Magic Kingdom (Dragon Born Alexandria Book 3) (30 page)

Focus,
Nova told her.

Alex pushed down those bubbling thoughts. Thinking was overrated—and far more trouble than it was worth.

“Ok,” Alex continued. “So we take out Majestic and take her Ornaments of the Dead.” Haha. Easier said than done. “But how do we keep the Ornaments out of Zinnia’s hands and still save Marek’s mother?”

“I’ve got it!” Eva exclaimed.

They all looked at her.

“Uh,” she said, fidgeting under their collective gaze. “The green fire, that is.” She tapped one of the open books with her index finger. “It says here that the green fire is an ancient fairy fire that hasn’t been seen in centuries.”

“So the book explains how to defeat it?” Alex asked.

“No, the book says it’s unbeatable. It says to run the other way if you see it.”

A book with a sense of humor. Fantastic.

“But,” Eva said. “I was thinking. This is a power that hasn’t been seen in centuries. And what—or who, I should say—until recently also had not been seen in centuries?”

“Alden,” Marek said. “The Grim Reaper.”

“Right,” replied Eva. “I think the green fire is one of the magic upgrades the Grim Reaper gave Majestic. Didn’t Zinnia even say something to that effect?”

“She did,” Alex confirmed. “But how does that help us? Majestic has the power already.”

“Not exactly.” Eva pushed away from the desk. “Let me see if I can explain.” Her gaze swept the room, finally settling on a drinking glass. She swiped it from the desk, then set it down on the coffee table beside the bottles of Magic Spike. “Each of us has a limited magic storage capacity. That capacity determines how much magic our bodies can hold.” She popped the top of the Magic Spike. “Mine is pretty small.” She poured a little of the blue drink into the glass. “Alex, yours is a lot larger,” she said, filling the rest of the glass. “Sometimes we can find ways to access more of our magic stores or recharge them faster—those are things first tier mages and the most powerful fairies can do—but our raw magical capacity doesn’t change. With me so far?”

They all nodded.

Eva continued, “So, say I’m Majestic. The Grim Reaper has given me great powers. He’s essentially filled my glass with better magic. But the capacity of my glass hasn’t changed. I use all of this borrowed magic.” Eva drank the blue fluid. “Maybe using that green fire. I bet it burns through the borrowed magic really fast. Now, I’m empty.” She set down the empty glass. “My body cannot refill my glass with the Grim Reaper’s potent magic. It refills it with my weaker magic.”

“Unless the Grim Reaper gives you another dose,” Marek pointed out.

“Precisely,” said Eva. “He has to fill my glass with more magic before I can use those new powers again. Now, I’d imagine someone as old, powerful, and sinister as the Grim Reaper has it all down to a system by now. He’s probably connected to his followers, constantly filling their glasses with his magic. That keeps them strong when they’re fighting his battles.”

“And it keeps them under his thrall,” Alex added.

Eva nodded. “So if we can’t defeat the green fire, maybe we can find a way to block the Grim Reaper from refilling Majestic’s glass.”

“You mean, put up some interference to block their connection?” Alex asked.

“Yes.”

“When we were at the Witches’ Cauldron fighting the undead fairies, Majestic trapped us inside the building with magic,” Logan reminded Alex. “You couldn’t feel magic outside of the bubble. It was blocked off.”

“She sealed the room in her blood,” said Alex. “I had to burn all the blood away in order to release the seal.”

“Couldn’t you do the same to Majestic? Couldn’t you lock her inside a room?” he asked.

“I could try, I guess, but that’s not really my kind of magic. The only barriers I can make are ones that destroy anyone who tries to pass through them. They don’t keep people in.”

“I can do it,” Eva said.

They all looked at her.

“I found the spell Majestic used in one of the fairy books.”

“The spell requires your blood?” Marek asked.

“Yes.”

A crinkle formed between his eyes. “How much blood?”

“A lot,” she admitted. “I need to sprinkle it around the perimeter of whatever room Majestic is inside. I am not strong enough to seal an entire building. And to maintain the seal, I must continue to pour magic into the spell. The seal will weaken each time it is hit.”

Marek bristled. “Absolutely not.”

“I am doing this, Marek. It’s fairy magic. I’m the only one here who can cast the spell.”

“You will be draining yourself of blood and magic. It’s too dangerous.”

“This entire thing is dangerous. But if we don’t block Majestic from her source of magic, she will kill us all with that green fire.”

“You don’t know that,” Marek said.

“She’s right,” Logan told him. “We need her to do this if we are to survive.”

“That’s easy for you to say, now isn’t it? It’s not Alex who will be pouring her blood and magic all over the room.”

Logan’s eyes hardened. His voice dropped to a scathing whisper. “You don’t think I know how it feels to have the woman I love throw herself into danger time after time to save others? You don’t think it kills a little piece of me every time she goes into battle?”

Marek’s eyes shifted from Alex to Eva. His mouth hardened into a thin line. “There has to be another way.”

“Then present it,” Logan said.

Marek leaned back, defeat heavy in his eyes. “I don’t know.”

“We are all putting ourselves in danger, Marek,” Alex told him. “We are doing what others cannot. Because we are strong, we’re protecting those who are not. Because that’s what’s right.”

Eva set her hand over Marek’s. “We have to save your mother. And we must stop Majestic and Zinnia. If we don’t, those fiends will tear our world apart. That is a cause worth fighting for.”

Marek’s hand closed around hers.

“We will protect her, Marek,” Alex promised him. “And we will defeat Majestic.”

“Running recklessly into danger again, Alex?” Tony asked.

Alex turned, a smile creeping up her lips as she saw him, Callum, and Dal standing in the doorway. The commandos had arrived.

“Nice of you guys to join us,” she told them. “Take a seat and grab a Magic Spike. Dal,” she added as the commandos sat down on the sofa. “We have a question we’re hoping you can answer. Zinnia is carrying a cursed knife. It can make cuts that regular healing magic can’t heal. Even more fun is the black shadow that spreads across the victim’s skin from the wound.”

Logan handed Dal the drawing.

“We think it’s vampire in origin,” Alex said.

Dal glanced at the drawing, nodding. “Yeah, it is. I think we’re dealing with a Shadow Skin knife.”

“Can you cure the curse if one of us is cut?” Alex asked him.

“Sure I can. The Shadow Skin Curse is one of the many curses I learned to heal in my study of dark magic.”

Alex heaved a sigh of relief. “You’re awesome.”

Dal flashed her a grin. “Of course I am. Why do you think Kai hired me?”

“I thought that was because you cured him of Dragon Pox,” Callum said.

“No, it was a head cold,” Tony said. “A nasty head cold. Magic spewing everywhere. Whenever Kai sneezed, fire squirted out of his nose and things in the room would catch on fire.”

The three commandos snickered.

“Well, now that we have the answer to cursed knives and head colds,” Alex began. “There’s just the tiny matter of freeing Marek’s mother without letting Zinnia get her hands on the Ornaments of the Dead.”

“I’ve been thinking about that,” said Logan. “The answer is we need to get the Midnight Cape away from Zinnia and use it to free Margery Kensington from the underworld.”

“Maybe one of us can use the cape,” Alex suggested. “You? You were enhanced with fairy blood just like Zinnia.”

“Not
just
like her. She can actually use magic. I cannot. I have only the passive benefits of magic.”

“Then maybe I can do it,” said Alex. “I was bitten by that hybrid, so I have the fairy blood in me too.”

Marek gawked at her.

“Don’t look so surprised, Marek. Just because I didn’t turn into a hybrid doesn’t mean I don’t have that magic in me, at least in small amounts.”

“Small amounts is the problem,” Eva told her. “If you didn’t become a hybrid, then you are still mostly mage. You can’t access the fairy magic, so the cloak won’t work for you. There’s only one person in this room with enough fairy magic to use the cloak.”

“No,” Marek barked out. “Draining your blood is bad enough. But now you want to jump into the underworld? That is a vicious place.”

“Marek,” Alex began.

“No,” he cut her off. “Don’t you even dare say she should do it. She is bleeding enough for this operation.”

“Actually, I agree with you.”

The fire in Marek’s eyes died down, at least enough so that the furniture didn’t combust.

“The underworld is too dangerous, especially after she’s been drained.” Alex looked at Eva. “You will be too weak to save Marek’s mother.”

“No, I can do it.”

“Margery was chained to the wall,” Logan said. “How will you free her? Tear the chains apart with your hands? With your magic? Do you have that sort of magic even now at full strength?”

“No,” she admitted.

“We need Naomi,” Alex declared.

She pulled out her phone and called her friend. The universe must have been shining on her for a change because at least this time the phone didn’t go straight to voicemail. Naomi answered on the second ring.

“Alex,” she said very quietly.

“Is this a bad time?” Alex asked. She had a knack for calling people when they were in the middle of a battle.

“Well, I’m sneaking through an enemy fortress right now, but other than that, it’s all good,” Naomi whispered. “What can I do for you?”

“A necromancer and a crazy magic-enhanced Convictionite each have some of the Ornaments of the Dead. The Convictionite kidnapped Marek’s mother and stashed her in hell. She has the Midnight Cape, which allows people with fairy magic to cross realms. We’re going to take it from her, then we need you to wear it to dive into the underworld to get Marek’s mother back.”

Naomi didn’t miss a beat. “Where do I meet you?” she asked immediately.

Alex smiled. She could always count on her friends to come through. “In the English Garden at the Apollo temple. That’s where we’ll apparently find the entrance into the necromancer’s lair.”

“I’ll be there in half an hour,” Naomi promised.

“Thanks,” Alex said, hanging up. She looked at the others and declared, “Now, let’s go rescue Marek’s mother and kick some necromancer and Convictionite butt.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

Necromancy Party

THEY TOOK TWO cars to the English Garden. They parked the two cars in a manner that would have made Kai Drachenburg proud, then headed for the so-called Apollo temple.

Like a storm of shadows, they walked across the grassy expanse, the light of the bright full moon shining down on them. Streams of magic flowed through the park in a tightly-woven tapestry. The quiet, calm magic of the plants and water hummed in the background.

A group of nymphs were bathing naked in the stream, splashing and laughing. The moonlight made their skin glow like crushed gemstones. The sweet, seductive song of their magic echoed through the air.

Alex hurried past the stream, the taste of strawberry cake and cream sprinkled with dark chocolate sliding across her magic. The nymphs tasted like dessert. It was no wonder a flock of admirers had gathered at the water, humans and supernaturals alike. They might not have been able to sense the nymphs’ magic, but there was some unknown, unspoken force that had lured them in.

Further out, a thicker, harsher magic was tearing through the park’s natural magic, like a rip in the tapestry. The monsters that were rampaging through the city for the second night had invaded parts of the park.

Alex could feel even more monsters beyond the park’s borders. The musky sweat of two warring packs of beasts. Two mages fighting each other: the storm of a raging elemental and the screech and crunch of a telekinetic. The poisoned pop of more of those bees. People screaming. Fear. Blood. Death.

Alex blocked out the magic. Tonight, it was up to Monster Cleanup to keep the monsters and raging supernaturals at bay. She’d already called them to tell them what was going on—and to hear that the four Convictionites had killed themselves before they could be questioned. Right now, all of that had to be someone else’s problem. She needed to focus her attention on Majestic and Zinnia.

Alex saw the Apollo temple. The stone structure was circular with white columns and a pale green domed top with a gold rim. Trees and bushes surrounded the temple, green and lush and saturated with magic.

“Stop,” Alex said, holding out her arms as they reached the edge of the open structure. Magic was winding around the columns like vines. “The whole thing is shielded.”

“I don’t see it,” said Marek.

“It’s there, just hidden,” Alex told him, watching the green flames sway and crackle in the evening air. “Wait here.”

She stepped up to the temple, stopping right in front of the barrier that was invisible to everyone but her. She probed it with her magic. It felt a lot like the green fire. It had the same snapping, scorched feel, like her skin had been scraped off by a wire sponge. But it was not nearly as potent as the fire. It was thin, like dough that had been stretched out. Alex circled the temple, prodding the magic with hers, searching for a weak spot.

She found one. She shifted her magic, trying to match the pitch of the strange, foreign magic. To her surprise, it worked. Her magic was in tune with the barrier. They were singing the same note. Alex reached her hand toward the barrier, feeling the magic prickling against her skin. It tickled, but it didn’t burn her, so she pushed her whole arm through.

“Come here,” she called out to the others. As they closed in behind her, she said, “I can form a bubble—”
I think.
“—to get us through the barrier.”

“What about Naomi?” Marek asked.

“I just got a message from her,” Eva said. “She’ll be here in ten minutes.”