Bright Blaze of Magic Page 12

  “Your mom’s sword,” Devon said.

  I nodded and climbed up onto the bathroom counter. A metal vent was located above the mirror, high on the wall. I reached for one of the screws, which was so loose that it was about to fall right out of the vent frame. I frowned. I thought I’d tightened that back up before I’d left for the dinner—

  The vent burst open, making me shriek in surprise and almost lose my balance on the counter. But before I could stagger away from the vent, something silver flashed, and a sword no bigger than a needle zoomed out of the darkness and pressed into my nose. I froze.

  “Stop right there, or I’ll stick you full of copper crusher venom,” a low, angry voice growled.

  I squinted, staring past the tip of my nose, and realized that two pairs of eyes were glaring at me from the dark depths of the vent—one pair an intense violet and the other a midnight black.

  “Oscar! Tiny!” I sighed with relief. “You guys are okay!”

  Oscar squinted back at me. “Lila? Is that really you?”

  “Of course it’s me. I showed you where I was putting my sword before I left. Remember?”

  The pixie let out a tense breath and lowered his sword. Then he zipped out of the vent, flew over, and hugged my neck as tight as he could.

  “It was . . . it was awful,” Oscar whispered in a ragged tone, his voice even twangier than normal. “Just about everyone was in the dining hall eating dinner, but I decided to feed Tiny before I went down to eat myself. The Draconis must have snuck up on the perimeter guards and taken them out first because there was no warning. The Draconis just busted into the mansion and started killing people. I heard the shouts and screams, but by the time I grabbed my sword and flew downstairs, it was already too late. Most of the guards were already dead, and the Draconis were rounding up the survivors, forcing them outside, and making them get into trucks and vans. But they didn’t see me, so I came up here to get Tiny and hide while they searched the rest of the mansion.”

  The pixie’s small body trembled against my neck, and I reached up and gently patted his back, careful not to crush his wings, which were twitching in grief, anger, and agitation.

  “It’s okay,” I whispered. “I’m here, and you and Tiny are safe now.”

  Oscar hugged my neck again, and he stayed perched on my shoulder while I reached up and lifted Tiny out of the air conditioning vent. I put the tortoise in one of the front pockets of my coat, so that he could stick his head up and see what was happening. Then I reached back into the vent and grabbed the final thing hidden inside—my mom’s black blade.

  The second my fingers touched the bloodiron, I felt just a little bit better, like I hadn’t lost almost everything I cared about tonight.

  I wasn’t sure why.

  Because things were still terrible, horrible, awful. This was one of the worst nights of my life, second only to the one following my mom’s murder. Victor had captured Claudia, Mo, Angelo, and Reginald. The rest of the Sinclairs were either captured or dead as well. And if my friends and I weren’t careful, we’d end up just like everyone else.

  But as I stared down at the five-pointed star carved into the sword’s hilt, I felt as if my mom was standing right next to me, whispering to me about all the things I needed to do next. Get the black blades. Take my friends someplace safe. Strike a bargain with the Draconis to get back Claudia, Mo, and the others. And figure out a way to finally end Victor’s reign of terror once and for all.

  And that was exactly what I was going to do—or die trying.

  “Lila?” Devon asked. “Are you okay?”

  “No,” I said, buckling the sword’s scabbard to my belt and hopping down off the counter. “Not even close. But I will be. And so will everyone we have left. I promise you that.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  I grabbed a few more things from my room that we might need; then we went back down to the dining hall. Devon, Felix, Deah, and I stood in the doorway, with Oscar riding on my shoulder and Tiny nestled in my coat pocket, and stared out at the sickening, senseless slaughter before us.

  “I will never forget this,” Felix said in a sad voice.

  “You don’t forget,” Deah said, her tone harsh, her dark blue eyes blazing with grief, rage, and determination. “You remember. You use that anger, that pain, that grief, and you fight back with it, with everything you’ve got.”

  She reached down and yanked the gold Draconi cuff out of her pocket. Deah’s fingers tightened around it, as if she were thinking about hurling it away from her as far and hard as she could. But in the end, she simply tossed it down at her feet, disgusted by the sight of it and everything it stood for. The tink-tink-tink of the cuff rattling around and around on the floor was as loud as a clap of thunder in the absolute quiet of the mansion—

  “Over here!” someone called out. “I heard something!”

  Deah’s eyes widened. “That’s Blake! He’s here!”

  We all froze. Sure enough, the slap-slap-slap-slap of footsteps sounded in the distance. More than one set, all hurrying this way. After they’d taken the prisoners away, Blake and the Draconi guards must have doubled back to make sure that there were no survivors—or to capture anyone who might come to the mansion looking for safety after the fight at the restaurant.

  We didn’t dare go back out the door and into the hallway, so I waved at the others and pointed over at the windows that lined the wall. Oscar zipped off my shoulder and flew over to the windows, peering out them.

  “It’s clear this way,” he called out in a low voice. “Let’s go!”

  We hurried over to the windows, trying to make as little noise as possible as we waded through the broken dishes and smashed food on the floor. Like most of the others in the mansion, these windows had been shattered during the initial attack, so it was easy for us to climb out the jagged panes and drop down five feet to the soft grass below.

  I scanned the landscape around us, but the Draconis weren’t on this side of the mansion yet and we had a clear shot from the lawn all the way over to the trees. From there, we could disappear into the forest and head back to the SUV that we’d stashed down at the scenic overlook.

  But instead of moving forward, Devon let out a soft curse.

  “What’s wrong?” Felix whispered.

  “We didn’t go down to the training room to get the black blades,” Devon said, his mouth twisting with disgust. “We can’t leave here without them.”

  I winced. “Yeah, about that . . .”

  Devon, Felix, and Deah turned to look at me, with Oscar hovering in midair beside them.

  “We don’t have to go down to the training room because the weapons aren’t there,” I said, shifting on my feet. “Not the real, magic-filled black blades anyway.”

  Devon’s eyes narrowed. “You stole the weapons, didn’t you?”

  I shrugged. “More like moved them to a safer location.”

  He kept staring at me, his mind churning as he put all the facts together. “That’s what you were doing last night. Instead of sleeping in your room, you were breaking into the training room, switching out the black blades for another set of fakes, and hiding the real weapons somewhere else.” His eyes narrowed a little more. “My mom helped you, didn’t she?”

  I blinked, surprised that he had guessed that. “How did you know?”

  A ghost of a smile flashed across his face. “Because she wouldn’t have wanted to risk Victor ever getting his hands on those black blades again, and who better to hide something that important than a thief? I bet she told you to take them someplace where only you would know where they were.”

  “Yeah. Are you angry about that?”

  His smile widened. “Are you kidding? I think it’s bloody brilliant.”

  I grinned back at him. “Good. Then let’s go get them.”

  We sprinted across the lawn and stopped inside the tree line to look back at the mansion. Through the windows, I could see Blake moving from room to room, along with more Draco
ni guards, their red cloaks rippling around their shoulders like all the blood that stained the inside of the mansion. I’d thought that we’d at least put a dent in their numbers at the restaurant and then at the lochness bridge, but it looked as if Blake had just as many guards with him as before. Maybe even more.

  “How many men does Victor have?” Felix muttered.

  “You don’t want to know,” Deah replied.

  “Too many for us to take on by ourselves,” Devon said. “Come on. Let’s go find the weapons and get out of here before Blake decides to start searching the forest.”

  He held his hand out, indicating that I should lead the way. Oscar fluttered over and slid into my coat pocket next to Tiny, while the others fell in step behind me. I led my friends through the woods and over to the Sinclair Family cemetery.

  “This is it?” Felix asked, peering into the darkness. “This is where you hid the weapons?”

  “Yep.”

  I headed over to the blood persimmon tree at the back of the cemetery, took hold of the trunk, and started climbing up it.

  “I should have known,” Felix muttered. “You like to climb more than a tree troll does.”

  I grinned and kept on going. It took me less than a minute to reach the crook where I’d hidden the two duffel bags last night. I used one of the throwing stars attached to my belt to slice through the ropes that anchored the two bags to the tree. Then I grabbed the bags and tossed them down to the ground, wincing at all the clank-clanks the weapons made, but it couldn’t be helped and speed was the most important thing right now. Devon scooped up one bag, while Felix snagged the other. I shimmied down the tree and took the lead again.

  We hiked through the woods, making sure to stay deep in the trees and well away from the mansion, where Blake and the Draconis were still searching for survivors. But they didn’t spot us, and we made it back down to the scenic overlook with no problem. No one had bothered our SUV, so we loaded the weapons into the back and got inside the vehicle.

  Devon cranked the engine, but he didn’t make a move to actually put the vehicle in gear and drive down the mountain.

  “What’s wrong?” Oscar asked.

  The pixie was still nestled in my coat pocket, along with Tiny. From the faint rumbles that vibrated against my chest, it sounded as if the tortoise had actually gone to sleep. Well, I was glad that somebody was getting some rest.

  “I . . . I don’t know where to go,” Devon admitted, his forehead creasing with worry. “We can’t stay at the mansion, and we can’t just get a hotel room down on the Midway. Victor probably has people watching all the hotels, even the cheap ones on the outskirts of town. One of the Draconis is sure to spot us the second we show our faces anywhere in town.”

  He scrubbed his hands over his face again, the same way he’d done at the lochness bridge. Felix had a stricken expression on his face as well, while Deah chewed her lower lip in worry.

  “I know where to go,” I said.

  Devon looked over at me. “Where?”

  “Someplace safe,” I said. “Someplace that Blake wouldn’t be caught dead in, and someplace that Victor and the other Draconis will never even think to look for us.”

  Thirty minutes later, we were back down in Cloudburst Falls, sitting in the SUV, which I’d told Devon to park behind a dumpster in an alley that was only a couple of streets over from the lochness bridge.

  “Are you sure we should park here?” Devon asked, peering out the windshield at the other dumpsters and trash cans that lined the alley walls. “This is awfully close to the warehouses that the Draconis own in this part of town.”

  I shrugged. “We’ve done our best to hide the SUV. If they find the car, then they find it. But they won’t find us, no matter how hard they look. Not where we’re going. Now come on.”

  Devon still looked doubtful. So did Felix, Deah, and even Oscar, still riding in my coat pocket, but my friends trusted me enough to get out of the vehicle. Devon and Felix each grabbed one of the bags of black blades, and we left the alley.

  It was after midnight now and the streets were dark and deserted. Then again, we weren’t in the nice, tourist part of town anymore. Far from it. Instead of the busy restaurants, food carts, and souvenir shops of the Midway, row houses, deserted storefronts, and abandoned warehouses stretched out as far as even I could see. Streetlamps were spaced down the block, but most of them only flickered with weak light, if they worked at all. The street itself was full of potholes, the sidewalks were cracked, and bags of trash were heaped at the corners. The sharp, pungent scents of greasy burgers, sticky soda, and other rancid food made my nose twitch with disgust, as did the black swarms of flies, mosquitoes, and other bugs buzzing around the bags.

  We were the only people out on the street, but we were far from alone, given all the monsters prowling around.

  They slithered right up to the ends of the alleys as we hurried past, peering at us with their jewel-colored eyes, debating whether or not we would make a good meal. Devon, Felix, and Deah pressed together in a tight knot in the middle of the sidewalk, their knuckles whitening around their swords as they picked up their pace, but I stared right back at the creatures that were watching us, even though it was so dark that all I could really see of them were their glowing eyes.

  Monsters are your friends. Never forget that. Seleste’s voice whispered in my mind.

  I wondered what she’d glimpsed of the future that had made her say those exact words to me. Had she been trying to tell me that the lochness would save us from Blake tonight? Or was there more to her message? Some hidden meaning that I wasn’t understanding? Or were her words as simple as they seemed? That I paid the tolls and that the monsters respected me for it. I didn’t know, but I wasn’t afraid of the monsters anymore, not even the ones watching us right now.

  Oh, the monsters could still spring out of the shadows, attack, kill, and devour me and my friends. I wasn’t so foolish as to think they would suddenly become tame and lovable and let me pet their furry and scaly heads like they were cute, wiggly puppies just because I gave them a few quarters and some candy bars. They were still monsters, after all. They had all those sharp teeth, talons, and claws for a reason, and they had to eat just like the rest of us did. But I wasn’t afraid of them anymore.

  Seeing them . . . it almost felt like . . . home.

  Ever since I’d started working for the Sinclairs earlier this summer, I’d been counting down the days until Victor was defeated and I could finally leave town and all the ugly memories here behind. But now, I wasn’t so sure I wanted to go. The mountains, the monsters, the magic, even the bad memories . . . it was all part of Cloudburst Falls.

  It was all part of me.

  Just as it had been part of my mom before me. Serena had worked for the Sinclairs, and she’d dealt with the monsters, paying the tolls and respecting the creatures, their quirks, and their territories. She had been happy to do it, to follow the old ways and traditions, and she’d taught me to do the same. More than that, she’d instilled her love of all the rituals in me as well. I liked carrying around quarters and chocolate bars and knowing that I could communicate with the monsters in a way that other people couldn’t or simply didn’t take the time to. It was my mom’s legacy to me, and I couldn’t have left it behind even if I’d wanted to—and I didn’t want to anymore.

  Sure, my mom had been murdered here, and I’d spent four years hiding and just trying to scrape by. Not exactly fun times. But I’d also found Devon and Felix and Oscar and Deah, and I wasn’t about to lose them now. Not to Victor Draconi or anyone else. I wasn’t about to abandon Mo, Claudia, and all the other captured Sinclairs when they needed me most. I was going to stay and fight for all the things I cared about—and for the future I wanted for myself.

  My friends remained tense and quiet, but I started humming a soft tune, the same one that my mom used to hum whenever she was packing her coat full of monster supplies. Despite everything that had happened tonight, despite all
the loss and grief and heartache, this was still exactly where I wanted to be.

  The others gave me strange looks, wondering why I was humming, but they didn’t say anything. A couple of minutes later, we rounded a corner and stopped in front of a brick building that took up this particular block. A stack of splintered books adorned a faded sign planted in the lawn that read CLOUDBURST FALLS LIBRARY—WESTERN BRANCH.

  Devon grinned and let out a low chuckle, realizing exactly what I was up to. “Only you would think to come back here. Brilliant, Lila. Bloody brilliant.”

  I grinned back at him. “I do try.”

  Deah shook her head. “I don’t get it.”

  “The library?” Felix frowned. “But this is where you lived before you came to work for the Sinclairs.”

  “Exactly,” I said. “And no one knows that but us, so there’s no way that the Draconis will even think to look for us here. Trust me, we’ll be safe. At least for tonight. Tomorrow, we can figure out what our next move is. But right now, we’re all about to drop from exhaustion. We need a place to lay low, and this is it. Now, come on.”

  I headed over to the side door that I had gone through so many times before. Seeing the locked door was like catching up with an old friend, and it took me less than thirty seconds to pick it open with my chopstick lock picks. We slid inside and I shut and locked the door behind us.

  Felix pulled out his phone and used it as a flashlight again, but I didn’t need any light to see by; I’d long ago memorized the library’s layout. I led my friends down the aisles, past the shelves of books, and over to a door that led into a storage room. I picked open that door, then another one at the far end of the storage room, and we walked through the opening and down the steps to the library basement. I told everyone to stand still for a second, then went over and ran my fingers over the touch lamp that I’d set up in the corner.

  Soft white light filled the basement, revealing a mini fridge, cases of bottled water, and a metal rack crammed full of canned and dried food, along with bottles of dark green liquid stitch-sting. Several battered suitcases full of clothes were stacked on top of each other, and two small cots covered with sheets and blankets were lined up against another wall, with a large, inflated air mattress lying on the floor in front of them.