Blood Magic (Dragon Born Alexandria Book 2) (25 page)

“No, but Deathstalker did recommend we exercise caution when meeting this person.”

“Did he say who it is?”

“No.”

Which meant it could be anyone, including someone on the Magic Council. Who else would have information about an assassin who’d hunted down Dragon Born mages? This panoramic breakfast could quickly deteriorate into a duel to the death. She glanced at the river on either side of them. That water sure looked cold. She hoped there wasn’t a sea monster living in it like there was in Lake Zurich. She sighed. She hadn’t put on her waterproof boots this morning.

“He isn’t selling us out,” Logan assured her, tapping his nose.

Right. He could smell lies. And betrayal.

“When will Deathstalker’s contact arrive?” she asked.

“Getting bored of my company already?”

“No, I’m just a bit anxious.”

He looked down at her feet, which were bouncing against the deck. “I can see that.” He set his hand on hers. “Just sit back and enjoy the view.”

Alex’s nerves were jumping against her skin, but she forced herself to take a long, deep breath. The view as the boat slipped along the river was nothing short of spectacular. From here, there was no sign that a larger section of the city had been the battleground of an all-out bloodbath between supernaturals and humans only last night.

“You know, this is the most of London I’ve seen since we came here,” she commented.

Sure, she’d scoured the city seeking out Convictionite bases and supernatural threats, but that just wasn’t the same as sitting back and watching. It was hard to appreciate the sights and sounds of the city when your senses were trained on survival.

“It’s nice to be out together like this, not chasing monsters or evil organizations,” she told him.

“For the moment.”

“Ever the optimist,” she replied, smiling.

He reached for the teapot—then stopped, his eyes wide with surprise. That surprise quickly hardened to cold fury. “I don’t believe it.”

Alex turned to look behind her. Another boat had just slid up beside theirs. A woman in a custom-fit beige business suit stepped from one deck to the next, moving with the fluid, stately grace of a queen. Her blonde bob was styled to perfection, not a hair out of place, and her makeup was a work of pure art, subtle yet striking. Velvet-soft, seductive, she wore charisma around her like a fur shrug. If only her admirers had known about the black abyss that was her heart, neatly tucked away beneath layers of allure.

Logan’s mother crossed the deck, her leather heels tapping out the inevitable countdown to detonation. Her gaze slid across the shrinking expanse, regarding them with cool calculation.

“What is she doing here?” Alex muttered to Logan.

He didn’t say anything. He just kept his eyes trained on his mother. His hand slid down to the knife at his thigh.

“I would advise against any rash action, dear,” his mother said by way of greeting as she sat down at their table. “I have several snipers with their rifles locked on Alex’s head.” She waved toward the mass of buildings that was London. “If you make a move against me, you will be scraping your girlfriend’s brains out of your tea cup.”

Trust the Evil Queen to make a spectacular entrance.

“We’re not scared of you,” Alex told her. She could just make a barrier to stop those bullets. And then incinerate the Evil Queen in a blaze of dragon fire. Yeah, that would be fun.

Logan set his hand over hers, as though he’d read her thoughts. “Let’s keep our heads.”

And not reveal your secrets,
his eyes said.

He glowered at his mother. “What do you want, vile woman?” he growled.

“And how did you know we’d be here?” Alex added.

She lifted the teapot from the table and poured herself a cup. “I thought that was obvious.”

“You are Deathstalker’s contact.” Logan’s jaw tightened. “You are the one who supposedly knows about Nightshade. Or is this all another one of your tricks?”

She smiled. “It is no trick. I know about that incident. Eight years ago, my people were tracking a mage assassin called Nightshade. He’d made himself quite a nuisance to our order, taking out so many of my loyal soldiers. My spies followed him to an old house in the woods of northern Washington. Apparently, the assassin was following rumors of Dragon Born mages.” She looked at Alex. “It looks like he found what he was looking for.”

“I already know about her,” Logan told his mother. “So if you’re trying to drive a wedge between us, don’t bother. It won’t work.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t dream of it. If I’d known of her unique power before, I would never have tried to kill her.”

“How did you find out?” he asked.

“I knew she was powerful after the incident on Lake Zurich. There aren’t many mages who can break a spell like the one on you, Logan. My suspicions were confirmed when Deathstalker reached out to learn more about Nightshade. I realized that she was one of the Dragon Born mages the assassin had been after.”

Great. At this rate, half the world would know her secret by tomorrow. It was a wonder the Magic Council wasn’t banging down her door already. Dad had been right. A secret only stayed a secret if no one knew about it.

“There hasn’t been a mage in the world like her in centuries,” Logan’s mother told him. “A power like that must be harnessed, not destroyed. An opinion the Magic Council clearly does not share. How much is the bounty they put on your head, dear? Two million dollars?”

“All of us know precisely how much that bounty is, so stop playing games.” Logan’s anger had brought his magic to the surface. Right now, he was buzzing like a bomb ready to go off. “I would never betray her, not for any sum.”

“Of course not, dear,” his mother said with infuriating patience. “You love her.”

“Yes.” His hands squeezed the table. The wood groaned under the pressure. “And I will kill anyone who tries to collect her bounty.” He gave his mother a pointed look.

She sipped primly from her tea, as though this were all quite pleasant and amusing. A piece of the table splintered off into Logan’s hand. The Evil Queen didn’t even blink. She set her teacup back on its saucer, then tapped the corners of her mouth with her napkin.

“My spies were close on Nightshade’s tail, but still they were too late,” she continued. “By the time they arrived at the house, there was no house left to be seen. It was in ashes, burned to the ground by magic. No one was there. My spies didn’t even have a trail to follow. It was as though no one had ever been there. I sent others to find the two rumored Dragon Born, but they had vanished. We wondered if they had ever existed in the first place.”

“What did you want with them?” Logan asked.

“To recruit them, of course.” She turned her gaze to Alex. “As I said before, a power like yours is too powerful to waste. And any weapon the Magic Council fears so much must be useful.”

“Alex isn’t a weapon. She is a person,” Logan told her coldly.

“Of course. She and her sister, two poor lost souls, hunted and hated by their own kind. They would have a safe place with my people.”

“In your army of brainwashed supernaturals, you mean,” Logan said.

“Don’t be so crass.” She smiled at Alex. “What do you say, dear?”

“That’s what you want? You’ve brought us here because you want to recruit me?” she asked. The absurdity of it almost made her laugh.

“Both of you.” Her gaze shifted between Alex and Logan. “You are both different than others. Special. You have no place in the cold, cruel world as it is today. That world will tear you apart. I can keep you together.”

“And all we have to do is kill for you,” Logan commented.

“Well, nothing comes for free.”

“Forget it,” he told her.

She looked at Alex.

“No.” Alex shook her head. “I’m not interested in making bloodbaths for you.”

“But it is what you were made for. Both of you. You’ve done it so well already,” the Evil Queen said with a sweet smile. “It’s beginning.”

She slipped her phone out of her purse, turning it toward them. A video played out on the screen. A torn, bloody figure Alex recognized as herself
 
knelt beside Logan. She snapped her head around, and the glowing bubble around them billowed outward and swallowed the Convictionite army, surrounding them in burning purple flames. So much for keeping secrets from the Evil Queen. The woman had eyes everywhere.

Logan’s mother tapped her screen, freezing the video. “The power of the Dragon Born. I want that weapon in my arsenal.”

She didn’t look the least bit torn up over all her people who’d been killed, even her pet the Sultan. Then again, the woman was fine with making sacrifices to pave the path for her vision of a better world—as long as they weren’t
her
sacrifices. A classic psychopath. She scrolled to another video, this one a collection of media coverage from last night.

Alex frowned at her. “We know this was all planned by you. You wanted us to come for the Blood Orb. You knew those vampires were tracking us, and you had the Orb spelled to make them lose it when they got close to us.”

The Evil Queen smiled.

“You’ve been taunting us, testing us, trying to stir up trouble,” Alex continued. “You want to turn the humans against the supernaturals. You want war.”

“I just showed people what kind of beasts supernaturals really are.”

“No,” Alex said, fury frosting her lips. “Those ‘beasts’ were being controlled. By you. You engineered this massacre. And why? All so you could manipulate more people into joining your army, to spread your hatred and death across the planet.”

“Corruption is woven into your very existence. It’s what you’re made for. Both of you.” She glanced at Logan. “You are monsters, but I can help you. I can give you an outlet for your dark nature, so that you can live normal lives. I will give you the targets, and all you have to do is kill them. You can be together, not hunted. Under my protection.”

“No,” Logan growled. “Not ever.”

“Now you’re just being stubborn. Working for me is not much different than your current job.”

“No,” he refused again, putting more steel into his voice this time.

“I made you, Logan.”

“You may have made me, but I will choose what sort of man I am.”

She looked at Alex.

“Sorry, I don’t work for psychopaths.”

“I’m very disappointed in your lack of vision,” the Evil Queen told them.

“If killing hundreds of innocent people so that you can throw humans and supernaturals into a war that will kill millions is your vision, I don’t want any part of it. In fact, I will fight you. To. My. Last. Dying. Breath.”

The Evil Queen expelled a martyred sigh.

Logan glared at her. “What now?”

“What now?” she asked, sipping her tea. “Perhaps you are referring to the snipers? Do you honestly believe I will try to use your girlfriend’s life to make you do what I want?”

He shot her a look of pure loathing. “Yes. It would certainly fit with your pattern.”

She put down her teacup softly. “No, she’s too useful to waste. Besides, if I did that, you would simply turn on me at the first opportunity and then kill everyone nearby.”

“Yes.” He allowed a feral smile to touch his lips. “I would.”

“You always did have such a violent temper. It must be the magic in you,” she replied. “No, I can’t afford to let you have access to our secrets, not if I don’t fully trust you. You have the power to do too much damage. I need you to come willingly.”

“I never will.”

“We’ll see.” She smiled smugly. Either she had an ace up her sleeve, or she just wanted to make them think she did. “Now, for the next order of business, the reason we are here.”

“Nightshade.”

“Indeed. My spies couldn’t follow the Dragon Born trail, but they were able to backtrack the assassin’s path to the person who hired him. Would you like to know who it is, dear?” Her smile was poison hidden beneath a sugar-coated shell.

“We can’t trust her Alex,” Logan warned her.

It didn’t matter. She had to know. “Tell me.”

“One of the Magic Council’s most powerful members.”

Which explained why she wanted to tell them. She was hoping Alex would kill that target for her for free. She might just get her wish.

“Margery Kensington.”

The name hit her like a ton of bricks, but rather than set her free, the knowledge only buried her. Margery Kensington was Marek’s mother. Shocked, speechless, Alex just sat there.

The Evil Queen stood from her seat. “The snipers will keep a lock on her until I am safely away. I have people watching your friends as well,” she told Logan. “Goodbye. We will all see one another again very soon.”

She walked back across the deck and stepped into her boat, which sped away. Even when she was long gone, Alex was still sitting there, frozen.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

The Crystal Palace

AS SOON AS they got back to the hotel, Alex took a long, hot shower to wash the indecision right out of her. At least that was the plan. Unfortunately, she was a lot better at plunging into things than she was at making feasible plans.

If Nightshade’s client had been some other random Magic Council member, she wouldn’t have hesitated. She would have plunged her sword right through her. She would have watched the life drain out of her, waiting for the moment death claimed her harrowed soul.

Nice,
her dragon said.
In a morbid sort of way.

She hired the assassin who killed my father. I’m not thinking thoughts of roses and daffodils.

Daisies?

No. If she weren’t my friend’s mother, I would have already killed her.

You know, I don’t think that’s true,
her dragon replied.
Logan killed Shadowstalker’s parents, and you told him off for being a vengeful, hypocritical little twerp.

And who says I’m not also a vengeful, hypocritical little twerp?

Nah, you’ve got at least three inches on that scrawny assassin.

He’s ashes now,
Alex told her, leaning her head against the cool tiled wall.
I killed him. It looks like I’m no better than he was after all.