by Ella Summers
Logan didn’t comment. His eyes were glued to the still-flapping tapestry.
“Think it will pop out another knight?” she asked.
“Likely.”
“How many knights do you think are in that tapestry?”
“As many as they need there to be,” he said darkly.
“Well, screw that.”
Alex sheathed her sword—and summoned forth her magic. A ball of fire floated between her hands; its warm flames licked her skin. She tossed the fiery ball at the tapestry, which immediately burst into flames. Magic fire was efficient like that.
“All good,” Alex declared, dusting off her hands.
The tapestry shrieked in obvious disagreement. A horrible, blood-chilling song of wails and screams streamed out from the burning mass. It echoed off the walls, carrying the tone-deaf melody down the hall, gaining volume as it moved.
“Damn. Should have known the Convictionites boobytrapped their magic toys. Everyone in the building must know we’re here by now.” Alex looked at Logan. “Do you want to call the whole thing off?”
“It’s too late for that. Tony, Callum, Dal, and Marek are already in play.”
Alex winked at him. “It’s quicker to call them the commandos, you know.”
Logan grunted. “A far too fanciful name for them.”
Alex shrugged. “I don’t know. I kind of like it.”
“That’s because you and your sister think alike.”
“True.” She rushed toward the nearest stairwell. “I wonder what that says about our taste in men.”
“I am nothing like Drachenburg.” His face was inscrutable.
“Ok.” She smirked at him.
“Less teasing, Alex. And more infiltrating.”
“We’ve already done all the infiltrating.”
“Hey, aren’t you two supposed to be working, not playing?!” Sera called up the stairwell.
Alex looked down the hollow shaft of the stairwell. Sera and Kai stood at the bottom. As usual, Sera wore a smirk on her face. And as usual too, Kai wore a black t-shirt and a pair of jeans. There were neither knights nor Convictionite soldiers anywhere in sight.
Alex climbed up onto the handrail, then jumped into the empty shaft. She summoned a funnel of twirling wind magic to carry her all the way down. Logan jumped into the tornado after her.
“You’re late,” Kai declared as they landed before him and Sera.
“We got distracted by the tapestries,” Alex said lightly.
Sera’s smirk widened as they moved out of the stairwell. “Were they really pretty?”
Alex shrugged. “Not really. But crazy knights jumped out of them and tried to kill us.”
Sera’s dark brows drew together. “Weird.”
“That’s our life, sister.” Alex looked around the garage they’d just entered; it was large enough to comfortably park a few buses. “Hey, have you seen any guards down here?”
“We took out a few earlier. But the others all ran off when they heard that high-pitched wail come down the stairs. Kai was disappointed when they bolted because he was about to shift into a dragon and scare the bejesus out of them.”
Logan looked up, then at Kai. “The ceiling is too low for a dragon to stand in here.”
Kai folded his arms over his chest. “I’m creative.”
“Bringing down the ceiling is hardly creative.”
“Oh, you two.” Sera chuckled at them. “You can bicker later.” She turned to Alex, lifting up her hand for a high-five. “We did it. We chased them away. There isn’t enough left of the Convictionites for them to hold themselves together.”
But Alex didn’t feel like celebrating. “This was too easy.”
“The power is out, the anti-magic fields are down, and the Convictionites have fled,” replied Sera.
Alex frowned. “They could be luring us into a trap.”
“We’ll find out, soon enough,” Kai said. “We need to find their weapon.”
Logan pointed at the tiny door at the other end of the very large garage. “There.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I know them,” Logan told him.
They traversed the garage, and as they came up to the door, Logan passed in front of Alex. It was a romantic gesture, to shield her from harm as he opened the door, but it turned out to be unnecessary. There was no one on the other side, just a closet packed full of empty shelves.
Logan began pulling out the wire shelves on the back wall. He was busily removing shelf number six when the wall slid open.
“A secret door?” Alex gaped at the empty spot in the wall. “Cool.”
“We shall see,” said Logan. “The Convictionites have a lot of skeletons buried in their closets.”
“The only skeleton we need to find is their supernatural-killing weapon,” Kai said.
“Indeed,” Logan said, then stepped through the opening in the wall.
Alex followed him through. A few steps later, she was standing inside a large room…no, not a room. It looked more like a museum, or an art gallery. Throughout the space, various objects were placed inside cube-shaped glass cases.
There was a silver sword. A pair of gold gauntlets. A pearl necklace.
An air of invisible magic swirled around the objects, supercharging the space and everyone in it. The magic-charged air crackled against Alex’s skin.
She saw a pair of emerald earrings. A ruby ring. A hat with an abnormally-large ostrich feather sticking out of the top.
Every one of these objects was highly magical. Alex figured they must have stumbled across the Convictionites’ treasury of magical objects.
A pair of leather boots. A diamond dog collar. An ornate silver fountain pen with a matching silver inkwell.
There were so many glass cases, rows upon rows of them. Studio spotlights shone down on them, lighting up the objects within. The treasury was bigger than the whole building. Only magic could have made this possible. Damm Convictionite hypocrites.
“This is so creepy,” Sera commented. “Aren’t these people supposed to hate magic? But then they have all these magical things.”
“All of which were stolen from the world’s supernatural dynasties,” Kai said.
“They weren’t the only things stolen from the realm of the supernatural,” Alex said.
She pointed at the male fairy who sat inside one of the glass cases. Alex knew he was a fairy by the vibrant violet twinkle of magic in his eyes—and the sparkle of midnight-blue Fairy Dust on his hands.
The Evil Queen—that’s what Alex called Logan’s mother, the leader of the Convictionites—had a whole army of supernaturals just like this poor fairy. Human soldiers modified to have magic. And supernatural soldiers stolen from their families and raised to be the monsters who killed their own kind.
The Convictionites’ numbers had diminished after Alex and Logan leaked a video which highlighted their leaders’ hypocrisy, but their numbers still weren’t low enough. Some people just refused to acknowledge the truth, no matter how blatantly it was staring them in the face. And other people simply didn’t mind using magic against the supernaturals. It was that same age-old argument, that the end justified the means, a staple of the villain’s toolbox.
“That’s sick.” Sera’s face twisted up in disgust as her eyes fell on the fairy trapped inside the cube. “They keep people in these cases. Like prisoners.”
“Not like prisoners. Like weapons. Like all the other weapons here.” Logan waved his hand to indicate the rows of artifacts in glass cubes. “Weapons to be let out only when they’re needed.”
Alex’s heart stuttered; she choked on her own breath. “Logan…” She set her hand on his arm. “They…they didn’t trap you in one of those cases, did they?”
He met her gaze for a moment, and a moment was all it took for Alex to get her answer. Fury flooded her like a river of fire, scorching all reason from her mind. She had the uncontrollable urge to punch something—and punch it hard.
/> Logan took her hand, leading her deeper into the labyrinth of glass cubes. “We need to focus on finding the weapon. We’ll check over here.”
Kai nodded and went down another aisle with Sera.
Alex cast a furtive glance at the nearest glass case, which held a single hairpin.
“Punching the glass won’t help us.” He cupped both of his hands around hers. “And it will hurt you.”
Alex had gotten used to their Blood Magic bond, so it didn’t even bother her that he knew what she’d been thinking.
“I wasn’t going to punch the case,” she said. “I was going to smash it in with the hilt of my sword.”
“No, you weren’t.”
“No, I wasn’t,” she admitted with a sigh. “Using my sword just wouldn’t be as satisfying as using my fist.”
“Neither your sword nor your fist will change the past, Alex.”
“Perhaps not, but they will change the future. Because I’m going to make sure they never, ever hurt you again, Logan.”
Her eyes burned with anger—and with the weight of her unshed tears.
“Alex, I—”
Logan slammed into her, throwing them both to the ground. Something whistled past Alex’s ear. He shielded her body with his. The next moment, the glass cube behind them shattered. Gunfire followed.
Logan jumped up. He grabbed one of his small knives, throwing it into the tip of the Convictionite guard’s gun. His second knife hit the guard in the chest.
“More are coming,” Logan said as the guard toppled to the floor. He extended his hand to Alex.
She locked wrists with him and jumped to her feet. The next Convictionite guards were coming. Seven of them. They lifted their weapons. The ground quaked, split, and then swallowed up the guards. Alex spun around to find Kai weaving spiky vines across the top of the rather massive hole he’d made in the floor.
“Subtle, Drachenburg. Very subtle,” Logan commented as he stopped beside Kai.
Kai flashed him a dragon’s grin.
“I wonder how many more of them there are hiding back there,” Alex said.
“Thirty-seven,” Sera answered immediately.
She’d always been a better Magic Sniffer than Alex. On the other hand, Alex beat her twin at Magic Breaking. Alex was really good at breaking things.
“Are they all deeper inside the labyrinth?” Kai asked Sera.
“Yes.”
He flicked his wrist once. A moment later, the back half of the labyrinth was frozen solid.
“We can retrieve the magic artifacts stolen from us when this is all over and done with,” he said.
“Will anyone survive that frost storm?” Logan asked him.
“Of course. I designed it that way.”
Logan gave him a long look, then said, “You were a lot simpler before you found love, Drachenburg.”
“The same goes for you, Slayer.”
“Touché.”
“Indeed.”
“I’m so glad you two are bonding so well,” Sera told them, smiling.
“A bond forged over a common hatred of fuchsia table runners,” Alex piped in.
Sera snorted.
“So, not to put the chill on your very impressive ice storm there…” Alex glanced at the frosted section of the room. “…but we do still need to find the Convictionites’ weapon. And chances are good it’s still back there somewhere.”
“Not to worry. We’ve already got that sorted,” Sera told her with a wink, then pointed at the big black box on the floor behind her.
In all the commotion, Alex hadn’t even noticed it.
“So that is it?” she asked Sera.
“So that’s it? The weapon?” she asked Sera.
“According to this, it is indeed.” Sera brandished a bundle of handwritten pages.
“The weapon’s manual?” Alex asked.
“May I?” Logan extended his hand toward the manual.
“Sure, knock yourself out.” Sera tossed it to him.
Logan dove right in to the manual.
“Is he going to read that whole thing?” Sera asked Alex.
“He reads fast.”
“I can see that,” Sera said as Logan flipped the next page.
“You know, this is all going very well,” Alex commented. “This whole mission.”
“Yes, it is,” Sera agreed.
“I don’t like it. It just feels wrong.” Alex frowned. “Suspicious.”
“This is simply what happens when you plan something ahead of time instead of just charging in recklessly,” Sera teased her.
“Yes, this is going so smoothly, I’m not sure I was even needed here,” said Kai.
“How can you even say that? Without you, who would have cast an earthquake and set off an ice storm in the Convictionites’ treasury?” The corner of Sera’s mouth twitched.
“I’m sure you could have managed,” he told her.
“Na, Alex and I would have probably set the whole place on fire.”
“Right. I did set the tapestry upstairs on fire, after all,” Alex pointed out helpfully.
“Hmm,” was Kai’s monosyllabic response.
“Is there somewhere you’d rather be right now?” Sera asked him.
“No. Of course not. I’d always rather be wherever you are.”
Sera blushed.
“But as it happens, I am missing an important Magic Council meeting to be here,” he continued.
“What’s on the Magic Council’s agenda today?” Sera asked.
“Magical waste disposal.”
Alex choked down a chuckle. “Sounds lovely.”
“It’s a very important issue,” Kai declared. “Magical waste disposal must be regulated. Some companies are dumping it near to cities or towns, which inevitably later leads to magical hotspots popping up. And monsters spawning from the industrial goo.”
“Maybe we should dump the magical waste on the Convictionites,” Alex suggested.
“Magical waste disposal is a serious matter, Alex. Not one for jokes,” Kai chided her.
She swallowed hard. “Oh, of course.” Her brain buzzed with smart remarks. “Wouldn’t dream of joking about it.”
“I’ve found something,” Logan declared.
As always, his timing was impeccable, saving Alex from getting in trouble with her sister’s fiancé.
Logan looked up from the manual. “The Convictionites’ weapon has the power to kill any supernatural within range.”
“And what is that range?” Kai asked.
“About a hundred meters.” Logan glanced at Alex and Sera. “Three-hundred feet or so.”
“Then it’s a good thing we have the weapon and the Convictionites don’t,” Alex said.
“Oh, this isn’t the weapon.” Logan’s gaze flickered to the big box, then back to her. “It’s just the prototype. According to these notes, the Convictionites have already moved the actual weapon into place.”
“Where?” Alex asked him.
“The main chamber of the Magic Council. They plan to set it off during the Council’s next meeting.”
“But that’s in just a few hours. The Magic Council is meeting today.” Suddenly, Alex felt really bad for teasing Kai about magical waste disposal.
“We have to get to the Council chamber now,” Sera said. “We have to stop the Convictionites from killing everyone in that room.”
6
A Blast from the Past
“Wait,” Alex said, as they all started to move out. “This is all wrong.”
“Because you think it’s all been too easy?” Kai shook his head. “You do realize that the Convictionites lured us here, away from the Magic Council.”
“Right,” said Alex. “The Convictionites did lure us here, but…there’s something else. This isn’t about a bomb.” She drummed her fingertips against her legs, struggling to articulate what she meant. “Everything feels so far away.”
“Yes, the Council is far away,” Kai said impatiently as the c
ommandos and Marek joined them. “We need to warn them of the impending attack.” He pulled out his phone and glanced down at it. “Damn, no signal.” He looked up. “We need to get out of here now. Before it’s too late.”
Alex stepped into his path. “No, we can’t. It’s all wrong, I tell you.”
Sera set her hand on Alex’s shoulder. “What is wrong?”
“Everything. My connection to Logan. My connection to my dragon. It’s all so distant. So weak.”
Sera closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath. “Now that you mention it…yeah, it does feel weird. It feels like…like we’re not even here.” She opened her eyes. “Another Shadow World?”
“I don’t know,” Alex replied. “All I do know is this feeling started when we entered the building. The Convictionites did something to us, Sera. Something weird.”
Tony frowned. “I don’t know, Alex. I haven’t noticed anything different in the way I see.”
He was referring to the way he saw with his magic, not his eyes. As a Seer, Tony’s powers allowed him to get a complete mental picture of everything in his immediate vicinity. Furniture, magic, people—he saw it all in his mind’s eye.
“If something were up, wouldn’t I see it?” Tony pointed out.
He had a point. But Alex just couldn’t shake the feeling that absolutely everything had gone completely wacky.
“We can figure this out later,” Dal said. “Right now, we need to hurry to save the Council members.” He glanced at Kai, who nodded.
“We lost so many Council members in the Grim Reaper ordeal,” Callum added. “We can’t lose any more.”
“I’m telling you, something is very wrong here,” Alex insisted. She met each of her companion’s eyes in turn, silently pleading with them to believe her.
“I too have noticed that things are odd,” Logan said. “The smells here are wrong. It feels like before…”
“Like before we were bonded with magic,” Alex said, finally putting her finger on it.
Logan dipped his chin. “Yes.”
He started walking around the room, his breaths deep, his eyes scanning.
“We don’t have time for this,” Kai grumbled.
“What is he doing?” Sera asked Alex.
“Trying to find an explanation,” she replied.
