Magic Kingdom (Dragon Born Alexandria Book 3) (33 page)

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Authors: Ella Summers

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Marek’s face was set with determination, his eyes burning with undiluted fury. He glared down at her, hitting her with all he had. Which was a lot. Again and again, he slammed lightning into her. Zinnia convulsed one final time, then her face hit the ground.

Logan walked up behind Alex. “Are you all right?”

“Fine.” She slammed her heel and her magic against the cursed knife on the ground, shattering it.

They stared down at Zinnia. Her face was smudged with black smears, her hair frizzled and split. Her magic was unravelling as the last of her life energy poured out. She used her remaining strength to turn over and laugh in their faces.

“You are fools,” she coughed out, her body shaking. “You think that you’ve won, but you cannot stop us.”

“We stopped you all right,” Alex told her.

“What here?” Zinnia choked out a laugh. “This is nothing. My death is nothing. Stopping us from getting the Ornaments of the Dead is nothing.” Her voice dropped to a fierce hiss. “The Sultan and I are not the only ones. When we fall, others will rise to take our place. We have an army of knights enhanced with magic and armed with magical artifacts and weapons. The Convictionites will destroy the Magic Kingdom the supernaturals have built up. You will all die, killed by magic. How ironic.” She coughed out a final breath, then died.

Alex watched her for a moment, half-expecting her to jump up again. When she didn’t, Alex looked at Logan. “There are more of them.”

“More like me,” he said, low and cold. “Or worse. And they could be anywhere.”

Magic snapped, and Naomi popped into sight, Margery Kensington leaning against her.

“Sorry about the delay,” said Naomi with a crooked smile. “I had to find her. Then we had to fight off a band of dead mages who had decided that building was theirs.”

Marek ran forward, embracing his mother, who looked even dirtier and more disheveled than the last time they’d seen her.

“Thank you,” his lips whispered to Naomi.

Naomi grinned at him. “Your mother is a force to be reckoned with. She rained down devastation on those thugs.”

“You were very good yourself, dear,” Margery told her, coughing. “Thank you for rescuing me from that horrid place.” Her tired gaze slid from Naomi to the rest of them. “Thank you all.” She pulled away from Marek, walking toward Eva, her steps graceful despite her broken heels. “I understand you played a vital role in all of this. Marek was right about you. And I was wrong.” She extended her hand to Eva. “Please accept my apologies.”

Eva’s mouth dropped, shocked to silence. She wasn’t the only one. It wasn’t every day that the head of a powerful magic dynasty apologized to you.

“I’d like to speak to you both,” Margery continued. “Could you see me back to my hotel room?”

“Of course,” Marek said with a grin he could hardly contain. He wrapped one arm around his mother and the other around Eva.

Tony stepped forward. “We would like to escort you as well. For extra security.”

Margery’s eyebrow twitched. “You work for Kai Drachenburg?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Very well. You look capable. And besides, I fear it’s already too late for me.” She cracked a smile. “For better or for worse, I’m now in Drachenburg’s debt.” Her chin dipped into a very regal nod as her gaze settled on Alex and Logan. “And in yours. Expect a call from me tomorrow.”

As Marek, Eva, and the commandos walked out, Alex set her hand on Naomi’s shoulder. “Are you all right?”

“Yeah, though hopping realms really leaves you disoriented. And hungry.”

“I’d imagine so.” Alex linked her arm in Naomi’s. “Now, come on. I think dinner is in order.”

* * *

“He’s cooking up a storm in there,” Naomi said.

Alex set down the plate, then paused to inhale the delicious, savory smells that were wafting into the dining room through the open doorway. They’d decided it was Logan’s job to make dinner. It was very likely the smartest decision any of them had made all week.

“He’s making enough to feed an army. How many people is he expecting to come to dinner?” Naomi laughed.

“Marek, Eva, the commandos…” Alex counted them off on her fingers. She had to switch to the other hand. “Plus the three of us and Sera and Kai.”

“Where are Sera and Kai?” Naomi asked, pulling silverware out of the drawer.

“I’m not sure, but if they don’t come back soon, they’ll have to heat up the leftovers,” Alex said. “Sera told me she’s been experimenting on using magic to reheat food.”

“Is she?” Naomi’s brows lifted in surprise. “And how’s that working out for her?”

“I believe her exact words were, ‘it’s a work in progress’,” said Alex. “She’s still fine-tuning it. So far, she says she’s only managed to end up with food that is completely burnt or food that is half-burnt and half-cold.”

Naomi’s chuckle was cut off halfway when the Imperial March rang from Alex’s pocket.

“You didn’t tell me your pants were planning a galactic takeover,” she said, completely deadpan.

“I just changed my ringtone. I was feeling ambitious after our wins against a necromancer and Convictionite Barbie,” replied Alex, sliding her phone out of her pocket. An unknown number stared back at her. “Hello?”

“How are you, dear?” asked a feminine voice. It was as smooth as roses drenched in napalm. The Evil Queen.

“Your latest weapon just tried to kill us,” Alex told her. “So we’re all just peachy.”

“Yes, well, Zinnia always has been a tad overly zealous,” said the Evil Queen.

“A
tad
? She nearly killed your son.”

The Evil Queen sighed. “And you killed her. How very inconsiderate of you. She was a multi-million-dollar investment.”

“Send me a bill.”

The Evil Queen laughed delicately. “Don’t be silly. You cannot afford to pay that bill.”

“It’s called sarcasm. Maybe it’s not something they taught you in Villain Academy.”

“You certainly are colorful. I see what my son likes about you.”

Logan appeared in the doorway, glaring at Alex. Or rather at his mother through the phone. It seemed he’d heard the whole conversation.

“Put her on speakerphone,” he said, his voice biting like dry ice.

Alex did it.

“What do you want?” he growled at the phone.

“Why, to speak to both of you, of course,” the Evil Queen said pleasantly. “Have you reconsidered my offer?”

“To join the army of brainwashed supernaturals you plan to use to commit mass genocide against our own kind?” Alex said. “No thank you.”

“Turning humanity against us and sending your enhanced experiment to kill us wasn’t a persuasive approach,” Logan added.

“You disappoint me,” the Evil Queen said with dainty disapproval.

Somewhere not far away, a litter of kittens must have been bawling their eyes out.

“You, on the other hand, are incapable of disappointing me,” Logan replied. “Because I’ve long since ceased to expect a shred of humanity from you. And I’m sick and tired of your manipulations. You’ve had Zinnia spying on me for years.”

“She told you, did she?”

“Yes,” he said, his raw anger scraping against Alex’s magic. “You used her to get me to do jobs for you.”

“And you always did such a marvelous job, Logan.”

Logan’s jaw clenched up. He looked like he wanted to break something—no, make that
everything
in the room.

The Evil Queen continued, her voice laden with silken praise. “Such clean kills. Such picture-perfect thefts. No one gets the job done like you.”

“Except your army of other enhanced soldiers,” Logan said.

“Of all of them, you are my favorite,” she declared. “You are my son.”

Logan snorted. Alex could understand why. Being the Evil Queen’s son was not worth the dubious honor.

“But Zinnia shouldn’t have told you about them,” she said, a hint of anger staining her words. “They are my secret weapon.”

“Not secret for long,” Logan told her, pressing a button on his phone.

A video appeared on the screen. It showed Zinnia on the ground of Majestic’s underground lair, breathing out her final words.

“This is nothing,” she said. “My death is nothing. Stopping us from getting the Ornaments of the Dead is nothing. The Sultan and I are not the only ones. When we fall, others will rise to take our place. We have an army of knights enhanced with magic and armed with magical artifacts and weapons. The Convictionites will destroy the Magic Kingdom the supernaturals have built up. You will all die, killed by magic. How ironic.”

Logan paused the video. “As we speak, this video is being spread all across the internet.”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“I would and I have,” he said. “You can’t stop this. Soon the world will know your dirty little secret: that the so-called saviors of humanity are using the magic they have condemned as evil. They will see what sort of hypocrites you truly are.”

“You will pay for this,” the Evil Queen hissed.

Logan’s lips twisted into a wicked smile. “Turnabout is fair play, isn’t it, Mother? Now, goodbye. I expect you need time to deal with your cult’s PR disaster.”

“This isn’t over,” the Evil Queen promised.

“No, it’s not.” Logan hung up.

“Wow, that was smart thinking,” Naomi told him as Alex tucked the phone back into her pocket.

“Yeah,” Alex agreed. “I didn’t even know you were taking a video. Awesome. It will be nice to see her deal with a taste of her own medicine, especially after she set us up in London.”

“I don’t believe this will destroy her organization, but we have to take every hit we can get.” Fire crept into his eyes. “And it felt good.”

Naomi grabbed a breadstick from the table and took a bite. “You scored a victory tonight. Not just the video, but keeping the Ornaments of the Dead out of her hands too.”

“She wanted the Ornaments so she could turn spirits into her spies who could go anywhere,” Alex said, taking a breadstick for herself. “If she’d succeeded, we’d have had trouble making plans without her spies hearing about them.”

“Well, we have the Ornaments now,” Logan declared. “We could do the same to her. Spy on her.”

Alex nodded. “That’s a great idea.”

“I think we should bring the artifacts to my gran. She will see that they are kept safe for us,” Naomi said. “The Magic Council is too volatile right now, thanks to the Grim Reaper’s attempts to infiltrate it. There are traitors on the Council. If they manage to get their hands on the Ornaments of the Dead, Alden gets what he wants. He gets his army of the dead.”

“If the Magic Council decides to use the Ornaments of the Dead to fight Alden or the Convictionites with their own army of undead soldiers, things will be no better,” said Logan. “That is too much power for anyone to have.”

“That’s why I think Gran should keep them safe for us until we can figure out how to use them. Well, except for one of the Ornaments,” she said, brushing her hand down the cloak she was still wearing. “I need this one for myself. At least for a short while.”

“What are you going to do with the Midnight Cape?” Alex asked her.

“I am a Spirit Warrior. I’m going to use this cloak to discover my power.” Naomi grinned. “I’m going diving in the spirit realm.”

Author's Note

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If you enjoyed
Magic Kingdom
, I’d really appreciate if you could spread the word. One of the best ways of doing that is by leaving a review wherever you purchased this book. Thank you for your invaluable support!

What's coming next in the series?

If you want to read about what Naomi and Sera are up to while Alex is busy in
Magic Kingdom
, check out
Fairy Magic
(Dragon Born Awakening, Book 1) and
Rival Magic
(Dragon Born Serafina, Book 4), both coming soon. Alex will return in
Shadow Magic
, the fourth book of
Dragon Born Alexandria
, also coming soon.

Books by Ella Summers

Dragon Born Serafina

1

Mercenary Magic

2

Magic Games

3

Magic Nights

4

Rival Magic
[2016]

Dragon Born Alexandria

1

Magic Edge

2

Blood Magic

3

Magic Kingdom

4

Shadow Magic
[2016]

Dragon Born Awakening