Crime of Magic Read online

  The monster was as wide as the buggy, but so long that I couldn’t see where it began or ended. It was a massive sea creature with fangs as long as my arm and brilliant blue eyes. Silver scales were the same color as the water, which was still only six inches deep, thank fates.

  Magic propelled the monster, who circled our vehicle, his body glinting in the sun. He had to be a hundred feet long, with black wings and claws. He climbed on the ground and leapt into the air, slithering around as he examined us.

  “It’s the Unhcegila!” Bree cried from the front.

  Shit.

  Uncle Joe had told us about the Unhcegila—a terrifying water monster from Dakota and Lakota Sioux legends.

  Except it was real, as all good legends were. And it occasionally appeared when the Bad Water wasn’t dried up. It only needed a few inches to appear.

  Looked like it was our lucky day.

  My heart thundered as the beast circled, undulating in the air in that signature snakey way. Its eyes pierced me as it waited to strike, and I raised my hands, ready for it.

  “Use your shield!” Bree shouted.

  “I’ve got to time it!” I didn’t have an endless supply of magic, and wasting it at the beginning of our crossing was a bad idea.

  “How do we defeat it?” Rowan cried. “You can’t hold it off forever.”

  My mind raced. Uncle Joe had said something about that. Something…

  The creature struck. Light glinted on its fangs, and its breath smelled like week-old garbage as it hurtled toward me.

  “Ana!” Rowan cried.

  I stifled a gag and called upon my shield magic, envisioning a protective barrier between me and the beast.

  It burst from my hands, shining and white. The monster’s head slammed into the shield, so hard the collision vibrated up my arms. My magic faltered, weakening.

  Damn it.

  I wished I had offensive magic—fire, ice, a sonic boom like Bree.

  Instead, I was a shield. Destined to react, not act.

  The monster reared back and slammed its head against the shield again. It hit with such force that I went to my knees, my arms trembling from the strain of keeping the shield up.

  “Drop it so I can hit him!” Bree screamed.

  I cut off my magic gratefully, panting. The shield dropped, and Bree’s magic swelled on the air, smelling like cedar and sounding like a whistling wind. She hurled her sonic boom, a massive force that smashed into the monster and drove it backward.

  The Unhcegila plowed into the water and skidded in the shallows. I scrambled to my feet.

  The Unhcegila was fast, rising upward to strike again. My heart thundered as it charged.

  Bree threw her sonic boom again. It blasted past me, making my insides vibrate, but the core of it hit the monster, who flew backward again.

  It was up a half second later.

  “My power isn’t working on him!” Bree cried.

  No sooner had the words left her mouth than the Unhcegila was up and charging. It moved so fast, plowing toward the front of the buggy where Bree was stationed, I didn’t have time to call on my magic.

  She struck out with her sword as she dived toward the front seat. The blade sliced the monster’s cheek as she flew into the footwell, crashing down next to Rowan. The Unhcegila’s head slammed into the bars protecting the front platform, denting them.

  The engine roared as Rowan stepped on the gas, and the buggy jumped forward, shaking the Unhcegila off. Stunned, it slipped down into the water.

  Bree scrambled up. “I need a freaking shield.”

  “No kidding,” Rowan said. “We’ll add it to the list.”

  I spun to watch the Unhcegila, who was already rising, ready to attack again. I steadied myself on the back platform as we drove away—I was the only thing between it and my sisters.

  I’m not going to let it get them.

  Its scales glinted in the light, but there was something at its head that shined brighter. A gem—right between its eyes. A tiny red crystal.

  A memory flashed in my mind.

  “We have to smash the gem!” I cried.

  My memory was hazy, but I swore I remembered Uncle Joe telling us the tale of the Unhcegila. Destroying the gem would kill the beast—for now, at least. It would appear again to another traveler, but if we wanted to get it off our butts, we’d have to destroy that gem. And whoever did would get to keep it, and it would bring good luck.

  This was going to be up to me. Bree fought with a sword, and Rowan was driving.

  I drew a dagger from my boot. The Unhcegila charged, its breath wafting over me, reeking like hot garbage. It opened its mouth wide, fangs glinting.

  I hurled my blade, but the monster dodged, then plowed toward me. Before I could build my shield, Bree threw her sonic boom. It blasted past my left shoulder, sending me flying toward the right. I slammed into the safety rails.

  The sonic boom nailed the monster right in the face, and the beast tumbled backward.

  “Thanks, Bree!” I pushed off the rails and grabbed another dagger.

  The monster was rising, but slower this time. Bree’s repeated blasts were working. It was weakening.

  This was it. My chance.

  I used the monster’s slowness to my advantage, throwing my dagger right for its eyes. The blade pierced the crystal, and magical energy exploded outward. It blew my hair back from my face and stole the breath from my lungs.

  The Unhcegila disappeared in a burst of silver light. A small red crystal flew up into the air, turning end over end and sparkling like a ruby.

  “Turn around!” I screamed.

  “Why?” Rowan shouted.

  “Because!”

  “Great reason!” Rowan yanked the wheel to the right, and the buggy made a sharp U-turn. I clung to the railing, keeping my gaze pinned to the crystal. It hurtled back toward the ground, splashing into the water.

  The red gem glowed brightly, and I pointed toward it. “Head for the glow!”

  Rowan did as I asked, and I climbed over the side of the platform, clinging to the safety railing. “Slow down!”

  As we neared the crystal, Rowan slowed the buggy. The gem gleamed brightly, and I hung low, scooping it out of the water. It was warm in my hand, and I squeezed it tight, scrambling back onto the platform.

  “Can we keep going now?” Rowan asked.

  “Yep!” I looked at the gem briefly. The center was black where my dagger had hit it, but the rest gleamed red and bright. I wasn’t sure if it really was lucky, but I could use all the help I could get, so I shoved it into my pocket.

  Rowan cut through the rest of the Bad Water without incident, the silver liquid spraying up around the tires and glinting in the sun.

  The buggy cut across the desert as the sun beat down upon us. I shielded my eyes, squinting into the distance. Everything was beige, all different shades. And it all shimmered with danger. The air stank with it.

  “You smell that?” Rowan asked.

  “Yeah, dark magic.” It was the thing that made the desert nearly impassable, and the reason that Hider’s Haven was so protected. If you wanted to lie low—like, really low—that was the place to do it. It was full of criminals, mostly. But also innocent people who were trying to avoid criminals. Get in trouble with the magical mob? Hider’s Haven was the supernatural version of witness protection.

  Rowan expertly drove the car around scrub brush and boulders. Up ahead, the air shimmered, making it hard to determine what was coming at us. But the air stank with dark magic and prickled, abrading my skin.

  Whatever it was, I knew it’d be bad.

  ~~~

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  Author’s Note

  Thanks for reading Crime of Magic! If you’ve read any of my previous books, you may have noticed that I have a fondness for including historical places and mythological elements. I did the s
ame with Crime of Magic, but in this book, I drew primarily from old fairy tales. There are, of course, the mythological elements, like Ana being a Druid and Muffin being the Cat Sìth (a famous fairy creature from Scottish folklore), but most of this book drew from fairy tales.

  It was tremendously fun to play with the old fairy tales in this book. If found that once I went back and read the original tales, that they were different than I’d remembered as a child. One of the strangest was the tale of Snow White. There are actually several old versions of this story, but once I read the version in which the Prince requests Snow’s dead body and then carries her back to his castle, I knew I had to use it. In that version, she really does fall out of her coffin as they are making their way through the forest. The shock causes her to spit out the apple and she wakes up. Then she immediately marries the Prince. He must have been one charming, good looking dude. I thought that Snow White deserved better than this (and she deserved a date with her future husband), so I switched it around a bit.

  As for Hansel and Gretel, I thought it would be just fabulous for Ana and Lachlan to rescue them. Then I went back to revisit the story and realized that they take care of themselves quite handily!

  It was the story of Jack and the Beanstalk that made me think twice, however. As I was reading the story, I realized that the giant really didn’t do anything wrong other than stomping around and yelling at Jack, who was stealing from him. Maybe he would have lived up to his promise and eaten Jack, but maybe not. Either way, Jack seemed like a guy who kept robbing the giant and then orchestrating (successfully) his death. He seemed like a bit of a jerk, really. As I read more about the evolution of Jack’s tale throughout time (as it was passed down through generations) I realized that other people had issue with this as well. Most often, they retold the story with a slightly different angle. In their modified versions, they made it clear that the giant was a bad guy. One version made the addition of the giant killing Jack’s father when he was young. I decided to take another angle on this all together and make Jack the bad guy.

  And last—the Big Bad Wolf and the White Rabbit. Both of those were fun modifications that I invented.

  I think that’s it for the history and mythology in Crime of Magic—at least the big things. I hope you enjoyed the book and will come back for more of Ana, Lachlan, Rowan, and Bree!

  For Pam & John.

  Acknowledgments

  Thank you, Ben, for everything. There would be no books without you.

  Thank you to Orina Kafe for the beautiful cover art. Thank you to Collette Markwardt for allowing me to borrow the Pugs of Destruction, who are real dogs named Chaos, Havoc, and Ruckus. They were all adopted from rescue agencies.

  Glossary

  Alpha Council - There are two governments that enforce law for supernaturals—the Alpha Council and the Order of the Magica. The Alpha Council governs all shifters. They work cooperatively with the Alpha Council when necessary—for example, when capturing FireSouls.

  Blood Sorcerer - A type of Magica who can create magic using blood.

  Dark Magic - The kind that is meant to harm. It’s not necessarily bad, but it often is.

  Demons - Often employed to do evil. They live in various hells but can be released upon the earth if you know how to get to them and then get them out. If they are killed on Earth, they are sent back to their hell.

  Dragon Sense - A FireSoul’s ability to find treasure. It is an internal sense that pulls them toward what they seek. It is easiest to find gold, but they can find anything or anyone that is valued by someone.

  Djinn - Possesses invisibility and the ability to possess others for brief periods of time.

  Earthwalking Gods - Reincarnates of the ancient gods who can walk upon the earth. They are mortal but with all the power of that god.

  Enchanted Artifacts – Artifacts can be imbued with magic that lasts after the death of the person who put the magic into the artifact (unlike a spell that has not been put into an artifact—these spells disappear after the Magica’s death). But magic is not stable. After a period of time—hundreds or thousands of years depending on the circumstance—the magic will degrade. Eventually, it can go bad and cause many problems.

  Fire Mage – A mage who can control fire.

  FireSoul - A very rare type of Magica who shares a piece of the dragon’s soul. They can locate treasure and steal the gifts (powers) of other supernaturals. With practice, they can manipulate the gifts they steal, becoming the strongest of that gift. They are despised and feared. If they are caught, they are thrown in the Prison of Magical Deviants.

  The Great Peace - The most powerful piece of magic ever created. It hides magic from the eyes of humans.

  Magica - Any supernatural who has the power to create magic—witches, sorcerers, mages. All are governed by the Order of the Magica.

  Order of the Magica - There are two governments that enforce law for supernaturals—the Alpha Council and the Order of the Magica. The Order of the Magica govern all Magica. They work cooperatively with the Alpha Council when necessary—for example, when capturing FireSouls.

  Seeker - A type of supernatural who can find things. FireSouls often pass off their dragon sense as Seeker power.

  Shifter - A supernatural who can turn into an animal. All are governed by the Alpha Council.

  Transporter - A type of supernatural who can travel anywhere. Their power is limited and must regenerate after each use.

  Undercover Protectorate - A secret organization dedicated to protecting supernaturals and solving the crimes that no one else will.

  Vampire - Blood drinking supernaturals with great strength and speed who live in a separate realm.

  About Linsey

  Before becoming a writer, Linsey Hall was a nautical archaeologist who studied shipwrecks from Hawaii and the Yukon to the UK and the Mediterranean. She credits fantasy and historical romances with her love of history and her career as an archaeologist. After a decade of tromping around the globe in search of old bits of stuff that people left lying about, she settled down and started penning her own romance novels. Her Dragon’s Gift series draws upon her love of history and the paranormal elements that she can't help but include.

  Copyright

  This is a work of fiction. All reference to events, persons, and locale are used fictitiously, except where documented in historical record. Names, characters, and places are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright 2018 by Linsey Hall

  Published by Bonnie Doon Press LLC

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form, except in instances of quotation used in critical articles or book review. Where such permission is sufficient, the author grants the right to strip any DRM which may be applied to this work.

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  ISBN 978-1-942085-65-2