Magic Kingdom (Dragon Born Alexandria Book 3) (24 page)

Fighting made her hungry. Alex went to her closet, thinking about Logan’s threat to hide her clothes. Would he really do it? Sure, she could go naked to pick up a snack, but then she’d be giving the commandos she felt roaming downstairs a free show. Logan would kill them. She’d be giving Kai a free show too. And then Sera might just kill her.

Alex didn’t feel Logan in the house at all. She pushed out with her magic, probing further. She felt Sera, Kai, and the commandos. No Logan. Where was he?

She quickly dug through her closet and put on the first things she could find, a pair of stretchy workout pants and a crop top. At least they matched. Dressed to impress, Alex left the suite and headed downstairs.

Every time she closed her eyes, her dreams got worse. Well, except for the part where she killed Zinnia. That was awesome.

Alex shook her head. No, not awesome. Guilt flooded her. She shouldn’t have killed Zinnia, even though she totally deserved it. She couldn’t go around killing people who pissed her off. Maybe she shouldn’t even hate people, not even Zinnia. Alex growled. She did
not
want to feel guilty about hating that woman. Stupid Zinnia. Stupid dream.

Alex stepped into the kitchen, grabbing an energy drink from the refrigerator and a chocolate muffin from the cupcake box on the counter. Then, following the trail of Sera’s familiar magic, she took her food into the workout room.

Sera was doing yoga on the mats. She looked up from a stretch as Alex entered and said, “I see you found my muffins.”

Alex took a bite of the warm muffin. Chocolate melted against her tongue. “It’s delicious,” Alex told her. “You baked all of those muffins?”

“Well, Dal helped. A little.” A devious smile curled Sera’s lips. “Ok, maybe I just supervised while he made them.”

“You did a great job.”

“I did, didn’t I?”

“Just to be clear, by ‘supervised’, you mean stood by and watched while making snarky commentary, right?”

Sera rolled her legs back, stretching out her torso. “Not just that. I licked the spoon at the end too.”

“A vital task.”

“Exactly.”

Alex snickered. “It’s a wonder we kept Riley fed growing up after Dad died.”

“Riley kept us fed,” Sera reminded her. “Our little brother knows how to cook. What are we going to do when he moves out?”

Alex’s smile faded. “Is he planning on moving out?”

“We haven’t really talked about it, but I think so,” Sera replied. “Kai hired him to work in the San Francisco Drachenburg Industries research lab. As soon as he graduates, he’ll earn more than the two of us combined.”

Alex set down her muffin and drink bottle. She gave Sera’s arm a squeeze, then slid down onto the mat beside her, matching her pose. “Which means we didn’t fail him. We did it, Sera. We got him through school.” A strangled noise died in her throat.

“Are you all right?” Sera asked, her voice soft. “You don’t cry. Like ever. The last time I saw you cry was when Dad died.”

She wiped the back of her hand against her wet eyes. “I’m fine.”

“It’s the dreams, isn’t it?”

Alex sighed.

“Maybe it will help to talk about them.”

Much as she hated to admit it, Alex supposed she was right. And there was no one better than her sister to talk to. She’d forgotten how much she missed Sera.

“It’s not just the dreams. It’s other things too,” Alex said. “But, yeah, it’s mostly the dreams. I dreamt that the world was crumbling to ash. And that someone was chasing me.”

“A monster?”

“Yes. That monster was me.” The words scorched her throat on the way up. “Or an evil version of me. I fought myself. She was so much stronger than I am. She used dragon fire. Then, right before she killed me, she said that I would always lose because I’m just a dumb brute who depends on my strength to win.”

“That’s not true at all,” Sera said.

Her heart was hammering. “Evil Alex was horrible, so horrible, but maybe she was right about one thing. Maybe I am worrying so much about becoming a monster that my magic is crippled right now. And if I am weak, I can’t protect anyone. I couldn’t even protect myself. She killed me.”

“Alex, it was just a dream.”

“I know, but there is truth in what she said. I have to be strong. Everyone is counting on me to be strong.” Fear strained her voice. “But it’s hard not to worry about becoming a monster.”

Sera rolled out of her stretch. She turned to face Alex. “You are not a monster,” she said, taking her hands. “You are my sister. And the fact that you don’t want to become a monster is why you won’t ever be one.”

“But I have to use the monster side of me to get strong. That’s how I linked with my dragon. I embraced my magic.”

“Look,” Sera said gently. “I know I’m not the best person to say this since I haven’t completely embraced my magic myself, but you really need to stop beating yourself up about this. Embracing your magic—yourself—is not embracing the monster part of you. You don’t have a monster part.” Her soft smile hardened into a sharp smirk. “You do, however, have a reckless part. And it’s a big part.”

Laughter burst out of Alex’s lips—and it felt so good. So normal. “That’s true. And don’t forget about my temper. That made me kill Zinnia. Well, in my dream anyway.”

“Who is Zinnia?”

“Logan’s former flame. She’s an investigator the Magic Council hired to go through the scene of the attack this afternoon at the summit. She’s like six feet tall, has boobs the size of melons, legs as long as I am tall, a tiny waist, and bouncy shampoo commercial hair.”

Sera reached over and grabbed a bit of Alex’s muffin. “I hate her already.”

“You totally should. From the moment she walked into the summit building, she has been doing her utmost to seduce Logan and piss the hell out of me. When she wasn’t reminiscing about their thrilling heists or battles against giants, she was more than happy to share the details of their steamy rendezvous in churches.”

The ghost of a smile twisted Sera’s lips. “Classy woman.”

“Yeah, well, we’ve all done some crazy things in the heat of the moment,” Alex said. Like having sex with Logan in an alleyway after a fight against a gang of bloodlust vampires. Well, at least it had been a dark alleyway.

The dreamy look on Sera’s face told Alex her sister was reliving a similar experience.

“You dirty little trollop,” Alex teased her.

Her face flared red. “Well, I…”

Alex grinned. “Good for you. Where was it?” She sipped from the energy drink.

“The restroom of Magic Waves,” Sera muttered.

Blue magic-charged water shot out of Alex’s nose. “Wow.” She coughed. “My straight-and-narrow sister…in the restroom of Magic Waves…” She heaved in wet breaths. “Kai is good for you. He makes you live on the wild side.”

Her cheeks still tinted pink, Sera cleared her throat. “You were talking about Zinnia.”

Hearing the witch’s name sobered Alex right up. “Yes, I was.” She pulled a frozen plastic bag out of her purse and handed it to Sera.

“Wow, a block of ice.” Sera looked down at the glistening chunk of magic in her hands. “You shouldn’t have.”

“It’s not the ice. It’s what’s inside the ice.” Alex waved her hand over the bag, and the ice evaporated into steam. “Zinnia’s fancy-pants magic machine detected some residual magic in the air of the room where Margery Kensington went missing.” Alex pulled out the vial of residue she’d gotten from Zinnia—and then preserved with magic ice. “The machine turned the residual magic from gas to solid particles. Zinnia says it’s the signature of the person who kidnapped her.”

Sera lowered her nose to the vial and sniffed it. “It’s from a fairy. A dark fairy.”

“We think it’s the necromancer who’s been stealing magical artifacts from all those buildings.”

“What would a necromancer want with Margery Kensington?” Sera asked.

“Maybe he thinks he can make her tell him where the final piece of the Ornaments of the Dead is.”

“Margery Kensington wasn’t the only kidnapped Magic Council member. Several other prominent members went missing,” said Sera. “Maybe they’re related.”

“You tracked the mages who made a distraction. Did you learn anything?” Alex asked her.

“No. The pyromaniacs didn’t know anything. They were just some kids who thought they were being hired for a prank. And the glyphs were a dead end. Their magic decayed too fast to track.”

“What a mess,” commented Alex.

“No kidding. But something about the kidnappings reeks of Alden. I will save them—and stop him.”

Alex tapped the vial of residue. “I was hoping you could track this magic to its source.”

“You didn’t try to track it?”

“I tried, but you can sniff out magic better than I can.”

Sera closed her eyes, her magic humming as she stretched it out. “This magic is weird,” she said after a few moments.

“What do you mean by
weird
?”

“It’s disjointed.” Sera bit her lip. “I’m not sure if that’s the right word. It feels like a jigsaw puzzle that wasn’t put back together quite right. And it’s diluted.”

“It’s old. It was pulled from the scene at least an hour after the magic had been cast.”

“Not old. Diluted,” Sera said. “It’s hard to explain.”

“Did you feel this magic in the summit building before?”

“No.” Sera tapped her fingers on the mat. “Maybe it’s Zinnia’s machine. Could it have changed the magic somehow?”
 

Of course. Why didn’t I think of that?

Because you’re a fighter, not a thinker?
suggested Nova.

It was a rhetorical question.

Oh.

“I think you’re onto something,” Alex told Sera. “Zinnia’s machine is an active magic detector, not a passive one like we are. It must change the magic it interacts with, especially when it makes magic solid. To create this vial of residue, it was working with magic so faded that neither you nor I could sense it.”

“The machine had to fill in the gaps of what wasn’t there with something artificial,” Sera realized. “That’s why this magical residue feels diluted.”
 

“So it’s tainted?”

“Yes, I think so,” Sera said, handing the vial back to her. “Sorry.”

“Well, thanks for trying. Stupid Zinnia and her artificial crap can’t beat real magic.”

“Mechanical magic detectors are never as good as the real thing,” Sera said. “It’s the same deal with magical plants. There are natural and chemical versions. When Kai’s labs create a new plant, they do it by breeding together existing plants. He says some companies do it chemically, but the resulting magical drugs aren’t as potent. Magic is a part of nature, not a chemical equation.”

“You’ve gotten really close to Kai.” Alex wiggled her eyebrows.

Sera didn’t seem to notice. “Yes,” she said, her eyes lifting in thought.

“Thinking about more times you’ve gotten crazy with your man?” Alex teased.

“No, I…” she spluttered, looking flabbergasted. Her brown eyes hardened. “Why do you always do that?”

Alex put on her most innocent expression. “Do what?”

“Try to make me blush.”

“Because you’re such an easy target,” Alex laughed. “Ok, enough about how we’ve all been a little crazy with our men.” She buried thoughts of her sunset tryst with Logan in the park yesterday.

“As fun as they were.” Sera smiled.

“They really were,” agreed Alex.

“But we’re not Zinnia,” said Sera. “Telling tales of those sexy times to your former lover’s new lover is just tacky.”

As is that bodysuit Zinnia wears,
Nova commented.

Yes. It really is,
Alex agreed.

“You’re talking to your dragon,” Sera observed.

“How did you know?”

“Apparently I get that same glassy-eyed expression when I talk to mine.”

“Nova says she doesn’t like Zinnia’s clothes,” Alex reported.

“Nova is her name?”

Alex nodded.

“My dragon and yours have been chatting, and now mine wants a name too,” Sera said. “But she can’t decide on one. Nova told her she’s overthinking it. Nova apparently thinks she overthinks a lot of things. And my dragon says Nova doesn’t think through anything. She just acts.”

“Well, they are a part of us, you know,” Alex commented.

“Yeah.”

“Though you’ve been a bit more reckless since meeting Kai.” Alex split what was left of her muffin in two, handing one of the halves to Sera.

“And you’ve been thinking things through more since you met Logan.” Sera took a bite. “Mmm. This is good. I’m a great baker.”

Alex nodded vigorously, her mouth stuffed full of chocolate muffin. “Thinking things through might help me stay alive. There’s something to be said about planning a strategy before battle. Thinking is hell, however, for my emotional wellbeing in everyday life. Like right now I’m wondering where Logan is. He said he was going to research some things.”

“Logan was leaving as we came back to the house,” Sera told her. “He said he was going to meet with a friend about the missing Magic Council members.”

“Zinnia,” Alex growled. “He promised he would come get me if anything happened. And he didn’t.”

“Logan said he wanted you to rest. He loves you, Alex. I can feel the devotion in his magic. I can see it in his eyes when he looks at you. You need to trust him.”

“I know. And I do,” replied Alex. “But I don’t trust her. Logan shouldn’t have gone to her. Not without me.” She clenched her teeth. “See what I mean? This new overthinking thing is driving me nuts. Did I tell you what happened after Logan and I bonded?”

“No. What happened?”

“We performed a Blood Magic ritual to bind our magic. Shortly thereafter, I went a bit nuts and became Psycho Alex for a while. We fought. During that fight, we destroyed parts of a friend’s garage, were pretty close to demolishing Logan’s car, and then to top it all off, we nearly had sex on the garage floor, right in front of my friend.”

Sera’s mouth dropped in shock. “Wow.”

“The ritual is vampire magic, and you know how possessive and temperamental they can be.”

“They really are. And now you feel that too?” Sera asked.

“When it comes to Logan, I’m like a vampire,” Alex told her. “I have been known to go a little psycho when a woman looks at him. And Zinnia didn’t just look at him; she kissed him.”