Magic Games (Dragon Born Serafina Book 2)

by Ella Summers

  “You’re a freaking psychopath,” Cutler said, his eyes still wide in shock. He didn’t even notice that the tips of his hair were on fire.

  “Your hair,” she coughed out. It felt like a car engine had exploded in her lungs.

  Cutler patted down the tiny flames. “Psychopath,” he repeated.

  “Pretty much,” Sera said.

  As he met her eyes, his grin returned and manic delight spread across his face. “You’re even hotter as a mage than you were as a human.”

  And Cutler was even crazier than she’d thought.

  “Go out with me. Tonight.”

  Sera sidestepped his grasping hand. “I’m busy tonight.”

  “What could be more important than going out with me?”

  Uh, anything? “Work,” she said instead, hoping that would avoid another battle with brooms and mops. Assuming she hadn’t just burned Mayhem’s entire stash of them to ash.

  “You’re on leave.” His eyebrows scrunched together in suspicion.

  “Not exactly. I have to pay back my Magic Games fees somehow. Not all of us were born with a magic money tree in our front yard.”

  “Drachenburg,” Cutler said, frowning. “You’re working for Drachenburg. I saw him leaving Simmons’s office last month. What are you working on with the dragon?”

  Ha. So she wasn’t the only one who called him the dragon.

  “Hunting monsters mostly, just like I always do,” she said.

  “Except with magic.”

  She shrugged. “Kai is helping me.”

  “Sera, that man is out of his mind. He ate my three-headed guard dog.”

  “He ate your what?” Naomi asked, walking up beside Sera.

  “My three-headed guard dog.”

  “He did that as a mage?” Sera asked.

  “No, as a dragon.” He frowned. “But that’s beside the point. He’s the same person, whether mage or dragon.”

  “Was the three-headed dog in question terrorizing innocent people by chance?”

  “He was only playing,” Cutler pouted. From the look on his face, he’d had this conversation before. Probably with Kai. “You need to stay away from Drachenburg. He’s not good people.”

  She arched her brows. “And you are?”

  “Of course, darling.” He gave her a dazzling smile, the kind you could bounce marbles off of. “I’ll protect you from him.”

  “Are you so sure? You couldn’t even protect your dog from him.”

  The arm he’d tried to wrap around her dropped to his side. “Blow him off,” he said, regaining his composure. He tried to sizzle her with another smile. “Come with me tonight. You’ll have more fun hanging out with me than sloshing through monster guts with him.”

  “Sorry.” She shrugged his arm away. “Busy.”

  “Tomorrow?” Cutler asked. He just didn’t get it.

  “I’m busy every night,” she said, then grabbed Naomi’s hand and hurried toward the women’s locker room.

  5

  Mages Illustrated

  “Do you think he’ll follow us in here?”

  Sera looked away from her open locker, meeting Naomi’s amethyst eyes. “No. As we walked away, Zan went to go talk to him. I heard something about ‘insurance premiums’.”

  “Grace must have called Zan during the fight.”

  “Likely,” Sera agreed, then tossed her shoes into the locker.

  “So, what’s the plan?” She hitched her thumb over her shoulder, indicating the door that led to the gym. “You mentioned you wanted my help with something in there.”

  “Yes. I need to practice for the Magic Games.”

  Naomi’s rosy cheeks paled. “I’m not sure I can help you with that. I was never in the Games. It’s only for full-blooded mages. Thank goodness,” she added under her breath.

  “Actually, I need your help because you’re not a full-blooded mage.”

  Naomi’s indigo brows lifted. “Oh?”

  “Kai says I need to prepare for all types of magic. Who knows what they’ll throw at me in the Games,” Sera said. “I want you to try to blast me with Fairy Dust. And any other tricks you might have.”

  “Well, I do have a lot of tricks.” Naomi winked a pale blue eye, and when it opened again, it was chocolate-brown. “Just remember that my Fairy Dust isn’t as powerful as a full fairy’s.”

  “You’re also half mage. That hybrid magic is special and strong, and I need to figure out how to fight it too.”

  Naomi set her hand on Sera’s shoulder. “You’re really worried about this, aren’t you?”

  “Yes.” Sera stared into the dark depths of her temporary locker; it was about as welcoming as a black hole. Maybe she should put pictures up. With pink flowered borders.

  “I will do whatever I can to help,” Naomi said seriously—then, more playfully, added, “Though I have a sinking suspicion this girl power training session has as much to do with training as it does with avoiding someone.”

  “Like who?” Sera asked warily, turning around to face her. She wasn’t surprised to see the wide grin on Naomi’s face.

  “Kai Drachenburg.”

  “That’s ridiculous. Kai is helping me train for the Games. It would be stupid to avoid him.”

  “Indeed.”

  “So I’m not,” Sera added. “…uh, avoiding him.”

  The look on Naomi’s face told Sera her friend didn’t buy it for a second.

  Sera tried again. “He’s working right now. I couldn’t have trained with him if I wanted to. Which I don’t,” she tacked on quickly.

  “Because you’re avoiding him.”

  “Yes. Wait, no.” Sera frowned at her. “You’re trying to trick me.”

  “Am I?” Naomi asked, her face the epitome of innocence. Her magic, on the other hand, was as wicked as they came. It bubbled with delighted hiccups and smelled strongly of bubblegum.

  “I’m not avoiding him. Not that I mind a respite from his attacks,” Sera admitted. “Kai is a tough coach. He hits hard. Like wrecking-ball-demolishing-a-building hard.”

  “That’s to be expected of a first tier mage who shifts into a dragon. But that’s not why you’re hiding from him, Sera.”

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  Naomi flashed her pretty white teeth at her; they sparkled like polished marble. “You like him.” She nudged Sera. “Admit it.”

  “I do not ‘like’ the dragon,” Sera replied, trying to keep her face perfectly neutral.

  “So that’s why you kissed him? Because you don’t like him?”

  “He kissed me.”

  Naomi’s grin widened. “And you liked it.”

  “He’s a good kisser.” Sera tried for a nonchalant shrug, but it came out stiff. After three weeks of torturous training, her body was screaming for a massage.

  “I know all about what happened. All about how you saved Kai.” Naomi began to pace around the locker room in hyper, prancing steps. “You two shared an amazing adventure. Adventures like that bring people closer together. You like him. And he likes you. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be training you so hard.”

  “I’ll try to remember that the next time he blasts me onto my back.”

  Naomi snickered.

  “Seriously?” Sera asked her. “You’re going to turn that into something dirty?”

  “Sorry.” Naomi’s hand disappeared into her locker, then she pulled out a magazine. “Do you know what this is?”

  “Mages Illustrated,” Sera read the magazine title off the cover.

  “Not just any Mages Illustrated,” Naomi said. “This is the Mages Illustrated with Kai on the cover. Topless.”

  Sera took a closer look at the man flexing his muscles on the cover and nearly snorted. That was Kai all right. And he looked like he really needed to kill something. Like the photographer. Or the person who had made off with his shirt.

  “That’s the dragon all right,” Sera said.

  “He’s one gorgeous man.” Naomi slid her finger dow
n the magazine cover, tracing Kai’s contours.

  “Shall I leave you alone with him?”

  “No.” Naomi took one final, longing look at the magazine, then pushed it into Sera’s hands. “Does he often go around with his shirt off?”

  “Uh, no.” She rolled her eyes for effect.

  “Oh, come on.” Naomi wrapped her arm around Sera, drawing her in closer. “It’s just us girls here. You can tell me how you feel about Kai.”

  “He’s arrogant and controlling. And his car looks like a tank,” she added.

  “Is that a bad thing?”

  “It’s a…thing,” Sera finished eloquently.

  “His magic is off the charts.”

  “That’s probably what’s responsible for those arrogant and controlling qualities I mentioned. Kai is an alpha male. With a capital A.”

  “You say that like it’s a four-letter word.”

  “Yep.”

  Naomi snickered. “So, he’s arrogant, controlling, and alpha. And?”

  “And he’s a good kisser. That might make up for two of the three. But not all three.”

  Naomi’s merriment melted and she said seriously, “You’re so in over your head, girl.”

  “I know.” Sera sighed. “But I have more important things to worry about right now. I have to train for the Magic Games, then survive those Games. And all the while in between training and not having my mind cracked open like an egg, I need to figure out what some naughty vampires are up to at the Games. But at this very moment, I need your help, Naomi.” She handed the magazine back to her.

  Naomi shook her head. “Keep it,” she said with a smile. “You never know when you might need it.”

  Sera didn’t think that was likely. She couldn’t do anything remotely useful with a magazine. Sure, maybe she could roll it up and smack people with it, but she had fists that could do that just as well. And when those failed, she had her knives.

  But Naomi didn’t look like she was going to take no for an answer, so Sera tucked the magazine into her locker and shut it. She didn’t have time to argue—not when her life depended on training for the Magic Games.

  6

  Centaur Storm

  “How about this one?” Naomi asked, holding up a hanger.

  Sera cringed at the tiny whisper of a black dress hanging from it. “Are you sure you didn’t pick up a swimsuit by mistake?”

  “This is the twenty-third outfit you’ve shot down.” Naomi expelled a heavy sigh and put the hanger back on the rack. “You need to stop being so picky.”

  “Trove is the picky one,” Sera mumbled, skimming through another rack.

  They’d been shopping for nearly half an hour, which was half an hour too long. Every floor of Macy’s was flooded with Sunday shoppers. Rushing, aggressive, shoving Sunday shoppers. Sera would have preferred monsters. You were at least allowed to poke monsters with your sword when they acted rude.

  One of the floors was dedicated to the Rich Witch brand. That’s where Naomi had dragged her. She’d described the brand as ‘trashy chic’. Looking around at the offerings on the rack, Sera had to agree.

  “How is Trove being picky by expecting their clientele to wear clean clothes that aren’t torn?” Naomi asked.

  “I can’t even make it two hours without having to fight off a monster or mage or some other supernatural crazy. Clothes get torn. And dirty. I can’t go shopping for new clothes every two hours.”

  “You’re making this entirely too complicated,” Naomi said.

  Sera shrugged. She hadn’t wanted to go shopping. Naomi, being of the same mind as Kai, had talked her into it. Right now, Sera was missing out on dissecting more vampiric tapeworms with Mayhem’s disposal department. Yes, that was every bit as disgusting as it sounded, which is why it hadn’t taken much convincing from Naomi.

  “My life has recently taken a complicated tur—”

  A shrill shriek split through the room. Before Sera could turn to see what it was all about, a chorus of screams echoed the first, followed by a stampede of fleeing footsteps. Towering high over the panicking crowds, their heads nearly bumping the chandeliers, a horde of centaurs stomped across the store. Their eyes, gleaming with hate, glared at a second centaur horde galloping down the wooden escalator. Armor covered the centaurs’ chests, arms, and backs, clinking like a bundle of tin cans as the two factions clashed.

  “See what I mean?” Sera said to Naomi over the clamor of hooves and clang of steel.

  “You always seem to be in just the right place at the right time for trouble,” her friend agreed.

  They watched the battle that had taken over the store. Centaurs leapt and galloped and hollered. The shoppers were hollering too. They ran in erratic, panicked zigzags, squealing at the top of their lungs. Speckled here and there between the chaos, a few calmer shoppers had hunkered down behind overturned clothing racks and were shooting videos of the fight.

  “Do you think we should do something?” Naomi asked as a centaur galloped after a fleeing group of humans. “All the screaming is riling them up.”

  “Centaurs are always riled up,” Sera said, drawing two knives. “Drama queens.”

  She picked out the two leaders in the crowd, who were entangled in a hoof-to-hoof brawl. How convenient. A knife in each hand, she sprinted forward and slammed a blade into each. The centaurs reared back, but they didn’t stop fighting each other—not even to kick her away.

  “Hit them harder?” Naomi suggested, stepping up beside her.

  “I didn’t bring my sword.” She hadn’t expected to need it while shopping. Wishful thinking. She always needed her sword. “But I can try something else.”

  Focusing on the knives inside the two centaurs, she drew on fire. She poured the magic down the blades, searing flesh and burning blood. Through the crackling snap of her magic, something was humming. The raw song tickled her ears and buzzed down the back of her neck. A hand tore Sera out of the trance. She looked back into Naomi’s horrified eyes.

  “Sera.” She pointed.

  The two centaur leaders were rolling on the floor, screaming out in agony. All the others had stopped fighting. They were hardly moving. They watched their leaders, the same horrified look that was in Naomi’s eyes was in theirs too. Sera severed her magic, pushing it back down where it belonged. The centaurs’ screams died, and a moment later they stood.

  “You are a powerful warrior,” one of them said to Sera, respect in his eyes. He glanced back at the knife sticking out of his flank. “What kind of enchantment is on that weapon?”

  Sera gave the knife a rough tug, and it tore out of him. Coddling a centaur was a surefire way to send him into a rage. They believed in strength and bravery, not hugs and kisses.

  “A warrior doesn’t share her secrets,” she said and yanked the knife out of the second centaur.

  “Indeed,” the first said, laughing.

  Sera sheathed her knives. “What are your names?”

  “Apollo,” said the first.

  “Thor.”

  Wow. Someone had delusions of grandeur. Sera turned to the second centaur.

  “You only have a sword,” she pointed out.

  Thor gave her a perplexed look. Or maybe that was annoyed.

  “Thor is supposed to have a hammer,” she said.

  Apollo let out a snort worthy of a stallion.

  Thor’s grip tightened on his sword. “My other weapon is a war hammer.”

  “That would make a great bumper sticker,” Sera said, glancing at his flanks.

  Beside her, Naomi slapped her hand against her forehead.

  Sera frowned at her. “You did not just facepalm my joke.”

  “That was supposed to be a joke?” Naomi asked with a sassy smirk.

  Sera sighed. “Never mind.” She looked at Apollo and Thor again. “You two will need to take your lovers’ spat elsewhere. This establishment is under my protection.”

  “Since when?” Thor asked, a challenge in his eyes.

&nbs
p; “Since now,” she told him. “So if you two don’t want to end up squealing like pigs on the floor again, move on out.”

  Apollo grinned at Thor. “I like her. She’s spunky.”

  Thor’s frown deepened. “You can’t take all of us at once,” he told Sera.

  “You’re welcome to find out,” she replied. “But I have more than just knives at my disposal.”

  Thor glared at her, like he really was going to test her. Even at their calmest, centaurs’ magic was heavy and musky, which wasn’t all that surprising considering that they were essentially part horse. Right now, Thor’s magic wasn’t just heavy and musky. It was as thick as butter—but not nearly as tasty. He stared down at her, his eyes dark and cold, his magic a storm of thunder and fire.

  Then, just as his anger was reaching the boiling point, it deflated. He turned and walked away. Apollo gave her a brusque nod, then he headed for a different exit. The other centaurs streamed into two neat groups and followed their leaders.

  “Well, that went surprisingly well,” Naomi said, looking across the battlefield of overturned racks and scattered clothing.

  With the centaurs gone, the scared shoppers were starting to venture out of their hiding places. A few of the braver ones were already showing one another their videos of the fight. New shoppers were filtering into the store from outside, and a bedraggled woman with a ‘manager’ bar pinned to her blue blouse was giving the mountains of mess a weary look.

  The respite didn’t even last a minute. Before Naomi could show Sera another dress, a horde of vampires flooded the store, their eyes gleaming crimson.

  7

  Vampire Apocalypse

  The shoppers screamed and scattered like the vampire apocalypse was upon them. They stumbled over snapped coat hangers and rumpled clothing. Of course the vampires took chase. The only thing that got a vampire riled up as much as blood was fear. And the Sunday shoppers were giving these vampires a real tasty appetizer.