I wasn’t the only one who noticed that Deah wasn’t fighting alongside the guards like she was supposed to.
“What are you doing?” Blake yelled at his sister, even as he stabbed a Salazar guard in the chest. “This is the moment we’ve been waiting for! Kill them! Kill them all!”
Deah stared at him, then back out at all the fighting. After a moment, she shook her head, lowered her sword, and stepped back.
Blake’s mouth gaped open, surprised that she wasn’t as eager to hurt everyone as he was, but his brown eyes narrowed and his lips twisted into a snarl.
“Well, if you’re not with us, then you’re against us!” he screamed, raising his sword and charging at her.
Deah’s eyes widened, shocked that Blake was actually attacking her, his own sister. But he was, and if she didn’t do something to stop him, he was going to kill her.
I headed in that direction, but there were too many people, tables, and chairs in between us, and there was no way I could reach Deah in time. I’d lost my mom to Blake, and now I was going to lose my cousin too.
“Deah!” Felix yelled. “Deah, look out!”
At the last second, he broke free of the crowd, surged forward, and rammed his shoulder into Blake’s as hard as he could. Despite Blake’s strength magic, the unexpected blow sent him plowing into one of the booths, but he bounced off and quickly regained his balance. Blake whipped around and glared at Felix with murder in his eyes.
“You!” he yelled. “I’m going to kill you for that!”
“Blake! No!” Deah screamed, but it was no use.
Felix scrambled backward, managing to put a table between the two of them, but Blake slammed his sword down on top of the table, using his strength magic to crack it right down the middle. He snarled, waded through the two broken halves, and charged at Felix again.
Felix didn’t have a weapon, and his Talent was for healing, not fighting, but he stood his ground and raised his fists, just like I’d taught him to.
But it wasn’t going to help him. Not against Blake, his sword, and his strength magic.
“Run, Felix! Run!” I yelled, but my voice was lost in the screams, shrieks, and shouts of the fight.
Blake lashed out with his sword. Felix dodged the blow, but his foot slipped in a puddle of water, and this time he was the one who slammed up against one of the booths. His legs went out from under him and he sat down hard in the padded seat. He landed awkwardly and started struggling, trying to get out of the booth and back up onto his feet. But he was moving slow—way too slow—and Blake was already surging forward for another strike.
Felix was trapped and there was nothing I could do to help him. Still, I kept shoving people out of my way, trying to get to him. Across the restaurant, I spotted Devon doing the same thing, realizing that Blake was about to kill Felix. But neither one of us was going to be able to save our friend.
But we didn’t have to.
At the last second, Deah stepped in front of Felix and snapped up her sword so that it clanged against Blake’s. The sound seemed as loud as a clap of thunder in the restaurant, although it was quickly drowned out by all the continued fighting.
Blake stood there, his sword locked with Deah’s, glaring down at his sister. “I knew it!” he hissed. “I knew that you liked him! Traitor! You little traitor!”
Instead of answering, Deah shoved him away. Behind her, Felix finally managed to get to his feet and stumble out of the booth. He staggered forward and stopped so that he was standing right beside Deah.
Blake roared and charged forward again, bringing his sword up over his head and then down at Deah, trying to kill her with that one, powerful blow. But Deah raised her own sword and blocked his blow again.
“I’m not going to let you hurt anyone else!” she screamed.
She whipped her sword out in a quick counterstrike, although it wasn’t nearly as vicious as her brother’s attack had been. Blake dodged her blow and came right back at her, attacking her with all the skill and strength magic he had. But Deah was the far better fighter, and she parried his blows with ease, using her mimic magic to copy and counter every single one of his moves, even as her face grew harder and tighter with each of Blake’s charges.
Her own brother was trying to kill her and it was breaking her heart, one clash of their swords at a time. Deah whirled around and her eyes locked with mine, just for a moment. The red-hot needles of her pain and anguish stabbed me in the gut, just as Blake was trying to do to her with his sword.
Once again, I started to head over to help her, but a man screamed, the sound louder and sharper with fear than all the others. I whipped around just in time to see Claudia clamp her hands around the wrists of the Draconi guard that was attacking her. As soon as her skin came into contact with his, Claudia blasted the guard with her magic, and his hands immediately turned a dark blue from the force of her cold touch Talent. The guard screamed again and wrenched his wrists out of her grasp, although his own frostbitten hands flopped uselessly by his sides, his sword painfully frozen to his own fingers.
Claudia turned to freeze another guard who had been creeping up on her, but that man quickly backed away from her, as did all the other Draconis.
Except for Victor.
He’d been hanging back during the fight, letting his guards do his dirty, bloody work for him, but now he stepped up so that he was standing directly in front of Claudia. The way they were facing off reminded me of an old spaghetti western that Poppy and I had watched a few weeks ago.
“You think you’ve won?” Victor snarled. “You haven’t won anything. I’ll get my weapons back. And by the time I’m done with you, you’ll wish that you and everyone else in your pathetic Family was dead.”
Claudia’s hands curled into fists. “I will never give you those weapons,” she spat out. “I’ll die first.”
Victor’s hands tightened into fists as well. “Something that I will be happy to help you with.”
The guards standing between them realized that they were in the line of fire, and they scrambled out of the way. Claudia and Victor didn’t move, though, each one glaring at the other, even though the fight still raged in the rest of the restaurant.
I looked for my friends. Deah and Felix were still battling Blake, and Mo, Angelo, and Reginald were standing back-to-back-to-back, punching, kicking, and lashing out at the guards who surrounded them. Devon was fighting two more guards, trying to reach Claudia again, now that he realized she was about to go toe-to-toe with Victor.
But I was closer to them than Devon was now, and it was up to me to help Claudia battle Victor. Good. My hand tightened around the hilt of my stolen sword and another surge of strength flowed from the black blade into my body. I’d waited a long time to make Victor pay for what he’d done to my mom, and this was finally my chance.
But I was too late.
Even as I headed toward them, Claudia surged forward to touch and freeze him with her power the same way she had the guard. But Victor casually waved his hand, as if he wasn’t worried about her magic at all.
And that’s when the lightning started.
At first, I thought that I was just imagining the white lightning that was crackling on Victor’s fingertips. But the sudden, intense chill of magic flooding the restaurant told me the lightning was very, very real—and very, very deadly.
Claudia stopped short, her eyes widening as she stared at the lightning flashing on Victor’s hand. She couldn’t get close enough to freeze him with her magic, not without getting electrocuted herself, and Victor knew it. He let out a low, satisfied chuckle.
Then he reared back and threw his lightning magic at her.
Crackling white streaks of magic erupted from Victor’s palm, zipped through the room, and slammed straight into Claudia’s chest, knocking her back. She hit a table and dropped to the floor. She didn’t move after that, and I couldn’t tell if she was just unconscious or dead.
My heart twisted and a scream rose in my throa
t. Claudia couldn’t be dead. She just couldn’t be. Not like this. Not like my mom. Not at Victor’s hand.
“Mom!” Devon screamed, his voice rising above the crashes, clangs, and bangs of the fight. “Mom!”
He started shoving people aside, more desperate to get to Claudia than ever before, but it was no use.
Victor snapped his fingers at the guards that were flanking him. “Bring her and all the other Sinclair leaders!” he called out in a loud voice.
Two of the guards hustled forward, grabbed Claudia, picked her up, and carried her out of the restaurant. Meanwhile, more guards split off from the people they’d been attacking and quickly cornered Mo, Angelo, and Reginald up against one of the walls.
This time, I was the one who screamed and started shoving people out of my way. “Mo!” I yelled. “Mo!”
Even with the extra strength still flowing through my body, I wasn’t any more successful than Devon had been, and it only took the guards a few seconds to surround Mo, along with Angelo and Reginald. The Draconis put their swords up against my friends’ throats and forced them to the front of the restaurant.
“Lila!” Mo yelled back at me, struggling against the guards as they strong-armed him outside. “Get out of here, kid! Run! Now!”
His black eyes locked with mine and his white-hot rage erupted in my chest, even as his worry and fear for me squeezed my heart tight.
I started forward again, but a guard stepped up and brandished his sword, blocking my path and making me pull up short.
“Mo!” I screamed again. “Mo!”
But he was already gone, and so were Angelo and Reginald.
I was dimly aware of Felix screaming for his dad just like Devon and I were still yelling for Claudia and Mo. I looked past the guard in front of me at Victor, who turned and glanced over at Blake and Deah. They’d stopped fighting each other during Victor’s lightning blast, and the shock on both of their faces told me that neither one had realized what their father could really do with his magic.
Don’t be afraid of the lightning. Seleste’s voice whispered in my mind. But how could I not be? Especially since Blake and Deah had been just as surprised by it as I had?
Victor looked at Deah, his golden eyes cold and hard in his handsome face. “I always knew you were a traitor, just like your worthless mother.”
Tears shimmered in Deah’s eyes, but she blinked them back and stepped in front of Felix, ready to protect him in case her own father blasted her with his lightning.
Victor scoffed, then waved his hand at Blake. “Take your sister alive, but kill the rest of the Sinclairs.”
His order delivered, Victor turned and strode out of the restaurant, leaving Blake and the rest of his guards to finish the bloody battle he’d started.
CHAPTER NINE
Blake looked at the Draconi guards. “You heard him!” he yelled. “Kill them all!”
With a collective roar, the guards charged forward again, swinging their swords even more viciously than before, determined to follow Victor’s command to cut down every single person still inside the restaurant.
Blake turned back to Deah, ready to finish the fight he’d started, but I shoved past the guard in front of me, dodged a couple more, and sprinted across the restaurant to them. Blake saw me coming out of the corner of his eye, but I was faster, and I raised my sword and slammed the hilt against the side of his head before he could attack me. He dropped to the floor.
“Let’s go!” I yelled at Deah and Felix. “Now! Follow me!”
Felix stepped up, but Deah hesitated, looking down at Blake, who was already groaning and getting back up onto his hands and knees.
“There’s nothing left for you here!” I yelled at her. “He’ll kill you if you stay! Now come on!”
Felix grabbed Deah’s hand and she finally let him drag her away from Blake, who was reaching out for the edge of the closest booth to pull himself back up onto his feet.
I whirled around, searching for Devon. He was pinned up against a wall, facing down four guards at once. Devon parried two of the guards’ swords, then whipped around to the other two. The four men looked at each other, getting ready to attack all at once, knowing that he couldn’t defend against all of them at the same time.
But Devon realized what they were up to, and he stared at the two guards closest to him. “Stop!” he yelled, a cold crack of magic in his voice.
Those two guards immediately froze, their weapons held high overhead at awkward angles as though they were statues. The guards grunted and snarled, their muscles bulging as they tried to finish their strikes and bring their swords down, but they couldn’t move an inch thanks to Devon’s compulsion magic, the powerful, secret Talent that let him control other people.
While those two guards were frozen in place, Devon stepped up and punched them both in the face, knocking them to the ground. He started to reach for one of their swords, so that he would have two weapons, but the other two guards who weren’t being compelled surged forward and pinned him against the wall again. One of the men snapped up his sword, preparing to drive it through Devon’s chest.
“Devon!” I screamed, racing in that direction. “Devon!”
The two guards whipped around at my screams, and I barreled into both of them, knocking all three of us down to the floor. The guards cursed, but I lashed out with my sword, cutting into their arms and legs, until they screamed with pain and rolled away from me. I scrambled up to find Devon heading for the front of the restaurant, where Blake had gotten back up onto his own feet.
I reached out and latched on to Devon’s arm. The stolen magic still running through my veins made me strong enough to pull him back.
“It’s too late!” I yelled. “Your mom is gone. So are Mo and the others. We have to get out of here. We can’t save them if we’re dead!”
Blake focused on Devon and me, and Felix and Deah standing behind us. He grinned, his eyes just as cold as Victor’s had been, and stabbed his sword at us.
“Kill them!’ he yelled. “Now!”
The guards surged forward again. Devon raised his sword, ready to fight them, but I grabbed his arm and yanked him back, putting myself between him and the Draconis, just the way a good bodyguard would. This was what Claudia had hired me to do, and I would protect Devon until my dying breath.
Even though I wanted to stand and fight as much as he did, this was a battle that we just couldn’t win. Sure, we’d taken out a few of the Draconi guards, but they still outnumbered us at least three to one, and we simply didn’t have enough weapons and men to take them on and win, no matter how good our fighting might be. We had to get out of here—now.
“Move!” I yelled at my friends. “Out the back! Go! Go! Go!”
Felix grabbed Deah’s hand again, and the two of them sprinted for the rear of the restaurant. Devon and I held off the two guards that charged at us, disarming and knocking them down, then turned and hurried after our friends.
By this point, most folks had given up trying to fight the Draconis and were running away, either by stampeding toward the back of the restaurant like we were or scrambling out of the windows that they’d broken out. Devon and I moved as fast as we could through the debris, swinging our swords at any Draconi who tried to stop us. My eyes cut left and right, but I didn’t see Poppy or Hiroshi Ito anywhere. Hopefully, their guards had gotten them to safety. Roberto Salazar and Nikolai Volkov had vanished as well. Now we needed to do the same.
We ran past the bar and I shoved through a pair of double doors that led into the kitchen. The workers were all long gone, having darted out the back as soon as the fighting had started in the front of the restaurant. We sprinted past counters piled high with half-chopped vegetables, sinks filled with dirty dishes, and stoves with pans of food still bubbling away on the hot burners. Felix and Deah were already standing next to an open door at the very back of the restaurant. Everyone else had rushed past them; we were the last people still in the kitchen.
“
This way!” Felix yelled, waving at us. “Hurry!”
He and Deah turned and disappeared through the door. Devon went through next, with me right behind him. Together, the four of us raced out into the night.
I sprinted through the open door and almost tripped on a couple of loose soda cans rolling around in the alley behind the restaurant. But I righted myself, whipped around, and sprinted back over to the door.
“Lila!” Devon shouted. “What are you doing? Come on! We have to get out of here!”
“Just a second!” I yelled back.
I slammed the door shut, then looked around for something to barricade it with. A small dumpster was sitting next to the door, so I ran around behind it, dug my sneakers into the asphalt, and started pushing. The metal container didn’t want to move, not even with the extra strength still coursing through my body, so I let go, took a couple of steps back, and got a running start, putting my shoulder down into the dumpster like a football player making a tackle.
Screech.
Screech-screech.
Screech-screech-screech.
Slowly, very, very slowly, the dumpster rolled forward one inch, then two, then three. Devon realized what I was trying to do, and he raced over and added his strength to mine. Together, we managed to push the metal container in front of the door.
And not a moment too soon.
Bang.
Bang-bang.
Bang-bang-bang.
Someone—Blake most likely—was ramming his shoulder into the door over and over again, trying to bust it open from the other side. The wood groaned and started to splinter, and I knew that it wouldn’t be long before he used his strength magic to break through it and shove the dumpster out of the way.
Devon grabbed my hand and pulled me away from the door. Together, we sprinted to the end of the alley where Felix and Deah were waiting for us.
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