Free Magic Kingdom (Dragon Born Alexandria Book 3) by Ella Summers Page A

the piles, thinking about the people buried beneath. “What if they’re buried under so much stuff that their heartbeats are muffled and—”
    “Alex.”
    “Yes?”
    “I’m sure.”
    “Ok.” She rubbed her hand across her wet eyes as Logan pretended not to notice. All those lives—wasted. And all for nothing.
    No, not for nothing. She wouldn’t let it be for nothing. She would catch the bastard who’d done this. But to do that, she had to figure out what he’d stolen—and what else he would try to steal. Then the next time he broke into a building, she’d be waiting for him.
    “Alex.”
    Logan’s voice drew her out of her own head. “Yes?”
    “We have company.”
    She turned toward the door. Ghosts were streaming through the fractured opening. The otherworldly stream split off into individual ghosts, who took up position all around Alex and Logan. Their skin shimmered with ethereal light. Their eyes glowed, empty and unseeing. They were as purposeless as their magic.
    “They’re being controlled,” she said. “They have no will of their own.”
    “Can you break the magic binding them?”
    “I guess we’re about to see.”
    Two ghosts shot forward, one from either side of her. She ducked, hammering them with a magic-shattering blow as they passed overhead. The ghosts didn’t even notice. They came around for another pass.
    “Could someone be controlling them with the Otherworldly Orb?” Logan asked.
    “I don’t think so.” She punched at the ghosts, but her fist went right through them. “If they were, there would be at least a hint of the Orb in their magic, if not more. I don’t feel the Orb at all. I feel…something strange. A dark magic is binding them.”
    “Have you ever fought a non-corporeal being?” Logan asked, slashing with his knife. It passed through the ghosts, just like Alex’s fists had.
    “No.”
    Two of the ghosts spun around and knocked into Alex, barreling her over. “They sure don’t hit like non-corporeal beings.”   She jumped to her feet and aimed a kick at a passing ghost. Her foot passed through him, but when he countered her attack, he landed a blow. Somehow. Inexplicably.
    “These guys are really starting to annoy me. It’s impossible to hit them.”
    “It’s not impossible. It’s just really difficult.”
    A ghost snapped a kick at Logan. He let it hit his side, then his hand darted out, grabbing hold of the retreating foot. He cracked the ghost’s ankle in one swift movement. The otherworldly being squealed.
    “See? Not impossible,” he told Alex as the ghost disappeared.
    “How did you do that?”
    “One of my friends is a ghost. He taught me how to fight them.”
    Two ghosts shot toward Logan, trying to punch him from both sides. He caught their hands and snapped their wrists. They faded out.
    “And how do you fight them?” Alex asked.
    “You can only hurt them when they’re solid. The flip side is they can only hurt you when they’re solid. Most of the time, they’re only partially present in our realm. They have to phase fully into our realm in order to hit you. You have to let them, then you grab them really quickly, before they phase out again. They are not very resilient. Once you hurt them, they have to return to their realm to heal.”
    “Ok, then,” she said, reaching for the ghost shooting toward her.
    It knocked her over, then escaped through her hands. She tried again with the next ghost. She shot backward, landing hard on her back.
    “This isn’t working,” she said, her breaths strained. Her back wasn’t in much better shape either. “I’m not that fast. Before I can grab them, they’re gone.”
    “You might not be that fast, but your magic is,” Logan told her. “Punch it through them.”
    Alex peeled herself off the ground. Her muscles felt like mashed potatoes, but she ignored the pain. That was the thing about pain. If you just ignored it for long enough, it went away. Ok, maybe it only got buried under a