by Ella Summers
The wolf snapped at her, trying to tear itself a mouthful of her flesh. So much for distracting the vampires with her feminine wiles. Sera kicked it in the face, her new boots doing their job nicely. The wolf flew across the pit, swallowed up by the mist.
The wolf’s blood brother screeched again. The bats were coming around for another pass. Sera turned and ran, following the strongest magic in the pit to its source: the barrier. The mist was so thick that she couldn’t see the glowing curtain of magic, but she could feel it. She stopped when she was a few feet from the edge and turned her back to it. The bats screeched another time. They were close—so close that the vampire’s pliable magic rippled across her skin. She still couldn’t see a damn thing.
On instinct, she ducked. A gust of fluttering wings rushed over her and smashed into the barrier, which gurgled and gushed. The light show of clashing magic from the collision was finally enough to pierce the fog. Dozens of glowing green eyes pulsed, and then there was a vampire at Sera’s feet. His cloak was torn and his skin tie-dyed with black scorch marks, but he was still breathing. He’d gone into a deep sleep to regenerate his body. He’d be napping for a while.
A howl split through the fog, shattering it. Tiny purple shards rained to the ground, then dissolved against the sand. The wolf was standing only a few feet away. He ran forward, closing the distance in a few bounds. He brushed past Sera, ignoring her, and prodded the sleeping vampire with his paw. His head snapped up. As his eyes met hers, a sneer slid across his snout, exposing two rows of pointy teeth.
Sera shrugged. “He was the one who flew into the barrier. All I did was duck.”
The wolf’s snarl swallowed the chorus of chuckles from the audience. Bands of silver-tinted magic curled around his body, morphing him back into a vampire. Sera blinked. No, make that two vampires. He’d magically cloned himself. Fantastic.
The vampire and his clone charged. Since Sera didn’t have a death wish, she ran. Vampires were strong, fast, and had the personality of a grizzly bear with a bad rash. If she’d had her sword, maybe she could have taken them. Maybe. But she didn’t have a sword. And thanks to Gropy the Guard, she didn’t even have her knives. What she did have was—Sera looked around the pit—sand? Lots of sand. Also, a magic barrier the vampires weren’t going within spitting distance of. And a few clusters of inert metal mushrooms drilled into the ground. Why couldn’t they at least make themselves useful and spit out some sticky liquid? Burning goo? Anything? They’d been perfectly content to squirt all sorts of weird shit at her earlier today.
The vampires were gaining on her. Her ingenious plan to run for her life obviously wasn’t working, so she darted into the mushroom cluster, zigzagging between the cylinders. The vampires followed, with every stride gaining ground. The stench of boiling blood singed her nose and turned her stomach.
The final cylinder in the cluster loomed before her, taller and skinnier than all the rest. It looked more like a flagpole than a mushroom. She didn’t question why; she just jumped. Her hands closed around the pole, her momentum swinging her around. Her boots slammed against the vampires, kicking them onto the mushrooms. Their heads thumped against the rounded tops, and they went down. As they hit the ground, the clone flickered out. Sera swung off the pole and landed beside the real vampire.
“Top marks for the dramatics, Dracula,” she said, staring down at his sleeping body. “But I’ve been fighting supernaturals with a drama queen complex since I could pick up a sword. It takes more than a few cheap magic tricks to best me.”
The crowd exploded with applause. Beer cans and glowing sticks shot up into the air. A few of them hit the magic barrier and sizzled to ashes. The whole arena smelled of blood, adrenaline, and magic. But most of all, it smelled of victory.
If only it could have lasted.
14
Mages of the Universe
Sera stared up at the rows of spectators. Riley was there, right beside Naomi. They met her eyes with dual grins and tossed confetti up into the air. The guy sitting behind them got a mouthful of it, but he dropped his fist-waving as soon as Naomi turned to give him a coy wink. Cutler was in the front row, as always, but Sera had learned to ignore his leers by now. She had a bigger problem, and that problem was stepping into the fighting pit.
The mage walked across the field of sand, grainy particles crunching beneath her stilettos. Yep, she’d worn five-inch heels to a magic fight. Vixen-red stilettos. Sera would have laughed—if not for the supercharged aura clinging to the mage like a pair of leather pants on a hot summer day. Her magic roared and snapped, an avalanche of shooting stars and cosmic debris. A telekinetic. She smelled of lemon grass and insanity.
The magic barrier rippled like a flag in the wind. Whatever the mage was doing to the barrier, it didn’t like it. Ridiculous shoes or not, she was going to be a problem. A big problem. She was a first tier telekinetic, and first tier telekinetics were always completely out of their minds. Like Cutler. Sera stole a look at her crude coworker. An intense look was on his face, like he was cataloging every move that she made. When he noticed she was looking at him, he pulled out his phone and snapped a shot of her, a devilish grin spreading to the corners of his face.
Metal screeched and groaned, and the audience fell silent. The metal mushrooms in one of the clusters erupted from the ground, a veil of sand and broken wires spilling down from them as they rose into the air. The telekinetic’s arms were raised high above her. As she met Sera’s gaze, a smirk curled up her thick lips.
The swarm of metal mushrooms shot forward at Sera like a round of torpedoes. Metal hummed, a song as beautiful as it was deadly. Sera took off running, hoping to avoid the barrage. The mushrooms changed directions and followed her.
“Stupid telekinetics,” Sera muttered as she ran faster.
She grunted as one of the cylinders knocked against her back, but she managed to stay on her feet. Barely. The mushrooms hit almost as hard as a vampire. Sera angled for the telekinetic. She had to end this fast. She couldn’t withstand too many more hits—preferably none actually, but she didn’t think she was going to be that lucky. The mushrooms looked pretty intent on pummeling her into oblivion.
Sera didn’t make it far before a second cluster of metal mushrooms burst out of the ground and joined the hunt. Sera’s muscles were on fire and her lungs screamed for air, but she didn’t stop running. Sweat trickled down her face, smearing her vision.
“Use your magic,” the telekinetic said. Her words bounced off the barrier and echoed across the pit.
Sand exploded under Sera’s feet, blinding her. While she was busy rubbing it out of her eyes, one of the mushrooms collided into her side. The force of the spelled cylinder shot her at the magic barrier. In just a few seconds, she was going to be a bug on that windshield.
She reached down, grabbing for the wood-panel wall that surrounded the pit. Her fingers slipped, failing to get a grip, but it was enough to slow her down. She pushed out her legs, slamming her boots against the barrier, all the while praying that the soles were thick enough to hold up. She kicked off the barrier, rolled in the air, and landed in the sand, the scent of burnt leather singeing her nose.
The telekinetic frowned at her and sent her metal minions in for another pass. Rage building up inside of her, Sera ran toward her. She held back the rage—getting angry would only make her lose control of her magic—channeling the energy into her run. She zigzagged through the mushroom swarm, pushing through the pain whenever one of them hit her. She just had to get to the mage, and then this would be all over. The woman looked like a total pushover.
Sera reached down to the ground, snatching up the long pole she’d used in the previous fight. As she slid through the final flying mushrooms, she swung the pole. It hit the telekinetic in the stomach, and she doubled over. Sera swung a swift followup blow to her opponent’s back. The telekinetic hit the dirt, and all her cylinders fell out of the air.
“See?” Sera said, poking the mage with the toe of her
partially-melted boot. “Just like I said. Total pushover.”
The audience cheered, stomping their feet loudly. Sera tossed the pole to the ground and walked out of the pit.
A shopping bag was waiting in front of Sera’s locker when she got back to it. Kai must have had the guards bring it back here. She silently thanked him, then headed off to the bathroom. Her clothes were trashed—unsurprisingly after those last two matches—and her boots were even worse. The soles had nearly melted off. It was a wonder she’d been able to run with them on. Now that no one was looking, she allowed herself to limp to the bathroom.
It took a long, hot shower and a whole bottle of body wash to scrub off all the dirt and blood. It took even longer to tend to the myriad of cuts and scratches afterward. Her wounds screamed and burned when she doused them in antiseptic spray; they weren’t particularly fond of the bandages either. A healer could have fixed her right up in minutes, but Sera hadn’t bothered to ask the guard again for one of them. She imagined that after her spectacular display of no magic in the evening matches, the Game Architect was fuming. He’d have told the guards to just let her bleed.
So that left Sera to tend to herself. She forced herself to work slowly and thoroughly, even though all she wanted was to get the hell out of there. She was supposed to meet Kai for dinner, and she had no intention of arriving at the restaurant dirty and bloody. Her stomach gurgled.
She was positively famished. She pulled on the piece of fabric masquerading as a skirt and headed for the lobby. By the time she got there, it was dark outside, and Kai was nowhere in sight. She wasn’t surprised, considering how late she was, but she couldn’t help but feel disappointed.
“Hey, Sera!”
She turned to find Naomi walking toward her. She was wearing a black dress that hugged her curves and gold heels with tiny charms dangling from the ankle straps. Her makeup was perfect and her hair glittered as gold as her shoes. She looked like a supermodel. Sera, on the other hand, looked…well, at least she was clean. She’d gotten most of the sand out from under her fingernails. The trick was to cut the nails short.
“Hot date?” Sera asked her.
“Hmm?” Naomi looked down at her own outfit. “Oh, this. No, not a date. Riley and I are going to catch some dinner at the hotel, then we’re hitting the clubs. I’m going to find him a hot date.” She tapped her fingers together with mischievous glee.
“What does my brother think about your plan?”
“I haven’t told him, but why would he complain? It’s a grand idea. Everyone has been so tense lately with the Magic Games and everything else going on. We need to unwind.” She glanced at the sword strapped to Sera’s back. “You need to unwind.” She turned, her eyes panning across the lobby. “Speaking of which, where’s your boyfriend?”
“You realize he’s not actually my boyfriend, right?”
Naomi’s eyebrows lifted. “Does he know that?”
“Of course.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”
Sera didn’t know what to say to that, so she changed the subject. “Where’s Riley?”
“He already headed back to the hotel.”
“Maybe he caught wind of your plan and is hiding,” Sera said, smiling.
“No, he went back because I told him I wasn’t taking him clubbing the way he was dressed. I picked out something much better for him to wear when I went shopping before work this morning.”
“So that’s what you were doing while Kai was introducing me to his dragon.”
Naomi grinned.
“Did that sound dirty?”
“Maybe just a little.”
“I meant while we were training this morning. He didn’t pull any punches.”
“I know what you meant,” Naomi said, wrapping her arm around Sera’s shoulder. “So, if the dragon isn’t here, how about you join me and Riley for dinner?”
“I was supposed to have dinner with Kai.”
Magic sparkled in Naomi’s eyes. “Ah.” She grinned wider. “Like a date.”
“More like an after-battle refueling.”
“Sounds romantic.”
Sera snorted. “Well, Kai’s not here. I took too long getting myself cleaned up and changed after the fight. I guess I’ll just refuel with you guys then.”
“No.” Naomi shook her head. Her shoulder-length locks swayed, singing like chimes in the wind. “You should find him.”
“I tried. He’s not answering his phone. Or he’s just not answering my calls. Maybe he’s annoyed with me because I didn’t use magic in the pit.”
“Sera, if he were annoyed with you, you’d know it. Kai Drachenburg doesn’t ignore. He confronts.”
“I… Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
“Of course I am.” Her arm still wrapped around Sera, she walked toward the exit. “So, here’s what I’m thinking. You’re good at tracking magic, right? It shouldn’t be too hard for you to track Kai’s magic. I bet it’s potent enough to light up New York.”
She wasn’t wrong about that.
“Ok, I’ll give it a shot,” Sera agreed.
She reached out with her magic, searching for Kai’s distinctive aura, that mix of spice and dragon. That magic that ignited the air and crackled with power raw and ancient, power that hit hard and took no prisoners. She found his trail almost immediately. It was hard to miss. No one’s magic felt quite like Kai’s.
“He went this way,” Sera said, pointing down the street.
“Great.” Naomi released her shoulder, then linked her arm in Sera’s. “I’ll walk with you as far as the hotel.”
‘As far as the hotel’ wasn’t more than a couple minutes. Naomi gave her an encouraging wave, then disappeared into the building. Sera continued walking, following Kai’s trail down the sidewalk. She turned at the next block, then stopped. His magic had led her to the doorstep of the Empire State Building. Two mages stood on either side of the entrance doors. Guards, no doubt. They gave Sera a cursory look, then waved for her to enter.
Inside, soft mood music played from tall speakers, meshing well with the lobby’s warm browns and golds. The ambience was lavish, and the dressed up mages standing about nibbling on appetizers and sipping wine even more so. Sera had walked right into the middle of a gathering of the magical elite.
Thankfully, she was too insignificant for anyone to pay her any mind. She slipped through the crowd gathered in front of the door, muting her steps as best she could. The last thing she wanted was for them to wonder what a nobody mage with a big sword was doing crashing their exclusive gala. What was she even doing here? As soon as she’d seen all those tuxedos and evening gowns, she should have turned and left. This gathering—or whatever it was—was even less her scene than Trove. At least at Trove, they’d been playing the same trashy music she listened to.
Sera tapped the elevator button, ducking inside as soon as the doors opened. Kai was somewhere up there. She’d felt that much. But which floor? She looked up. Kai’s magic whispered to her from the 86th floor, humming against her lips. She closed her eyes and let the heat wash over her. It wasn’t as potent as being next to him, but it was enough to throttle her pulse into overdrive. And the closer the elevator got to the 86th floor, the stronger the feeling got.
Sera folded her hands behind her and pushed her treacherous magic back inside of her. More and more, she was beginning to think she should never have gone looking for Kai.
The elevator doors opened. As soon as she stepped out, another aura tugged at her, tingling her nose. It was a mage—and a first tier mage at that—and there was something familiar about it. Like she’d felt it before. But where? And when? Her matches today had fried her brain, making it basically useless at conjuring up any thoughts beyond the basest instincts. Eat, fight…
Sex.
Sera stopped. Wait, what? She shook that loose wire in her head.
That’s no loose wire. That’s me, genius, the voice in her head snickered.
It hadn’t sp
oken to her for a while—long enough, in fact, that she’d begun to think she’d just imagined it. Well, except that Alex had told her to listen to it. What did her sister even mean? Only crazy people listened to the voices in their head.
The voice had gone quiet again. Sera continued following the two magic trails toward the Observation Deck. As she closed in on the source of the magic, she could hear two men speaking.
“She defeated all her opponents today,” one of them said. His words were crisp and precise, but there was a hint of reproval in them.
“She’s good.” The second speaker was Kai.
Sera peeked around the corner. Past the stairs, in the middle of the tight room, he stood with none other than Blackbrooke, the Game Architect.
“She did it without magic.”
“She’s good,” Kai repeated.
“Kai, surely I do not have to remind you that the point of the Magic Games is to test the boundaries of a mage’s magic, not to let them show off how well they can fight without magic.” A suspicious wrinkle formed between his eyes. “What is she hiding?”
“You’ve grown paranoid in your old age, Duncan. Not everyone is hiding something.”
“I’ve always been paranoid. It’s served me well over the years,” he replied. “And, yes, everyone is, in fact, hiding something. I’ve cracked hundreds of minds in my tenure as Game Architect.”
“You were cracking minds long before that.”
“Yes, well, we all have our own special talents. Mine is extracting secrets. And I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that Serafina Dering has a big one.”
Kai said nothing.
“She’s twenty-four years old. She should have gone through the Magic Games years ago,” Blackbrooke continued. “I’ve looked into her records. She’s been tested by magic detectors before. They always came back negative for magic.”
“Interesting.”
