Magic Kingdom (Dragon Born Alexandria Book 3) (29 page)

Alex watched Marek’s blood absorb into the blade.

“When I run out of people here to feed to the knife, I will find your friends. Your family.” Zinnia’s smile widened. “Your sister. Your brother,” she spat. “You killed my brother. It’s only fitting that I kill yours.”

Alex’s magic erupted, hurling Zinnia back in a blast of wind. Zinnia landed on her feet. She glanced down at the knife still in her hand, then back at Alex.

“Try me,” she snarled. “Your brother is in San Francisco, isn’t he? Using the cloak, I could be there before you. But I would wait to kill him until you were close, so you can see the light go out in his eyes as he dies.”

Alex’s magic was bucking like a wild bull. She wanted to burn through Zinnia.

“I’m faster than you, Alex,” she taunted. “I can escape into the spirit realm before you or your magic touch me.”

“Want to bet?” Alex shot back.

Magic crackled in the air between them—magic and a hundred flavors of anger.

Zinnia laughed. “Yes, you have grown fast since sharing magic with Logan, but I am still faster. Or maybe you want to find out? But I should warn you. If you lose, I will slit Margery Kensington’s neck with this knife. Ask yourself this. Are you so sure you can win? And are you willing to stake his mother’s life on that bet?”

Alex looked at Marek. His face was pale, his dark eyes tired and…scared. That wasn’t an emotion she’d ever associated with him. His magic had fizzled out to a weak spark, hardly enough to light a match. He’d lost a lot of blood. The sight of him like this was downright sobering. Alex tamed her magic, pushing it back down. The sizzling gold-green sparks faded back into her skin.

“Good girl. Now, let’s move on to business. You will help me get the artifacts from that wretched necromancer Majestic. She is hiding in the English Garden.”

“I can’t sense her,” Alex said dully.

“Of course not. That green fire barrier she put up all around her little hideout makes tracking her nearly impossible. My machine can’t track her when she’s there. I was hoping you would fare better, but it appears your magic is less effective than my machines.”

“That’s why you planted the necromancer magic residue in the room Margery Kensington disappeared from,” Alex realized. “You thought I could track her.”

And Zinnia had known all along that she could track magic. Her confusion when Alex had asked for the vial of residue had been fake—just like everything else about her.

“Sadly, you disappointed me,” replied Zinnia. “But your fairy friend has tracked the other Ornaments through the connection that links them. Majestic will fall. So, here’s how this is going to work, my lovelies. You will go and get me my Ornaments. Once you deliver them into my hands, I will release Margery Kensington into yours.”

“And we’re just supposed to trust you?” Alex demanded.

Not only was Marek’s mother on the Magic Council, she was the driving force behind their anti-Convictionite efforts. Zinnia would never let her walk.

Smiling, Zinnia tapped her finger to her cheek and said, “Is this the face of a person who would lie to you?”

“You lied to Logan for years,” Alex told her. “You’ve been lying to us since you showed up this afternoon.”

“She is hiding something,” Logan commented.

Alex snorted. “Yeah, probably that she will toss Marek’s mother at us, and then two seconds later try to kill us with whatever vile plan she and the Convictionites are cooking up.”

“Thankfully I am sparing you the burden of yet another troublesome moral dilemma. I’m not giving you a choice. I have Margery Kensington, and if Marek’s dear mother isn’t motivation enough, I’ll just have to find someone who is.” Zinnia shot Alex a look heavy with unspoken threats. “With this cloak, I can slip past any defenses.”

“Except the necromancer’s. That’s why you need us,” said Alex. “You needed us to track her. And you need us now to break the barrier she’s using to shield herself. The same thing that’s blocking you from tracking her is blocking the cloak. You can’t just pop in on her.”

Zinnia clapped her fingers primly together. “Bravo, dear, for using your brain. I’ll see if I can dig up a dog biscuit for you as a reward.”

Alex tried to remember why setting Zinnia on fire was a bad idea. At the moment, she was coming up blank.

“But I think I’ll save the treats until after you bring me my Ornaments,” Zinnia continued. “I’m sure you can do it. That temper of yours can break down any magical barrier, can’t it?”

Alex glared at her.

“You’re still thinking you are faster.” Zinnia’s smile was so heavy with fake sugar that she nearly cracked her teeth on it. “You’re wrong.”

This mind-reading trick was really starting to get old.

“Ignore her.” Logan’s words kissed her ear like rose petals.

“She knows what I’m thinking,” Alex replied in a growled whisper.

“No. She just knows how to push people’s buttons to make them think certain things. And your thoughts show on your face.”

Alex sighed.

“I like that about you,” he told her. “You’re so expressive. So vibrant.”

“Tick tock, Alex,” the evil witch clucked. “What will it be?”

“We will do as you ask,” Alex said coldly.

She was trying hard not to think of how they could double cross Zinnia, preventing her from getting the Ornaments. She would think about that later—with people who were better at thinking than she was. Now was not the time, not if Zinnia could read her thoughts on her face.

“Excellent. Go to the English Garden, to the Apollo temple,” Zinnia instructed them. “That’s where you will find Majestic. You have two hours. If you don’t have the Ornaments for me when I arrive, Margery Kensington dies and I find myself another guest for that little cell in hell.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Borrowed Magic

AS SOON AS they made it back to the house, Eva helped Marek up the stairs to their room. Marek might not have been bleeding anymore, but his clothes still were—as the interior of his car could attest. They’d all sure had really bad luck with blood and cars these past two days.

Logan went to the house’s library, and Alex went to the kitchen. As she pulled an armload of magic-boosted energy drinks out of the refrigerator, she called Sera.

“Hi, Alex.” In the background, raised voices shouted.

“Is this a bad time?” Alex asked her.

“No,” her sister replied over a hard noise that sounded like something slamming against metal. “Shoot.”

Alex quickly outlined the situation with Zinnia, Majestic, and the Ornaments of the Dead.

“I knew she was evil,” Sera said when she was finished. “I just knew it.”

A loud, explosive crack echoed through the phone line.

“Sera?”

“Don’t worry about that,” Sera told her. “One of Alden’s people tried to sneak up on us. Kai electrocuted him.” Magic crackled. “We’ll keep an eye out for Alden’s latest puppet and Convictionite Barbie.”

Alex could hear a chorus of voices—the commandos—chuckling, presumably at the name.

“But it sounds like Zinnia is pretty fixated on you, Alex,” Sera added.

“Lucky me.”

“Do you think she will really kill Margery Kensington?”

“Well, considering that she slit Marek’s throat with a cursed knife just so we’d do as she said, yeah, I really do.”

“Is he all right?” Sera asked,.

“Yes, Zinnia healed the cut, but I doubt this is the last we’ve seen of that blade. We need to be prepared. Hey, could you ask Dal if he knows anything about it?”

Alex heard muttering voices.

“I’ll do one better,” Sera said after a few moments. “Kai is sending the commandos to help you. They’re leaving for the house now. I would come too, but there’s something Kai and I have to do right now. Something important.”

Something about the way that she said it made Alex suspect it had something to do with the ritual to link her to her dragon.

“Thanks,” Alex said.

“Yes, I take all the credit.” Sera’s voice sang with amusement. “I am very persuasive.”

“When it comes to Kai you are.”

Sera fell silent for several seconds, then cleared her throat loudly. “Ok, the commandos are coming to you. I’ll see you later.”

“Bye,” Alex said, then hung up.

She scooped up as many drink bottles as she could carry, then went to the library. Logan stood behind one of the sofas with his arms folded over his chest. He was looking the bookshelves like he thought he could glare them into submission, forcing the books to reveal their secrets.

“The commandos are coming to help,” Alex told him, setting the drinks down on the big coffee table.

“Good.”

Marek and Eva entered the library, now clean. Not only had Marek’s clothes been soaked with his blood, Eva’s had been soaked in his blood too. Marek’s new outfit wasn’t even ostentatious. It was utilitarian black, precisely the sort of thing Logan would wear. Eva was dressed in a similar style.

As they sat down, Alex tossed each of them an energy drink. She handed one back to Logan, then took one for herself.

“The commandos are coming,” she announced, popping open her bottle. “I’m hoping Dal will know something about that knife.”

“Does anyone have any idea what it is?” Eva asked.

“It looked vampire in design,” Marek said. “More than that I don’t know. I’m not a knife expert.”

“Definitely vampire,” Alex agreed.

“About five hundred years old,” Logan added. “And ceremonial. That was the style the vampires were using back then.”

“And the curse on the blade?” Alex asked.

No one spoke. Well, that answered that.

“Ok,” Alex said. “We just have to hope Dal knows something.”

Logan grabbed a pencil off the table and began to sketch the knife on the back of an old Chinese takeout menu.

“Next up is the necromancer,” said Alex. “Does anyone have any ideas on how we can fight Majestic?”

“Do we have backup from Monster Cleanup?” Marek asked, then chugged down a whole bottle of Magic Spike.

“I called them,” replied Alex. “But the city has decided to go to hell for the second night in a row. There are monsters everywhere. All the agents are busy.”

“I wonder who released the monsters this time,” Eva said. “Zinnia? Or Majestic?”

Alex flicked a finger against her empty bottle. “Zinnia sure knew a lot about last night’s monster attacks. I really have to wonder if she was the one who created all the chaos.”

“What does it matter? Monster Cleanup will take care of the monsters. We will take care of Majestic. And Zinnia,” Marek added with a vicious bite to his voice.

Alex set her hand on his shoulder. “Yes, we will,” she promised. “Any ideas on how to take out Majestic?”

“Fairy Dust won’t work on her since she’s a strong dark fairy,” Eva said. “So I’m afraid I’m worthless in that fight.”

Marek squeezed her hand. “You are never worthless.”

“He’s right,” Alex told her. “You had the power to perform that tracking spell on the other Ornaments.”

“Which only helped Zinnia,” Eva sighed.

“We were all backed into a corner,” said Alex. “But if you could perform that fairy spell, maybe you can perform a spell that could help us fight Majestic. Something to neutralize some of her powers. Like that blasted green fire. That would be a great start. If we can block that power, we will have a fighting chance against her.”

Eva stood, her face hardening with determination. “I will certainly try.” She marched over to the fairy section of the library and began plucking books from the shelves.

“Zinnia says Majestic’s hideout is shielded by magic,” Alex said.

“Zinnia is a liar,” Marek growled. “She just wants us to fight her battles for her. She’s afraid of Majestic.”

“Yes, Zinnia is a liar,” Alex agreed. “But I think she’s telling the truth this time. She’s too arrogant to be afraid of Majestic. And if she could use the Midnight Cape to pop into Majestic’s hideout and steal the missing Ornaments, she would have already done it.”

“Yes,” said Logan. “And then Zinnia would have succeeded or be dead. Either way, Majestic or Zinnia would now have all of the Ornaments. And then we’d be discussing a very different problem.”

“Exactly.” Alex stood up and began to pace. Her mind needed movement to function. “I think there really is a barrier. I’m hoping I can break it. Then we go inside the hideout. Majestic is one of Alden’s, so it’s safe to assume she’ll have backup at that hideout. We’ll need to fight through them to get to Majestic.”

“That won’t be a problem.” The spark had returned to Marek’s magic. He was getting strong again, thanks to a healthy helping of pure rage and the Magic Spike. He was already chugging down his third bottle.

“We’ll need to infiltrate Majestic’s base quietly so we can sneak up on her. We don’t want to tip her off that we’re coming.” Alex looked at Logan.

“I can get us past any guards,” he said. “But you and Marek will need to do precisely what I say. No fireworks.”

Marek nodded. He didn’t even look upset. He just looked determined.

“You will need to find a way to let us pass through the barrier Majestic has made to shield her hideout,” Logan told Alex. “Pass through it, not break it. If you break the barrier, she’ll notice.”

“Ok, pass through.” Alex nodded in time to her steps. “I can do that.”

Logan arched a single eyebrow up at her.

“I’ve got this Logan. I just need to change the pitch of my magic to match her barrier.” She smiled. “Easy peasy.”

In truth, Alex wasn’t really so confident, but she had to try. There had to be a way. Sera had told her a story about shifting the pitch of her magic to match Kai’s. Granted, they were both mages, and they both had dragon magic. Alex had to do something more difficult; she had to match her magic to a dark fairy’s. That wasn’t even the same branch of magic. But whatever. She’d have to figure it out when she got there. Worrying about it now wouldn’t help anyone.

“So, we get in, get to Majestic, Eva neutralizes the green fire so we can actually fight her without turning into piles of ashes…”

Alex stole a peek at Eva, who sat behind one of the desks, piles of books opened in front of her. She was tugging her fingers through clumps of her hair in a ragged rhythm, each tug changing the color. It was streaked with a dozen different shades already. Alex tried not to think about how many ‘if’s this plan was dependent on—and tried to comfort herself instead by thinking about how most of their plans were like that. Not that their plans had been working lately.