She’d made it halfway there when her phone buzzed in her pocket. She must have forgotten to take it out. Wondering how it was still in one piece after all that, she opened the case. She knew it was probably Finn again, taunting her with another of his messages, but she just didn’t give a damn anymore. She’d done the impossible. She’d made it through the Magic Games with her mind unbroken. She could track down one psychopath mage.

She glanced at the screen. It showed a view of her from above, taken just seconds ago. “Time’s up, Sera,” the caption said.

A portal opened beneath her feet, and she tumbled into oblivion.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Darkness Falling

SINISTER MAGIC SWIRLED all around Sera, then spat her out. She lurched and hit the ground, barely managing to stay on her feet. It was dark here, wherever here was. Dim magical lights bobbed up and down overhead, like buoys on the ocean’s surface. The air was stale and smelled of old sweat. A chorus of manic magic sang somewhere in the distance.

Sera reached out with her magic, trying to get a fix on where she was and what she was up against. Her magic bounced off the rocky, graffiti-drenched walls and slammed back into her. Iron. There was iron in those walls. Battling the emerging migraine—and the nausea building up inside of her—she inverted her magic, just like Kai had shown her in Alcatraz. The pressure in her head disappeared, and her stomach settled. Sera: 1, Sinister Underground Cavern: 0.

Of course, without her magic, she’d have a hard time finding the portal out of here. Assuming there even was one. She shook the thought from her head. Defeatist thinking wasn’t going to get her out of here. And neither was just standing around. There had to be a way out, whether magical or mundane.

We really need to learn to create portals, her dragon told her as she followed the rocky wall. It’s ridiculous how many times you’ve fallen through one.

Agreed. Any ideas?

Some of the older mage dynasties know how to do it. Especially the European families. Any chance your lover boy can look through his family’s library for information on portals?

Lover boy?

Do you think he’d prefer ‘scrumptious eye candy’ instead?

I think he’d prefer not knowing anything about this conversation.

Her dragon frowned in her mind, clearly disappointed. Hmm.

As to your question, I’m not sure the Drachenburg dynasty is so much into creating portals as they are into, well…

Scaring people shitless?

Sera nodded. Something like that. Their specialty is highly destructive magic, usually elemental along with either shifting or summoning.

And dragons.

There’s that too, Sera agreed.

Someone’s coming, her dragon told her. A lot of someones. They feel like mages.

How can you use magic with all that iron in the walls?

I can use magic just fine. The iron can’t bounce it back to me. I don’t have a body.

For someone who didn’t have a body, she sure could shrug like a pro.

Glowing eyes peered out from the darkness. The mages followed—dozens of them stepping into the light. They all had that same look about them. Eerie. Magic-drunk. Zombie-like, Sera decided. Just like the mages she and Kai had fought back at Alcatraz. So, she’d landed in Finn’s secret lair, and those were his brainwashed minions. Great.

Magic crackled off the mage zombies like camp fire flames. Apparently, the iron in the walls wasn’t giving the Crazy Pants Army any trouble. Maybe that was one of the perks of being completely nuts.

“Finn!” Sera shouted as the mages closed in on her from all sides. Their master couldn’t be far away. “I know you’re here. Come out, you coward! Or are you too scared to face me?”

“Careful, Sera,” his voice echoed in warning from behind the mages. “I might take offense.”

“You sent me sleazy SMSs from afar. Now you’re hiding behind your mages. And you’re offended that I’m calling you a coward?” She laughed. “Well, you are, and there are no two ways about it.”

“Foolish woman,” he growled.

The line of mages parted, revealing Finn. He strode down the aisle, power and confidence streaming off of him like a cloak flapping in the wind. His eyes, alight with manic magic, locked on hers. His aura was so strong that she could feel it through the veil of her inverted magic. Power—ancient and forgotten—pulsed around him, beating against her. His magic hadn’t even felt this potent when he’d drained some of Kai’s. The possibility that there could be a magic source stronger than Kai, the world’s lightning rod of magical might, was almost unthinkable—and it scared her to her bones.

“We stopped you,” Sera told him. The best coverup for fear was to just talk your way past it. Preferably with generous helpings of sarcasm. She’d have to work on adding in the sarcasm. Some other time. When her head wasn’t hurting so much. “The Priming Bangles are safe.”

“Yes,” he said with a sour frown. His voice was dry and rough. “We haven’t been able to find the bangles. Kai has taken his paranoia to epic new levels. He didn’t tell anyone where he’s keeping them.” Finn glanced back at his minions. “At least not anyone we could torture the information out of.”

The crowd buzzed with whispered snickers. Madness clung to them, thick and sticky.

“So we’ve had to resort to other means for now,” Finn finished,

“How are you draining power without the Priming Bangles?”