Magic Edge by Ella Summers Read Free Book Online Page A

“And what else?”
    “What makes you think there was something else?”
    “I just know.”
    Alex hoped super hearing wasn’t part of his genetic profile. Or mind reading. She swallowed hard.
    “He told me to be careful because assassins cannot be trusted.”
    “Sound advice,” he agreed. “Assassins cannot be trusted.”
    “Indeed.”
    “But I won’t betray you, Alex.”
    “You’d better not. I have no problem stapling you to the wall.”
    She followed him through a set of double doors. The words ‘Hell on Earth’ were spray-painted in glittery pink letters across them. As they passed into an open hall, Alex realized she hadn’t, in fact, been chained up in the basement but just a mostly windowless room. More graffiti covered the walls: a lot of supernatural motifs, as well as some skulls and crossbones, a few roses, and a duck procession that would have belonged better on a preschool wall.
    A shiny red door waited at the other end of the cavernous room. A painted dragon covered most of that wall. Red and orange flames spilled out of its mouth. Steam rose from the lake. Houses, trees, and people had caught on fire. The artist had spent a lot of time painting the tortured looks on their faces. They looked almost lifelike.
    “That’s Radiance’s work there,” Logan said. “He goes all around Europe, painting scenes like this. Dragons killing humans. Mages killing humans. Vampires killing humans. Do you sense a pattern?”
    She nodded. Most humans revered magic; they even thought that if they were just lucky enough, they’d someday gain the power of magic too. The Magic Council had done an excellent job of propagating that myth. Of course it didn’t work that way, but this little lie kept the majority of the human population from turning against them. Funny how those things worked.
    But then there were those humans who feared and hated supernaturals, no matter what. Obviously, Radiance was firmly in this category and believed everyone else should join him at Camp Hate.
    “You chained me up inside the Rote Fabrik?” Alex said as they stepped outside.
    She looked up at the layers of red bricks that made up the former factory. There were always a bunch of musical and cultural events going on in some part or another of the large building, most of them supernatural.
    Dust, a fairy bar located there, was probably the most famous. A couple weeks ago, Alex had visited it with Marek while tracking down a herd of lost unicorns. How could anyone lose a herd of two dozen unicorns? The answer was ancient teleportation glyphs, forgotten magic that even Marek hadn’t known about. They’d learned about it the hard way: by being teleported into the lake, where they’d had to fight free of a sea monster living there. Fun times.
    “Sure. Why not? The walls are stable and no one even blinks if you carry chains in there.”
    “That is really disturbing. Just so you know.”
    “Carrying in chains?”
    “That too,” she agreed. “Where are we going?”
    “Just to a little place I know nearby.”
    “For information on the Orbs?”
    “Yes.”
    Logan wasn’t lying when he said his ‘little place’ was nearby. They hadn’t been walking for more than a few minutes when he stopped in front of a cute two-story house. It had a slanted red roof and wood details framed around the windows and crisscrossed along the front face. A perfect Swiss chalet—in the city. On the top level balcony, two fairies lay on reclining lawn chairs, bathing in the morning light. Below them, right beside the front door, hung a wooden sign that read ‘Honor Among Thieves’ in a swirly cursive script.
    “I don’t like the look of that,” Alex said.
    “The fairies’ sign?”
    “The name of this establishment.”
    “You wanted to figure out who’s after the Orbs. There’s no better place to start than at a bar full of professional thieves.”
    “Professional thieves. It sounds better than pickpockets.”
    “These are the best in the