Then her eyes rolled up in the back of her head and she slumped forward in her seat, unconscious again. That was probably for the best right now.

  I used my sword to cut through Claudia’s ropes. I started to take hold of her, but Mo beat me to it. I don’t know how he managed it, given his own serious injuries, but he bent down and scooped Claudia up into his arms.

  “Don’t worry, kid,” he said. “I’ve got Claud. You lead the way out of here.”

  I nodded, and we left the office. I went first, with Mo carrying Claudia and shuffling along behind me, and we made it back out to the main part of the warehouse without any problem. Everyone who’d been injured was gone, along with the pixies, but Felix, Angelo, and Reginald were still here, along with several guards. The three of them hurried over to us the second we stepped into view.

  Angelo gave Mo a quick once-over before turning his attention to Claudia. “We need to get her out of here,” he said. “She needs stitch-sting and a lot of it. So do you, Mo.”

  I looked at Angelo. “I’ve got a stockpile in my library basement. Mo can show you where it is. Go. Now.”

  “What about Devon?” Felix asked. “He’s still out on the street with Victor.”

  “I’ll go out the front and get him away from Victor. Take the guards around to the west side of the warehouse and get ready in case we need help. Now go.”

  Felix nodded and he and the others hurried out the back of the warehouse. I whirled around and sprinted toward the front, peering out one of the windows.

  Devon was standing in the middle of the street in front of the warehouse, with a black duffel bag lying at his feet. He had his sword drawn, even though the Draconi guards surrounded him on three sides. Victor and Blake were there too, standing in front of Devon, with more guards flanking them. The warehouse door was cracked open, letting me hear everything they were saying.

  “I’m so glad that you decided to be reasonable,” Victor said in a cool voice. “My son was getting rather tired of chasing you and your friends all over the Midway.”

  Devon shrugged, but Blake’s cheeks turned a dark, mottled red with embarrassment.

  “I got Deah, didn’t I?” he muttered. “I told you I could get Merriweather and all the others too. I just needed some more time.”

  Victor arched an eyebrow at Blake, who clamped his lips shut, knowing better than to contradict his dad. He settled for shooting Devon an angry glare, as though it were Devon’s fault that Blake hadn’t managed to capture me along with Deah earlier today.

  “Regardless, you’re here now.” Victor’s gaze dropped to the duffel bag sitting at Devon’s feet. “But apparently not with all the weapons, as we agreed.”

  “I want to see my mom and all the other Sinclairs first,” Devon countered. “Then I’ll turn the rest of the weapons over to you.”

  Victor let out a low, ugly laugh that made my skin crawl. “You stupid boy. As if I would ever agree to turn over your mother or any of the others for one measly bag of weapons and the faint promise of learning where the others are. I’ve waited too long and worked too hard to finally have your mother at my mercy to give her up for a little bit of magic.”

  “Not just a little bit of magic,” Devon said. “How long did it take you to kill all those monsters and harvest their magic?”

  Victor gave him a cold look. “Don’t worry. You’ll die much quicker than they did.” He snapped his fingers. “Bring me the bag and the boy.”

  The guards started forward, but Devon brandished his sword, keeping them at bay—for now.

  “That wasn’t the deal,” he snapped. “You do anything to me and you can kiss the rest of the weapons goodbye. You’ll never find them, and I’ll never tell you where they are.”

  A smile curved Victor’s lips, but it was one of the most vicious expressions I’d ever seen. “I’m changing the deal. And you most certainly will tell me where every single one of my black blades are. You might last a day or two, like your mother has, but you won’t be able to hold out forever. In the end, you’ll be begging me to kill you.”

  Devon’s face tightened, but he kept his sword raised and his gaze steady on Victor. The guards looked back and forth between the two of them, not daring to move or speak. The tension in the air between them practically crackled with electricity.

  I had to help Devon, but I couldn’t just go barging outside right into the middle of all the Draconis. They’d kill me in a second, then turn their swords on Devon. No, I had to be clever about things.

  And the best way to do that would be by hiding in plain sight, just like Deah and I had out on the Midway.

  The Draconi guard I’d knocked out earlier was still sprawled across the floor near the front of the warehouse. So I rolled him over onto his side, stripped off his red cloak, and put it on over my blue coat. Then I grabbed his red cavalier hat from where it had fallen to the floor and stuffed my black ponytail underneath it. I also snatched the gold cuff off the guard’s wrist and clamped it onto mine, above my own silver Sinclair cuff. Hopefully, no one would look at me closely enough to wonder why I was wearing the crests of two different Families.

  Once my hasty disguise was complete, I opened the warehouse door another couple of inches and slipped outside onto the street with everyone else. All the guards were so focused on Devon and making sure that he didn’t escape that no one gave me a second look. I eased up behind two guards, then slowly tiptoed to my right, moving around the circle of them until I was standing off to Devon’s right. I’d only have one chance to break through the ring of men and get him to safety, and I wasn’t going to fail. Not at this.

  Devon was not going to die like my mom had.

  I glanced around, looking at the part of the ring where the guards were the thinnest, then at the surrounding streets. I didn’t see Oscar anywhere, but hopefully, the pixie was waiting for the best time to strike, just like I was. In the distance, Felix peered around the corner of the warehouse and flashed me a thumbs-up, telling me that the others had gotten to safety and that he and the guards were waiting back there. Now all I had to do was get Devon away from the Draconis, down the street, and around the corner, and we could escape with everyone else. Once we were all together, we could plan our next move and everything would be okay again.

  Or at least as okay as it could get in the middle of an all-out mob war.

  “Why do you hate us so much anyway?” Devon asked, stalling for time. “What did the Sinclairs ever do to you?”

  Victor’s mouth twisted and anger flashed in his golden eyes. “It wasn’t all the Sinclairs. Just one of you. A girl named Serena Sterling. A long time ago, she interfered with my plans, tried to stop me from taking over this town. She actually succeeded too—for a time. But she’s gone now, as dead as dead can be, and nothing is going to stand in my way. Especially not you, boy.”

  He snapped his fingers at his guards again. “Take him alive, and bring me the weapons.”

  That was my cue. Even as the guard closest to me raised his weapon, I stepped up and rammed my sword into the man’s side. He screamed and fell to the ground, and I leaped over him and stabbed another guard, then another one, trying to take out as many men as I could before I lost the element of surprise.

  And I wasn’t the only one.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a flash of silver. A guard yelped and clapped a hand to his neck, as though he’d been stung by a bee. But it wasn’t a bee, it was Oscar with his pixie sword—one that was dipped in copper crusher venom. The guard’s eyes rolled up into the back of his head and he fell to the ground convulsing. Oscar saluted me with his sword, then zipped through the air to stab another guard.

  For a moment, the other Draconis were frozen in place, wondering what was going on and why one of their own was attacking them, but then I stepped up next to Devon and whipped off my cavalier hat, and everyone realized that I wasn’t one of them.

  “Lila!” Devon shouted. “Lila!”

  I grinned at him. “At
your service. Now what do you say we get out of here?”

  He grinned back. “Why, I thought you’d never ask.”

  Devon moved so that we were standing back to back, and together we fought the Draconis, with Oscar darting in and stabbing the guards whenever and wherever he could. Everything else disappeared except for the feel of Devon’s warm back pressed against my own, my sword in my hand, and the blur of red-cloaked guards in front of me. I whipped my sword back and forth again and again, clearing a path through the ring of men. All we had to do was break free of them, run down the street, get to the corner, and we’d be safe.

  Unless Victor decided to unleash his lightning on us first.

  I kept looking past the guards in front of me, waiting for him to do that very thing, but Victor stood back out of the way, his gaze locked on the bag of weapons still sitting in the street right in the middle of the fight, more interested in the black blades than anything else. Apparently, he thought his guards could handle us and he didn’t feel the need to help them. Yet.

  Devon cut down the man in front of him, finally slipping out of the ring of guards. He saw Felix waving to him at the corner and sprinted in that direction. I made a move to follow him.

  But Blake had other ideas and he shoved his own men out of the way so that he could step up and fight me.

  “I’m going to kill you if it’s the last thing I do!” he screamed.

  “Bring it on!” I yelled back at him.

  Blake screamed, charged forward, and slammed his sword into mine. He hit my weapon again and again, trying to use his strength magic to overwhelm me so that he could ram his sword through my chest. But every time his sword struck mine, all he did was feed me more and more of his own power, until my body was so cold with magic that my breath frosted in the air.

  As much as I wanted to stay and fight Blake, the most important thing right now was getting out of here. So I lashed out with my foot, tripping Blake and making him stumble past me. I turned to run, but another guard stepped up to block my path, cutting me off from Devon, who finally realized that I wasn’t behind him. He turned around, halfway between me and Felix standing at the curb, with Oscar hovering in the air beside him.

  Felix kept yelling and gesturing for Devon to run, but Devon only had eyes for me. He stopped, turned around, and started to head back to help me.

  And that’s when Victor finally decided to get into the fight.

  He casually waved his hand, sending a streak of white lighting zipping down the street in Devon’s direction. Devon’s eyes widened, but he managed to throw himself to one side, out of the way of the blast. He got right back up on his feet, though, and started toward me again.

  Felix sprinted down the street, grabbed him from behind, and started dragging Devon back toward the corner, even though Devon was struggling with every step. In the distance, I heard the low, throaty rumbles of several cars roaring to life. Angelo and Reginald must have found the Draconi vehicles parked on the streets around the warehouse. Mo would know how to hot-wire the cars, since he’d shown me the same trick long ago.

  Victor waved his hand again, sending another streak of lightning at Devon, Felix, and Oscar, but it was an afterthought on his part, since his gaze was still locked on the bag of weapons, and they easily ducked the blast. The fight had moved away from the weapons and Victor headed in that direction, eagerness flashing in his golden gaze. He wanted the black blades first; then he would worry about killing us with his lightning.

  Even as I raised my sword to engage the guard in front of me, another man stepped up beside the first one, further blocking my path. My heart sank. I’d never get to Devon now, not before the guards surrounded and overwhelmed me, but at least I’d saved him and the others. I’d done exactly what Claudia had hired me to do all those weeks ago—I’d protected Devon, protected the Sinclairs, protected my Family.

  My mom would have been so proud of me right now.

  That thought brought a smile to my face, despite my desperate situation, and I knew what I had to do.

  “Go!” I yelled. “Devon, go!”

  “No!” he screamed back. “I’m not leaving you!”

  Even as Felix pulled him back, Devon started screaming at the Draconi guards to stop, fall back, and drop their weapons. Over and over again, he yelled out the simple commands, his voice crackling with his compulsion magic. Many of the guards followed his orders, compelled by his magic to do so, even though they didn’t realize exactly what was happening. But as strong as Devon was in his magic, it still took a lot of power to force someone to act against their will, and he simply couldn’t control them all. For every guard that Devon compelled, it seemed as though there were two more that charged at me, and soon, there were far too many for me to fight my way through.

  Devon knew it too. For a moment, our gazes locked and his hot desperation and aching regret knifed me right in the heart. I forced myself to grit my teeth, throw off his emotions, and turn to fight the next guard who charged me.

  “Lila!” Devon screamed again. “Lila!”

  But I blocked out his anguished cries and kept moving, swinging my sword back and forth, and back and forth, cutting into every single guard that even thought about coming close to me. For a minute, maybe two, I managed to keep them at bay. But there were too many of them, and it simply wasn’t going to be enough—I wasn’t going to be enough.

  Not this time.

  But I fought on anyway. And every chance I got, I looked past the tangle of guards, the swirl of red cloaks, and the spatter of blood and focused on Devon, memorizing the sound of his voice, the lines of his face, and the exact evergreen color of his eyes. If this was the end, then I wanted him to be the last thing I ever saw—

  Something slammed into the back of my skull, causing white stars to flash in warning in front of my eyes. I tried to blink the stars away, but it was no use. Before I even knew what was happening, my sword fell from my hand, tumbling end over end on the street, and I felt myself dropping down to meet it.

  I stuck my hands out, trying to break my fall, but it was no use and the cobblestone street rushed up to meet my face.

  Then nothing but darkness.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  For a long time, there was just darkness—just a soft, soothing darkness that I was floating along in.

  For some reason, I dreamed or imagined that I was in the middle of the Bloodiron River, with cool water all around me, drifting along on my back like an otter. Every once in a while, something would gently brush against my arm or leg or even my cheek, and I realized that it was a lochness tentacle, almost as if I were some sort of toy boat that the creature was playfully pushing down the river. But I didn’t mind. It was almost . . . fun.

  I could have stayed in the dream—or whatever it was—longer, but harsh reality eventually intruded, the way it always did.

  The first thing I was aware of was the pain in my head and face, where I’d been hit from behind and had fallen onto the cobblestones. It was a dull, steady ache, one that made it hard to open my eyes and actually focus on anything, but I slowly managed it. Everything was hazy and distorted at first, but I kept on blinking and blinking until my surroundings solidified. Then, once they had, I wished I was still unconscious.

  For the third time this summer, I woke up as someone’s prisoner. Heavy ropes wound around my wrists and ankles, binding me to a chair. I looked around, expecting to be back in that office in the Draconi warehouse where Claudia and Mo had been held, but instead of a desk, filing cabinets, and other office equipment, all I saw were gray cinderblock walls and meat hooks dangling from the ceiling, along with a single bare bulb that cast out weak, flickering light.

  I was in the abandoned warehouse next door, the same one I’d woken up in when Grant had kidnapped Devon and me several weeks ago. Did the Draconis own this warehouse too? Either that, or they just didn’t want to dirty up their own space when they killed me.

  And they were going to kill me—I had absolute
ly no doubt about that.

  Still, I must have been really out of it because a giggle rose up in my throat. Here I was in this dark, creepy warehouse again, more or less right back where I’d started at the beginning of the summer. I’d always thought that bad things came in threes, but this was getting ridiculous—

  A pair of fingers snapped in front of my face, making me jerk back in surprise. The sudden motion made more pain blossom in my head and face, and I couldn’t help but groan.

  “So, you’re finally awake . . . Lila Sterling.”

  I froze at the sound of my real name, then slowly turned my head.

  Victor Draconi stood in front of me, his arms crossed over his chest. Something silver glinted in his right hand and I realized it was my Sinclair cuff. He must have found it when I’d been knocked out. And judging from his cold, cold glare, he knew exactly what it meant and who it had belonged to.

  Victor stared at me for a second, then started circling, examining me from all angles. Blake stood off to the side, his arms also crossed over his chest as he smirked. He finally had me exactly where he wanted me. Good for him—very, very bad for me.

  I forced myself to ignore the pain and focus. Victor might have removed my Sinclair cuff, along with the gold Draconi one I’d swiped from the guard, but I still wore my mom’s blue trench coat, and her star-shaped sapphire ring still glimmered on my finger. I shifted in my chair, feeling the edge of my black leather belt and the three throwing stars hooked to it dig into my stomach.

  Once I’d taken stock of everything I still had, I moved on to the one thing I didn’t—my sword.

  I didn’t spot it anywhere. Victor wasn’t wearing it, and I could see the dragon crest stamped into the hilt of Blake’s sword, which was belted to his waist. There weren’t any other chairs or tables in here, and the weapon wasn’t lying on the concrete floor anywhere.

  What had happened to my mom’s sword?

  Tears burned my eyes at the thought that her sword was gone, that someone had swiped it off the street when I’d been unconscious, stealing it the way I’d stolen so many other things over the years. Well, that was certainly some cruel, poetic justice. But I forced myself to blink away my tears. Now wasn’t the time to mourn what I’d lost. Not if I had any hope of escaping.