by Holly Hook
I felt faint, but I chased the feeling away. We were going to die in the way Thoreau was going to destroy the Underground and no one would even know that we had saved them. No one would know about the Elder who was a traitor. Xavier's sister would never call him a moron again. But we weren't letting Thoreau have it the way he wanted. Once I was gone, incinerated, he would not have his Dark Pentagram. The world would be safe until another came along. I couldn't survive War Magic, just regular fire.
The dragon scraped its claws against stone. I faced it, weaponless. I would draw its fire from Xavier. It didn't matter for me. It was this dragon's fault I couldn't burn.
“I'm ready,” I said to Xavier.
He nodded. “So am I. Here goes nothing.”
We ran into the main chamber together. Gaozu straightened up, scales shining, as he sucked in a breath. The air in the room was hot. I waved, running to the side, as his gaze followed me and Xavier rushed towards Leon's body.
And in a hot rush, flames roared at me and the world turned yellow and orange.
The heat wrapped around my skin, but I squinted against the fire trying to invade my eyes. There was no pain, just heat. Gaozu couldn't harm me this way. The fire seemed to last forever, the jet that threatened to send me flying back, but I stood my ground, doing the impossible. At last, the flames stopped and the dragon stood there, glaring at me like he was unsurprised that I had survived the onslaught. It was almost as if he was reprimanding me, not trying to kill me.
Xavier was leaning over Leon's body, tugging at his hair. At last he pulled a clump of the white strands out. Gaozu turned to look at him, but I caught his attention again.
“What are you doing? Trying to slap me on the wrist?” I asked, not sure he could even understand me. “You know, I thought dragons were supposed to be cool, helping with droughts and stuff. And they're supposed to be smart. What are you hanging around with someone like Thoreau for? He's probably going to stab you in the back if he merges the Infernal Dimension with this world. Demons only care about themselves. You know what? I bet he's been plotting against you and the other Dark Council members the whole time, through all these millennia. I've seen him stab his long time lover in the back and she was another demon. What's he going to do to you? You might want to think about that.”
The creature tilted its head for a second like it was really, really considering what I had to say, but then it drew another breath and I knew another onslaught was coming. Xavier backed away from Leon's body and summoned another magic charge, facing away from me. I saw why. Thoreau was emerging from the stone, intact and ready to battle. We were about to have a bad disadvantage. Both of these creatures were stronger than us.
“Don't listen to them,” Thoreau said to the dragon, standing and spreading his own black wings. “The Council needs to stay together. We need to make the Normals respect us again, worship us again! What kind of lives are we living now, staying out of sight?”
The ruby in Gaozu's eyes hardened and he stepped towards me, sucking in a second breath. I was in for a bigger attack this time, maybe even involving those claws.
The time was now.
I ran, towards Leon's body. Gaozu turned his head, letting out a jet of fire that followed me the whole time. Heat blasted against me. I jumped over Leon's body--
Oh, crap.
I backpedaled as Gaozu stopped shooting fire too late. The dragon realized its mistake and backed towards another tunnel, flattening his wings against his serpentine body. He turned and vanished into it, golden scales shining one final time. Thoreau muttered a curse and ran for the exit tunnel.
Then I saw why. Leon's clothes were on fire. Some of the flames turned purple at the base as the first of the Elder War Mage's energy came free. The fire spread more, more...until it consumed Leon's entire form, bursting into pure magenta War Magic. The air in the room tingled at a dangerous level and Xavier wrapped his arms around my waist.
“Get down!” he shouted.
I fell to the floor. The air turned hot, painful, purple...it rushed, whooshed, and roared. I knew what was happening. Maybe it would be fast. Xavier wrapped his arms tighter around me and held me close. The roar got louder...louder...I closed my eyes...
But the pain was fading.
We must be dying together and our nerves were too fried to feel it anymore. At least I was with Xavier so it couldn't be too bad. I just hoped that we didn't annoy each other too bad for all eternity.
Xavier trembled. “I'm holding this the best I can.”
I forced my eyes open.
Magenta War Magic rushed all around us, forming magical fire that filled the whole world. There was nothing else. It must be louder than any wildfire in existence, but we lay in a dome of clear air, of coolness and no pain. We were on a circle of stone and the rest of the universe had turned into angry magic. Xavier had put up a barrier. He had his eyes closed, face inches from mine, shaking, putting everything he had into keeping it up against the onslaught.
“Keep doing it!” I shouted, closing my own eyes and imagining some of my strength flowing into him. “Keep doing what you're doing!”
A bit of heat returned, then faded, then returned again. The barrier might not hold, but at last, the roaring began to calm and I dared to open my eyes again. The purple flames around us had thinned, revealing the cave chamber as they vanished. Purple embers rained everywhere and turned the chamber into some place filled with fairy magic instead of death. I peered through a transparent barrier of more purple fire that flickered and came back again.
“Xavier,” I said.
“I'm concentrating!”
“It's over.”
He opened his eyes, pupils wide with panic. “We made it?”
“I think we did.”
The bubble around us remained, then popped out of existence. The air in here was still hot, like a cooling oven and there was the distinct smell of burnt sewage.
Xavier and I stood. The chamber was empty except for my sword, sticking out from under a pile of stone. Gaozu had vanished, leaving no signs of the burnt oil smell. The War Magic had cleared it, but burnt sewage remained. Leon's body was gone without a trace, leaving the magic circle free of everything except the etched patterns inside of it. The torches still burned with regular fire, but some magenta fire had joined in, creating a strange effect.
“We made it,” Xavier breathed. “I didn't expect to. I thought my barrier wouldn't hold against that.”
“Well, you are a Lovelli,” I said. “You might be the rebel one, but you're from the most powerful family of War Mages. What did you expect?”
“To die,” Xavier said.
“I think your family underestimates you,” I told him. “Maybe you should stop listening to them. So, you kissed me because you thought we would die?”
Xavier wiped his shirt off. He turned his forearm over, checking out his crossed swords mark. It was still there, bright as ever, with the fainter one still trying to hide underneath it. He ran his finger down his skin and stopped right next to the symbol.
“Alyssa,” he said, mouth falling open.
“What?” My hopes leapt.
“We killed Thoreau.”
“What?” I repeated.
Xavier held up his arm so I could see. There was the old tick mark on his arm, the one from killing Allunna, and a new one, fresh and magenta and shining right next to it. I rolled up my own sleeve to find the same two marks on my arm, twin slashes of victory.
“We...did,” I managed. “Is that the burnt sewage smell I'm getting? What about Gaozu?” I eyed the exit tunnel that Thoreau had run into. The stench was coming from there, no doubt, carried on a faint breeze. I was dreading what we were going to find that way. It was all so surreal. We had really taken out an ancient demon baron?
“Well, do you smell any burnt dragon?”
“He might have gotten out of here,” I said. “I don't smell any dragon. What about the people who made it to the surface?”
“I do
n't know,” Xavier said. “Hopefully all that power was contained underground or they might have been in trouble. Bursts like that can travel a few miles.”
I turned in a circle, eyeing the whole room. The library was trashed. The blast had thrown all the books everywhere, but none of them were burned. The War Magic only burned living things, not inanimate objects. I was learning that. We still had access to the rite we needed, right? “What about Allunna and Leon?” I asked. “We still have to resurrect them and we don't have Leon's body anymore. Does that mean we're going to die?” I thought of Allunna's promise of our demise if we left this place without bringing her back first and if we did bring her back, we still had to survive her wrath. Now that Thoreau was out of the way, she'd turn her hatred on us. We had no barrier now.
“Don't worry about that,” Xavier said, reaching into his jeans pocket. “I have this.” He pulled out a tuft of white hair. Leon's hair. “We just need some part of the dead person to make the rite work. Oh, and my blood should do it. There was one more thing we needed, too—a full magic circle with the Dark Council.”
“But we don't have that,” I said, panic rising in me again.
“Who said they had to be alive?” Xavier said. “Thoreau's still lying in that tunnel from what you said and you're here. If that rite to siphon Leon's energy could work with you standing in, this one will as well. You have pieces of the other members inside of you.”
“Oh,” I said, feeling gross. “Maybe this will work. I am so, so not looking forward to this.”
“But we should,” Xavier said. “Once we finish and get out of here, we can go after our parents and the others who are trapped in the Infernal now that we know we just need some demon blood to activate the portal. Thoreau won't be there to stop us.”
Hope rose inside of me. After facing down a dragon and Thoreau himself at the same time, we could handle Allunna and Leon, especially if they were disoriented after coming back. “I think you're right,” I said. “Maybe this can only get easier from here.” We stood there and looked at the magic circle together, at the endless possibilities that the ancient library and this chamber promised, but also at the endless danger. I had the most horrible sense that we weren't close to done yet, but right now, linking hands with Xavier, I didn't care. Gaozu had fled. Thoreau was dead. The other Dark Council people wouldn't be here for weeks. We had the whole magical place to ourselves and Xavier and I had finally kissed. Instead of the serious talk he'd promised, this might be a new beginning.
“We should take a little break,” Xavier said, kissing me on the cheek, “and just enjoy our victory a little. I need to recharge after that, anyway. I wonder if there's an old wine cellar down here we can check out?”
“You never cease to be funny,” I said.
“You're the one with a sense of humor, not me,” Xavier said. “Come on. Let's check this place out a little and see what we can find.”
If you liked what you read, Death Magic (Abnormals Underground #3) is the next book!
You can find it by tapping HERE for the US, HERE for the UK, HERE for CA, and HERE for AU.
www.hollyhookauthor.com/books
Holly Hook is the author of several Young Adult fantasy, science fiction, fairytale, post-apocalyptic and adventure series. She has been writing since very young and publishing her work since September of 2010.
Thank you for reading Fire Magic and continuing the Abnormals Underground series! I’ve had a great response so far to this series and it has really encouraged me to keep going with it! I can’t wait to see where Alyssa and Xavier go next (and what becomes of their relationship.) The next book of the series, Death Magic, will be released on July 15, 2017! To find out when it releases and also to get some free stuff, be sure to sign up for my author newsletter at: www.subscribepage.com/e3w3s2 I hope to see you there! Don’t forget to follow me on BookBub as well!
--Holly Hook
