and Makani followed behind them, opening up conduits into the spirit realm to swallow up anyone who survived the agents’ attacks.

“Darksire and Firestorm are downstairs,” Makani said.

The agents nodded, then headed down the stairs. Naomi and Makani followed, but by the time they were downstairs, there weren’t any enemies in sight still alive—well, until a dozen of them stampeded down the stairs.

“They’re trying to cut us off,” Naomi said.

“Leave that to us,” Jen said. She blasted one of Darksire’s soldiers off the stairs. He fell onto the person in front of him, and they both slid the rest of the way down, their chins scraping stone.

Makani waved Naomi forward. “This way.” Then he turned down the hallway that led to the tear between realms.

Naomi followed. “Are Darksire and Firestorm alone?”

“Yes.”

As they burst into the room at the end of the hall, Darksire blasted them with dark Fairy Dust. Makani tackled her to the ground, out of the way of the Dust. They rolled, then hopped up on either side of the dark fairy. Naomi shot a stream of pink Fairy Dust at him. Her magic punched him in the stomach. He stumbled, scraping against the wall as he steadied himself.