CHAPTER NINETEEN

Dungeons and Dragons

SERA STOOD IN a big open conference room at Drachenburg Industries. It looked like a ballroom, the sort of place where company parties were held. Kai’s allies from the Magic Council stood all around, waiting for him to tell them how they were going to defeat the Grim Reaper. Sera hoped he had a plan. So far, all they knew was that Alden drew his magic from the devotion of his followers. That wasn’t much to go on, especially since they didn’t have the numbers to take out all his people at once.

Riley stood with Dal and Callum, showing them a piece of magic-proof armor that he’d developed. Margery Kensington watched with silent interest. A few others were less silent about their interest. They kept asking to touch Riley’s armor. One enthusiastic fellow, a fire mage, offered to shoot fireballs at the plate to test it out. All in all, there were over a hundred people in that room, including ten of Mayhem’s finest mercenaries. Simmons was there too.

“Mayhem doesn’t take sides in internal conflicts,” the guild leader said for the two millionth time.

“You don’t have to take sides,” Kai said. “I’m paying you to fight this battle. And it’s not internal. It’s against the Grim Reaper.”

Then Kai handed him a piece of paper. Simmons read the amount listed on there, his eyes widening. After a moment, he nodded. Apparently, Kai had found a price the head of Mayhem couldn’t say no to.

Sera closed up behind Dal. “Where’s Naomi?” she whispered as Kai made his way through the crowd, greeting people.

“We couldn’t reach her,” Dal told her. “She wasn’t answering her phone. Tony left her a message.”

“I hope she’s ok.”

“Naomi is tough. Just like you.” Dal gave her an affectionate punch in the arm.

The crowd fell silent. Kai was standing at the front. “Alden has turned a third of the Council,” he declared. “He will turn more. He has a power over people, the power to warp minds, the power to kill free will. We must stop him now.”

“How do we defend against that power?” someone asked.

“We kill him,” Kai said.

“The Grim Reaper cannot be killed,” someone else called out.

Kai remained unimpressed. “Anyone can be killed.”

“He’s immortal. The last time he rose to power, he killed thousands. No one could hurt him. They finally managed to catch him inside of a magic trap.”

“They tried to kill the sleeping, trapped Alden but it didn’t work,” another person added. “No magic could hurt him. He is invulnerable.”

“That was then. This is now,” Kai stated. “The world has changed. We have new tools at our disposal. We’ll trap him, load him onto a rocket, and shoot him into the sun. I’d like to see him wake up from that.”

Several people murmured their agreement of the plan.

Tony walked up to the front, stopping beside Kai to whisper something to him.

Kai’s magic grew agitated, snapping like a rubber band. He looked at the crowd, his eyes hard. “Alden’s forces have attacked the prison at Atlantis. They’ve freed the criminals we’ve captured over the past several months. All of them. He’s getting ready to make his move. We need to move first. We need to move now.”

“How will we find them?” someone asked.

Kai’s eyes met Sera’s, and he extended his hand to her. “If we link magic, we might be able to find him.”

The crowd parted for her. She walked to the front, very aware of everyone watching them. They stood opposite each other, holding hands.

“Don’t think about them,” he whispered. “Focus on me.”

She kept her eyes on him—and away from their audience of over one hundred people. “I’m just thinking about the last time we linked magic. And how it was not a very public moment,” she whispered back.

It had been during their first time working together, when they’d been tracking down the Priming Bangles. They’d synched magic to increase their range to find the thieves. The experience had been overwhelming—not to mention very intimate—not really something she wanted to repeat in front of all these people.

“I’ll try to behave myself,” Kai promised her.

Sera closed her eyes and dropped her walls, letting her magic out. As it slid against Kai’s, she matched the tide of her magic to his, setting their rhythm in perfect sync. Their magics pulsed together, breathed together—as though they were one. It was an intimate experience—how could this not be?—but Kai was definitely on his best behavior this time, as serious and professional as could be.

Sera followed the silver lines of loyalty, the web of magic, to Alden. She’d expected to find him somewhere else, somewhere too far away to track, like in Oregon. She was surprised when she found him within San Francisco.

She tried to pinpoint his location, holding onto that distinct magic as the strain of hundreds of connections overloaded her senses. Sweat trickled down her face. Her breath came up in stuttered gasps. She kept searching and sifting, even as pain exploded inside of her head. Just a little longer, a little further. She was so close that she could taste his magic, a trail of sweetened decay paving the path to his location. Her magic snapped, hurling her out of the hunt.

Kai steadied her as she lurched to the side. “Are you all right?”

“Fine. Thanks for behaving this time,” she muttered. “I didn’t realize how much you were feeling me up last time. I thought that was just part of synchronizing magic.”