Before she knew it, the slam of the car door rattled her awake. They were in the hotel’s underground garage. Riley passed by her window, his sneakers squeaking across the garage. Sera released her seatbelt and was reaching for the door when Kai caught her hand.
“Wait,” he said.
She turned and gave him a wary look, but he didn’t try anything else. He’d even reeled in his magic, coiling it tightly inside of him. Sera could still feel it—there was no hiding that much raw power—but it wasn’t caressing her magic like it sometimes did, or teasing her with the delectable spicy taste of dragon.
“Yes?” she croaked, then cleared her throat.
“I wanted to talk to you about later today,” he said, his face unreadable. His magic was unreadable too.
“I’m meeting Naomi in a few hours, but we can practice this afternoon.”
“I have work to attend to in the afternoon.”
“Oh,” she said, trying not to sound disappointed.
Of course he had work to do. His whole life wasn’t centered around helping her with the Magic Games. He was managing larger chunks of his family’s company, not sitting on a yacht all day sipping mojitos and listening to banjo music.
“But I need you to meet me tonight at nine,” he continued, then paused, as though he wanted to gauge her response to his next words. “At Trove.”
She suppressed the frown crinkling up her lips. Trove was New York City’s equivalent of Liquid, San Francisco’s high-end mage club. Sera had never been to either—if she went within five feet of the door, the bouncer would turn up his nose at her and shoo her away like a stray dog—but she knew the sort of people who did go to those places. Every single one of them was a member of an elite magic dynasty. People like Kai. Not like her.
“A job?” she asked, her stomach doing a bellyflop. Usually, she just ignored snooty people who looked down on her, but it was awfully hard to ignore a whole club full of people looking down on her.
“Yes, an important job,” he said.
Over the last three weeks, in addition to training, she’d done more than a few jobs for him. Mostly taking care of monsters annoying one magical dynasty or another. It turned out Kai was a master strategist; he’d collected more favors in three weeks than most people could in a lifetime. Sera tried not to feel like a pawn in his game. It was training. Through it all, he’d fought alongside her, explaining how to use magic—not brute force—to take out their foes.
“What is it this time?” she asked. “Centaurs? Harpies? Jumbo caterpillars?”
She hadn’t heard of any monsters plaguing Trove lately, but she hadn’t known about any of the other attacks either. The elite magic dynasties had centuries of practice hiding their problems from the general public.
“It’s a surprise,” Kai told her.
She cringed. The last time he’d threatened a surprise, she’d found herself caught in the crossfire of a mage duel between two telekinetics. He seemed to think that throwing her into dangerous, unknown situations was good practice. Kai was firmly in the camp of ‘what doesn’t kill you, only makes you stronger’ folks. He was probably right. Not that she’d ever admit it to him.
“I’ll bring my sword,” she told him, doing her best to put on a cheerful smile.
“No sword.”
Drat. “Knives?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Weapons are not permitted at Trove.”
This was just getting better and better. “Then how am I supposed to fight this unknown evil?”
“Bring your magic,” he said. “This will be good practice, not having your weapons as backup.”
Except Sera felt naked without her weapons. Sure, she’d come a long way with Kai’s help, but she still wasn’t in complete control of her magic. This morning she’d had a good day. Other times, she hadn’t been so lucky. Her magic was unwieldy and temperamental.
Kind of like your hormones, said the voice in her head.
She didn’t tell it to shut up. Not this time. Alex had told her she should listen to the voice in her head. Sera nearly laughed aloud. That there was crazy talk.
“Sera.”
She looked at Kai. Apparently, he’d said something, and she hadn’t heard…because she was listening to the voice in her head.
“Yes?” she asked.
“I was explaining the dress code at Trove. This is very important, so please pay attention. They won’t allow you inside if you don’t follow it to the letter.”
“They won’t let me in either way,” she grumbled.
“I’ve put you on the list,” he said. “Now, the dress code. No torn or dirty clothes.” His gaze slid down to her thigh, where a sliver of skin peeked through the tear in her leggings.
She set her hand over the tear. “Hey, they weren’t torn when I put them on this morning. Fighting you is hazardous to the health of my clothing.”
“No military wear.”
“I don’t own anything of the sort.”
“You have a pair of combat boots,” he pointed out.
“I only wore those boots once, and that was to the pier. At midnight.” She shivered. “Who starts a fight at that hour anyway? It’s indecent.” She shivered again. “And cold.”
“No monster gore or blood.”
“So I take it vampires aren’t allowed at Trove?”