Mags & Nats 3-Book Box Set

by Stephanie Fazio

  Yutika had been right. This door was too big and heavy for me to easily muscle through. I would attract every bad guy in the place if I tried.

  Diego pressed his hand to mine. I felt the shape of a key between our palms.

  “Had to steal it from one of those cloaked Mags,” he explained. “He’s a Spider and lives at the top of the elevator shaft, so I really wasn’t lying when I said I was the only one who could help you reach Lilly.”

  My hand was shaking so badly Diego had to help me fit the key into the lock. We turned the key together, and the door swung inward.

  I went motionless at what I saw on the other side. We were standing in a nursery.

  Everything was metal, from the cradles and tiny beds, to the few toys scattered across the floor. The oldest child in the room couldn’t have been more than seven, and yet the kids who were big enough to walk were clearly in charge of caring for the babies.

  The older children moved up and down the rows of metal cradles, reaching up on tiptoes to hold bottles to the babies’ mouths and change diapers. The room was oddly quiet. None of the babies cried. They had probably learned it was pointless to do so.

  A few of the children looked up when the door opened. When they saw no one, they went back to work.

  I whispered into my mike, “The first level is full of babies and toddlers. We’re going to need help getting them out.”

  “Roger that,” Kaira replied. “We’ll be up as soon as we get the rest of the slaves on Level 5 onto the train.”

  The silence in the nursery was broken when one of the kids looked down at himself. He tapped his arm, his forehead puckered in confusion. He squeezed his eyes shut, opened them, and then tapped his skin again.

  “Where’s my magic?” he whispered.

  Now that the Energy Manipulator was gone, the rules of magic were back in play. Since I was the strongest Steel in the place, my magic cancelled out everyone else’s in the vicinity.

  The other children were trying to access their magic, to no avail. Their dirty cheeks turned red from the effort of calling on magic that wouldn’t come. Some of them made little whimpering sounds when their skin didn’t turn to metal. They didn’t understand what had happened to them, and they were terrified.

  The kids all looked so distraught that I almost asked Diego to take away my camouflage so I could explain it to them. I didn’t say anything, though, because I didn’t want my presence to freak them out even more.

  My friends’ chatter continued across my earpiece, but I didn’t hear a word they said. Because I had caught sight of a familiar set of hazel eyes.

  I’d found Lilly.

  CHAPTER 39

  Lilly,” I whispered.

  I almost lost my footing because my legs had turned to mush. Diego steadied me with a firm grip around my waist.

  My niece had Sarah’s curly brown hair and Hammond hazel eyes. She was standing next to one of the cribs, trying to summon her magic like the rest of the older children.

  “Let her see me,” I told Diego without taking my eyes off Lilly.

  There was a flicker of color, and then my camouflage was gone.

  The children stopped furiously tapping their non-metal skin as they noticed me. My heart stuttered at the expressions in all of their too-wide eyes. They were afraid of me.

  “It’s okay,” I said quickly, wishing Michael was here to calm the kids down. Some of their faces were turning purple from how hard they were trying to reach their magic.

  I locked gazes with my niece.

  “Lilly,” I said, my voice breaking.

  She looked at me, but not with any recognition at the sound of her own name. I saw the same fear on her face that all the other children wore. I hadn’t expected her to come running into my arms, but it was still a kick in the gut to look her in the eye and know that all she saw in me was another adult who might hurt her.

  “Please,” I said, trying to hold back my emotions so I didn’t scare her any more. “We’re here to help you.”

  “You’re not in trouble,” Diego said, appearing beside me.

  The kids cringed away from the two of us, huddling behind metal cribs and against the metal walls.

  I crouched down to make myself less threatening. When that didn’t seem to help, I blew on my fists until my magic retracted. I reached out a shaking hand toward my niece.

  “Lilly,” I tried again. I pointed to my eyes and tried to give her a smile that wouldn’t terrify her. I kept my movements slow and careful, when all I wanted to do was pull her into my arms and never let go.

  “I’m your family,” I told her, not sure if she would understand the words aunt or niece. “I’m going to take you home.”

  It was that last word that undid me. A strangled sob escaped me.

  Diego knelt beside me. At the same time, Lilly took a hesitant step closer. She pointed at my face and then tapped her tiny index finger beneath her eye.

  “Yes.” A choked laugh bubbled up from my throat. Tears rolled down my cheeks, but I didn’t try to wipe them away. “Come here, love.”

  Lilly took two more steps toward me and stopped. She glanced down at the floor and then back at me. The fear was back in her eyes as she hopped back.

  “No, wait,” I began.

  There was a soft sound of metal moving back on well-greased hinges. I followed Lilly’s gaze to an almost-invisible seam in the floor. Two metal panels slid back, revealing a hole in the ground that led to the level below.

  A sleek, mechanical platform rose up from the lower level. The platform stopped once it was perfectly aligned with the floor of the nursery. All the children pressed themselves away from the center of the room as three people stepped off the platform.

  The room filled with magic…far more than three Mags should have between them.

  Two of the Mags were wearing cloaks like the Energy Manipulator. Their faces were shadowed, and there was a strange wrongness to their magic. It felt slimy.

  The man standing between the two cloaked figures wore a black suit, black shirt and tie, and black patent leather shoes. The only part of his attire that wasn’t black was a silver chain around his neck. Three keys dangled from the chain and stood out against his solid black shirt. His hair and goatee were pure white, but other than his hair color, he was a dead ringer for the photo Smith had plastered on our wall.

  “Felix Remwald,” I said. “So, you didn’t die in that Detroit massacre then, did you?”

  My friends’ voices filled my earpiece, but I tuned them out. All of my attention was focused on the three people standing between me and Lilly.

  “I’ve kept that secret from everyone except my inner circle for fifteen years,” Felix said, his voice disturbingly similar to his actually-dead brother’s. He gave me a curious look. “How did you figure it out?”

  Beside me, Diego blurred out of sight. There was a whoosh of air, and then Felix was stumbling backward.

  I took that as my cue. I darted around the group.

  “Lilly,” I called, as the children cowered deeper into their corner. Before I made it another step, something lashed out at me.

  I dove, but the barbed, metallic rope followed me. It fastened around my waist and yanked me back with so much force I slammed into the metal door.

  I leapt to my feet in time to see that what I’d thought was a rope made out of metal was actually a tail. It shot out of one cloaked figure’s backside, expanding and retracting.

  That was some messed up magic. I blew on my fists and got ready to brawl.

  The tail snapped back across the room, curling around a spot directly in front of Felix. Diego shimmered back into view, groaning as he struggled in vain against the metal tail. Blood dripped onto the floor as the barbs cut into his skin.

  “Let him go,” I shouted, throwing the full force of my body at the Mag with a tail.

  As we collided, the wrongness of his magic washed over me again. I shoved him with all of my strength. His tail unwound from Diego as the
Mag sailed away from me. The Mag crashed through the open doorway. He let out a bloodcurdling screech as his momentum carried him into the empty elevator shaft.

  “Get Lilly,” I ordered Diego as I ran to meet the next obstacle in my path.

  “Bri.” Diego caught my arm. “They’re like me. They’re Super Mags.”

  I didn’t give a shit what they were.

  “Lilly,” I told him. And then I attacked the other cloaked Mag.

  Instead of coming up against flesh and bone, my fist struck…water.

  The man’s chest rippled and dissolved at the place where my fist had connected.

  What the—

  I didn’t have a chance to finish the thought. The cloaked man transformed into a puddle on the flood, sucking me down with him.

  I had no idea what kind of magic this was, but I was helpless against it. I plunged head-first into inky water that surrounded and engulfed me. It rose up around me, rippling and undulating. No matter which direction I tried to move, the water just clung to me.

  There was no surface, no bottom to push up from, and no way out of the darkness.

  I was drowning.

  My lungs were burning. If the water hadn’t already been pitch-black, my vision would be going dark. I was going to die here.

  Strong, solid arms closed around me, drawing me up and out of the watery depths.

  I coughed and blinked water from my eyes.

  “Breath, cariño.”

  Diego.

  “Get Lilly,” I choked.

  We were hovering near the ceiling, looking down as the puddle of black water reformed into a cloaked man.

  “That is enough.” Felix’s cold voice cut through the room like a knife. He snapped his fingers at the children, who were whimpering. They fell silent. Even the babies in their cribs stopped wriggling.

  I saw red.

  “Don’t,” Diego said, wrapping his arms around my waist.

  I wrenched free, my mind empty of everything except Lilly. But Felix knew where I was heading and got there first. A soft cry came from me as Felix strode over to Lilly. He yanked her roughly to her feet.

  “No,” I gasped.

  “You look too young to be her mother.” Felix offered me a cruel smile as he held Lilly. “An older sister, perhaps?”

  “My niece, asshole.”

  I wanted nothing more than to tear her away from him at that very second, but he had both his arms wrapped around her, and his water Super Mag was standing between us. There was no way Diego or I could get to Lilly faster than Felix could hurt her.

  “I am not cruel without purpose,” Felix told me, his shrewd gaze tracking my every move. “So long as you never return to the mine or reveal my existence to anyone, your niece will survive.”

  A harsh laugh barked out of me. “What about all those children you buried in the tomb? Did you promise to keep them alive, too?”

  “I did not,” Felix replied. “With the difficult nature of the work here, deaths are inevitable. I would use adults if I could, but to my deepest regret, infant Steels are easiest to disappear from the world above without prompting questions.”

  I took a step closer. The water Mag moved with me. His cloaked arms turned to rippling water and split off into tendrils that hovered menacingly in front of my niece.

  Lilly closed her eyes and turned her face into Felix’s sleeve.

  “Okay.” I put up my hands in surrender and backed up.

  The rest of the Seven had to be on their way. They could hear everything that was happening through my mike. Where were they?

  “You look familiar,” Felix said.

  I stiffened, but he wasn’t talking to me. His attention was fixed on Diego.

  “Can’t imagine why,” Diego said cautiously, like he was expecting some kind of trap.

  Felix shrugged, like it didn’t matter to him either way. He kept Lilly firmly against him as he backed up. With the hand that he didn’t have locked on Lilly’s arm, he fumbled at the wall. He pressed some invisible button, and then a panel was sliding back.

  “No,” I began, as Felix disappeared behind the wall with my niece. Felix barked out a harsh command, and then the rest of the Steel children who were big enough to walk followed. The wall panel slid back into place behind them.

  “No!”

  The cloaked Mag remained, his body expanding until it made a watery barrier between me and where I needed to be.

  “Bri!”

  Kaira’s voice wasn’t just in my ear. My friends were coming through the door. Relief slammed into me with so much force tears leaked from my eyes.

  “Keep that thing busy,” I told them, gesturing at the water Mag. “I’m going after Lilly.”

  “Allow me,” the coxswain said, rolling up his sleeves and putting out his hands. All at once, the floor-to-ceiling human wall of water began to churn. The coxswain could control water, and his magic must have been different enough from the cloaked Super Mag that it wasn’t cancelled out. The two of them battled for control of the water.

  “Watch the babies,” Yutika cried. She pointed to the water, which was getting dangerously close to a row of cribs.

  “Jesus, this bastard’s strong,” the coxswain gasped.

  He was spinning his hands in a circle, making the water Mag transform into a waterspout that was slamming itself into the wall and bursting over and over again.

  “I can’t Whisper to that Mag,” Michael said, his voice barely audible over the rush of swirling water. “His mind’s not normal.”

  I took my chances and ran, hoping the others could keep the Mag’s attention long enough for me to chase Felix down.

  Someone screamed out a warning.

  I skidded to a stop as the middle of the floor opened up again. A dozen Mags in cloaks stepped off the platform and started for us.

  CHAPTER 40

  Adozen hellions were blocking my path to Lilly.

  “They’re all Super Mags,” Diego called as the cloaked figures surrounded the group of my friends. The Seven were here, in addition to the Mag half of the crew team. I didn’t have a chance to ask where Sir Zachary and the rest of our group had gone.

  We were surrounded.

  The room teemed with magic. I was aware of the infant Steels wailing in their cribs, but I couldn’t see anything beyond the Super Mags’ cloaks.

  “Come on, pendejos,” Diego growled. “Come and get it.”

  The cloaked Mags all lifted their hands at once. The movement was so coordinated it threw me off guard. I braced for an attack, but instead of coming for us, they lowered their hoods.

  Yutika let out a muffled cry. I gasped.

  “Joder,” Diego cursed.

  Fuck, indeed.

  We were surrounded by monsters.

  They were the size of adults, but they didn’t look human. Their skin was scaly and gray, more corpse-like than any living creature I’d ever seen. Their hair was patchy and spotted with blood. Their unfocused eyes were so bloodshot it was almost impossible to see their pupils. And their pointed teeth carved long, blood gashes at the corners of their white lips.

  “Agent S,” Diego whispered.

  I didn’t have a chance to ask him what he meant. The…creatures…attacked.

  The Mag with the barbed metal tail reappeared and joined the fight. The tail lashed back and forth, searching for a target. It missed Michael’s head by inches, striking the wall and shearing right through the metal.

  “Mine,” Diego growled, flying up to the height of the Mag’s head and levelling a kick at his hideous face.

  The rest of us chose our own opponents, and the fight was on.

  I punched, kicked, and headbutted every one of the evil creatures I could get near. I smashed my fist into one of them that kept dissolving into puffs of smoke and then reappearing on the other side of the room. I finally connected with him while he was in solid form.

  The Mag struck the wall head-first and slumped into unconsciousness. His hood fell all the way back, e
xposing his wrinkled and bloody skin. I noticed there was a few-inch-long tube sticking out from the base of his neck.

  “My magic isn’t working on them,” Michael said helplessly, thrusting Yutika out of the way when one of our enemies dove right for her.

  “Mine works,” Kaira said, “but they don’t give a shit what we look like. They’re going to kill us either way.”

  Graysen was managing to keep one of them back with a metal rod, but he was quickly losing the fight. So were the rest of my friends. A.J. and the crew guys had retreated until their backs were against the wall and there was nowhere else for them to go.

  “Bri, they’ve got too much magic,” Diego panted, shooting into the air to avoid something heinous that spewed out of one of the Mag’s mouths. “We can’t fight them.”

  “Watch me,” I snarled, crouching down in a fighting pose.

  I lunged at the nearest Super Mag. I hit him hard enough to make a human-sized dent in the wall. He bounced right off as his body began to expand like a balloon. He grew and grew until he was easily twelve feet high and six feet wide. The Super Mag roared in pain wherever my blows landed, but with his sheer size, I couldn’t do much damage. If this creature got any bigger, he’d reach the cribs that A.J. had carefully relocated to the far side of the room.

  “Get the babies out of here,” I yelled to anyone who could move.

  “Get them where?” Diego shouted back.

  The giant balloon Mag had grown so much he was now blocking the door out of here.

  Double shit.

  “Get me up to his head,” I shouted to Diego, as the monstrous figure continued to grow and grow.

  Diego wrapped an arm around my waist, and then we were in the air.

  As I stared into a bloodshot eye that was almost as big as my fist, I was reminded of the monster movies Brent and I watched as kids. Thick blood dribbled around the creature’s pointed fangs. Resisting the urge to shudder, I pulled back my fist and punched the enormous Mag. My fist got him square in the eye.

  “Ugh!”