Bright Blaze of Magic

by Jennifer Estep

  Blake crossed his arms over his chest and gave her another suspicious stare. “But that still doesn’t explain what you’re doing in here.”

  “I put my mom to bed a few minutes ago, and I walked back this way to check that the greenlab was secure for the night. I noticed that one of the office doors was cracked open, so I came in here to make sure that everything was okay.” She threw her arms out wide. “Which you can totally see it is.”

  Blake glared at her a few more seconds before his brown gaze flicked over the rest of the office. He looked in my direction, and I stayed absolutely still in the shadows behind the bar, hoping that Devon and Felix would do the same behind the couch.

  Finally, Blake turned back toward the front of the office. He didn’t even glance at the closed laptop, crystal paperweights, or gold fountain pens on the desk to make sure that nothing was missing or out of place. Instead, his gaze locked onto the dragon chiseled into the white stone wall behind Victor’s desk. His eyes narrowed, and he stared and stared at the dragon, examining every single inch of the carving, looking for the smallest sign that it had been tampered with or disturbed in any way. Shock zipped through me.

  He knew.

  Blake knew about Victor’s secret room and all the black blades hidden inside it. That was the only reason he would bother to stare so long and hard at the dragon carving. He was making sure that Deah hadn’t discovered the room and the weapons, that nothing was going to derail his dad’s plan to massacre all the other Families.

  I shouldn’t have been so shocked. As the Draconi bruiser, Blake was Victor’s second-in-command, and I’d suspected that he might be helping Victor at least trap the monsters he’d killed. More than that, Blake was just as cruel as his father was, something he’d proven by helping Victor cut my mom to pieces. But I was surprised all the same. I wouldn’t have thought that Victor would have told anyone what he was really up to, how he wanted to use his collection of black blades to give his guards extra boosts of magic so they could attack and kill all the other Families.

  But he’d obviously told Blake, and I wondered why. Because Blake was his son and right-hand man? Or was there another, more sinister reason? Was Victor putting his plan into action sometime soon?

  That terrifying thought made my hand clench tight around my sword, the five-pointed star carved into the hilt pressing against my skin like a cold brand.

  Blake finally turned away from the dragon carving and secret room and faced Deah again. “Okay, so the door was open and you came in here to check on things. That still doesn’t explain why you stayed in here so long.”

  Deah chewed her lip again, her gaze flicking around as she searched for another excuse. Blake’s back was to me now, so I sidled forward so that she could see me again. Deah looked at me, and I pointed over to the shelves that took up one of the walls. She turned her head the tiniest bit, and her mouth flattened out as she realized what I was pointing at. She didn’t like my idea, but she decided to go along with it.

  “I was looking at my trophies,” she said in a soft voice.

  Blake snorted and stomped past her. He grabbed a solid gold cup, also stamped with the Draconi dragon crest, off one of the shelves and held it up.

  “Oh, you mean this trophy? The one that Lila Merriweather let you win during the Tournament of Blades?” he sneered. “I told Dad that he should throw it out with the rest of the garbage, but he didn’t listen to me.”

  Tears gleamed in Deah’s eyes at his mean taunt, but she ruthlessly blinked them back, crossed her arms over her chest, and lifted her chin. “Well, at least I got further in the tournament than you did. Then again, I always do. Poppy Ito knocked you out of the competition in less than a minute this year.” She laughed, but it was a harsh, mocking sound. “And she only has speed magic.”

  Blake’s hand tightened around the trophy, and his arm lifted like he was going to rear back and throw the gold cup at Deah. But she held her ground and glared right back at him, daring him to do something stupid.

  Blake studied her, and he slowly lowered the trophy to his side. He might have a strength Talent, but Deah’s mimic magic made her the far better fighter and Blake knew that she would mop the floor with him. Plus, he must have realized how angry Victor would be if he messed up the office because he whipped around and shoved the gold cup back onto the shelf.

  “Yeah, well, you’re still not supposed to be in here,” Blake growled. “So let’s both leave before Dad finds us. I’m not getting in trouble because of you.”

  He gestured at Deah, who had no choice but to turn around and head for the double doors. She glanced at me out of the corner of her eye, and I flashed her a thumbs up, telling her that everything was okay. As long as Blake left with her, I could still get Devon, Felix, and myself out of the mansion and off the grounds without any of the guards spotting us or realizing that we’d ever been here.

  Deah nodded back at me, relief filling her face.

  A second later, she stepped out into the hallway, and Blake shut the doors behind the two of them. The lock clicking into place sounded as loud as a clap of thunder in the absolute quiet of the office, but I welcomed the noise because it meant that we were safe.

  For now.

  I waited several seconds to make sure that Blake wasn’t coming back in here, then slowly got to my feet. Behind the couch, Devon and Felix did the same, both of them clutching their swords in their hands.

  “That was close,” Devon muttered.

  “Yeah,” Felix chimed in. “Too close.”

  “Too close is right. Now, come on,” I whispered, heading toward the glass door on the far side of the office. “Let’s get out of here while we still can.”

  Devon and Felix grabbed the two duffel bags full of black blades, and we slipped out of the glass door and onto a balcony before sneaking down some stone steps and back across the yard. We made it to the woods without any of the Draconi guards spotting us, and we all sighed with relief as the trees, shadows, and growing clouds of mist swallowed us up.

  It took us almost an hour to hike through the forest back over to the Sinclair Family compound, and I was happy to see the mansion loom up out of the darkness before us. Unlike the white, airy elegance of the Draconi castle, the Sinclair mansion was made out of black, blocky stone that looked as if it had been chiseled out of the mountain itself. The mansion rose up seven stories in places, with towers that soared even higher into the night sky, each one topped with a black flag bearing the Sinclair Family crest—a hand holding a sword aloft, all of it outlined in white. The same symbol was stamped into the silver cuffs that Devon, Felix, and I wore on our right wrists.

  “Home, sweet home,” Felix said in a relieved voice.

  “Absolutely,” Devon agreed, hefting his bag of weapons a little higher on his shoulder. “I’m glad this mission is over. Aren’t you, Lila?”

  But it wasn’t over. Not for me. I still had more stealing to do tonight. But I smiled at him, glad that the shadows hid how fake the expression really was.

  “Yep. Now, come on. The others will be waiting for us.”

  Instead of striding straight across the lawn to the front entrance, we hunkered down in the bushes until the Sinclair guards’ backs were turned. Our guards were dressed the same way that the Draconis had been—black boots, pants, and shirts—the only difference was that the Sinclairs wore black cavalier hats topped with white feathers, along with the same black cloaks that Devon and Felix still sported. The white feathers made it easy for us to spot and duck around the guards. Then we crossed the lawn, crept up some stone steps to a balcony, and stopped in front of a series of glass doors.

  I tried one of the knobs, but it, too, was unlocked, just like the ones at the Draconi mansion. I sighed with disappointment, but I opened the door and the three of us stepped inside an enormous library that soared three stories high in this part of the mansion.

  A white stone fireplace took up most of one wall, while ebony shelves covered another. White stone ba
lconies wrapped around the two upper levels of the library, revealing more ebony bookcases, before giving way to the pointed ceiling, which featured black and white panes of stained glass. Through the glass, I could see the full moon and a sky studded with stars, all of which cast a dim, silvery light that frosted the tops of the books on the upper levels.

  “You’re late,” a voice called out.

  Devon, Felix, and I looked over at a woman sitting behind an antique ebony desk in front of the doors. She had the same green eyes as Devon, but her hair was a rich auburn. She wore a sleek white pantsuit, and a wide silver cuff flashed on her right wrist.

  “Sorry,” I drawled. “We ran into a little problem at the Draconi mansion.”

  Claudia Sinclair laid her silver reading glasses down on top of the desk, worry flashing in her eyes. “What sort of problem?”

  I shrugged. “Blake almost caught us in Victor’s office.”

  She hissed out a breath between her teeth, but I grinned.

  “Notice that I said almost. Don’t worry. Blake didn’t even realize that we were there, and none of the guards spotted us either. We got in and out, and no one was the wiser, especially not Victor.”

  “And Deah and Seleste?” she asked, her voice still full of worry.

  “They’re okay too. So relax. Everything’s fine, and my plan went off without a hitch, just like I told you it would.”

  Claudia gave me a sharp, suspicious look, but the tension in her beautiful face slowly eased as she studied Devon, Felix, and me in turn and realized that we really were okay.

  “See? I told you everything would be okay. You worry way too much, Claud,” a deep, masculine voice chimed in.

  Claudia swiveled around in her chair so that she was facing a tall, muscular man who was sprawled across a white velvet settee by the fireplace. Unlike Claudia, who looked as professional as could be in her pantsuit, the man wore a gray Hawaiian shirt patterned with large, neon-blue parrots, along with white linen pants and white flip-flops. A white straw hat was perched on the settee beside him.

  The man leaned forward and grabbed a small sandwich off a sterling silver tray on the table in front of him. The overhead light from the crystal chandelier made his ebony skin gleam, along with the silver threads in his black hair.

  My gaze locked on to the food. My nose twitched and my stomach rumbled in anticipation. “Are those mini bacon cheeseburgers?”

  Mo Kaminsky, my friend, my fence, and the Family broker, grinned at me. “Don’t you know it. Fresh from the kitchen.” He waved his hand over the tray of food, making a diamond signet ring flash on his hand. “Come and get ’em, kid. I saved some just for you.”

  Typical Mo, looking out for me. Mo had been good friends with my mom, and he’d watched out for me in so many ways after she died, from giving me jobs to letting me hang out in his pawnshop to even setting me up with the Sinclair Family. For a long time, he’d been the only friend I had, and he meant so much to me.

  Mo didn’t have to tell me twice about the food. I went over, grabbed one of the cheeseburgers, and popped it into my mouth. Like everything else the kitchen pixies made, it was utterly divine. A buttery roll, grilled meat, fresh veggies, cheddar cheese, a dollop of mayonnaise, and best of all, crunchy pieces of salty, smoky bacon. Mmm. Bacon. Best food ever.

  I polished off that cheeseburger, grabbed another one, and downed it as well. I thought about swiping a couple more and sticking them in my pockets for later, but Oscar would complain about having to clean food stains out my clothes again. So I contented myself with just eating them here. Mo toasted me with his own mini cheeseburger, then chowed down on it.

  Devon and Felix carefully set the two black duffel bags down on the floor. The distinctive clank-clanks of metal sliding together rang out through the library, and Claudia tilted her head to the side, interest and appreciation sparking in her gaze.

  “You got the last of the black blades?” she asked.

  “Of course we did,” I said, swallowing the last of my cheeseburger. “You are talking to Lila Merriweather, thief extraordinaire, you know.”

  I gave an elaborate flourish with my hand and bowed low, sweeping my long blue coat out to one side, as though I were curtsying before a queen. In a way, I was, since Claudia was the head of the entire Sinclair Family and just as powerful as any queen.

  She sighed at my showing off, but Mo grinned again and held out his fist. I bumped him back, then grabbed another mini cheeseburger. Stealing stuff always made me extra hungry.

  Claudia sighed again, louder and deeper this time, but she also nodded, silently telling me good job. I nodded back at her and polished off the rest of my cheeseburger.

  Devon unzipped his duffel bag and pulled out a few of the black blades to show his mom, then zipped up the bag again and slung it over his shoulder. “You want us to put the weapons down in the training room and lock them away with all the others?”

  Claudia nodded. “Of course.”

  Once we’d started stealing the weapons from Victor, we had to do something with them, since black blades were far too valuable to just leave lying around the mansion. Just by themselves, the weapons would fetch a pretty penny on the black market. But the real problem was all the magic that filled the weapons—power that we couldn’t get rid of, not without stabbing ourselves with the swords and daggers and injecting all that stolen monster magic into our own bodies.

  That was something that none of us wanted to do. We didn’t know how we might react to the monster magic—or how addicted to the power we might become. Like Katia Volkov, a girl who’d also trapped and killed monsters in order to take their magic and use it for her own twisted ends. Given all the risks, Claudia had decided that locking away the weapons in the training room was the safest option right now.

  Devon nodded back at his mom. Felix grabbed the second bag, and the two of them headed toward the library doors.

  “I’ll catch up with you guys later,” I called out.

  The guys waved back at me and left the library. I waited until the double doors had swung shut behind them before I turned back to Claudia and Mo.

  Claudia sighed for a third time, realizing that I had some bad news. “What is it now?”

  “When Blake came into Victor’s office tonight, he looked right at the wall where the secret room is.”

  Mo frowned. “You think Blake knows about the black blades and what Victor wants to do with them.”

  I nodded. “Blake barely glanced at the rest of the office, but he kept staring and staring at that dragon carving like it was the most important thing in the entire mansion. He was making sure that Deah hadn’t messed with the carving and opened up the secret room. Blake has to know what Victor’s planning. It’s the only thing that makes sense. He wouldn’t have even looked at the wall otherwise.”

  Claudia picked up her reading glasses and started tapping them on top of her desk. “If Blake knows about the weapons, then Victor is probably going to strike soon. You’re sure you left enough black blades behind to fool him into thinking that they’re all still there and full of magic?”

  I shrugged. “I think so, but I don’t know for sure. I just don’t know if Victor can sense magic like I can, if it feels cold to him the same way it does to me. Hopefully, he’ll be too busy thinking about how he’s going to use the black blades to focus on how they actually look and feel.”

  The weapons we’d left behind at the Draconi mansion weren’t black blades, so they weren’t made out of bloodiron and they couldn’t absorb, store, or transfer magic from one person or monster to the next. Not even close. They were just plain old swords and daggers, junk weapons mostly, that mortals and magicks had hocked at Mo’s pawnshop, the Razzle Dazzle. Devon, Felix, and I had spray-painted all of the fake weapons a dull, ashy gray to hide the nicks and scratches on them and make them look like black blades. The swords and daggers might not be the real things, but they were still weapons that Victor could give to his guards, weapons that could be used ag
ainst us and the other Families. After all, a regular sword could kill you as easily as a magic-filled one.

  Claudia stopped tapping her glasses on the desk and set them aside. Then she raised her hands to her face and massaged her temples, as though they were suddenly aching. “You did your job, Lila. There’s nothing else we can do now but try to figure out when Victor is going to attack and which Family he might target first.”

  Instead of answering her, I wandered over to the shelves along the wall and started looking at the photos, figurines, and other knickknacks perched there. My gaze locked on to a photo of my mom, Serena Sterling, with her sister, my aunt Seleste. The two of them could have been twins, except for my mom’s black hair and Seleste’s golden locks, just like me and Deah and our own hair coloring. I only hoped that Deah and I would stay together through the coming fight with Victor, and not let him tear us apart the way he had our moms years ago.

  “Now that he’s brought Blake in on his plan, when do you think Victor will attack?” Mo asked.

  Claudia dropped her hands from her temples and started drumming her fingers on top of the desk. “If I had to guess, I would say after the dinner for all the Families tomorrow night. No doubt Victor will come to the dinner, talk about how he wants peace, and do his best to soothe everyone’s fears. Then he’ll wait a couple days or maybe even weeks until our guard is down and stab us all in the back the second he has the chance. That’s what I would expect him to do. Either way, we’ve taken away most of his weapons, so we’ve at least weakened him.”

  She was right. By switching out the black blades for fakes, we had taken away some of Victor’s power and thwarted part of his plan to attack the other Families. But her words didn’t make me feel any better, and worry still pinched her face, along with Mo’s and my own.

  Because we all knew how much magic Victor had himself and just how determined he was to destroy all of us.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Now that my first thieving mission of the night was finished, I left the library and went up to my bedroom to get ready for the second one.