Fine. Two could play at that game. She collected her magic, channeling her agitation until it burst from her in a pulse of tangled wind and lightning magic. The tentacles dissolved, and she jumped up. Even before she landed, she was winding up a fireball. As her feet hit the sand, she hurled it at him.

Except Kai wasn’t the one standing in front of her anymore. There was someone between them. Her brother Riley. The fire roared toward him like a firestorm, its magic potent and deadly.

Before she could lift her hands, the fireball froze. It hung in the air for a moment, then smashed against the ground, revealing Kai. Human Kai.

“Are you all right?” he asked Riley.

Riley nodded, his smile shaky. His breaths were deep and heavy. Sera set her hand on his shoulder.

“You’re not hurt?” she asked him.

“No.”

Sera drew in a deep breath, relief spreading through her. “Good.” She dropped her hand from his shoulder. “Have you completely lost your mind?!”

He swallowed hard.

“You could have been hit, Riley,” she said, her crashing adrenaline making her tired. And cranky. “What the hell possessed you to jump into the middle of a mage duel?”

“Sera,” Kai said, touching her arm.

She spun around to glare at him. “What?”

“He was watching us from that bench over there and got sucked in by one of the cyclones you were tossing out,” Kai told her.

For the first time, Sera noticed her brother’s honey-colored hair was messy. And his clothes were ruffled. As though he’d walked through a wind tunnel. The fight died in her, and her shoulders slouched over.

“Oh, Riley. I’m so sorry.” Guilt flooded her body—and dread of what could have happened. “I need to get a better handle on my magic.”

“I’m ok,” he said with a smile. “And what you really need right now is a break.” He handed her a bag from Spells & Sandwiches. “How about a proper New York lunch?”

CHAPTER TWO

Dragons and Assassins

SERA’S CHICKEN SANDWICH was pretty good. Not pizza-good, but it wouldn’t be fair to hold that against it. Riley and Kai sat across the table from her, eating their own sandwiches. Kai’s was so tall that it was a wonder he could fit it into his mouth without shifting into a dragon. Sera propped her elbows on the rickety tabletop and leaned in for a closer look. The scents of beef and red onions wafted up from his gigantic ciabatta roll.

“Hungry?” she asked.

“Fighting you requires a great deal of energy, Sera.”

She grinned at him. “Especially when you’re losing.”

His sandwich paused before his mouth. “I was not losing. I was in complete control of the situation.”

“Yeah, right.” She snorted. “You looked really in control flailing about in that hole in the sand.”

“You did a good job linking those spells together. I knew you could do it if you put your mind to it,” he told her. His eyes hardened. “But you are mistaken if you believe you had me bested.”

“If we’d finished our fight, I would have won.”

A smooth smile slid over his mouth. “You just keep telling yourself that, sweetheart.”

“I’m still trying to decide if it’s disturbing to hear my friend call my sister ‘sweetheart’,” Riley said.

“Yes,” Sera said, just as Kai said, “No.”

Riley chuckled. “You two might want to work that out.”

“There’s nothing to work out,” she lied. There were about twenty million things to work out between her and Kai, but she wasn’t going to think about that now. Or maybe ever. So she changed the subject. “Are you going to be able to get us in for an early peek at the fighting pit?”

“I’m still working on it,” said Kai. “The Magic Games security is being obstinate.”

“Maybe you can sneeze smoke at them,” Sera said.

“Or just go over their heads,” Riley suggested.

“Oh, I intend to.”

The look on his face was downright frightening. Sera was glad she wasn’t the head of the Magic Games security.

“I will get us in before tomorrow afternoon,” he said.

Tomorrow. The Games started tomorrow. Her stomach sank like a stone. She dropped her sandwich onto the crinkled bag. Suddenly, she didn’t feel all that hungry.

“You’ll be fine,” he said. “You just need to remain calm. Luckily, I have something to distract your mind.”

“A job?”

“Yes.”

Kai wasn’t just her coach for the Magic Games; he was also her sponsor. Most mages had a family to sponsor their entrance into the Games, but Sera wasn’t from a magic dynasty—or at least not one she was willing to admit to. In cases like hers, the Magic Council took on the cost of the Games for the mage, but that help came with a heavy price. She would have to work it off later. As in, work for the Magic Council. And Sera wanted to stay as far as possible away from them.

The other option was to pay the costs herself, but she didn’t have that kind of money. She was due for a pay raise at Mayhem, her mercenary guild, now that it had come out that she was a mage rather than just a human. The monster-hunting guilds paid you based on your magic rating, which was pretty elitist, but no one had challenged the system yet. Human mercenaries crazy enough to hunt monsters tended to be too desperate for cash to be choosy.