by Linsey Hall
I grabbed my jacket off the ground and shrugged it on. “I have no idea. We’re buddies.”
“Being buddies doesn’t mean you can defy the laws of the supernatural world.”
“Apparently it does.” I stepped out into the cold, shoulders tensed. But the Yetis were still under the dirt, thank fates. I turned to Cass. “I want to destroy the castle itself, and I’ve got a plan, but I’ll need a ride.”
She saluted. “Sure thing, Cap.”
I grinned. “Everyone needs to get far away from here. Then get ready for the fireworks.”
Ares clearly didn’t want to let me go, but I pressed hard on his arm to remove it from my waist. “I’ll be okay, I promise. I’ve got Cass.”
He gave me a skeptical look. “You look ill.”
“I don’t feel so hot from the dark magic, but really—Cass will take care of me. And you can’t be here when I light this place up.”
Finally, he nodded and stepped back. “Be careful.”
Cass shifted into her griffon form as my other friends got the hell out of the castle the way we’d entered. I climbed on top of Cass’s back and she pushed off into the air. From above, I could see everyone sprinting away from the castle, toward Torus and the waiting horses.
“Take us above the tower!” I cried, watchful of the air around us. I didn’t know what Drakon was capable of in his truest form, but I didn’t want to find out right now.
Cass flew us over the top of the tower and hovered about fifty meters above. Once everyone was far enough away, I held my hand out over the air and called upon Old Faithful, my conjuring magic. I was well tapped out of destroyer magic right now. I needed something easy and reliable.
I envisioned a massive boulder as big as Fabio. It formed in the air right under my palm, then plummeted toward the tower. With a crash, it plowed through the roof and then through the floor below, revealing Drakon’s horrible pit to the world. At least it was empty of the oil. Soon, he wouldn’t even be able to refill the pool. His whole place would be gone.
I held my breath and conjured several large sticks of dynamite. I lit them with a conjured match, then dropped them toward the hole the boulder had created. They’d blow up from within, causing the ultimate destruction.
“Go!” I cried.
Cass took off, hurtling toward safety.
A massive boom rent the air and I turned, watching the fiery explosion tear the castle apart. I turned back as Cass flew us toward our friends. I clung to her back, wind tearing at my hair. I couldn’t believe what had just happened. The bad… The good. And the magic that I’d wielded… it had been phenomenal.
Chapter Fifteen
The next night, after we’d all recovered from the expedition to Siberia, we decided to do something totally crazy.
We threw a dinner party.
Because of size restrictions, we had to host it at Ares’s house, which was the only place big enough for all of us.
“This was an excellent idea,” Ares said as he mixed the queso and chiles together.
“Everyone needs to eat.” I dumped chips into a bowl. “And everyone needs a break. Even if it is a short one.”
Cass, who leaned against the granite counter, raised her can of PBR. “Couldn’t agree more.”
I grinned and took a sip of my Four Roses, enjoying the burn. Bourbon was perfect for situations like this. “And we’re not technically taking the evening off. We’re just having our wrap-up with some food and a view.”
“And what a view it is.” Connor hiked his thumb back toward the living room where the expansive windows gave the incredible view of Magic’s Bend at night. “You sure know how to live, Ares.”
“Um, thank you,” Ares said, clearly off kilter with compliments on his fancy apartment. He might not think it was fancy, but we sure did.
“I think we’re ready.” I picked up the bowl of chips and headed toward the living room. “Grab the queso, please.”
Ares picked up the bowl and followed us out. Claire, Del, and Roarke sat on the gray couches, chatting. We joined them, setting the food down on the table. The main courses would come later, but for now, we’d take care of business.
We hadn’t seen each other since our ride back across the desert and the return to Magic’s Bend last night, since everyone had needed some medical care and a good long sleep. It’d taken me last night and today to recover from the dark magic that had surged through me, but I felt mostly better now. I was still haunted by the idea that I’d have to return and live in Elesius if I didn’t want my homeland to die, but I was trying to ignore that worry. First things first, and all that.
“Thanks for your help, guys.” I smiled. “You made all the difference, keeping those Yetis off my back. Not to mention all the rest.”
“Always.” Cass raised her PBR. “Here’s to deadly adventures.”
I raised my glass, enjoying the glint of light on the amber liquid. We clinked our glasses together.
“Torus was so happy about the destruction of the castle,” Claire mused. “I’ve never seen a man so gleeful.”
Joy warmed my chest. “He was, wasn’t he?”
“As for Drakon,” Ares said. “He’s still out there.”
“And we have no new clues about his location.” Del frowned. “Or why he wants to kill the dragons. What does he hope to gain?”
“No idea. If only our FireSoul magic was strong enough to find him.” I’d been trying all day with no luck.
“Whatever concealment charm he’s wearing is powerful,” Cass said. “I don’t think we’re going to have a breakthrough on that.”
“We could try to find the dragons,” Connor said. “Though the prophecy was pretty vague.”
“Aren’t they usually?” Claire laughed.
She had a point. Prophecies were often hard to understand even if you did know the whole thing.
“It’s a clue, at least.” I clung to that hope. “We just need more clues. Drakon will hunt them. So we will too. And you never know, Drakon might come to us. He needs us for his plan.”
“We could make ourselves bait.” Cass grinned, a cunning glint in her eye.
“Something like that,” I said.
“I don’t like it,” Ares said. “Too dangerous.”
“I second that.” Roarke’s words tripped over Aidan’s, which were basically identical.
I looked at Ares. “We’re used to dangerous. It’s kind of what we do.”
“I’ve noticed that,” he said.
“Good.” I nodded. “We’ll come up with a plan. Because Drakon is coming for us. And we have to be ready.”
Across Town…
Inside Nix’s trove, magic sparked, illuminating the darkness. Plants rustled with magic, as if they sensed the change in the air. The dragonfruit plant shivered as magic flowed through its stalks and fruit. It shifted, morphing with the magic of Life. The magic of FireSouls.
As rain pattered on the glass ceiling of the greenhouse, one of the fat round dragonfruits dropped from the stalk and landed in the dirt. Power vibrated through it, and the fruit took on new life. It stretched and unfurled, growing limbs, then a tail, and finally a head. Red scales tipped with green glinted in the light of the moon that flooded through the glass ceiling. Green wings and obsidian claws curled against the dragon’s small body.
Thunder cracked in the distance as the tiny dragon—born of magic and life—opened its dark eyes and sought the future.
~~~
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Excerpt Of Hidden Magic
(Told from the perspective of Cass Clereaux)
Jungle, Southeast Asia
Five years before the events in Demon Magic
“How much are we being paid for this job again?” I asked as I glanced at the inhabitants filling the bar. It was a motley crowd of supernaturals, many of whom looked shifty as hell.
“Not nearly enough.” Del frowned at the man across the bar, who was giving her his best sexy face. There was a lot of eyebrow movement happening. “Is he having a seizure?”
“Looks like it.” Nix grinned. “Though I gotta say, I wasn’t expecting this. We’re basically in a tree, for magic’s sake. In the middle of the jungle! Where are all these dudes coming from?”
“According to my info, there’s a mining operation near here. Though I’d say we’re more under a tree than in a tree.”
“I’m with Cass,” Del said. “Under, not in.”
“Fair enough.” Nix’s green eyes traveled around the room.
We were deep in Southeast Asia, in a bar that had long ago been reclaimed by the jungle. A massive fig tree had grown over and around the ancient building, its huge roots encapsulating the stone walls. It was straight out of a fairy tale. Monks had once lived here, but a few supernaturals of indeterminate species had gotten ahold of it and turned it into a watering hole for the local supernaturals. We were meeting our local contact here, but he was late.
“Hey, pretty lady.” A smarmy voice sounded from my left. “What are you?”
I turned to face the guy who was giving me the up and down, his gaze roving from my tank top to my shorts. He wasn’t Clarence, our local contact. And if he meant “what kind of supernatural are you?” I sure as hell wouldn’t be answering.
“Not interested is what I am,” I said.
“Aww, that’s no way to treat a guy.” He grasped my hip, rubbing his thumb up and down.
I gagged, then smacked his hand away, tempted to throat-punch him. It was a favorite move of mine, but I didn’t want to start a fight before Clarence got here. Didn’t want to piss off the boss and all. He liked it when jobs went smoothly.
The man raised his hands. “Hey, hey. No need to get feisty. You three sisters?”
I glanced doubtfully at Nix and Del, with their dark hair that was so different from my red. We might call ourselves sisters—deirfiúr in our native Irish—but this idiot didn’t know that. We were all about twenty years old, but we looked nothing alike.
“Go away,” I said. I had no patience for dudes who touched me within a second of saying hello. “Run along and flirt with your hand, because that’s all the action you’ll be getting tonight.”
His face turned a mottled red, and he raised a fist. His magic welled, the scent of rotten fruit overwhelming.
He thought he was going to smack me? Or use his magic against me?
I lashed out, punching him in the throat as I’d wanted to earlier. His eyes bulged and he gagged. I kneed him in the crotch, grinning when he keeled over.
“Hey!” A burly man with a beard lunged for us, his buddy beside him following. “That’s no way—”
“To treat a guy?” I finished for him as I kicked out at him. My tall, heavy boots collided with his chest, sending him flying backward. I might not use my magic, but I sure as hell could fight.
His friend raised his hand and sent a blast of wind at us. It threw me backward, sending me skidding across the floor.
By the time I’d scrambled to my feet, a brawl had broken out in the bar. Fists flew left and right, with a bit of magic thrown in. Nothing bad enough to ruin the bar, like jets of flame, because no one wanted to destroy the only watering hole for a hundred miles, but enough that it lit up the air with varying magical signatures.
Nix conjured a baseball bat and swung it at a guy who charged her, while Del teleported behind a man and smashed a chair over his head. I’d always been jealous of Del’s ability to sneak up on people like that.
All in all, it was turning into a good evening. Watching a fight between supernaturals was fun.
“Enough!” the bartender bellowed, right before I could throw myself back into the fray. “Or no more beer!”
The bar settled down immediately. I glared at the jerk who’d started it. There was no way I’d take the blame, even though I’d thrown the first punch. He should have known better.
The bartender gave me a look and I shrugged, hiking a thumb at the jerk who’d touched me. “He shoulda kept his hands to himself.”
“Fair enough,” the bartender said.
I nodded and turned to find Nix and Del. They’d grabbed our beers and were putting them on a table in the corner. I went to join them.
We were a team. Sisters by choice, ever since we’d woken in a field at fifteen with no memories other than those that said we were FireSouls on the run from someone who had hurt us. Who was hunting us.
Our biggest goal, even bigger than getting out from under our current boss’s thumb, was to save enough money to buy concealment charms that would hide us from the monster who hunted us. He was just a shadowy memory, but it was enough to keep us running.
“Where is Clarence, anyway?” I pulled my damp tank top away from my sweaty skin. The jungle was damned hot. We couldn’t break into the temple until Clarence gave us the information we needed to get past the guard at the front. And we didn’t need to spend too much longer in this bar.
Del glanced at her watch, her blue eyes flashing with annoyance. “He’s twenty minutes late. Old Man Bastard said he should be here at eight.”
Old Man Bastard—OMB for short—was our boss. His name said it all. Del, Nix, and I were FireSouls, the most despised species of supernatural because we could steal other magical being’s powers if we killed them. We’d never done that, of course, but OMB didn’t care. He’d figured out our secret when we were too young to hide it effectively and had been blackmailing us to work for him ever since.
It’d been four years of finding and stealing treasure on his behalf. Treasure hunting was our other talent, a gift from the dragon with whom legend said we shared a soul. No one had seen a dragon in centuries, so I wasn’t sure if the legend was even true, but dragons were covetous, so it made sense they had a knack for finding treasure.
“What are we after again?” Nix asked.
“A pair of obsidian daggers,” Del said. “Nice ones.”
“And how much is this job worth?” Nix repeated my earlier question. Money was always on our minds. It was our only chance at buying our freedom, but OMB didn’t pay us enough for it to be feasible anytime soon. We kept meticulous track of our earnings and saved like misers anyway.
“A thousand each.”
“Damn, that’s pathetic.” I slouched back in my chair and stared up at the ceiling, too bummed about our crappy pay to even be impressed by the stonework and vines above my head.
“Hey, pretty ladies.” The oily voice made my skin crawl. We could just not get a break in here. I looked up to see Clarence, our contact.
Clarence was a tall man, slender as a vine, and had the slicked back hair and pencil-thin mustache of a 1940s movie star. Unfortunately, it didn’t work on him. Probably because his stare was like a lizard’s. He was more Gomez Addams than Clark Gable. I’d bet anything that he liked working for OMB.
“Hey, Clarence,” I said. “Pull up a seat and tell us how to get into the temple.”
Clarence slid into a chair, his movement eerily snakelike. I shivered and scooted my chair away, bumping into Del. The scent of her magic flared, a clean hit of fresh laundry, as she no doubt suppressed her instinct to transport away from Clarence. If I had her gift of teleportation, I’d have to repress it as well.
“How about a drink first?” Clarence said.
Del growled, but Nix interjected, her voice almost nice. She had the most self control out of the three of us. “No can do, Clarence. Yo
u know… Mr. Oribis”—her voice tripped on the name, probably because she wanted to call him OMB—“wants the daggers soon. Maybe next time, though.”
“Next time.” Clarence shook his head like he didn’t believe her. He might be a snake, but he was a clever one. His chest puffed up a bit. “You know I’m the only one who knows how to get into the temple. How to get into any of the places in this jungle.”
“And we’re so grateful you’re meeting with us. Mr. Oribis is so grateful.” Nix dug into her pocket and pulled out the crumpled envelope that contained Clarence’s pay. We’d counted it and found—unsurprisingly—that it was more than ours combined, even though all he had to do was chat with us for two minutes. I’d wanted to scream when I’d seen it.
Clarence’s gaze snapped to the money. “All right, all right.”
Apparently his need to be flattered went out the window when cash was in front of his face. Couldn’t blame him, though. I was the same way.
“So, what are we up against?” I asked.
The temple containing the daggers had been built by supernaturals over a thousand years ago. Like other temples of its kind, it was magically protected. Clarence’s intel would save us a ton of time and damage to the temple if we could get around the enchantments rather than breaking through them.
“Dvarapala. A big one.”
“A gatekeeper?” I’d seen one of the giant, stone monster statues at another temple before.
“Yep.” He nodded slowly. “Impossible to get through. The temple’s as big as the Titanic—hidden from humans, of course—but no one’s been inside in centuries, they say.”
Hidden from humans was a given. They had no idea supernaturals existed, and we wanted to keep it that way.
“So how’d you figure out the way in?” Del asked. “And why haven’t you gone in? Bet there’s lots of stuff you could fence in there. Temples are usually full of treasure.”
“A bit of pertinent research told me how to get in. And I’d rather sell the entrance information and save my hide. It won’t be easy to get past the booby traps in there.”
Hide? Snakeskin, more like. Though he had a point. I didn’t think he’d last long trying to get through a temple on his own.