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    The Magic of Fabulous
    The Magic of Fabulous
    The Magic of Fabulous
    Ebook86 pages1 hour

    The Magic of Fabulous

    By Michele Lang

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    About this ebook

    A young woman discovers her own brand of magic in a pre-World War II Budapest teeming with monsters, vampires, and demons...

    Eva Farkas has managed to survive in fascist Budapest despite her heritage and her congenital lack of magic. But after seeking the help of the Vampire Lord of Budapest, Eva comes to realize that mere survival isn't enough. She must find the magic hidden inside of her, and not just survive, but fly.

    THE MAGIC OF FABULOUS is a novella set in the world of the LADY LAZARUS historical fantasy series, and contains both an afterword by the author and excerpts from the other books in the series.

    THE MAGIC OF FABULOUS by Michele Lang
    When the deck is stacked against you, how do you choose to play the game?

    About the Author:

    Michele Lang writes supernatural tales: the stories of witches, lawyers, goddesses, bankers, demons, and other magical creatures hidden in plain sight. She is the author of the historical fantasy LADY LAZARUS, the first of a series. DARK VICTORY, the next novel in the series, releases in early 2012. In addition to this, Michele has practiced the unholy craft of litigation in both New York and Connecticut.

    She returned to her native New York shortly before 9/11, and now lives in a small town on Long Island with her husband, her sons, and a rotating menagerie of cats, hermit crabs, and butterflies. Visit her on the web at www.michelelang.com

    Praise for the LADY LAZARUS series:

    “Michele Lang’s DARK VICTORY is the best entry yet in a groundbreaking, rich, enthralling series that combines the darkest days of World War II with magic, very human characters, and stakes that couldn’t be higher. A tour-de-force!” - New York Times bestselling author Rachel Caine

    “An absolutely unique protagonist in an engaging tale set against the backdrop of the greatest clash of good and evil in human history. What’s not to love about LADY LAZARUS?” – New York Times bestselling author Jim Butcher

    ** “Lang crafts a creative and tense story as all of Europe awaits the September invasion of Poland. Lang is a writer to watch and is sure to have wide appeal of fans of Jim Butcher, Kat Richardson, and other urban fantasy A-listers.”** – Booklist (starred review)

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherFive Tigers Publishing
    Release dateNov 16, 2011
    ISBN9781466105676
    The Magic of Fabulous
    Author

    Michele Lang

    MICHELE LANG is the author of the historical urban fantasy Lady Lazarus trilogy. Like her protagonist Magda, Lang is of Hungarian-Jewish ancestry. She and her family lives on Long Island.

    Read more from Michele Lang

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      Book preview

      The Magic of Fabulous - Michele Lang

      The Magic of Fabulous

      By Michele Lang

      Copyright 2011 by Michele Lang

      Smashwords Edition

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Cover Art by Anne Cain

      CHAPTER ONE

      Budapest, Hungary

      Summer 1939

      When you’ve got no magic of your own, the only way to stay alive in this wicked old world is with your nerve. Especially now, my darlings, for war is coming any day. It’s been foretold by prophecy, but really, anybody can tell, anybody who can read between the lines and who is paying attention. That bag of piss Hitler needs his living room, you see. Austria makes a fine front parlor, Czechoslovakia makes a lovely root cellar, but it’s not enough for the glorious Reich. I think it’s Poland next, and if it’s Poland, it’ll be war for sure, because the Poles will fight. And when that happens, the Great War will look like a ladybug’s picnic.

      Until now, the only soul holding me back from disaster was my moody, high-strung, magically gifted and cursed friend, the mighty Magdalena Lazarus. It was Magda who had kept us three—Magda, me, and Magda’s sixteen-year-old sister, Gisele—in silk stockings and sausage. And the only way Magda had managed that feat was by working for a vampire, and not just any vampire, either, but the infamous Count Gabor Bathory of the Transylvanian Bathorys.

      Unlike me, my girl Magda has magic overflowing, magic to spare, too much magic, if there is such a thing. Magda’s a witch, a brooding Jewish witch with a terrible attitude and too many enemies, and now she was off to Paris, on a desperate fool’s errand. Getting on a train and leaving us, perhaps forever. If I was going to get out of this burning building, this Budapest before the war, it was my final chance.

      My best friend, Magda, and I stood in the main waiting room of Keleti station, in the heart of our city, Budapest, in the terrible summer of 1939 before the war came and smashed everything to bits. We both knew Magda was abandoning me to my fate by getting on the Paris-bound Orient Express. Mind you, I would rather have died than admitted out loud how terrified I was.

      Instead, I pretended to an arch sangfroid I didn’t feel at all. If you insist on going straight to hell, Magda, I am glad to see that at least you go in style.

      I wore my smartest suit as I stood there, sharp as Chanel thanks to the nimble fingers of Magda’s sister, Gisele, but I was dressed for my own funeral. It was the summer of 1939, my darling. And any child could see the entire world hung by a thread over the abyss.

      Don’t go, I said under my breath so that Gisele, sitting on a bench, guarding Magda’s bags, couldn’t hear me.

      Magda leaned forward to meet my gaze—she is tall, and I am a round, little Hungarian dumpling—and she stared into my eyes until I stopped shaking. I have to go, she said, her scratchy voice serene for once. And I have not a minute to lose.

      I didn’t understand why she had to go to Paris. It was a complicated, byzantine affair involving ancient books of magic, Azeri revolutionaries, and the dark business of her boss, the melancholy vampire Count Bathory.

      To make the matter simple, it was magical business. So I knew better than to butt in with my non-magical self.

      But there was this little, trifling matter of saving my neck from the noose. I knew Magda loved me too much to simply abandon me without a compelling reason. But abandoning us she surely was. I couldn’t let her do that.

      Take us with you, then, I said, staring into her eyes the whole time. The station, all of Budapest, seemed to disappear, so intently did I speak. We’ll be quiet as mice and good luck to you, too.

      For a moment, irritation flashed in Magda’s eyes like heat lightning. No, my road is full of danger. You and Gisele are safer, staying here in Budapest.

      Safe to starve in peace and quiet. You know we’re deader than dead ducks without you. How will we pay the rent or eat? I have no magic wand, you know.

      The light in Magda’s eyes sparkled then, the tears like diamonds hovering on her lashes. Poor Eva, I know I’m leaving the two of you in a tight spot. But what else is there for me to do? You’re smart, and lucky, too. You’ll come up with something.

      Your job with Bathory kept us alive and in rumballs. But now, if you die somewhere on the road to Paris…

      If I’m dead, Evuska—now, that’s when things will really get interesting.

      She was infuriating, Magda was, the way she toyed with me. I crossed my arms against her moody charms. Your choice of words is rather droll, darling. The current situation is ‘interesting’ like the Spanish Inquisition was interesting.

      I usually could make Magda laugh, no matter how ridiculously bad our circumstances. But even this little magic of mine would not work now.

      So I leaned closer, lowered my voice even more. So forget all of it, Magduska! Take Bathory’s money and us—and run. Get out of Europe altogether. You know better than I do that the whole continent is going to become nothing but a big slaughterhouse.

      Magda sneaked a look at the bench where Gisele huddled, watching over Magda’s bags and weeping a quiet little river of tears. Gisele’s a child, you know that. Sixteen, but couldn’t survive a day on her own. Besides, we don’t have any kind of papers for you two. You’d get turned back at the Austrian border for certain.

      She adjusted her pretty gloves and cleared her throat. And the sight of her, my lovely childhood friend, tall and slim and already almost gone, twisted my heart like a knife to the chest.

      No, she said. This time her voice was filled with a grim finality, and with an echo of the magic she could wield like a machine gun. How my darling girl loved to say the word no. She got taller every time she said, whispered, or growled it. Magda turned no into a holy word, a magic incantation of sledgehammer force.

      No, she said again. "We cannot

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