Spirit Magic (Dragon Born Awakening Book 2) Page 5

  “You are not selling your kickass demon experts very well.”

  “They will be fine,” she assured him. “They just need to recover. They did just help us wipe out all the demons’ warlords in the second circle of hell.”

  Riley whistled. “I’ll lead with that tidbit when I introduce them to Tony.”

  “Please ask Dal to heal their injuries.”

  “Sure.” He looked at the napping warriors, calculation gleaming in his eyes. “Or I could heal them myself.”

  “You’re not a healer.”

  “But I do have some wicked new potions that might speed along their recovery. I’ve been dying to try them out.”

  Makani stepped forward, casting a long, dark shadow on Riley’s wistful face. “They are my warriors. They are not test subjects.”

  “Don’t sweat it, man. My potions have been thoroughly tested on rats. The rats experienced a twenty-two percent recovery boost when compared to traditional healing potions.”

  “Rats?” Makani sounded horrified—and that meant a lot coming from a man who’d spent seven hundred years in hell. He wasn’t easily horrified.

  “I used the giant ones, some monsters Sera captured last month,” Riley continued. “The body mass of a giant rat is quite similar to that of the average person’s.”

  Makani did not look appeased. And Naomi didn’t blame him. Riley was a genius, but sometimes he existed on a whole other plane than everyone else.

  “Or you could just let Dal heal them,” she suggested.

  Riley’s smile faded, and the excitement shining in his eyes dulled. “You’re no fun, Naomi.”

  “You know that’s not true. I am a lot of fun,” she said, smirking.

  Riley patted her hard on the shoulder. It actually kind of hurt. He was getting stronger.

  I blame all the physical training he’s been doing with the commandos, she thought as he and Makani loaded the three warriors into the car. She liked to watch Makani work. He caught her ogling, and his eyes pulsed gold.

  When they were done, Riley came back around the car and said, “Take care of yourself, Naomi. The spirit realm is a dangerous place.”

  “Actually, about that. I was hoping you could help me with something else.” She flashed him her most charming smile. “You know, using your other talent.”

  Riley had always been an exceptional magical scientist. Recently, he’d also gained the power of shadow magic, the power to warp reality. It was demon magic. It had come from Rane, a demon with the same power.

  “Makani and I need to get into the Pyramid,” Naomi said. “I was hoping you could give us a hand.”

  “Rane told me about the Pyramid,” Riley said cautiously. “It is a place where dark plans are hatched. What do you want there?”

  “I’m looking for my father.”

  “Your father?” His brows drew together in confusion. “I thought he was dead.”

  “So did I.” She looked at Makani. “But it turns out he survived his battle with the demons, and he’s been trapped in hell ever since.”

  “And you think he’s in the Pyramid?” Riley asked.

  “No,” said Naomi. “Onyx is in the Pyramid, hiding from something, whatever that is. He’s probably hiding from all the world. But I need to talk to him. He gets around the spirit realm more than anyone. He might know where to find my dad. He might even know where he is right now. I need to get my dad out of there, Riley.” She took his hands, squeezing them, beseeching him to help her. “I need to bring him home.”

  “Naomi, I wish I could help, but Rane says I’m not ready to go to the Pyramid. The demons have no magic there, but Rane and I do. The Pyramid would react badly to my shadow magic, since I still have so little control over it. My magic would warp the Pyramid and everyone in it.” He shook his head. “I can’t bring you inside. Even if I had enough control over my magic to go there, I’d be going against Rane’s rules, rules I promised to follow while she trains me to use my shadow magic. I won’t do that.”

  Riley always kept his word. Plus, there was the added complication that Rane had sworn she would kill him if he disobeyed her commands. His magic was very dangerous, very deadly. The demon wasn’t wrong to demand that he follow very strict guidelines. Rane’s last shadow mage apprentice had shattered the very fabric of reality.

  “I figured Rane wouldn’t allow you to go to the Pyramid.”

  And not just because of what he could do. Because of who he was. He was Rane’s apprentice, the only shadow mage in the world. The demons wanted to capture him. They wanted to steal Rane’s secrets—and the secrets of her magic.

  “Even if you yourself cannot come with us, I’d hoped you had a spell you could cast on us,” Naomi said. “Or perhaps a potion that could fool the Pyramid into thinking we had demon magic. After all, it allows the demons’ warlords inside, and they aren’t demons. The demons just gave them a few powers.”

  “Fool the Pyramid? What an exciting idea. What an enticing challenge,” Riley said, his expression brightening once more. He was always up for a challenge.

  He opened the car door and pulled out a rolled bundle from the inside pocket. He unwrapped the fabric roll, which appeared to be made of some kind of beast hide. A bunch of vials, each one filled with colored liquid, were tucked inside.

  Riley grabbed an empty coffee cup from the car. He mixed a few drops of the colored potions inside the vials into the cup. Tiny wisps of smoke rose up. A sweet smell tickled Naomi’s nose.

  As he muttered a few foreign words over the cup, his hands began to glow. The potion darkened from pale blue to black. At the same time, it thickened. The contents of the cup now most resembled chocolate cookies that had been mixed with pudding, then put into a blender.

  He handed the cup to Naomi. “There you go. One Pyramid-fooling potion.”

  Naomi sniffed it. It smelled even sweeter up close. “And you are sure this will work?”

  “Mostly sure,” he said. “When you drink the potion, it will create a false magic pulse in your body that the Pyramid should identify as demonic. You see, demon magic is so varied—it’s such a large range—that the Pyramid must have the power to identify a wide spectrum. Your magic only needs to be close enough to what the Pyramid expects. Like those warlords you mentioned. They have only a hint of demonic magic.” He caught her hand as she lifted the cup to her mouth. “Just make sure you drink the potion only when you are standing in front of the Pyramid. It will likely interfere with your other abilities.”

  She lowered the cup. “So I won’t be able to move between realms?”

  “Possibly. But the potion only lasts for about fifteen minutes anyway, so it shouldn’t be a problem.”

  “We have only fifteen minutes to get into the Pyramid, find Onyx, and get out again?”

  “Sorry, it’s the best I can do. This isn’t like making lemonade, Naomi. It’s experimental magic, a spell that requires mixing different branches of magic. I may be able to perfect it in future iterations.”

  Honestly, she was surprised he’d been able to produce something so complex on the spot, without any preparation.

  Naomi hugged him. “Thanks, Riley.”

  He winked at her. “No problem.” Then he stepped into the car.

  As Riley drove away, Naomi turned to Makani. “So where exactly is the Pyramid?”

  “On the Plains of Woe.”

  Naomi sighed. Of course it was.

  5

  The Pyramid

  The easiest path to the Pyramid was in the first circle of hell. Here, the entrance was located in the middle of the country, on a forsaken prairie in the midwest, aptly named the Plains of Woe. For just once, Naomi wished they could travel to a place called the Prairie of Good Intentions. Or their destination could at least lie under the Happy Skies.

  The Plains of Woe sat on a wide, open prairie, but these lands bore little resemblance to their counterpart on earth. Here, the grasses weren’t lush green, nor were the fields of wheat golden and warm. The alien plants were blue and spiked with thorns that dripped a crimson liquid which looked suspiciously like blood. An eerie clicking sound, like scissors, rustled through the grass—accompanied by the slow, scraping chorus of knives being sharpened.

  The air, hot and thick, smelled of decay, of rotting trees. Above, the sky was bubblegum pink. Though it was night, the sun was up. In fact, there were two suns out today.

  Naomi pointed up at them. “They’re like two big eyes in the sky, watching us. Now, that’s unsettling.”

  Makani looked unbothered. But he was rarely bothered by bizarre scenery and other window dressings. “Do you feel any folds in the veil?” he asked.

  She pointed across the spiky prairie. “That way.”

  The thorny grass parted before them, shrinking away. It was as though the feral plants were more afraid of her than she was of them. She didn’t take any comfort in that. And as they began to traverse the prairie, that familiar knot twisted inside her stomach.

  “You’re worried,” Makani observed.

  “Yes.”

  “You’re scared that we won’t find your father.”

  She was going to find Dad. He was out here. Somewhere. Makani had crossed paths with him years ago. That was how Naomi knew Dad hadn’t died in the battle with the demons all those years ago like they’d all assumed. And she knew in her gut that he was still alive.

  “I’m trying to stay optimistic,” Naomi said, putting on her cheerful face.

  That was how she was supposed to be: always cheerful. She was the one everyone looked to, the one who kept their spirits up.

  “Sure, we’ll find him,” she added, stretching her smile further.

  “You don’t need to pretend for me, Naomi. You don’t need to wear this mask.”


  “What mask?”

  “The optimistic, bubbly, always-in-control, always-cheerful fairy. The one who solves everyone’s problems.”

  “Maybe that’s just who I am.”

  “Yes. And no.”

  She laughed.

  “I know you’re worried that we won’t find him,” Makani said.

  “We have been looking for Dad for months, and we’re no closer to finding him than when we started. And if we do find him, is he still the same person I knew? He’s been gone for years. Hell changes people.” She met his expressionless face and cringed. “I’m sorry.”

  “Never be sorry to speak the truth, for the world is full of liars eager to lead us astray.”

  “How poetic,” she commented.

  “Dragons and poetry are like…”

  “Bacon and eggs?” she suggested.

  He snorted. “If you can joke right now, then you have not abandoned all hope. There’s still some left inside of you.”

  “As much hope as I can muster,” she said, forcing a smile.

  “You are right. Hell changes people. I was stuck here for seven centuries, and I’d be lying if I said it hadn’t changed me,” he told her. “But it changed me for the better. Hell was where I needed to be, no matter how bad it was. It gave me a purpose again. And it led me to you.”

  “Technically, that was the spell from a dark fairy. And it led me to you.” She took his hand, holding to it tightly. “But I know what you mean. It feels as though this was all supposed to happen like this.”

  “Hell was where your father needed to be too. Somehow,” said Makani. “It was his fate to be trapped here. Just as it is your fate to bring him home.”

  Emotion tightened her chest. “That’s beautiful.”

  “It’s the truth,” he replied simply.

  She stopped walking and faced him. “I thought I was supposed to be the optimistic one.”

  He wiped her tears away. “Hell is no place for tears.” He brushed his hand softly across her cheek. “Hell eats tears. It feeds from our pain.” The tears dissolved from his finger, absorbed by the hot air.

  “I fear they won’t be the last tears of this journey,” she said, clearing the emotion from her throat. “Come on.”

  They continued walking, the shrubs retreating before them in fear. This whole place looked the same, a never-ending prairie of black thorns under a pink sky.

  “I’ve been wondering,” Naomi said after a while, breaking several minutes of silence. “How is my father trapped in the spirit realm? He is a Spirit Warrior. He should be able to leave hell whenever he wishes. And nothing would keep him from my mother. Nothing would keep him from us.”

  “His magic might be strong in this realm, but it is not unlimited. He is not invincible. And neither are you.”

  “Neither are you,” she pointed out.

  Makani dipped his chin in acknowledgement. “Indeed I am not. During my time living here, hell never let me forget that inescapable reality. When I met your father, we were both being held by Valin. The warlord’s witch used a spell to block his powers so they could more effectively torture him. They’d drained me of my magic as well. Your father and I were stuck inside a prison cell together with no magic, with nothing but our wounds and desire to escape to hold us together, to keep us from falling to pieces. Your father spoke often of his family, of getting his powers back so he could find his way out of hell and go home to you. He never gave up on you.”

  Another tear slid down Naomi’s cheek.

  “We escaped, using only our wits and no magic,” Makani continued. “We got separated in the escape. We were supposed to meet up again, but your father never made it there. He’d led the army away from me to give me a chance to get away. He is a brave man.”

  Makani had told Naomi this story so many times before, but she never tired of hearing it. And it always brought her to tears. The story of her father, the hero.

  “In hell, a man like that only changes for the better,” said Makani. “This terrible place brings out his best qualities, his most noble nature. Hell shows us who we truly are inside.”

  A ripple slithered across Naomi’s skin. She stopped walking and reached out with her hands, trying to find that invisible something that had caught on her body. Familiar magic tickled her fingertips. She’d found a fold in the spirit realm’s magic. She allowed a trickle of her own magic to mix with it, and the fold became visible. A ripple of magic sparkled ahead of them, a subtle twinkle of light in the air. She poked it again.

  The fold’s magic responded to her touch. A grand pyramid, plated with gold, suddenly appeared before them. Its surface sparkled in the light of the moon and sun. The second sun was gone now. It had been replaced by a sun and a moon side-by-side in the sky. Half the sky was day, the other half night.

  This celestial duality was just another bizarre curiosity of the Pyramid, a place that existed in all circles of hell at the same time—and yet in none of them.

  “We’ve found hell’s casino.” Naomi moved in for a closer look at the Pyramid’s perfectly smooth surface. There was no sign of a door—or of even a window. “How do you suppose we find the way in?” she asked Makani.

  “Bruce says you simply need to knock.”

  She gave the doorless, windowless, creaseless structure a skeptical look. “Anywhere?”

  “Apparently.” Makani was looking at the Pyramid like it would spontaneously collapse at any moment.

  Naomi popped the lid off the cup containing Riley’s potion. “Cheers.” She lifted it to her mouth and drank.

  The potion was thick and clumpy, but it tasted like tart lemonade with lots of sugar, the perfect thirst quencher on a hot day. It was absolutely not what she’d expected from the looks of it.

  “Lemonade,” she laughed, remembering Riley’s earlier words.

  This isn’t like making lemonade.

  Naomi handed the cup to Makani. He finished off the remainder of the potion.

  “Well, let’s see if anyone’s home,” she said with a shaky smile and reached for the Pyramid’s gold surface.

  Makani frowned, his arms folded across his chest, his fingers tapping the knives strapped to his arms. He didn’t look convinced this would work. Quite the contrary. He looked like he fully expected the Pyramid to spit out an army of hostiles.

  Naomi’s fist paused before it reached the Pyramid. “Riley knows what he’s doing.” Sure, she was repeating it mostly for her own benefit, to give her the nerve to touch the Pyramid.

  “He is an exceptional potions master.” Makani still didn’t look convinced that this would work.

  “Why are you looking at it like it’s going to collapse on top of us?” she teased him.

  “Because that’s what it will do if we fail to convince it that we have demon magic.”

  “But if the Pyramid collapses, it will kill everyone inside. And it would destroy itself. It will no longer exist.”

  “Anywhere else, that would be true.”

  “But not here,” Naomi sighed, realizing he was right. “Here, magic doesn’t follow the rules of nature.”

  “Precisely.”

  Naomi took a deep breath. “Ok. Here goes nothing.” She knocked once on the gold surface.

  Instantly, the Pyramid’s gold plates began to glow, flashing brighter with every pulse. Naomi took a step back. The walls turned liquid, flowing down the Pyramid’s sides like a waterfall. Like a volcano of liquid gold. The air was growing hotter with every breath. Naomi coughed, the smell of burning metal singeing her nose. Sizzling bubbles popped up from the gold waterfalls, splattering everywhere. A splash of heat sizzled against Naomi’s arm. It felt like being hit by a drop of burning oil from the frying pan.

  “I don’t think the potion worked,” she said quietly.

  Looking up at that curtain of glittery gold lava felt like standing in front of a volcano. It was so beautiful, and yet so terrifying. She was frozen, transfixed.

  Makani pulled her back, and they narrowly avoided a huge bubble of burning gold. It ate through an enormous shrub, consuming it, turning its branches to gold.

  Naomi and Makani ran. The ground shook violently, upsetting their balance as they fled. Another curtain of gold shot up before them and cut off their retreat. They changed direction, but another golden geyser burst out of the ground, as though it had anticipated their movements.