by Ella Summers
“I shouldn’t be surprised that a dragon eats meat for breakfast,” Sera commented, sitting down beside Riley.
Naomi took the free chair beside her, which put her dangerously close to Kai. Rather than cower before him like basically every other supernatural, she gave him an impish wink.
Kai’s gaze remained locked on Sera, like he had her caught in the cross hairs of his rifle. “Perhaps you’d prefer if I’d flown out to the mountains to catch myself a fat sheep or goat to eat?”
Sera blinked. “I hope you’re not serious.”
“Of course not,” he said, taking a sip of his coffee. “Sheep and goats are far too small. I prefer cows.”
“You’re messing with me because you know my brain’s all wacky from not sleeping well last night,” she said.
Kai handed her a bag of upscale granola. The bag was pale blue with a gold bow and a label that told her it had come from the expensive organic magic shop inside Magic & 8th Avenue.
“Bad dreams?” he asked as she poured granola into her bowl.
“I had a dream about you,” she said.
Riley’s spoon clinked against his bowl, Naomi’s bagel paused in front of her mouth, and even Kai stopped eating. All three of them were staring at her.
“About you and Finn,” Sera amended. “At Alcatraz. He was using the Priming Bangles on you.” She cringed. There was no need to mention the flesh-chomping magic or Kai’s screams. She was trying hard to forget it herself.
Kai set his coffee cup down. “Sera, the Priming Bangles are where no one will ever find them.”
“I know.”
“And now that I know Finn’s true nature, he won’t be able to gain the upper hand again.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”
She pulled out her phone, swiping to Finn’s message before handing it over to Kai. As he read, his magic lashed out, electrifying the air. Ice crystals crackled across the screen.
“When did you get this?” he asked, low and deep. Pure fury burned in his eyes.
Sera grabbed her phone and brushed off the frosty crust with the sleeve of her sweatshirt. “Last night. Right after I got back here.”
“You should have called me over the minute you got his message.”
“And then what?” she said. “Have you watch over me all night long?”
“If need be.”
“I can take care of myself. I’m not afraid of Finn.”
“Your nightmares suggest otherwise,” Kai said cooly. “The Magic Games start this afternoon. You need to be rested. Your mind needs to be rested.” His phone buzzed. He looked at the number. “I need to take this call. Eat quickly, so we can start our training session on time.”
As he walked off, Sera stared into her bowl. She felt the urge to not eat, just to show him he couldn’t tell her what to do. But no one won in that scenario. Besides, the delectable scents of vanilla and strawberries were a temptation she couldn’t refuse.
“Stupid controlling dragon,” she grumbled between bites of granola. It tasted even better than it smelled. The sweet flavors exploded on her tongue. The subtle, tingling aftertaste of fairy magic lingered on her tastebuds. It was the best granola she’d ever had.
“Kai’s just doing this because he’s worried about you,” Riley said. “He cares about you. And you care about him.”
Sera looked up from her granola.
“Oh, yes,” Naomi agreed. “You can see it in the way she looks at him.”
“And how is that?” Sera demanded.
“Like you want everyone to leave the room so you can jump his bones.”
Sera rested her chin on her hands and smiled. “Don’t you have to get ready for work?”
“Yes. Sadly.” Naomi took a final bite of bagel, then rose from her chair. “You can borrow some of my clothes if you want. I have a great pair of pants that would show off your butt.” Then she winked and disappeared into the bathroom.
“She’s a one-way ticket to trouble,” Sera commented.
“Maybe.” Riley grinned. “But she’s right. I know about what happened in that tower on Alcatraz. You can pretend you don’t have feelings for Kai, but we both know that’s not true.”
“So you’ve decided to play matchmaker?”
“No, but I think you owe it to Kai—to yourself—to give him a chance,” Riley said. “Just look at all he’s done to help you. And to keep your secret, even though he doesn’t know what it is. He’s putting himself into a difficult position by helping you.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he and I are friends, and we talk.”
“Complaining about me, is he?”
“No. He’s mentioned that he’s worried about you. He knows you’re scared of your magic, and he wants to help you. He is helping you. And it’s costing him.”
“How?” Sera asked.
“I’m not sure exactly. Kai doesn’t talk about that part, but I’m not stupid. I can read between the lines. And I’ve overheard stuff. He’s put himself between you and the Magic Council, and they’re not happy about it. The Council has a feeling you’re special, and they always get suspicious when someone pretends to be human who’s not. Most people exaggerate their magic, not hide it.”
“I suppose that’s true,” she said, stealing a glance at the bathroom door. Naomi had turned on the shower in the bathroom, but Sera lowered her voice and leaned in closer anyway. “Riley, the thing is, well, I know you and Naomi and Alex mean well. But I can’t really afford to care about Kai.” Or kiss him again. “He’s dangerous. He sits on the Magic Council, and that means he upholds their laws. My very existence is against those laws.”
“I told you he’s been protecting you from the Magic Council.”
“Because he doesn’t know what I am.” She dropped her voice to a whisper. “An abomination.”
“Sera, you’re not—”
“Every supernatural in the world has grown up believing that I am, Kai included. The moment he found out, he would turn me in.”
“Kai wouldn’t,” Riley said.
“I wouldn’t do what?”
The shadow of Kai’s magic loomed over her—or maybe that was just the shadow of her impending doom. She turned to look at him.
“You wouldn’t turn into a dragon in the fighting pit. There’s no space,” Riley spoke before Sera could. It was a good thing too because she had no idea what to say. She’d probably just have made some sarcastic comment.
“That’s not entirely true,” Kai said. “The Magic Games fighting pit is very large. There’s plenty of room for a dragon.”
“Does that mean you will be bringing out the dragon today?” Sera asked him, suppressing a cringe. Fighting elemental mage Kai was bad enough. She was far too tired to fight dragon shifter Kai at this hour.
He looked at her empty bowl. “Are you ready to go?”
“Yes,” she sighed, not missing the fact that he hadn’t actually answered her question. “I just need to grab my bag.”
11
The Fighting Pit
The words ‘Madison Square Garden’ loomed over Sera in big, raised letters. Groups of scurrying mages crisscrossed the cavernous lobby, their boots echoing off a pale marble sheet that resembled an ice rink more than a floor. They strung lights and magic from the pillars and railings. They didn’t stop as she and Kai passed by, though a few of them did slow down just long enough to scowl at her. Maybe they didn’t approve of her clothes. Sera looked down at her pants. So maybe they weren’t pristine, but they weren’t really that dirty. Especially considering that this morning’s training session with Kai had been a fifty-stringed combo of some pretty spectacular kickings of her ass. She’d hit the mud more times than a three-legged centaur.
Shuddering at the memory, she folded her giant pizza slice in half and took a bite. It washed all that pain right away.
“I don’t think they like that you brought food in here,” Kai said.
“They have basketball games here. A
nd hockey games. And concerts. If they can put up with sweaty guys, hot dogs, and half-empty beer cans, they can deal with my pizza too.”
“Perhaps we should have eaten at a proper restaurant instead of ordering from an establishment with one counter and no chairs. Then we wouldn’t have needed to eat on the street.”
She smiled at him. “The lack of chairs didn’t stop you from snarfing down six slices.”
“Snarf?” A crinkle formed between his eyes.
“Yes, snarf. You ate them faster than they could make more,” she said.
“Magic requires energy. In other words, food.”
“Kai, you might as well just admit that you liked the lunch I picked out.”
“You’re dripping oil,” Kai told her.
Sera looked down, catching the golden drop before it hit the floor. She licked her finger clean. “And you’re evading.”
He stopped and stared down at her. “I don’t evade problems, sweetheart. I confront them head on.”
“With dragon scales and hellfire?”
“Yes.”
Sera snorted and nudged him toward the escalator. Beside them stood a pair of mage security guards who could very well have been professional wrestlers. They acknowledged Kai with a curt nod, then carried on looking big and bad.
“How many of those security guys are there?” Sera asked as she and Kai stepped onto the escalator.
“A lot. The Magic Games attract far too many supernaturals who come solely to get drunk on magic and booze and then start fights with the other spectators. The security guards need to be capable of kicking out any troublemakers.”
“I’m more concerned about being kept in.”
Kai remained silent, as though he didn’t know what to say to that. He didn’t look surprised, though. Of course he didn’t. No sane person wanted to participate in the Magic Games.
Sera stole a final peek at the guards before they were out of sight. “Those two certainly look…capable,” she said with a smirk.
Kai looked at her, his face expressionless. Oh, goody. Kai the granite block was back. And he clearly didn’t appreciate her trying to lighten the gloom and doom mood.
“Are you ogling them?” he asked, his tone checked.
“Maybe just a little.” She grinned at him. “Jealous?”
“No.” He turned to step off the escalator. “You don’t even know their names.”
They passed the rest of their walk in silence, which was just as well. Every time she opened her mouth, she ended up flirting with Kai. Which she’d already decided was a bad idea. For multiple reasons.
“Here we are,” Kai said.
Sera looked down over the rows of seats. At the very bottom, in the middle of the arena, was the fighting pit. Above the fighting pit, a high ceiling loomed, speckled with speakers and lights—and, at the very center of it all, an enormous 360-degree rounded display panel. The screens were blank right now, but they’d be on during the Magic Games. And there would be closeups. Sera frowned at the display panel to let it know exactly how she felt about it.
“Something wrong?” Kai asked her.
“Just thinking about the fact that several hundred supernaturals will be treated to a closeup of the Magic Council’s attempt to crack open my mind.”
“They won’t crack you.”
“They cracked you,” she said.
“Yes, but I wasn’t as stubborn as you are. Just remember everything I showed you, and you’ll get through it.”
“Do you really think so?”
“That you’re stubborn? Yes.”
“Funny, dragon. Absolutely hilarious.”
“Sera,” he said, his tone serious.
Ok, he was basically always serious, but this time he was more serious than usual. And there was something else. A hint of apprehension speckled his magic, like he was about to bring up something he’d rather not talk about. Or something that Sera would rather not talk about.
“Yes?” she asked.
“You’re worried about Finn.”
“I’m worried about what he might be plotting. Have the commandos been able to track him?”
“Not yet. I wanted to call them again for an update,” he said. “By the way, they know you call them that.”
“Commandos?”
“Yes.”
She shrugged. “Well, that’s what they are. They can’t argue with that.”
“They’re not arguing. In fact, they like it. They think it makes them sound tough.”
“They’ve survived having you for a boss.” She grinned in his face. “Of course they’re tough.”
“Yes,” he agreed, his face unreadable.
“I wonder what Finn is up to,” she said.
“We upset his plans. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was looking for revenge.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.”
“You’re worried about your family and friends,” said Kai.
“Yes.”
“Instead of being worried about yourself, of course,” he added.
“If Finn wanted to come at me directly, he wouldn’t be sending me love messages,” she said. “Besides, I have a long history of killing monsters and madmen, and I don’t have enough sense to be afraid of anyone.”
He grunted in assent. “I’ve set guards on Riley and Naomi.”
“Naomi agreed to that?”
Sera’s friend was a tough mercenary. Maybe she wasn’t as mean as Sera, but she fought her own battles.
“I selected guards she would approve of,” he said.
“Oh.” She snickered. “You set Naomi up with some mage eye candy.”
“One of them is a fairy.”
“Even better.” She turned away from the fighting pit to look at him. “You’ve figured her out then.”
“She’s not as complicated as you.”
“Complex, you mean.”
“Do I?”
“Yes,” she told him. “Complicated sounds bad. Like I’m a really hard problem you hate to have and loathe even more to face. Complex makes me sound intriguing and mysterious.”
The shadow of a sigh escaped his lips. “You’re making things overly complicated, Sera.”
“And complex?”
“That too.”
“Speaking of bodyguards, what did the Magic Council say when you told them a hate group was gunning for them?” she asked. “Are they going to arrange extra protection for themselves?”
“That depends on their own egos,” he said, and this time, he sighed for real. “I looked into getting some protection for your sister too.”
“Alex can take care of herself. She’s even tougher and meaner than I am.”
“Even so, she cannot be on guard twenty-four hours a day.”
Sera didn’t mention that she and Alex had essentially been on guard their entire lives.
“It turns out, though, that she doesn’t need protection, not if she’s hanging out with the notorious assassin and thief Slayer,” he said.
“Oh? Is that his name?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, you’ve met him? What’s he like?”
“Competent.” Kai packed enough disdain into that one word to crack ice.
She chuckled. “He stole from you, didn’t he?”
He glared at her. “With the assassin looking out for her, your sister is very safe. Slayer doesn’t fail.”
Sera fought the grin spreading up her cheeks. “He failed pretty spectacularly at getting into her underwear drawer.”
“I see.” He paused. “So I take it your sister isn’t sleeping with the assassin then?”
“Not sure. Alex sounds…lovestruck, I guess you could call it. This is the first time anything like this has happened,” she said. “Alex has always been so tough. So…”
The look Kai gave her made her blush, and the words fizzled out in her throat. Kai chuckled.
“Maybe your sister has finally met her match.”
“Maybe,” she said, returning her eye
s to the pit below. “Have your people had a chance to check out that piece of magic-proof armor I gave you?”
“Yes. And its construction is identical to the ones in my lab.” Magic pulsed behind each word, deep and hollow. “Security checked again, and none of the prototype armor suits are missing.”
“A thief might have broken in and made a copy of the armor specifications.”
Kai’s magic continued to throb in agitated bursts, his fury hot enough to liquefy metal. “What are you suggesting?”
“Finn got into your storage facility once before. And now he’s free again. Maybe he’s responsible this time too.”
“No.” The single syllable pounded like a hammer. “I’ve since put Finn on the black list.”
“The black list?”
“The security system takes extra measures when dealing with the people on that list. No, Sera,” he cut in before she could speak. “Based on our past conversations, I am very certain that you don’t want to know more about that.”
Sera got a flash of that werewolf Kai had stepped on. With audio. She gave what remained of her pizza slice a woeful glance, then dropped it into the nearest trash bin. There was nothing like the memory of crunching bones to spoil her appetite.
“Suffice it to say, I would know if Finn had tried to break into my facility,” Kai said. “Plus, the vampires are being controlled by the Blood Orb, which is in the hands of a group that despises all supernaturals. That’s the complete antithesis of Finn’s cause: the rise of the supernaturals over humanity. The two groups are mortal enemies. They wouldn’t work together.”
“Both groups would like to see the Magic Council overthrown,” Sera pointed out. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that jazz?”
“The enemy of my enemy is not my friend,” Kai said. “He’s rather just another psychopath on an already too-long list of psychopaths to kill.”
“You mean, on an already too-long list of psychopaths to capture and imprison so they can face justice for their crimes.”
“Yeah,” he said, his tone as dry as twice-burnt toast. “Of course.” He pulled out his phone. “Now, back to why we’re here. I’ve had a look at your opponents for today.”
