by Ella Summers
Sera reached for the magic of earth, ancient and unchanging. It thumped through her like a pounding drum, its beat starting slow but growing louder—heavier—as she pulled it up. It burst through the ground beneath the ponies, shattering their bodies into a million crystal shards. The arena pulsated with magic, and the crowd fell silent.
Sweat dribbled down Sera’s face. Every inch of her skin was sticky and hot. Her head felt like it would split open. It was buckling under the strain of barricading her mind while using magic.
The fairies’ magic shifted, their illusions saturating her pores. The pit flickered, fading into blotches of golden light. Magic wrapped around her in soft, soothing layers. It tasted like buttermilk pancakes and warm summer mornings. She staggered sideways.
Something hard and heavy slammed into her. She rolled to her feet, shaking her head to clear it. The beast was gone, swallowed up by the thick golden fog that covered the pit from floor to ceiling. A shrill cry bounced around the arena, the echoes making the beast impossible to locate. She closed her worthless eyes and reached out with her magic.
She felt it—no, them. There were five of them. They were…diving. She snapped her eyes open and looked up, right into the red eyes of the griffins about to dive-bomb her. She threw up her hands. Forks of lightning erupted from her palms, skewering the beasts. Magic crackled and spat, and the light-woven griffins exploded.
The golden mist evaporated, revealing a dew-dripped meadow. It was morning here, the early sun painting the sky with light and color as it rose. Birds chirped and whistled. The mages stood on three tree stumps, their hands raised in the air. High above, something roared, rumbling the sky.
Bad. Really, really bad.
She’d no sooner had the thought when a dragon swooped down. Its jaws snapped at her. Sera punched out with her magic, and it shattered. Magic, tart and dry, scraped across her tongue. Salt burned her nose and stung her throat. Her stomach did a weak somersault. She had the overwhelming urge to retch.
Six dragons circled above her, their voices a chorus of beastly growls. Another one dove for her. She pushed out with her magic again, but her blast went right through it. Unharmed, the dragon continued to drop.
An illusion, she realized a moment before it passed through her, scratching a layer off her mental shield.
More dragons appeared above. The sky was thick with them. Sera blinked down hard, trying to sift the illusions from the summoned beasts, to dissolve the fake dragons—but there were too many fairies. The illusions flickered for a moment, then came back stronger.
“Sera.”
She pivoted around at Kai’s voice, watching him step out of the forest. He smiled at her like she was the only person in the world. Her lips curled up to return the smile—but she stopped herself.
“You’re an illusion,” she told him, tapping his forehead.
He crumbled to dust before her. Her heart stuttered in protest, even though it wasn’t real. None of this was real.
“Isn’t it, though?”
Sera turned again, freezing when she came face to face with her sister.
“What’s wrong?” Alex asked. “Aren’t you happy to see me?”
“You’re not really here.” Sera flicked her in the arm, but the illusion refused to fade.
“Because I’m not an illusion. And let me prove it to you.”
Alex swung a punch at her. Instead of going through her like the fake dragon had, the punch smashed into her stomach. Sera doubled over, pain blazing through her body. It sure felt like a real punch. Alex slammed two fists down on her head. Sera hit the ground, the ache of the impact paling in comparison to the agony that erupted inside her skull.
“You’re not real.” Sera spat blood. “Just…an illusion.”
“How wrong you are.” Alex sneered down at her.
The hard toe of her sister’s boot slammed against her head, and Sera blacked out.
Wake up!
Sera groaned and rolled over. Or tried to, anyway. She couldn’t feel her body.
Where am I? she asked. Her mouth was as dry as sawdust, and her head felt like it had gone through a paper shredder. Some of the feeling to her body was returning—and now that it was, she was really wishing it hadn’t.
You’re mostly unconscious, and the fairies are whittling away at your mind. Your shield is about to crumble. You need to do something. Now!
Sera tried to push off the ground with her hands, but she didn’t yet have the strength for that. Her fingers sank into the sand. She growled in frustration.
You need to fight it, the voice said.
I tried. Alex…she knocked me down.
It wasn’t her. None of this is real.
Then why couldn’t I shatter her like I did Kai? Why couldn’t I make her disappear?
Because she is a part of you. You share a bond. That wasn’t Alex. It was you. You were fighting yourself. That’s why you couldn’t shatter the illusion.
Do the fairies know about me and Alex? About our bond? Sera’s pulse raced, pumping her blood faster. Her wounds throbbed, and her head spun. Does Blackbrooke know?
No, I’m blocking out those parts of your mind. But I won’t be able to block them forever. If your defenses fall…
Death, Sera said, the word hanging heavy in her mind.
Yes.
Alex told me to listen to the voice in my head. I guess she meant you.
A wise one, your sister. Yes, you should listen to me. Always.
But what are you? she asked. Who are you?
I’m your dragon.
My…dragon?
Your dragon side, dear. The part of you that is more than human. More than mage. You’re Dragon Born.
I know that already.
Yes, you know the name, but you don’t know what it means. The Dragon Born weren’t named after the dragons. They are the dragons. Two sides of one coin: dragon and mage. Together, we are strong. Strong enough to beat these Games.
And Alex has a dragon too?
Yes, of course. The voice frowned inside Sera’s head. But she’s rather brutish at times. You need to be careful around her. She’s responsible for a lot of Alex’s reckless behavior. I, on the other hand, am the sensible one. I’m a good influence on you. I don’t play with fire.
She snorted. Really? You’re going to stick to that story? Because I’ve done plenty of reckless things.
Such as?
Jumped into bed with the dragon. The other dragon. Kai.
Yes, well, he’s hot. And has nice dragon-like qualities. With our kind nearly extinct, he’s as close as you’re going to get to a real dragon mate.
Mate?
Don’t give me that deer-in-headlights look, missy. We both know where this is headed. And I applaud your choice.
It sounds like you were the one to choose him, Sera commented.
He does taste like cinnamon-frosted euphoria, her dragon said with a smile. But that’s not the point. We’re the same person, Sera. You can’t go separating out me from you. We both chose him.
Hmm.
We are linked to Alex and her dragon too. Linked by blood and magic. If we develop that bond, our power will grow.
In what way?
I’m not sure. I just know that it will.
This is quite possibly the strangest conversation I’ve ever had. Maybe she was losing her mind. What was left of it, anyway.
You are not losing your mind. But if you don’t get up and fight, you soon will.
Her dragon was right about that. Sera could feel the layers of her shield being flayed off one by one. She had to get up. She had to fight this.
You said we have more magic together?
Yes, by combining our power. By allowing it to blend together, as it was always meant to do.
Ok. Sera pushed against gravity and pain, peeling herself up inch by painful inch. Finally standing again, she stomped her feet against the ground. Let’s do this.
Magic surged through her veins. It poured across
her skin, setting it ablaze with pink light. She thrust her hands out, tearing at the fairies’ spell, unraveling the illusions. The dragons overhead exploded, their demise lighting up the sky. The tails of the fireworks dripped down, melting the walls of the meadow. The fairies collapsed like dominoes.
Sera’s magic tore across the pit, cracking against the three mage summoners. They hung in the air for a moment, suspended, then dropped to the ground. Their spells puffed out.
The audience jumped to their feet and roared, but Sera didn’t see them. She saw only Kai. He stood in the doorway of the pit, the biggest grin she’d ever seen on his face. Ignoring the protests from her bruised bones and the pulsing ache in her head, she ran toward his open arms.
She’d made it halfway there when her phone buzzed in her pocket. She must have forgotten to take it out. Wondering how it was still in one piece after all that, she opened the case. She knew it was probably Finn again, taunting her with another of his messages, but she just didn’t give a damn anymore. She’d done the impossible. She’d made it through the Magic Games with her mind unbroken. She could track down one psychopath mage.
She glanced at the screen. It showed a view of her from above, taken just seconds ago. “Time’s up, Sera,” the caption said.
A portal opened beneath her feet, and she tumbled into oblivion.
25
Darkness Falling
Sinister magic swirled all around Sera, then spat her out. She lurched and hit the ground, barely managing to stay on her feet. It was dark here, wherever here was. Dim magical lights bobbed up and down overhead, like buoys on the ocean’s surface. The air was stale and smelled of old sweat. A chorus of manic magic sang somewhere in the distance.
Sera reached out with her magic, trying to get a fix on where she was and what she was up against. Her magic bounced off the rocky, graffiti-drenched walls and slammed back into her. Iron. There was iron in those walls. Battling the emerging migraine—and the nausea building up inside of her—she inverted her magic, just like Kai had shown her in Alcatraz. The pressure in her head disappeared, and her stomach settled. Sera: 1, Sinister Underground Cavern: 0.
Of course, without her magic, she’d have a hard time finding the portal out of here. Assuming there even was one. She shook the thought from her head. Defeatist thinking wasn’t going to get her out of here. And neither was just standing around. There had to be a way out, whether magical or mundane.
We really need to learn to create portals, her dragon told her as she followed the rocky wall. It’s ridiculous how many times you’ve fallen through one.
Agreed. Any ideas?
Some of the older mage dynasties know how to do it. Especially the European families. Any chance your lover boy can look through his family’s library for information on portals?
Lover boy?
Do you think he’d prefer ‘scrumptious eye candy’ instead?
I think he’d prefer not knowing anything about this conversation.
Her dragon frowned in her mind, clearly disappointed. Hmm.
As to your question, I’m not sure the Drachenburg dynasty is so much into creating portals as they are into, well…
Scaring people shitless?
Sera nodded. Something like that. Their specialty is highly destructive magic, usually elemental along with either shifting or summoning.
And dragons.
There’s that too, Sera agreed.
Someone’s coming, her dragon told her. A lot of someones. They feel like mages.
How can you use magic with all that iron in the walls?
I can use magic just fine. The iron can’t bounce it back to me. I don’t have a body.
For someone who didn’t have a body, she sure could shrug like a pro.
Glowing eyes peered out from the darkness. The mages followed—dozens of them stepping into the light. They all had that same look about them. Eerie. Magic-drunk. Zombie-like, Sera decided. Just like the mages she and Kai had fought back at Alcatraz. So, she’d landed in Finn’s secret lair, and those were his brainwashed minions. Great.
Magic crackled off the mage zombies like camp fire flames. Apparently, the iron in the walls wasn’t giving the Crazy Pants Army any trouble. Maybe that was one of the perks of being completely nuts.
“Finn!” Sera shouted as the mages closed in on her from all sides. Their master couldn’t be far away. “I know you’re here. Come out, you coward! Or are you too scared to face me?”
“Careful, Sera,” his voice echoed in warning from behind the mages. “I might take offense.”
“You sent me sleazy SMSs from afar. Now you’re hiding behind your mages. And you’re offended that I’m calling you a coward?” She laughed. “Well, you are, and there are no two ways about it.”
“Foolish woman,” he growled.
The line of mages parted, revealing Finn. He strode down the aisle, power and confidence streaming off of him like a cloak flapping in the wind. His eyes, alight with manic magic, locked on hers. His aura was so strong that she could feel it through the veil of her inverted magic. Power—ancient and forgotten—pulsed around him, beating against her. His magic hadn’t even felt this potent when he’d drained some of Kai’s. The possibility that there could be a magic source stronger than Kai, the world’s lightning rod of magical might, was almost unthinkable—and it scared her to her bones.
“We stopped you,” Sera told him. The best coverup for fear was to just talk your way past it. Preferably with generous helpings of sarcasm. She’d have to work on adding in the sarcasm. Some other time. When her head wasn’t hurting so much. “The Priming Bangles are safe.”
“Yes,” he said with a sour frown. His voice was dry and rough. “We haven’t been able to find the bangles. Kai has taken his paranoia to epic new levels. He didn’t tell anyone where he’s keeping them.” Finn glanced back at his minions. “At least not anyone we could torture the information out of.”
The crowd buzzed with whispered snickers. Madness clung to them, thick and sticky.
“So we’ve had to resort to other means for now,” Finn finished,
“How are you draining power without the Priming Bangles?”
“The bangles just make it easier to drain, especially from strong, unwilling targets. Like Kai,” he said, his magic flaring in anger when he said Kai’s name. “But we have a purer source, one more powerful than even Kai. Our leader.”
“Leader? I thought you were the one in charge of this one-way circus to hell.”
A smirk slid across his lips, sweet and sour. “There’s so much you don’t know, Sera.”
Magic smashed into her back. She fell, her face smacking the crumbled dirt ground.
“But you will soon see,” Finn said as his boots came to a crunching halt beside her.
Laughter, panicked and unchecked, burst from her mouth, and her vision went fuzzy.
“What’s so funny?” Finn growled.
She just kept laughing, even as darkness fell over her eyes.
“What is it?!” Finn demanded, kicking her in the ribs.
Sera hiccuped in pain. “So much…you don’t know too…spies in your…evil organization.”
Then she passed out.
Consciousness, dull and throbbing, crept at the periphery of Sera’s mind. She tried to ignore the unwanted visitor, but like a persistent rash, it just wouldn’t go away.
Something dripped nearby, slow and steady and sharp enough to cut straight through her eardrums. She tried to turn away from the sound, but her neck only creaked out in agony. When she tried her arms, they didn’t move either. Instead, they sang out with as much jingling metal as a snowy sleigh ride.
She forced her eyes open, tearing the thick crust that had glued her lashes to her cheekbones. She was in what looked like an old abandoned tunnel, its rocky walls splattered with faded graffiti. Bright magic lights hovered overhead like a dozen tiny suns. As consciousness flared up, so did the pain in her head. She heaved forward as far as the chains holding
her arms allowed and threw up.
“Oh, why did you have to go and do that, Sera?” Finn was leaning against the opposite wall, his arms folded over his chest in relaxed superiority. “Who’s going to clean it up?”
She glared at him through hardened lashes. “Release these chains and give me a mop, and I’ll show you what I can do.”
His laugh could have chiseled stone. “Now, now. Don’t be getting any ideas. You’re our guest here.”
“Right.” She shook her wrists, and iron rattled. “Guest,” she bit out the word, crisp as a piece of fire-blackened meat. In other words, basically what she was going to turn him into when she got free.
There’s too much iron in those walls, her dragon reminded her. You can’t use magic as long as you’re blocking it out.
How about you? You said the iron didn’t bother you. Could you shield me from it so I can use magic?
That’s actually a good idea.
Try not to sound so surprised, Sera told her.
Her dragon snickered. Ok, I’ll work on it. You distract Mr. Brooding and Crazy.
“Why am I here?” Sera asked Finn. “In this old…tunnel, is it?”
“We’re beneath an old abandoned subway station.” His words were smooth and confident, as though he wasn’t the least bit worried that she could do anything with that information.
He was probably right. It’s not like she could send a message to Kai. She didn’t feel her phone in her pocket. Maybe the portal had crunched it into tiny bits—or maybe Finn’s lackeys had. Phones could be tracked. Demolished phones—not so much. So it looked like she was on her own.
“What’s wrong, Finn? Couldn’t you afford a real building for your secret lair?” she taunted. Sarcasm was the next best weapon to magic. And right now, it was pretty much the only one that she had.
His eyes flared with fury and magic, but he choked them back. “There’s iron in the rocks. It bounces magic, blocking out tracking spells. We wouldn’t want to be interrupted.” His smile returned, sick and languid as it washed over her.