by Ella Summers
“Two months ago. That was when the demons escaped from hell,” Naomi commented.
“Right. And while hunting hell beasts, I test how Drachenburg Industries’ experimental armor and weapons work in the field.”
Kudos to Kai for accomplishing two things at once: reducing hell beasts and testing his company’s armor and weapons.
Naomi took a closer look at the bodysuit Cloud was wearing. Fine black threads were woven into the red ones, which she hadn’t noticed before. It looked pretty stylish actually. Naomi had a feeling the design was about more than just trendy looks, though. Kai didn’t allow fashion to dictate function. With him, it was unquestionably the other way around.
“Those weapons are impressive,” Naomi said, glancing down at the whip slowly sizzling out in Cloud’s hands.
“That baton reminds me of the magic stone Sera once had,” Alex said.
“Right, the chameleon one that could change shape to suit her needs,” Naomi remembered. “I bet that’s where Riley got the idea.”
Alex’s gaze slid across Cloud’s red suit. “How’s the armor?”
“More effective than the previous iteration,” he told her. “That one alternated between being fireproof and spontaneously bursting into flames.”
“Well, at least it kept you on your toes,” Alex laughed.
“Such is the nature of experimental armor. Sometimes it fails. And sometimes it works really, really well,” agreed Cloud. “As you observed just now.”
“You don’t sound upset that you’re being used to field-test Drachenburg Industries’ products in life-or-death circumstances,” Alex observed.
Cloud shrugged. “It beats being in prison. If I’m going to die, at least I’ll bite the dust breathing in fresh air.”
Wow, that was almost philosophical.
Cloud took another step toward them. Before prison, he’d always worn the distinctive, sweet scent of Fairy Lily like a thick cologne, but not anymore. Now, he smelled clean and fresh, like the ocean—with only a tiny hint of Fairy Lily.
“What are you doing here, Cloud?” Naomi asked him. “Right here, right now?”
His mouth drew up into a smile. “I have missed you.”
“Have you now?” she said warily.
“That smile. That energy.” Magic sparkled in his eyes. “It was always so intoxicating.”
“Don’t flirt with me. We’re long past that.”
“Are we? I thought it got better with every one-night stand.” He winked.
Naomi nearly laughed, but she didn’t want to encourage him. She used to say that about Cloud. It was clever of him, throwing her own words back at her. She wasn’t surprised he was flirting with her. Even if he was reformed—and that was a big if because she still was not convinced this wasn’t a big scheme—some things were just fairy nature. Flirting being one of them.
So she simply smiled. “Cute.”
Makani was clearly not amused. In fact, he looked like he’d just swallowed his sword. He took a step toward Cloud, looming like a storm cloud about to unleash hell upon him.
Cloud’s gaze shifted to him. “You don’t like me,” he observed.
“No.” Makani folded his arms across his chest. “I do not.”
“Because I was once a criminal?
“Once?” Naomi said.
“I’m clean now,” Cloud assured her. “I work for the Magic Council. I am a reformed man.”
“You are high on Fairy Lily,” she pointed out.
“I took a tiny whiff of it before coming out tonight, just to calm my nerves. Monsters make me jumpy.”
Naomi chuckled. “If monsters make you jumpy, then you’ve picked the wrong way to redeem yourself.”
“The tougher the challenge, the sweeter the victory.”
Once again, wow. That didn’t sound anything like the old Cloud, that carefree surfer and drug dealer. Right now, he actually seemed serious about reforming, about clearing himself and making up for his past crimes.
“I don’t care that you’re a criminal,” Makani told Cloud. He wasn’t talking in the past tense. He was clearly referring to the here and now. “Your crimes against the Magic Council are irrelevant. They do not matter. But your crimes against Naomi matter immensely. You betrayed her.”
“We can argue past crimes all day long, or we can catch some actual criminals,” Cloud said.
“What do you mean?” Naomi asked him.
“When our paths crossed tonight, I was in the middle of a hunt. I was following a group of escaped criminals sentenced by the Magic Council—tracking their movements, eavesdropping on their schemes—when the hell beasts cornered me.”
“You think the escaped criminals and beasts are connected,” Naomi said.
“Well, the criminals did escape from hell. I suspect they unleashed the firebirds to get me off their tail.”
Could these escaped criminals from hell have anything to do with the demons in the city? Surely it was not all one big, hellish coincidence.
“We should go before they get away,” Cloud told Naomi.
“What do you mean we?”
“Are you not the Magic Council’s goto person for all matters of hell?”
Yes, she was. But she was already chasing more than one thread right now. No, scrap that. This wasn’t just threads. It was a big, knotted nest of demon-scented yarn. And the longer she tried to sort it out, the more twisted and kinked the knots got.
“Unless you have something better to do than save the world from hell’s worst criminals?” Cloud said, arching a single brow.
“No,” she sighed.
The pancakes would have to wait.
“I should warn you that there are many criminals in this hellish nest,” said Cloud. “We are severely outnumbered and the odds are stacked against us that we will even survive the encounter.”
“Excellent,” Alex said with relish.
“You’re a bit mental, aren’t you?” Cloud observed.
Alex grinned. “Only in the best ways.”
“I’m going to need more Fairy Lily before this is all over,” Cloud declared, frowning.
“Where is this nest of criminals?” Naomi asked him.
“This way.”
Ten minutes later, they arrived at the pier. A driver waited in front of a motorboat marked with a Drachenburg Industries logo.
“What’s this?” Naomi asked.
“My monster-hunting, criminal-nabbing support team,” Cloud explained. “There are cars and drivers all over the city. Boats at the piers. Even helicopters.”
“Kai gave you a support team? People who have to do what you say?” Alex grinned. “That is so cool.”
“They aren’t just helping him. They are watching him,” Logan told her. “It’s Drachenburg’s way of keeping an eye on his reformed criminal project.”
“Sure, but they still have to drive him places and bring him doughnuts and pizza,” Alex said, her eyes sparkling like sapphires.
She was probably imagining the possibilities. Alex was convinced that she needed minions. She cared less about having them bring her food and more about having people to get into trouble with.
“So, where are we going?” Naomi asked Cloud.
“I’ve been tracking the escaped criminals’ movements for days,” he said. “And I finally overheard where their base is.”
“Don’t leave us hanging. Where is this vicious nest of criminals?” Alex said it like it was an item on the dessert menu.
Naomi looked across the dark water, hoping the criminals weren’t headed for Fairy Island. It wouldn’t be the first time someone had tried to infiltrate the island. Fairy Island was a tasty target for a demon. Its various magical herbs could boost their beasts’ and warriors’ powers.
The powerful spells around the island would protect it from hostile forces, Naomi told herself.
But what if the magic failed? The people of Fairy Island were pacifists, not fighters. They depended on the magical barriers around the isl
and to protect them. If those failed, they would be overrun. Everyone would be slaughtered.
Cloud followed her gaze. “They aren’t going to Fairy Island.”
Naomi expelled a breath of relief.
“Angel Island?” Alex asked.
That was another likely target. Until a few months ago, Angel Island had been overrun with pirates.
“No,” Cloud said. “The escaped criminals of hell are headed for Alcatraz.”
4
The Flood
The wind nipped at Naomi’s face like the jaws of winter. Their little boat was coming up on Alcatraz now. Stone cliffs peppered with trees and shrubs jutted up into the night sky. High up on a hill sat the prison. A few months ago, the enormous building’s walls had bled rust and dirt, but now they sparkled like crushed diamonds. The Magic Council had given the whole island a facelift. The stone tower was freshly rebuilt, replacing the one that Sera had burned down last year.
Alcatraz had once been the Magic Council’s go-to prison to store the world’s nastiest supernatural criminals, before they abandoned it in favor of Atlantis many years ago. A few months ago, however, they’d reopened the old prison to handle the overflow of criminals the new enforcer squad had captured.
And now the escaped prisoners of hell were hiding inside of a prison, of all places.
The boat stopped at the dock, and Naomi and the others followed the road up to the cell house. Logan’s eyes panned across the island.
“What do you see?” Naomi asked him.
“Three guards on the water tower, six on the cell house.”
“Well, this is a prison of highly-dangerous criminals. You can’t blame Kai for being paranoid,” she pointed out.
“Drachenburg is more paranoid than this.”
Makani’s eyes followed Logan’s visual scan of the area. “He’s right.”
“How many convicts of hell made a run for Alcatraz tonight?” Naomi asked Cloud.
“Seven.”
“But hell has been leaking criminals for weeks?”
“Yes.”
“Why am I getting the feeling that we will be facing a lot more than seven convicts?” Alex said.
Naomi flashed her a grin. “It must be your bright and cheery outlook on life.”
“Yeah, you know me. I’m all unicorns and rainbows.”
“Try demons and hellfire,” Makani said. “This place is swarming with dark energy.”
Naomi felt it too, the slow, oily slither of black magic against her skin. It permeated the whole island. “The convicts from hell have taken over the prison.”
“Yes, and they’ve freed the convicts imprisoned here,” said Makani. “We’re looking at over two hundred hostiles, including the hell beasts.”
It didn’t take a genius to do the math. “So we’re looking at five of us against two hundred of them,” Naomi said.
She supposed they should be counting their lucky stars that this confrontation had come now, shortly after Alcatraz’s reopening—rather than a year or so down the road, after they’d filled many more cells with misbehaving supernaturals.
“Suggestions?” Naomi asked.
“We need a distraction,” Makani decided.
“Such as?”
Alex glanced up at the water tower. “How angry do you think Kai would be if we blew up his water tower?”
“It’s the Magic Council’s water tower, not Kai’s,” replied Naomi. “And I guess how angry he’ll be depends on how good of a reason we had for doing it.”
“Oh, I have a good reason,” declared Alex. “I’m going to create a deluge that washes those convicts right out of their bunker.”
“Help her with that, would you, Your Majesty?” Naomi said to Makani, chuckling.
“I’ve noticed you only call me Your Majesty when you’re teasing me.”
“I’ve always said dragons are clever,” Naomi said with a grin. She leaned in and kissed his cheek. “Be safe.”
He set his hand on her back, drawing her in closer. “I will not leave you unprotected.”
“Hey, I’m a kickass demon hunter. I’ll be fine.”
“A kickass demon hunter whose fight with a demon tonight almost killed her,” replied Makani.
“You’re exaggerating. I was just fine.”
“You passed out,” he pointed out.
“Only for a moment.” She flashed him her most charming smile. “And I woke up recharged.”
“You forget that I can feel magic. And yours is depleted right now.”
“Then it’s a good thing I won’t be needing any magic. You worry too much. I have an assassin and a monster hunter to protect me.”
Makani’s gaze flickered to Cloud. “That monster hunter has already betrayed you once before.”
“If he tries anything, I’ll kill him.”
The serious way that Logan said it—and Logan’s reputation—must have convinced Makani because he nodded.
“Hey, don’t I get a long, overly-protective speech about how you’re sticking to my side?” Alex said to Logan.
“Darling, if I thought it would do any good whatsoever, I’d give it.”
Alex blew him a kiss. “Love you too.”
Logan snorted. “Try not to do anything reckless.”
“More reckless than blowing up a water tower on top of a prison of two hundred escaped convicts and hell beasts?”
His brows drew together. “Stay out of the flood’s path, Alex.”
“I wasn’t going to swim in it. How crazy do you think I am?”
“Do you really want me to answer that?” Logan said drily.
“Of course.” She smirked at him. “I find your brutal honesty endearing.”
“Well, honestly, love, I’m right now remembering a certain tsunami you created in the tunnels under London. While we were inside them.”
“Good times.”
Logan laughed, a rare gesture of emotion from the assassin. Alex seemed to bring it out in him.
“We’ll direct the water into a stream that follows the road,” Makani said.
Alex blinked. “We will?”
“Of course. We can’t just let it go everywhere. We don’t want to drown our allies.”
“See, that’s what I’m always telling her,” Naomi said, winking at Alex.
Alex pouted out her lips. “Spoilsport.”
“You’d better get moving before we’re spotted. There will be time for fooling around later,” Logan told her.
“You promise?”
Chuckling, Logan nudged Alex along the path.
“Any idiot with a hint of elemental magic can make a flood, but it takes a true master to direct the deluge’s path,” Makani explained to Alex as they walked off.
“I’m feeling rather superfluous right now,” Naomi commented as she, Logan, and Cloud headed back down to the bottom of the trail.
“Don’t worry,” replied Cloud. “When the flood washes the convicts and hell beasts down here, we’ll all have more than enough to keep us busy.”
He was right. Makani and Alex would be focused solely on directing the deluge. It was up to Naomi, Logan, and Cloud to secure the prisoners and hell beasts.
Naomi took a moment to watch the water lap the docks, calming herself before the storm. Wood and water, rock and stone, wind and earth. The elements were at peace here.
A loud, explosive boom punctured the tranquil scene. Naomi looked up at the white tower as water plunged out of its bottom like a waterfall. It crashed against the three nearby guards, pulling them into the stream. Like a water cannon, it shot against the cell house, blasting the six guards standing there into the flood.
The flood reformed, as though it were clay being manipulated by the invisible hands of a master artist. It pounded against the building, a shrill cry shrieking as every window shattered simultaneously. Water poured in through the broken windows, filling the cell house. When this was all over, the Magic Council would be replacing more than just a water tower.
Water spilled out of the building’s skeleton windows, like juice squirting out of a ruptured container. Bodies swirled in the stream, flapping around frantically. The water reformed again, merging into a single stream that roared down the hill like a stampede of thunder beasts. The flood followed every bump, dip, and switchback on the road. Then it emptied into a paved open area. Contained by magic, it swirled in a loop. People tossed and turned inside the whirlpool. Beasts made of metal and fire tossed around with them.
Naomi, Logan, and Cloud stood off to the side and waited. The flood spat out the beasts. As they were ejected from the water, their bodies dissolved into smoke. Their metallic armor crumbled into tiny pieces. The wind caught the silver ash, blowing it away. Apparently, the beasts were weak against water magic.
That left only the people in the water. Only. As though fighting them would be easy. There were over a hundred convicts in there. It took a special sort of psychopath for the Magic Council to decide death was too good for them and instead banish them to an eternity in hell. It took an even more special someone to survive that hellish sentence long enough to become a demon’s lackey. Joining a demon’s army wasn’t for the faint of heart—or for the bright of conscience.
The flood belched out a bunch of convicts. Logan launched a storm of knives at them, taking them down before they could shake out their dizziness. More former prisoners fell out of the whirling water. Naomi shot them with Fairy Dust to knock them out, and Logan moved in for the kill.
Beside her, green Fairy Dust sizzled across Cloud’s hands. Except it wasn’t only Fairy Dust. Elemental magic swirled inside the Dust like a thousand tiny fireworks. Like Naomi, Cloud was a fairy-mage hybrid. He ignited his Fairy Dust with fire magic, blasting the convicts.
“Where did you learn that?” Naomi asked him.
It was a spell Naomi had tried desperately to master—and failed at horribly. Her study of spirit magic had pushed those elemental exercises to the sidelines.
“I got the idea from you,” he admitted with a sheepish smile. “I hope you don’t mind.”
He was asking her for permission to use the spell? He really did seem like a nice guy, as though his betrayal had simply been a momentary lapse, a temporary case of bad judgement. Or he could be playing her. Again. She couldn’t afford to just trust him blindly.
