We lingered by a few of the food carts, as though we were thinking about buying some funnel cakes and deep-fried fudge, and spied on a group of Ito guards, but they didn’t talk to each other, and we didn’t overhear anything that might tell us what was going on with the other Families.
Once again, I wondered what had happened to Poppy and her dad after the attack at the White Orchid last night, but it wasn’t like I could go up to the Ito guards and ask. Not without raising their suspicions. I just had to hope that Poppy had made it to safety too.
Eventually, Deah and I wandered over to the Sinclair section of the Midway. It was far less crowded here than anywhere else, mainly because none of the businesses were actually open. All the carts, shops, and shacks were shuttered, dark, and locked up tight, and I didn’t see any Sinclair guards patrolling through our section of the Midway—not a single one.
My heart sank. So it was as bad as I’d feared, and Victor had captured everyone but us. That made it even more important that we find out where he was holding the other Sinclairs before it was too late.
We stopped beside one of the closed Sinclair ice cream carts and I looked at Deah.
“Are you ready for this?” I asked.
She nodded. “Yeah. Let’s get it over with.”
I nodded back at her, and we slowly headed toward the Draconi section of the Midway.
The guards from all the other Families might have been nervous and on the lookout for trouble, but the Draconis were totally relaxed, strolling around in pairs, smiling, talking, and laughing with each other. They thought that they’d won, that they’d finally beaten all the other Families, and they were happy about it. Their wide grins and hearty chuckles made more white-hot rage burn in my heart. They weren’t going to be happy for long. Not after everything they’d done. Not if I had anything to say about it.
Deah reached out and gripped my hand tightly, silently warning me not to let any of my true feelings show. I squeezed her hand back, telling her that I understood, and we moved even deeper into Draconi territory.
Deah flinched at every single guard we passed, but our matching T-shirts and baseball hats worked like the proverbial charm, and none of the guards gave us a second look, except to snicker at the outrageous, neon-blue color of our shirts and our apparently over-the-top love for barbecue.
We rounded a cart selling popcorn and candy apples. A few feet away, in the shade of a large blood persimmon tree, five Draconi guards were eating the snacks they’d just bought and laughing and talking to each other. Deah nodded, telling me that she recognized the guards and that they were high enough up in the Draconi Family to know something about where our friends were. She pretended to look at some sunglasses on another cart, keeping an eye out for more guards, while I crept closer and closer to the group in the shade.
“We finally taught the Sinclairs and everyone else a lesson,” one of the guards crowed. “Victor has big plans for this town, and they were standing in our way.”
All the other guards nodded their agreement.
“What are they going to do with all the Sinclairs?” another guard asked. “Victor can’t keep them locked up forever.”
My ears perked up, and I sidled a little closer, trying to hear every word he said.
The first guard shook his head. “I don’t know. Right now, they’re all in those cages at the warehouse. Maybe Victor will eventually let the Sinclair guards swear their loyalty to him. But you know he’ll take care of Claudia Sinclair and all the other senior members of the Family first. He won’t risk letting any of them go so they can try to regroup and rebuild their Family.”
My fingers curled into fists, my knuckles cracking from the pressure. What the guard really meant was that Victor was planning to kill Claudia, something he’d been wanting to do for a long time. And now, he finally had her, Mo, and the others at his mercy. Dread rose up in my chest at the thought of losing Claudia and Mo the same way that I had my mom, but I forced the feeling aside. That wasn’t going to happen. I wasn’t going to let that happen. Never again.
“Well, I’m surprised he didn’t just go ahead and do it last night, when we first brought her into the warehouse,” another guard said.
The first guard shrugged. “Apparently, she still has something he wants. Something about those black blades that everyone was supposed to get. Victor’s been working on her, along with that Kaminsky guy. You know, the one who owns that tacky pawnshop?”
The other men nodded.
“Anyway, Victor will get one of them to talk . . . sooner or later.”
The guard let out an ugly laugh, and all the others joined in with him.
I squeezed my eyes shut, but not before two hot tears escaped and rolled down my cheeks. I’d known that Victor would torture Claudia, but to hear the guards so casually confirm it, and to realize that he was hurting Mo too.... It was almost more than I could bear.
In that moment, I wanted nothing more than to scream, wade into the guards, grab one of their swords, and cut them all down the same way they had the Sinclairs at the mansion last night.
But I couldn’t do that. Not without getting myself killed or captured, along with Deah. Then there would be no way I could save Claudia, Mo, and the others. So I opened my eyes and forced myself to take slow, deep breaths, trying to get my raging emotions under control.
A minute later, the guards finished their snacks, said their goodbyes, and drifted away to start patrolling again. Frustrated, I whipped around and hurried over to Deah, who was still standing by that cart, trying on pair after pair of sunglasses.
“Anything?” she asked, worry darkening her eyes.
“The Sinclairs are in a warehouse somewhere, just like you thought, but the guards didn’t say which one. Are you sure you don’t have any idea where they could be?”
She shook her head. “I’m sorry, but no. Dad has a bunch of warehouses all along the river and in other parts of town. They could be anywhere.”
“All right then. We’ll just have to keep eavesdropping.”
And that’s exactly what we did, going around and around the Draconi section of the Midway, getting close to every single guard we could. After everything that had happened last night, they were a chatty bunch, almost as talkative as Felix, but while the guards kept mentioning the warehouse, none of them said where it actually was.
My frustration grew and grew, and Deah was just as tense and on edge as I was. We both kept our hats on, and our faces low and turned away from the guards, but every second we stayed in the Midway added to the risk of someone spotting and recognizing us. Still, we kept walking around and around in circles, trying to overhear something—anything—that might lead us to Claudia, Mo, and the others.
But we didn’t hear anything useful, and thirty minutes later, Deah stopped and pulled a buzzing phone out of her shorts pocket. It was one of the cheap cell phones that I’d bought and stashed in the library basement, along with the rest of my supplies.
“It’s Felix,” she said. “He wants to know what’s taking so long.”
I sighed. “Tell him that we’ll be back soon. I want to make one more lap around the Draconi section, just in case there are any guards we missed.”
She nodded and texted him back. I waited until she’d finished, and then we started walking around again. But once again, we came up with nothing.
Just when I was ready to admit defeat and head back to the alley where Devon and Felix were waiting, a familiar, snide voice caught my ear.
“Dad didn’t like using the warehouse so close to the lochness bridge, but we didn’t have a choice with so many prisoners.”
Deah heard the voice too, and we both stopped and looked at each other. I motioned to her, and we both slid behind a fudge cart, following the sound of the voice.
“But it won’t matter. As soon as Claudia Sinclair gives up the location of the weapons, Dad will finish her off. Then the rest of the Sinclairs will have to swear their loyalty to him—or else.”
> Blake—that was Blake’s voice. I looked around, but I didn’t spot him in the crowd of people, so I crept forward a few more steps, searching for him, with Deah right beside me.
“I don’t see why Victor still wants those black blades so badly, when he already has most of the Sinclairs locked up,” a guard chimed in.
“Dad wouldn’t want the blades if they weren’t important,” Blake replied. “Once we have the weapons, we can wipe out all the other Families. Then this town will belong to the Draconis, like it should have all along.”
Blake let out a low, ugly laugh. The sound made my skin crawl.
“I know what warehouse he’s talking about,” Deah whispered in my ear. “It’s on Copper Street, not too far from the lochness bridge. Dad uses it to store T-shirts, sunglasses, and other cheap souvenirs to sell to the tourists.”
I nodded. I knew the warehouse she was talking about. It was one of the few buildings in the bad part of town that still occasionally had guards patrolling outside—enough guards that even I had never dared try to break inside. It would be the perfect place to hold Claudia, Mo, and the rest of the Sinclair hostages.
“Let’s go,” I whispered. “We need to get back to Devon and Felix and tell them what we found out.”
Deah nodded, and we both walked around the opposite side of the fudge cart. We’d just rounded the corner and were about to head over to one of the cobblestone paths when a couple of guys stepped in front of us. I managed to avoid them, but she spotted them a second too late.
“Oof!” Deah slammed into one of the guys going the opposite direction and bounced off his broad, muscled body.
“Watch where you’re going,” a low, familiar voice growled.
I froze, my breath hissing out between my teeth. Because Deah had just run into the very last person either one of us wanted to see right now.
Blake.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
I hoped that Blake would just keep on walking, but of course he stopped, turned around, and glared at the person who had dared to run into him.
“I said watch where you’re going,” he snapped again, obviously waiting for some sort of apology.
“I—uh—um—” Deah sputtered, completely at a loss for words.
“Sorry! My friend is so sorry!” I said, pitching my voice light and high in hopes that he wouldn’t recognize me. “She just didn’t see you standing there!”
I stepped up to grab Deah’s arm and pull her away from him, but Blake moved to the side, blocking me without even realizing it.
His face twisted into a sneer as he stared at her T-shirt. “That’s the stupidest shirt I’ve ever seen. What kind of idiot wears a shirt for a barbecue restaurant?”
Deah dropped her head, but Blake leaned forward, trying to see her face underneath her baseball hat. He frowned, his eyebrows knitting together in confusion. Then his eyes widened as he realized that he was staring at his own sister.
“You!” he hissed, his hand falling to the hilt of his sword. “You’re alive! You got away from the lochness after all! Guards! Guards!”
He yanked his sword free of his scabbard. Time to go. I stepped up, shoved my shoulder into Blake’s, and sent him staggering back. Then I grabbed Deah’s hand and pulled her away from her brother.
“Run!” I yelled at her. “Run! Run! Run!”
Together, Deah and I sprinted through the Midway, darting around people, food carts, and more. Behind us, loud curses rang out, and I could hear footsteps pounding on the cobblestone walkways as Blake and the Draconi guards chased after us. Even worse, Blake kept screaming for more and more guards the whole time.
And they answered his call.
We were still in the Draconi section of the Midway, and guards wearing blood-red cloaks and matching cavalier hats started converging on us from all sides. And since we were the only people running like our lives depended on it, we were easy to pick out of the crowd, especially with the neon-blue T-shirts and baseball hats we both still wore. Our disguises were useless now, so I ripped off my hat and tossed it aside. Deah did the same with her hat, but there was nothing we could do about our shirts.
My gaze darted left and right as I looked for some sort of escape route or at least a place to hide. But I didn’t see anything. Just people and food carts and Draconis closing in from every direction.
A guard came up on my right side, swinging his sword over his head. I let go of Deah’s hand, went low, and drove my shoulder into his stomach. The guard let out a loud oof! of pain and doubled over. I grabbed his sword out of his hand and whipped around. Deah had disarmed another guard, so she had a sword now too. She gave me a grim nod and the two of us started running again.
I’d always known how big the Midway was, how many acres it covered, but it seemed as though we would never reach the end of it, even though Deah and I were both sprinting down the cobblestone paths as fast as we could. People stared as we ran past, wondering who we were and why we were interrupting their vacation fun.
It was far hotter this afternoon than it had been last night, and sweat streamed down my face and spattered onto my T-shirt. My breath came in ragged gasps and a painful stitch throbbed in my side, keeping time to the steady slap-slap-slap-slap of my sneakers on the ground. Beside me, Deah’s face was beet red, her mouth open wide as she tried to suck down as much air as she could. She was feeling the heat too, but we both kept running. We had to.
Eventually, finally, we reached the edge of the Midway and managed to dart onto a walkway that led out to one of the shopping squares. But this was a Draconi square, and Blake’s shouts followed us, causing the guards here to turn and run in our direction as well. My head snapped left and right again, still looking for an escape route, but of course there wasn’t one. So I looked around the square again, focusing on exactly where we were and what I knew about the surrounding area.
I pointed to the left. “This way! Follow me!”
I veered in that direction, with Deah right behind me. The guards kept chasing us, but they were wearing cloaks and hats, which weighed them down and made them even hotter and more miserable than we were, and we managed to put a little distance between us and them, something I was going to take advantage of. We ran past the buildings that fronted this side of the square and into another alley, darting past trash cans and leaping over loose soda cans, empty fast-food wrappers, and other garbage.
“Where are we going?” Deah yelled behind me.
“You’ll see!”
We ran through that alley, then two more, and finally out into another shopping square, one that was in Sinclair territory. Of course, this square was deserted, since all the businesses here were closed, just as they had been out in the Midway, but that was okay because I was only interested in one particular business.
A large storefront took up the entire back of the square, and the sign over the front doors spelled out THE RAZZLE DAZZLE in ten-foot-high letters. On a normal day, the neon-blue letters would have been flashing, with the white stars that adorned the sign winking on and off, all of it creating a dazzling display. But the sign was dark today, as was the inside of the store. My heart clenched tight at the sight of the deserted store, but I sprinted over to the glass doors anyway.
“Mo’s pawnshop?” Deah asked, skidding to a stop right beside me, her breath coming in ragged gasps just like mine was. “Are you . . . crazy? This is the first place . . . they’ll think to look.”
“Exactly.”
I raised my stolen sword and smashed the point into first one door, then the other one, busting large chunks of glass out of both of them. I hated breaking anything at Mo’s shop, but Blake and the rest of the Draconis would expect us to hole up inside, once they spotted the shattered glass. If enough of them went inside the store at once, it just might give us time to escape for good.
Once I finished breaking the glass, I jerked my head at Deah. “Let’s go.”
Not understanding why I’d bothered to smash the glass if we weren’t actually
going inside, she frowned in confusion but shrugged it off and followed me anyway.
I started to sprint over to the walkway that led out of the far side of the square, but I spotted a guy wearing a red cloak, checking his phone, heading in this direction. Another Draconi guard who’d been summoned by Blake. Before he could spot me, I changed direction, instead racing over to a blood persimmon tree that was close to the bubbling fountain in the center of the square.
“Now what are you doing?” Deah muttered.
“Up the tree!” I hissed. “Now! Start climbing!”
She gave me a look that said she thought I was totally crazy, but she took hold of the tree and started climbing.
“Faster! Faster!” I hissed again, climbing up right below her.
“Give me a second!” she sniped back. “I’m not as good at this as you are, remember?”
But Deah made it up the tree, with me following her. She wanted to stop after a few feet, but I made her climb higher and higher, until we were about thirty feet up in the tree, right in the center of all the thick green leaves. Hopefully, they would be enough to hide us from sight. If they weren’t . . . I swallowed. I didn’t want to think about that until I absolutely had to.
We’d barely settled ourselves back against the branches when the slap-slap-slap-slap of footsteps sounded, getting louder and closer with every passing second. Deah heard them too, and we both leaned forward and peered through the screen of leaves.
A few seconds later, Blake ran into the square, with his guards right behind him. When he didn’t immediately see us, he stared across the square at the Draconi guard who had finally put his phone away and entered from the far side.
“Did you see them?” he called out. “Did they get past you?”
The guard shook his head, and Blake whipped around to face the other men.