Sera wasn’t surprised. Simmons had said they were an important magic family.

“They aren’t the only ones who have turned,” Kai said. “There are more. We’re going to find out who they are. And we’re going to expose them.”

CHAPTER TEN

Seaside Magic

BEFORE SAVING THE world, lunch was in order. Saving the world on an empty stomach was like riding a bicycle with only one of the wheels attached.

Lunch was a picnic on the beach at Point Reyes, and it was perfect. Sera wasn’t born with the Arctic in her blood, so she stayed away from the frigid sheet of the Pacific. She and Kai sat on a dark rock on the beach. From their picnic spot, they had a first-rate view of the waterfall crashing over the golden rocks, plunging down to the beach. Below, the seagulls splashed and played in the sandy pool of water that spilled into the ocean.

Sera unwrapped her cheese and cucumber sandwich. Kai looked up from his tower of salami stacked precariously between two slices of bread.

“You’re losing weight,” he said.

“It’s the magic. Now that I’ve linked with my dragon, it’s burning more energy.”

“You need to eat more to compensate.”

“I try.” She took a bite out of her sandwich, then set it down. “But I can’t eat as much as some people.” She winked at him.

He stared at her for a moment. “You’re stressed.”

“Yes.” She fidgeted. “These last few weeks have been great. But Alden was always there, waiting at the back of my mind. He hasn’t forgotten about me.”

He caught her hands, leaning in to kiss her softly. “We will get through this. We always get through things. We handled a demon. We can handle the Grim Reaper too.” His blue eyes shone with magic, confident and beautiful.

He stood, stuffing the remains of their lunch into a paper bag. “You are strong, Sera. But you need to access more of your magic. You need to let it flow from you, working with you. Your magic needs to get stronger. We will never be able to handle Alden if you’re so weak.”

“Wow, way to get me motivated, coach.”

“You don’t need babying, Sera. You need someone to kick your ass into shape.”

“You?” she asked, her brows lifting in challenge.

“Yes. You have linked with your dragon, but you need to give her form. Makani said you need more magic to do that. Magic is like muscles. You need to work it out.”

She couldn’t help but let her eyes dip to the hard muscle in his arms, sliding across his chest, then down his abdomen, all perfectly stenciled into his fitted shirt.

His lips quirked up. He’d noticed her looking—and he clearly liked it. “The more you work out your magic, the more easily it will come. The more you’ll be able to do the heavy lifting. I’m going to push you hard until it’s all second nature. You might be cursing my name by the end of this, but you will be stronger.”

Then, in a flash of magic, he shifted. Sera stared up at the big dragon towering over her. Wow, he wasn’t wasting any time. He was skipping straight to the ultimate attack. His sleek black scales shimmered in the afternoon sun, a perfect contrast to his bright blue eyes. Her gaze slid across his powerful, enormous body, admiring its perfect balance, its fierce beauty. How could something so beautiful be so deadly?

Kai’s magic, magnified in his dragon form, unfolded from him. Her lungs burned with its sweet spice. Her body pulsed in time to the gentle lullaby of its soft, steady beat. Her blood simmered with a combination of fear and pure wonder. Kai snorted at her, fire streaming out of his nostrils.

Sera stared up at him, hands on her hips. “Scary, Kai. Real scary.”

He opened his mouth and breathed out a sparkling, snapping mass of electrical energy. Sera barely got out of the way in time. In her hasty retreat, she stumbled over a rock and fell onto her butt. The dragon opened his mouth and laughed, the sound of deep thunder echoing off the high rocks.

Sera got up, dusting the sand off of her. “Oh, you think that’s funny, do you?”

Amusement twinkled in his eyes. Fine then. She reached for the magic of the earth. The ground shook under the dragon’s feet. As he stumbled to regain his balance, his eyes narrowed. He pushed her back with a solid blast of wind magic. A wall of lightning sizzled to life behind her, like an electric fence on steroids. The gale grew stronger, shoving her back toward that popping, crackling wall of electrically-charged magic. Her feet slid uselessly across the sand. Magic snapped at her back.

She drew on all the elements—each one strong here on this beach. They churned and clashed inside of her, building up to a massive release. When she cast the elemental soup, the contradicting magics tore into the wall behind her, making it explode. A shockwave of magic cut through the air, stalling Kai’s gale. Sera launched herself off the magic and blasted the dragon with a rapid string of every spell she had. He shook his head, clearly dazed.

“Oh, you felt that, didn’t you?” she taunted as she landed.

He grunted and opened his mouth to breathe magic, but nothing came out. She must have short-circuited his elemental magic for a time. Kai roared in outrage. That was Sera’s signal to attack.

But as she sprinted toward him, he rose up, flapping his wings hard. The force of the wind knocked her against the rocky wall. She jumped up, trying to shake the dizziness from her head, which was pounding like a war drum. Thump. Thump. Thump. Her blotchy vision cleared a bit, just enough to see the gigantic dragon charging right at her, the sandy beach trembling beneath him.