Harmonize Hostilities (The Exceptional S. Beaufont Book 7)

by Sarah Noffke

  Just as Simon flew in the air right at Liv’s jugular, his eyes crazed and teeth bared, she used her magic to freeze him in the air. Like a movie on pause, the chipmunk halted in the air, suspended by magic.

  She plucked him from the air and stuffed him in the bag before the others could get out, tying it up tightly and swinging it over her shoulder like a strange Santa Claus with the worst presents in the world.

  Liv didn’t get a moment to celebrate her victory because without warning, the plane dropped onto the tarmac, making her and everyone around them hop up. Captain Bali fell backward, thankfully catching himself on the partition, his face pressing hard against it as the momentum of the plane pushed everything to the front.

  They were literally flying blind, skidding across the tarmac. Sparks flew up from the metal screeching over the pavement. Liv held tightly to the seats on both sides of her. She had the pages. She had the chipmunks. Now she just had to hope they slowed down before they hit something hard and the plane exploded.

  Chapter Ninety-Six

  As soon as Lunis released the plane, he pulled up, flapping his wings hard to get away from the impact of the aircraft. The dragonettes, directed by him peeled off to the side, got distance from the metal bird that rumbled and screeched when it landed on the tarmac.

  Sparks flew up, nearly hitting Lunis as he lifted up higher. Sophia was right to demand he didn’t land with the aircraft. There were too many potential dangers that could harm him as the plane slid to the side, plummeting across the tarmac.

  Rescue crews surrounded them, as well as news reporters, all a safe distance away until the 747 slowed its momentum, which it didn’t appear about to do any time soon.

  The plane was rocking back and forth, teetering between its wings. Sophia’s mind was cramped with fear, worried about her sister on board. She knew Liv could portal to safety, but there was no chance of that happening with a few hundred mortals on board.

  There was a reason Liv had remained behind on the plane, and Sophia was about to witness it.

  Chapter Ninety-Seven

  Liv had to do something she realized, as the plane took them for a wild ride. They were on the ground, but the potential danger was only different now. If they didn’t slow, they were going to crash into something, and that scared Liv more than anything as she got the view of the rescue vehicles and airport in the distance.

  Passengers screamed as sparks flew up from the ground, and the sound of screeching was nearly deafening. A fire broke out in the cockpit where Liv knew Captain Monaco was still stationed.

  Drawing her focus within, although it was one of the hardest times she’d ever had to concentrate with so many things vying for her attention, Liv honed her attention on slowing down the plane. It would require all her strength, but there was no better use for it right then.

  Liv envisioned a cloud around the 747 that both protected it from other elements while also slowing it down. She blocked out the noise, and the shaking, and the frantic passengers. With everything she had, she focused on swiftly and safely halting the plane.

  Although she was incredibly invested in the task, she didn’t get to see the results because the expense was too much and she passed out, falling down in the aisle face-first.

  Chapter Ninety-Eight

  Sophia wished she had a telepathic link with Liv like she did with Lunis.

  She had done it!

  Sophia knew the only way the airplane came to such a gentle and swift halt was because of something her sister had done. To slow and stop a giant aircraft full of hundreds of mortals would have cost Liv greatly. Even as extremely powerful a magician as she was, she would be drained from the effort.

  Tuning out the sirens and cars speeding toward the smoking airplane, Sophia encouraged Lunis to land as close to the 747 as possible. He was also drained, his muscles shaking from the endurance of carrying the aircraft.

  Fear drumming in her chest, Sophia didn’t even wait until Lunis fully landed before sliding off her dragon and speeding toward the plane. Her legs faltered slightly from being on the still ground instead of the uneven, constantly moving dragon’s back.

  She clambered for the door, needing to be the first one through even with police and other authorities yelling behind her. With a fervent force, she yanked open the airplane door to find total chaos. Passengers were crying. There were objects strewn all over, and many of the overhead bins were open, their contents spilling out.

  In the cockpit, she could smell fire. Thinking that’s where Liv would be, she kicked open the door to find the captain passed out and the control boards around him smoking, sparks flying up around him.

  Sophia shot a finger at the boards, extinguishing the fire at once as she turned her attention to the main cabin.

  “Liv!” Sophia yelled, her voice vibrating with fear.

  “I think that’s her,” the copilot said, cradling Liv’s head in his hands. She was sprawled out on the floor, a duffle bag moving beside her. “She passed out, but I’m certain she’s the one who saved us.”

  Sophia nodded. “She absolutely was,” she said, checking her sister’s pulse. It was faint but steady. She’d be all right. She’d just depleted her magic and passed out before she could kill herself from the expense. It was a nice fail-safe magicians had that often saved them.

  “She’ll need to rest,” Sophia said as passengers clambered to get out of their seats, all of them disoriented.

  Before things could get any crazier and they got locked in the craziness of the passengers pushing to get off the plane, Sophia hoisted her unconscious sister to her feet and moved her to an empty row. Once there, she indicated for the passengers to leave behind their belongings and disembark from the plane.

  If she had the strength, then she would have carried Liv off the plane and to safety, but Sophia was pretty depleted at this point too. She felt certain the emergency services were monitoring the plane, and there weren’t any dangers of more fires breaking out, or if there was, they’d have it under control quickly.

  It was time to let someone else take care of things, she thought, laying her head on her sister’s shoulder and almost falling asleep at once.

  The Beaufont sisters had done everything they could to save the day, and now the one thing they needed to recover was rest—the one tried and true way to restore magical reserves.

  Chapter Ninety-Nine

  Liv smelled burning and bolted upright, thinking she’d failed and the plane had exploded and hundreds were dead on her watch.

  The sight that met her eyes wasn’t what she’d expected. The airplane cabin was mostly empty except for a few official-looking people who were combing through the debris-filled area. Baggage and supplies were everywhere. There were a few passengers still seated, receiving care from emergency employees.

  Beside her, cuddled to her side like she used to do when a child was Sophia, asleep.

  She’d done it. Sophia and Lunis had landed the plane, and Liv had stopped it from crashing. They were all alive and just majorly exhausted, Liv thought as she yawned loudly. She caught sight of a police officer who was holding up the duffle bag. It was squirming, and the chirping noise was growing angrier.

  He gave it a tentative expression like he was going to open it to check the contents.

  “Don’t!” Liv yelled, reaching for her magic and finding it still weak. Thankfully, in his fright of being startled, he dropped the bag on a seat and jerked his head up at Liv.

  “Don’t,” she repeated, this time more calmly. “There are possessed, horrid creatures in there, and I’ve spelled the bag so they can’t get out, but if you open it, well you’ll have a mutiny on your hands, and I’m too depleted to save your ass.”

  He nodded as if he was in a daze. Motioning around to the cabin, he said, “What happened here?”

  “Some chipmunks ate the engines, and thanks to the Dragon Elite, we were saved,” Liv said, looking down proudly at her sister.

  “I think we’re going to need
an official statement from you on this,” the man started.

  “You can have whatever you want after my sister is awake and we’ve had nachos,” Liv replied.

  Sophia began to stir, and Liv was excited for the moment when she opened her eyes and she could welcome her sister back to the waking world. It used to be their thing when they lived together. No matter what, without fail, Sophia always woke up with a smile on her face. Liv was excited to see if, as an adult under dangerous circumstances, that was still true.

  When the blue-eyed princess blinked herself awake, she glanced around momentarily, obviously disoriented, but when her gaze connected with Liv’s, she smiled wide.

  Some things never changed, and the best things about Sophia Beaufont appeared to be as predictable as the rotation of the Earth.

  Chapter One Hundred

  When Sophia found her voice, she looked Liv over and said, “Are you okay? How do you feel?”

  Her sister smiled at her with a sweet fondness. “I feel hungry enough to eat a dragon.”

  Sophia lifted an eyebrow at her. “I’m taking personal offense to that. Stay away from my dragon…actually, stay away from all dragons. They are under my protection.”

  Liv laughed, earning attention from many of the officials searching around the airplane cabin for clues and whatnot. “Do you know how to eat a dragon?”

  Sophia shook her head. “Still don’t like this joke, but I’m guessing the answer is one bite at a time.”

  Liv grimaced at her. “I guess because I bet they are quite gristly. But I was thinking with hot sauce.” She elbowed her sister. “You know, give them that fiery kick.”

  Sophia laughed despite the joke being awful. She was so grateful they were on the ground, alive, and that everyone else appeared to have survived too. She’d have to get a full report from the authorities when she was ready to face them. Right then, her head still felt clouded from the abundant use of magic.

  “So, I don’t think we made it to Dublin, Ireland,” Liv said. “I wonder if that will affect our mission to find Baba Yaga.”

  Sophia thought for a moment, looking at an officer who was sorting through things close by. “Where are we? Is this Ireland?”

  He shook his head. “Omaha.”

  Liv laughed. “Yeah, we didn’t even make it close to Ireland, but that’s fine because the last time I was there, I made some leprechauns super angry, and they would probably sense if I stepped foot in their country. Then we’d be battling an old witch with short redheads biting at our knees.”

  “It’s never a dull moment with you, Liv.”

  “With you either,” she said, withdrawing several pieces of paper from her cloak. “I think I found most of the rest of the pages from Baba Yaga’s grimoire, but it’s hard to tell.”

  “That’s great.” Sophia pulled her own pages from her cloak and added it to the stack. “I’m not sure how we find out if that’s all of them or how many more we’ll need.”

  “Maybe once they are all together, they assemble into the book,” Liv offered.

  Sophia nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense. So, we just have to keep looking around. I’m guessing if we’re in Omaha, then that’s part of the plan, or it will change to accommodate us.”

  Liv stretched into a standing position. “I hear they have good steaks here. Care to share a cow with me?”

  Sophia grinned. “Steak nachos sound magical right now.”

  Liv laughed. “So, right you are, because without some cheesy covered chips, then these girls won’t have any magic to battle that old hag.”

  “Well, let’s hope we refill our reserves before she finds us,” Sophia said.

  “Oh, and speaking of cows, how is Lunis?”

  Lowering her chin, Sophia gave her sister an annoyed expression. “He’ll need some time to recover. I’m expecting he’s out on the tarmac resting with the dragonettes, but I’ll want to open a portal for them to the Gullington so they can rest properly.”

  Liv held up her arm, indicating the open door to the airplane. “Then shall we see the state of things outside of here?”

  Sophia hesitated before nodding, not wanting to face all the questions and scrutiny from the media and police. It was better to get it over with, and then they could return to the mission at hand—after steak nachos, of course.

  Chapter One Hundred One

  When the Beaufont sisters exited the aircraft, most people had their attention on caring for bruised passengers or taking care of the wreckage or staring at the dragons in the distance.

  However, once the crowd noticed the magicians emerge, they all broke into seemingly unending applause.

  The firefighters and police all pulled off their hats and bowed their heads in a show of respect.

  The passengers cheered, Olaf in the front of the closest group, a wide grin on his face.

  Captain Monaco and co-Captain Bali strode over at once, followed by the flight attendant Cecily.

  When they were close, Captain Monaco extended a hand to shake both Sophia and Liv’s. “I can’t thank you enough for what you did.” He looked at the aircraft. “I’m still not sure what did happen, but I know we wouldn’t have fared very well if not for your brave actions.”

  It was Liv who was the first to speak, lifting her voice so the many media trucks surrounding the scene could hear her. “Although we did a lot to save the people of flight 2126, much of the credit should go to the dragons of the Dragon Elite.” She held up her hand, indicating Lunis and the dragonettes in the distance, who all had a good berth from the rest of the crowd.

  The applause broke out again, and many of the passengers swept tears away from their eyes as they regarded the magical creatures.

  Sophia broke away from the group to check on the dragons and return them home. This left Liv to do what she did best and handle publicity. It appeared the Dragon Elite had unknowingly made a lot of progress for their cause.

  Sophia wanted to believe when you were good and true for intrinsic reasons, the odds did stack in your favor. Those who tried to bring down good would always be met with resistance because good persevered in the face of adversity. That’s what Sophia wanted to believe anyway. Only the future would tell if the Dragon Elite could truly change the political perspective that had spread worldwide.

  Chapter One Hundred Two

  Although Sophia felt as though she’d spent enough time in a mortal airport to last her for her very long life, they decided it would be best to grab food there in Omaha. The main reason for this was they didn’t really know where to find Baba Yaga or the rest of the pages of the grimoire, or if she’d find them. If she did right then, while their magical reserves were low, they’d be in no position to fight her.

  After sending Lunis and the dragonettes through a portal to the Gullington, Sophia was really drained. When they slid into a booth at Chili’s Bar and Grill at the Omaha airport, they pretty much ordered one of everything.

  “Okay, let me get this right,” the waitress with the name tag that read Jamaica began, reading from her pages of notes after taking their order. “You want a skillet queso, chips and salsa, classic nachos, classic nachos with chicken, classic nachos with beef, mozzarella sticks, a Big Mouth burger with the works and fries, an order of Texas-style ribs, chicken crispers, the southwest eggrolls, boneless buffalo wings, and a side salad. Is there anything else?”

  She asked the last part like it was a joke.

  Liv glanced at her sister. “Is that too much food, you think?”

  Jamaica scoffed. “You think?”

  Liv shook her head. “I misspoke. Is that too many vegetables?” Giving the waitress a serious expression, she said, “Nix the salad. Bring extra ranch dressing. However much you think is enough, triple it. Think vat-size and you’ll be rewarded.”

  “You’re the two sisters who saved the plane going to Ireland, aren’t you?” the woman asked.

  It was sort of a joke question since reporters were buzzing around the restaurant, taking picture
s of the two casually sitting in the booth. They weren’t allowed entry though because the police had shut down the restaurant so the sisters could have a relaxing meal, the one thing they requested when asked what they needed for recovery.

  “That would be us,” Liv replied proudly, pointing at her sister. “Her dragon super-sized himself for the first time when it wasn’t a full moon. Pretty cool, huh?”

  Jamaica scratched her head with the end of her pen. “I’m not sure I understand what that means. But why are you here?”

  “Because our plane nearly crashed,” Liv stated like this should have been obvious.

  The waitress shook her head. “No, I meant, why are you here at this restaurant, still hanging out at the airport after the whole ordeal?”

  “It’s the place with the best chance of getting nachos,” Liv answered. “Is that skillet queso going to take much longer? It’s impossible to get the food if you don’t put the order in unless your order pad is magic and sends it back to the kitchen.”

  Jamaica studied her paper pad as if actually considering the question. Finally, she said, “Oh, no. I’ll go and put the order in. Sorry.”

  Liv sighed when the waitress hurried off, sinking down into the booth. “Good. I’m glad she got the hint because I didn’t want to have to tell her the truth.”

  Sophia laughed. “That we are hanging out here because we don’t have the next lead, and we’re searching for random pages that turn up for a grimoire that belongs to a seven-thousand-year-old witch?”

  Liv took a sip of her water and pointed at her sister. “Yes, that’s the truth I was avoiding.” She pushed her drink away and shook her head. “There’s not enough vodka in this.”