Magic Kingdom (Dragon Born Alexandria Book 3) (31 page)

Marek glanced down at his watch. “We can’t wait. We’re running out of time. If we don’t finish this before Zinnia’s two hours are up, she will kill my mother.”

He was right. Zinnia would have no problem killing one person after the other until they did as she wanted. There was just one problem with diving right in.

“Without Naomi, this plan doesn’t work,” Alex told him. “We can’t get your mother out of the underworld. If we don’t wait, Naomi will be stuck on this side of the barrier. And if we do wait, we might be too late.”

“Can’t you just break the barrier so Naomi can get in?” Marek asked her.

“Majestic would feel the barrier breaking. She will know we’re coming.”

“Then don’t break the entire barrier. Just break off a little piece of it. You can do that, can’t you?”

“Uh, I don’t know. I’ve never tried it.” Alex shook her head. “But it won’t work anyway. If I break even a tiny part of it, Majestic will know. We need to stick to the plan of passing through the barrier. I will bring you all through, then wait here for Naomi.”

“Chickening out of the fight?” Dal teased her.

“Yeah, because that’s totally my style.”

Callum snorted.

“There’s another way,” Tony said. “We can draw a glyph here and then one just inside the barrier. Naomi can use that to tunnel through.”

“Does that even work?” Alex asked.

“There’s only one way to find out.” Callum began weaving a glyph with his magic. As he worked, he said, “We learned to make glyphs after we kept running into villains who could escape through them.”

Dal nodded. “Did you know there’s a trick where you can hook your glyph to a disappearing glyph? If you do it fast enough after someone escapes, you can then follow them.”

“I did not know that.”

“We’ve used that a time or two,” Tony said.

The three commandos smiled fondly at some shared memory.

“Ok, done,” Callum said, linking the final loop of the glyph.

Alex held out her hand. “Then come with me.”

He took her hand, allowing her to guide him through the barrier. As they passed through the threshold of magic, the tickling sensation grew more intense, but neither she nor Callum burned up. Alex was going to call that a win. As soon as they were on the other side, Callum began to weave the matching glyph.

“Who wants to volunteer to try this out?” Alex asked.

Marek stepped forward immediately. “I should do it. We’re doing this to save my mother. This is my responsibility.”

Callum connected the final loop of magic and stepped away from the glyph. On the other side of the barrier, Marek walked up to the glyph. Purple-gold lightning crackled up from one of his hands. He lifted his arm above his head, then slammed it down, hitting the glyph with a shot of lightning. The glyph flared to life. So did the one on the other side.

“It looks like they’re connected,” said Callum.

“Have you ever done this before?” she asked him.

“Cast two connected glyphs to create a tunnel through a wall of green fire that instantly dissolves flesh?” He shook his head. “No, I haven’t done that before.”

Alex looked at Marek through the barrier. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

His eyes hardened into pools of dark magic, and he stepped onto the glyph. He disappeared. A moment later, he popped up beside Alex. She didn’t even have to hold her breath.

“Let’s go the same way,” Eva said as Marek stepped off the glyph.

Both glyphs were still glowing strong with Marek’s magic. One-by-one, Alex’s companions teleported through the barrier. Logan went last. Then Callum cast a few more lines of magic on the ground.

“To preserve the glyphs longer,” he explained.

“I believe I’ve found the way down,” Tony announced.

Alex turned to find him standing in the middle of a large circular plate, looking down at a lever set atop the pedestal in the middle.

“Is the lever the way down, or the way to a fiery end as the ceiling opens up to pour a waterfall of lava down upon us?” Alex asked him as she and the others moved onto the plate.

“I guess we’re about to find out,” he said and pulled the lever.

“And I thought I was the reckless one,” she commented.

The plate groaned, then began to slowly drop through the floor, bringing them to an underground level. Recklessness paid off at least as often as it got you into trouble. Once the plate stopped, they all hopped off.

“I wonder what happens if the plate goes up while we’re still down here,” Alex said. “Do we get stuck here?”

Tony pointed to a lever on the stony wall, one that looked identical to the one on the pedestal. Super villains really did think of everything—she glanced down the long, dark tunnel in front of them—though someone needed to introduce them to the benefits of interior lighting.

Logan took a step down the hallway. “Stay here,” Logan instructed them, melting into the shadows.

A few moments later, a low, surprised grunt echoed down the hallway. It was quickly silenced. Feet shuffled over the hissed whispers of startled voices. Those were silenced too.

Logan popped up again. “Let’s go.”

As they followed him down the hallway, it soon became evident that it led to only one place. On the one hand, that made navigation simple, even in a dark tunnel. On the other hand, it meant they were entering Majestic’s hideout through the only door. If she was expecting trouble, they could be fried by the green fire before they’d even entered the room.

“I sense ten magical people,” Alex whispered as they stopped in front of the door at the end of the hallway. “Three vampires, three fairies, and three mages, all pumped up on freakishly strong magic.”

Freakishly strong, but not as strong as Majestic. Alex could feel her magic too. It was like a drop of pure darkness in a chamber of light.

“Majestic is across the room,” Alex said.

She hoped the necromancer’s green fire couldn’t reach them from there, but she didn’t voice this thought. There was no need to depress everyone. They all knew they might very well be walking into their deaths.

“Where are the other nine?” Logan asked her.

“Two vampires are just beside the door. The other one is beside Majestic. The three mages, all summoners, are on the right side. The three fairies are on the left side.”

“There’s a trap,” Tony said. “Mundane, not magical. A trip line across the door. Step over it. Also, the floor inside that room is made of earth, not stone.” His gaze flickered to Callum. “That means earth magic should work well.”

Callum nodded.

“There are wide steps of dirt that lead up to Majestic, where she’s sitting on some kind of throne,” Tony continued. “The throne has weapons attached to either arm, two swords and some throwing knives. The vampire beside Majestic has more knives on him than your assassin, Alex. The vampires at the door have swords. The fairies have bows and arrows saturated in Fairy Dust. Also, watch out for the flowers around Majestic’s throne. They are Moonlight Lilies, and they will make you slow and drowsy. But if you freeze them, they will go inert.”

When he was finished, Alex said, “Wow, that’s much better than I could have done.”

She never would have seen all that, especially the weapons and earth. She could only sense the magic. Tony could see everything in that room.

“I want a Seer for our team,” Alex told Logan. They’d been on so many jobs where it would have been useful to know they were walking into a trap.

Logan looked at Tony. “Any chance of hiring you away from Drachenburg?”

A smile cracked Tony’s lips. “Sorry, no.”

“We could try kidnapping him,” Alex suggested to Logan.

Logan considered Tony and the other commandos. “I don’t believe we could take them without suffering casualties.”

Alex sighed. “I fear you’re right.”

The commandos grinned at them.

“Majestic,” Logan reminded them, his voice all business. “Here’s how we will do this. I’ll go first and draw her guards’ fire on my way toward the fairies. While everyone is trying to hit me with magic or knives, Alex comes in and takes out the vampires at the door. I will take out the fairies, then Alex and I will move toward the final vampire. Tony, Callum, and Marek will follow and engage the summoners.”

“I am protecting Eva,” Marek said.

Logan gave him a cool look. “You will go where you are needed most. Eva will enter with Dal and begin to cast the sealing spell. Dal is a healer and a defensive mage. He can protect her while she casts.”

Marek stood as still as a statue.

“This will give us the best chance at success,” Logan told him. “You are an offensive mage. Dal is a defensive mage.”

“I know you want to protect Eva, Marek,” Alex said. “But we need your firepower to take out Majestic’s guards. And Dal is the best defensive mage we’ve got. Hell, he’s the only one we’ve got. He can make actual magic barriers, not the elemental ones we do.”

Elemental barriers were a hack really, an offensive barrier forced to be something it wasn’t meant to be. They would never be as efficient or as effective as a true defensive barrier.

“Dal is the person who can protect Eva the best,” Alex told Marek. “That’s what matters here.”

Marek’s gaze slid from Alex to Logan. His shoulders relaxed. “You’re right, of course. It’s hard letting her out of my sight. The last time we were separated, she ended up in the hands of the Convictionites.”

“I know how you feel.” Logan glanced at Alex.

Dal set his hand on Marek’s shoulder. “I’ll take care of her.”

Marek nodded.

“Ok, get into position,” Logan told them.

Logan stood at the door, Alex right behind him, her sword drawn. Then came Tony with his two swords and Callum and Marek, who were already prepping their magic. Elemental sparks crackled on their hands. Finally, at the back, stood Eva and Dal.

Logan kicked the door open. It popped off its hinges and flew across the room, nearly knocking the head off one of the mages. Logan stepped nimbly over the tripwire, then ran out into the room in a flash of inhuman speed. Knives and magic shot at him, but they only touched his shadow. He was too fast. Spinning, he launched knives at the fairies. One of them blasted him with Fairy Dust, but he was too resistant. It bounced off his chest, not even slowing him down.

Alex followed, remembering the tripwire. She ran at the vampires, drawing them away from the door. Their blades slashed at her in silver streaks of whistling steel. As she fought them, she caught a glimpse of Tony, Callum, and Marek taking on the summoners. Eva and Dal entered the room, and one of the vampires tried to make a run for them. Alex blasted him in the face with fire, then, as he was trying to rub the ashes from his eyes, she swung down her sword, cutting the head from his shoulders.

Alex spun away from his dropping body, throwing up her sword to block the other vampire’s attack. She was clashing blades with him when she felt the roar of summoned beast magic tear across the room. Alex jumped out of the beast’s path, and it spun around, charging toward Eva and Dal. Alex heard the beast slam against Dal’s barrier, then bounce off. The beginnings of Eva’s spell were sliding across the walls.

Green fire ripped across the room, consuming everything in its path. Alex kicked her vampire opponent into the green stream, feeding him to the flames. Then she ran like hell. Majestic’s range with that green fire was a problem. Dal and Eva were still in the far corner, slowly making their way along the edge of the room. The fire couldn’t quite reach them there. Yet. Alex wasn’t sure Dal’s barrier would hold against those demonic flames. If Eva’s fairy book was to be believed, nothing could stop the green fire.

Logan had lured the final vampire away from Majestic. She lay at his feet, minus her head which had rolled to the foot of Majestic’s stairs. Killing vampires was messy business.

Marek, Tony, and Callum’s battle against the summoned beasts wasn’t any cleaner. One of the mage summoners lay dead on the ground. A wall of beasts surrounded the other two mages, snapping and snarling. Magic exploded in a resounding boom, then a red dragon shot up into the air. Marek waved it forward to trample the other beasts. A second dragon, this one blue, burst into being and darted toward Marek’s. The two dragons clawed and slashed at each other, tumbling through the air in roaring, ragged waves.

Behind Dal’s barrier, Eva was muttering her spell, a knife in her hand. Sweat glistened on her forehead as she walked along the perimeter of the room, sprinkling her blood against the wall. Dal walked beside her, maintaining a barrier. Their path would soon take them too close to Majestic and that cursed fire. The necromancer’s eyes widened as she watched Eva. She must have figured out what they were doing. Alex had to direct the necromancer’s attention elsewhere. Now.

She ran toward the necromancer, hitting her with fire. Majestic’s hand shot up, blocking Alex’s fire with her own. Alex rolled away from the deluge of green flames. Above her, the dragons’ screams screeched against the vaulted ceiling.

As soon as the green fire faded, Alex ran for Majestic again. She hit the plants around the throne with ice, freezing their magic. She’d have to freeze them again if Majestic’s fire melted the ice. Well, unless she burned the flowers to ashes too. That woman sure was all about death and destruction.

Ghosts spilled out of the walls behind Majestic, streaming forward like a translucent river. The ghosts howled and wailed. Zinnia had been right. The ghosts weren’t happy to be in this underground cave. Alex could feel it in the uneven canter of their magic. But Majestic wasn’t giving them a choice. She sent them at Eva and Dal, then turned toward Alex.

“You cannot win,” she told her.

“It looks like we’re doing all right,” Alex said. “Most of your guards are dead.”

Another mage fell. As the blue dragon overhead flickered out, Marek’s dragon let out a victorious roar.

Alex smirked at Majestic. “One more down.”

“I am more than powerful enough to deal with you myself.”

“That power comes from the Grim Reaper.”

“Don’t call him that!” she snarled, her magic flaring.

Geez, the bad guys were always so picky about what people called them. If they didn’t want to be called unflattering names, they should stop trying to take over the world.