Magic Kingdom (Dragon Born Alexandria Book 3) (23 page)

He moved in urgent, intense beats, driving her to the edge of sanity. All rational thought ripped from her, there was nothing but the two of them. Nothing but this.

She saw it in his eyes, the moment his control finally evaporated. He clutched her hard, his face twisting in ecstasy as his body shuddered. Waves of rapture burst from her, like a flash of fire burning across every nerve in her body, scorching her to her very soul. A harsh cry ruptured from her mouth, carrying along by a wave of residual tingles.

Logan kissed her softly on the forehead, then shifted to embrace her from behind. “You make me crazy,” he told her.

“Good,” she said, lowering her head to rest on his chest. “That’s just how love should be.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Dark Magic

LOGAN LAY BEHIND Alex in their bed. His hand stroked up and down her exposed leg in loving caresses. That’s why she’d tucked it out of the blankets. Her assassin had a weakness for naked skin.

“I have a weakness for
your
naked skin,” he said, kissing her ear.

She must have said that last bit aloud. Oops. Her internal monologue was broken again. That tended to happen after rigorous exercise. Like a fight. Or sex. Well, she was batting two for two today. Something about that made her giddy.

Logan kissed her once more, then moved to rise.

She caught his fleeing hand. “Don’t go.”

“Healing requires lots of energy,” he said. “So does fighting. And you haven’t been sleeping well. You need to rest.”

Yeah, that made perfect sense. And she just didn’t care.

“Stay with me,” she pleaded, sliding away the blanket to expose more than just her leg.

He kept his eyes locked on hers, not letting them dip, not even a little. “No, my control is shot. If I stay here, I won’t be able to let you rest.”

“Oh?” She smirked up at him. “Ready so soon?”

“Always for you, my love.” He kissed her cheek again.

Alex slanted her head so their lips touched. She teased him with featherlight kisses. When he inhaled deeply, obviously trying to rebuild the self-control he’d left at the bedside earlier, she plunged her tongue into his mouth. He tasted like her. And she tasted like him. Right now, their magic was like tightrope strung between them, every dip and peak of emotion pulsing through it.

Alex traced her fingers down his stomach, reaching lower. He jerked away, jumping off the bed. He stood there, sucking in deep breaths, his face a battleground. He was fighting to regain control. Her eyes drifted lower. But he was obviously far from it. A wicked spark twitched her lips up into a smirk. She reached out, trying to pull him back to her, but he was too fast. He darted out of range.

“Get some rest, Alex,” he said. “I’m going to do some research and make a few calls. I want to see if the Magic Council got anything out of the four Convictionites who attacked you.”

“And if they haven’t?”

“Then I will offer them my expertise. I know how to get answers out of people.” His voice dipped with unspoken threat. “Especially people who attack my mate.”

“You could use my help.”

“No,” he told her. “Rest. Recharge. That’s what you should do after healing broken bones.”

“You don’t ever do that.”

“I’m not new at this. When your body has had nearly three decades of experience healing severe injuries, then we’ll discuss this again. Right now, you will stay in bed.”

“Is that an order?” she demanded.

“A request.”

Alex yawned. She tried to cover it up, but it got out anyway. Damn it.

“A request,” he said again. “But if you don’t try to get some rest, Alex—” He tucked her blanket back over her. “—I will lock you in this room.”

Alex laughed. “It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve climbed out of a window.”

“But it will be the first time you did it naked.” His lips curled with wicked promise. “I’ll take all your clothes.”

“Oh, you mean what’s left of them. Thanks to the city’s failed attempt at an apocalypse, I have almost no outfits left in my closet.” A smile stretched her lips. “And, by the way, I have climbed naked out of windows before. I can do it again.”

His brows lifted.

“Long story. But fine. You win. I’ll sleep.” She fluffed up her deflated pillow, then laid her head down on it. “Leave my clothes. And wake me if anything happens.”

Logan swept into a low, graceful bow worthy of Prince Charming. Then he left the room, closing the door softly behind him.

Now alone, Alex pulled her blanket up to her chin. Without him to warm her, her body had dropped to its default ice freezer temperature. The window was open, letting the cooling afternoon air inside. She was too cold to get up and close it.

The wind had changed. She could feel it. There was a bite in the air that hadn’t been there before. It was still hours until sunset, but it looked so dark. A blanket of thick clouds hung across the canopy of the sky. The dry, crackling rustle of leaves promised a storm was coming.

Alex turned, shifting over to Logan’s side. The bed was still warm there. His body always ran so hot. She pulled his blanket on top of her too, nestling up under the downy layers.

She reached for the lamp on his nightstand, and that’s when she saw it. A thick book lay there, clearly old from the style but still in perfect condition, as though it had spent the past several hundred years in vacuum-sealed packaging. Colorful, like a work of art, the cover was adorned with raised foils of gold and silver. An illustration sat at the center, a detailed drawing of two mages. They stood back-to-back, like mirror images of each other. Gold-pink lightning burst out of one mage’s hands, silver-blue ice shot from the other’s. Overhead, two large dragons flew in the air, fire pouring out of their open mouths. Below the illustration, the text read,
Dragon Born Throughout the Ages
.

Inside, a pale yellow sticky note clung to the title page. The text on it was written in Sera’s neat handwriting.
Kai got this book from the Drachenburg family library. It’s about the past Dragon Born. Maybe we can find something in here to help us.
The note was signed with a big, cursive S.

Alex peeled the note off the book, holding it between her thumb and index finger. She rubbed her fingers together, and the note dissolved into ashes. Alex cast an easy breeze. It blew the ashes across the room and dropped them into the fireplace. Then she opened the book, skimming the pages for any reference to Dragon Born mages having visions or going crazy.

An hour later, she was so tired that she could hardly keep her eyes open. The book turned out to be more of an overarching history account than a narrative tale of individual Dragon Born mages. She found no mention of any Dragon Born having visions, but she did find one interesting tale.

Centuries ago, right about the time that the Magic Council had turned against the Dragon Born, labeling them as abominations, there had lived a Dragon Born mage named Leilani. Like Alex, she’d also had other supernatural blood in her besides mage. In fact, she was the only other Dragon Born mage Alex had ever heard of who had mixed magic. She was exactly like Alex.

Well, maybe not exactly. Leilani had gained the other supernatural magic through strange circumstances. Her fairy magic had come when she’d mated with a fairy in a ritual that was probably not much different than the Blood Magic ritual Alex and Logan had bonded in last month.

Leilani’s vampire magic had actually happened before the mating. She and her husband—but not yet magic mate at that time—were on a job for the Magic Council, a job that landed them in a nest of vampires. She used her magic-breaking power to shatter the vampires’ magic, hoping to weaken them. There were just too many of them. The vampires were knocked out, but the force of all that vampire magic backfired on her and hit her hard, knocking her out too. When she woke up, she felt strange. Her magic had been infused with the vampire magic.

The book concluded her story by skipping ahead to her death. She died when the hunt for the Dragon Born began. On that happy thought, Alex closed the book and went to sleep.

* * *

A cloaked shadow chased Alex. She ran through a burning, crumbling city. Ash hung heavy in the air, swirling with the harsh, acidic stench of sulfur. As she ran, the fiery fangs of hell gnawed at the buildings all around her. They were slowly crumbling, sliding down in waterfalls of molten ash. Burning debris lit up the black sky, falling like meteors.

A wall shot up in front of Alex, blocking her way. It reached impossibly high, higher than a skyscraper. She couldn’t scale it. She was trapped. She spun around, her breath scraping past her lips in ragged rasps.

The cloaked menace ran up behind her. Bright red color slid across the dark cloak that was flapping in the wind. It shone and flowed like a river of blood. The hood fell back, exposing a fiend with Alex’s face. She rolled out her magic, and the buildings quaked. Her magic was like a heavy fist, choking out all other magic in the air. A fiendish smile curled her lips. Evil Alex spun, her magic lashing at Alex’s limbs like a whip.

The broken alley faded out, and they were on top of a high hill now. Below, the city spread out in every direction, the skyline a perfect, fluid blend of a hundred different cities in the world. Perfect, except it was all crumbling to pieces. There, on top of that hill, Alex fought herself with steel and magic as the buildings continued to rain down in streams of broken concrete. The sun set on oblivion, streaking the sky crimson.

Alex’s ribs were bleeding again. Cuts covered her arms and legs, every one a burning reminder that her alter ego was stronger, faster, and more magical than she was. The worst part about it was that Evil Alex wasn’t even breaking a sweat. She was just toying with Alex.

“Give up,” Evil Alex said. “You cannot win. This is pointless.”

“You don’t know me at all if you think I’m just going to give up.”

“Of course I know you. I
am
you. The better you.”

“Then why do you want to kill me?”

“Only one of us can live. That’s going to be me.” Evil Alex shrugged. “It’s nothing personal.”

Her statement was so ludicrous that Alex had to laugh. “What do you want? I mean, besides to kill me.”

“Him.” Her eyes pulsed with sapphire fire as she looked at Logan, who was standing off to the side, watching them fight.

“Well, too bad because he’s mine,” Alex replied. Zinnia had been bad enough. And now her evil alter ego was trying to steal her mate too. No. Way. In. Hell.

Alex swung her sword toward her opponent. Evil Alex evaded easily, her cackling voice echoing on the wind. She was just so fast. Her movements were a blur, impossible to follow. She backhanded Alex across the grassy field, following that up with a blast of fire magic. Alex darted out of the stream, but she was too slow. The flames licked her hand, burning it. Screaming out in wretched agony, she dropped her sword.

Laughing, Evil Alex strutted toward her in her high-heeled black leather boots. “Let’s be honest here, hon. Your only weapon is brute force. You’ve always won because you’re the strongest.” Evil Alex sneered. “Well, now
I
am the strongest. You will lose this.”

Alex returned the sneer. “Going to offer to let me walk away?” If she did, Alex would stuff those words back down her throat.

“No,” replied Evil Alex. “I just wanted you to know who is better before I kill you. I want you to die knowing you were only ever second best. And why? You could have seized your power, but you were too afraid of becoming a monster. Well, boohoo.” Purple smoke curled around Evil Alex, thickening. “Let me let you in on a little secret, sweetheart. Monsters win.” The purple smoke sizzled into purple fire and blasted out, consuming Alex.

Alex watched herself turn to ashes through Evil Alex’s eyes. Behind her, someone laughed. Alex looked back to find Zinnia standing at the edge of the meadow, her arm twisted around Logan’s like a strangling vine. Rage boiled inside of Alex. She spun around and marched toward them.

“Alex.” Zinnia grinned. “Join us.” She licked Logan’s ear.

Alex’s anger hardened into a ball of pure ice. She planted a cold smile on her lips and strutted forward, swaying her hips with sweet relish. As she stepped, she released the clasp holding her crimson cloak. It funneled up into the air, caught in a gale of her magic. It flapped there for a moment, suspended, then it shot toward Zinnia. The ball of crimson punched Zinnia hard in the stomach, pushing her away from Logan. She stumbled back, teetering on the edge of the cliff.

“Stay away from my husband,” Alex barked. It was not her voice coming out of her lips. She didn’t recognize the voice at all.

Alex flicked her hand, waving the crimson cloak forward. The fabric snapped at Zinnia like a whip, forcing her back. Pebbles crumbled from the lip of the cliff beneath her heels.

Alex stepped forward. “You will not take him from me,” she snarled.

The cloak twisted around Zinnia’s ankles, dragging her forward before tripping her hard onto her ass. All the elements raged around Alex, preparing for the storm of the century. The ground shook with tremors. The naked skeletons of the bushes around them blazed up in a sea of fire. The sky crackled with lightning and swayed in the rough wind as water drizzled down from the sky. The mist was thick, but not thick enough to put out the raging bushfire. Everywhere the droplets hit Zinnia, they froze to ice, the crystals quickly spreading across Zinnia’s skin. She was turning blue.

“Pathetic,” Alex spat at her, flicking her hand again.

The cloak slithered across Zinnia’s body in crimson streams, twisting around her neck. It pulled up, lifting Zinnia’s feet from the ground. Her breaths were coming out in choked gasps. She clawed desperately at the cloak, her feet kicking in wild jerks.

“You are a monster,” Zinnia choked out.

Alex pulled her fist closed, tightening the cloak’s hold around Zinnia’s throat. “Yes, I am,” she said as Zinnia dropped dead to the ground. “Monsters win.”

The wind carried her maniacal laughter across the broken city.

* * *

Alex jumped up, heaving in deep breaths. The evil laughter still rang in her ears. She kicked the blankets from her sweat-soaked body and slid off the bed. She walked in shaky steps to the window, throwing open the curtains to let in the night. The moon was rising in the dark sky, a pale gold orb behind a gauze of raindrops that hissed like white noise. Alex listened to the soft trickling tap of the rain, the only sound on an otherwise silent night. Her stomach gurgled.