Mercenary Magic (12 page)

Yeah, so that wasn’t happening. She handed the boxes off to Riley.

“Here. I brought you cheesecake. Enjoy.”

He peeked inside, then shot her a grin. “Sweet! I haven’t eaten yet. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” Sera said.

And as she trudged down the hall toward the bathroom, she wondered what the hell she was going to do about that dragon.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Magic Smoothies

THE NEXT MORNING, Sera slept in until ten. Then she changed into her workout clothes, pulled her hair up into a high ponytail, and headed for the kitchen. She gave Riley’s door a good morning thump along the way.

“Rise and shine, sleeping beauty!”

A string of muffled curses came from the closed door.

“Hey, you were the one who wanted to run with me,” she reminded him. “I’ll be heading out in half an hour. You snooze, you lose. And losers get dishwashing duty.”

Something hit the door. It sounded like a pillow.

“That’s nice. But I suggest you save your energy for the trail. You’ll need it when you’re eating my dust.”

A second pillow smacked the door. Then the bed creaked, and two feet landed hard on the floor. Satisfied that he was conscious enough to at least zombie-walk his way to the bathroom for a wakeup shower, Sera continued on to the kitchen. She poured herself a full bowl of granola and sat down with a stack of magic books.

She skimmed the index of each book for instructions on how to mask her magic, but came up short. She’d already read everything they had and then some on the topic. It was the very first skill Dad had taught her and Alex, and they’d spent over two decades perfecting it. It had never failed. Never. Until she’d met Kai. He was the only one who’d ever been able to sense her magic. She didn’t even know what to do about him. It was probably too late anyway. The damage was done. She’d just have to make sure no one else ever found out—and hope Kai didn’t spill the beans.

After texting a note to Riley to read up on masking magic at his school library, she moved on to the glyphs. This time, she fared better, finding a few passages about the ancient symbols in two different books. By the time she had read through them all, she’d finished her breakfast. She typed the key points about glyphs into her phone, then went to the sink to wash out her bowl.

Her cell phone buzzed. She took one look at the number, then hit ignore.

The home phone rang. The call was from a funny number with lots of digits. Safe. Sera swiped it off the stand.

“Hey, Alex.”

“Sera. Did I wake you?”

“No, I just finished breakfast and was about to head out for a run.” She fiddled with the peeling corner of the cheap kitchen table they used only for breakfast. “How are you?”

“Busy.”

“Are you still in Zurich?”

“Yep. Look, things are super crazy right now. It looks like I’m going to be here much longer than I’d thought. Will you and Riley be all right for awhile without me?”

Translation: I’m having a blast hunting supernatural baddies, while being free to party and do whatever carefree people do, and I don’t want to come back.

“Sure. I’ll try to remember to feed him when he gets hungry.”

Silence hissed from the other end of the line for a few seconds before Alex said, “After I get back, we’ll go hunt down some nasty monster who’s wrecking havoc on the city.”

If
she ever came back. Mayhem had flown Alex across a freaking ocean because the world’s most famous supernatural had asked for her. Gaelyn. He was the first immortal. People said he was over six thousand years old, though no one knew for certain. One thing was for sure, though: the ancient immortal was as rich as he was old. And Alex worked for him now. When she was finished with whatever task he’d given her, would she want to return to their mundane life? Sera had heard there were balls in Europe. She’d always wanted to go to a ball. If this were a fairytale, her fairy godmother would swoop in and turn her cutoff jeans and torn shirt into a magnificent gown, then whisk her off to the ball.

But life was no fairytale. Any ball she managed to find herself at would include dancing zombies and a swarm of hungry vampires. Well, admittedly she’d landed a prestigious assignment too. Unfortunately, it had come with an arrogant dragon.

“Nasty monsters. Sounds like fun,” Sera said.

 h“Is Riley there?”

“He’s in the shower.”

“Give him a kiss for me. I’ll give you a call again soon. I have to run now. ”

“Take care of yourself, Alex.”

“You too.”

Just as Sera set down the phone, Riley emerged from the bathroom, dressed in his running clothes. She forced a cheery smile onto her face.

“You’re five minutes late, hotshot.”

“Relax.” He grabbed a bagel. “Was that Alex?”

Sera nodded. “She sounds like she’s having fun.”

“So are you.”

“How do you figure that?”

“I saw the look on your face last night. Whatever crazy, wild, dangerous shenanigans you went through yesterday sure put you in a great mood.”

“Crazy, wild, dangerous shenanigans?”

“Yep.” He chomped down on his bagel. “You love crazy, wild, dangerous shenanigans. The crazier, wilder, and more dangerous—the better.”

“That’s not true.”

“Sure it is.”

“Not.”

“Is.”

This could go on forever. Sera pointed at the clock. “Seven minutes late.”

Riley stuffed the remainder of his bagel into his mouth, then headed for the door.

* * *

Sera and Riley ran side-by-side in silence, the heat of a cloudless sky blaring down on them. They never chitchatted while running. There would be plenty of time to do that later, when they weren’t racing to be the first to the little waterfront smoothie bar where they often paused to partake in fruity treats.

Sera’s cadence was off today. Her legs still hurt from yesterday’s dance with the telekinetics. She’d removed the gauze, replacing it with a field of smaller patches, but below the skin, her muscles ached.

Physical ailments aside, the real reason she was so slow today was that her mind just wasn’t in it. She’d long ago trained herself to push through physical pain, but apparently all it took was a dragon in her head to keep her mind off the game.

What was she going to do about him? The smart, rational thing to do was stay well away from him. He came from one of the elite magic dynasties, and he could somehow sense her magic, no matter what she did to cover it. One of those two things alone would be reason enough to keep her distance. Both together should have had her running for the hills. He represented everything she’d spent her whole life hiding from. He was bad news and lots of it.

And yet there was something about him, something she found herself drawn to. The song of his magic was incredible, the feel of it crashing against her simply divine. She’d had only the tiniest taste of it, but that had been enough. She wanted more. She wanted him to kiss her as he poured his magic into her, saturating her body until it hummed and tingled in tune with his.

Where the hell did all that come from?

Sera pushed herself to run faster, trying to squeeze those insane thoughts out of her head. She couldn’t let herself want those things from Kai because she had a feeling he’d give them to her and then some. And after that, she’d never be able to get him out of her head. She had to stop this now, while she still could.

Even as her muscles screamed in protest, she upped the pace again. Beside her, Riley’s breaths grew strained and shallow. Sweat streamed down the sides of Sera’s face. It slid along her neck and plunged down her back.

As they neared the water, the air cooled, and a light breeze rolled off her sweat-beaded skin. Sera could almost taste the strawberry sweetness. The swirly shop sign came into sight, and that was all the motivation she needed. She shot forward, running all out the rest of the way there.

* * *

It wasn’t only mages who partook in the joy that was magic smoothies. A sizable chunk of the human population ordered them too. So it didn’t look the least bit suspicious for Sera to step up to the counter and order a pair of them for her and Riley.

“Did Alex have any news?” Riley asked.

They stood outside at a banana-yellow table beneath a strawberry umbrella, slurping magic-boosted smoothies through super thick straws. Ice crystals slid down Sera’s throat, dissolving the heat trapped inside her body. A subtle magic aftertaste tingled her tongue.

“Not really. Just that she’s really busy,” Sera said. “She sounds like she’s having a blast.”

“It’s good for her to get out and see new things. The two of you have spent so many years hiding, working, and looking out for me. It’s no life. You need to
live
life and not worry about me so much.”

“It’s our fault Dad died. Our fault that you had to grow up without him.”

“I was fourteen. I’d already done most of my growing up.” He drank deeply from his smoothie cup. “And it wasn’t your fault. You didn’t wield the blade that killed him.”

She lowered her voice to a whisper. “That assassin was there for us, so it
was
our fault. After Dad died, Alex and I swore to each other that we would take care of you.”

“And you have,” he said. “But now I’m an adult. I’m fine. I can take care of myself. You need to live your own lives. And you need to let me live mine.”

The phone in Sera’s pocket buzzed. She snuck a peek at the number and saw that it was Kai. Again. What was that, like the fourth time today? She stuffed it back into her shorts. They’d planned to meet after lunch, and she saw no reason to speak to him a second earlier. In fact, she had about four-million-and-two reasons not to.

“Are you going to get that?” Riley asked.

“No.”

“Avoiding someone?”

“Yes.”

He snickered. Sera thought about telling him she was avoiding his psychopath of a new friend, but decided against it. She wanted to keep him as far away from all of this as she possibly could.

“Here’s the thing, Riley. I do realize I’ve been very protective of you. But it’s only because I want you to be safe. If anyone found out about me and Alex, they might use you to get to us.”

“Ifs and maybes,” he replied. “Our world is a dangerous one, drenched in magic. And the humans are in many ways even more dangerous. I or you or Alex might be killed at any time. That’s precisely why we need to live, not hide.”

The magic around them shifted up a gear. The breeze died, and the cool air suddenly got very hot. Sera looked past Riley, spotting the cause of the shift right away. Two mages were crossing the parking lot. Flames licked their hands. All four eyes were fixed on her, promises of pain etched in them.

“Hold that thought,” she told Riley.

Then she stepped out to meet them, wondering why she couldn’t go a single day without being attacked by some idiot or another.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Fire

SERA HADN’T BROUGHT along her sword. She never carried it while running, though the sight of someone running with a sword strapped to her back was not an uncommon sight on the streets of San Francisco. That was only one of many strange sights you witnessed daily when you lived in one of the world’s supernatural hotspots.

Sera
had
brought along a pair of knives. She drew them from the straps around her thighs, wondering how much good they’d do against the pair of fire-happy mages. The flames on their hands spread up their arms. Their skin glowed like orange embers, and golden lights danced in their eyes. A funnel of fire exploded from one of the mages’ fingertips, blasting toward her like a stampede of burning horses. She darted away, but it followed. Trashcans crashed and car alarms blared as she tried to circle around the mages. A fire ball flew over her head.

“Hey, now that was just
rude
,” she told the second mage. The faint scent of burnt hair filled her nose. She patted down her ponytail to make sure it wasn’t on fire.

He threw back his head and cackled. Yeah, that’s right. He apparently fancied himself a cartoon character. There was an eerie and now familiar gleam in his eyes, just like Finn, Olivia, and all of the other psycho mages she’d fought over the past several days. Every single one of them seemed to be auditioning hard for Magic Junkie of the Year.

Mr. Funnel’s fire hose had gone dry. Sustained streams of magic were hard work to keep up. They drained even veteran mages pretty fast, and these two were as green as the first grass in springtime. It was as though someone had suddenly pumped them full of magic they had no experience handling. They were brash, foolish, and utterly drunk on magic.

Sera threw her knife through Mr. Funnel’s foot, stapling it to the muddy ground. He squealed, the fire dying in his eyes, and she swung out her fist, clocking him in the head. He collapsed into a napping heap at her feet.

Another fireball flew at her. She dodged, but it passed too close too fast, gracing her skin. She bit down on her lips, sealing the pain inside. It wouldn’t do her any good out in the open. Inside of her, she could channel it into fuel for her fight.

“You’re fast,” Fireball said.

He hurled fire at the tree beside her, and the canopy burst into flames. Burning leaves fell gently—almost peacefully—from the branches like soft snow. Sera ran out into the parking lot before any of them could fall on her.

“But not fast enough.”

He fired another blast. She jumped back as a sizable chunk of asphalt cracked beneath her feet.

“Fire is light. Fire is might. It gives you power. It makes them—”

Steam and lightning exploded in a colorful ball around him. When the pink and blue lights had fizzled out and the steam had dissipated, Fireball was lying on the ground. Sera whipped around to find Riley standing at the edge of the parking lot, a translucent orb in his hand. She rushed over to him and swung her arm over his shoulder, leading him away.