Bright Blaze of Magic

by Jennifer Estep

  I thought about finding something to read or even getting a DVD out of the movie collection and popping it into the TV in the children’s section, but I was too restless to sit down and watch something. Besides, the last two days had been like I was starring in my own personal action movie. Right now, I just wanted a little peace and quiet.

  So I kept wandering around and finally ended up in the children’s section after all, sitting in one of the kid-sized chairs, hunched over a small table, tracing my fingers over a star that had been crudely carved into the wood. Years ago, the very first summer we’d come to Cloudburst Falls, I’d used the sharp point of one of my bloodiron throwing stars to scratch the symbol into the table. I’d been obsessed with stars like the ones engraved in my mom’s sword, and I’d drawn, carved, and scribbled them on everything back then.

  My mom had been horrified when she realized what I’d done, and she’d made me go over to the librarians and apologize to every single one of them for scratching up their table, even though other kids had already put plenty of graffiti on the furniture. She’d also made me do chores all summer long to save up enough money from my allowance to buy the library a new table, although the librarians had ended up buying new books instead.

  I smiled, tracing my fingers over the star and its grooves in the wood, which had been smoothed out by time. We’d been so happy back then. I wished my mom was still here with me. She would know what to do tonight. How to protect Devon. How to save everyone. How to finally defeat Victor.

  But I wasn’t my mom, and I had to figure all that out for myself. The thought made me miss her more than ever before.

  “You look so sad,” a voice called out. “What are you thinking about?”

  I looked up to find Devon standing at the entrance to the children’s section.

  “My mom,” I said. “She used to bring me here every summer when we stayed in Cloudburst Falls. It was one of my favorite places to visit with her.”

  Devon nodded, walked over, and sat down in the kid-size seat next to mine. “My mom’s told me stories about Serena. Sounds like she was a really great person.”

  “She was,” I whispered.

  Devon reached out and put his arm around me. I scooted closer to him and laid my head down on his shoulder. We stayed like that for several minutes, just holding and leaning on each other.

  “I know you’re worried about tonight and what’s going to happen,” he finally said. “But I’m not.”

  I pulled back and looked at him. “Why not?”

  He flashed me a grin. “Because I’ve got Lila Merriweather, thief extraordinaire, watching my back.”

  Sincerity shined in his green eyes, along with absolute certainty that we could rescue the others and not get captured or killed ourselves. It was a certainty I didn’t feel and a confidence—a trust—I didn’t deserve.

  “Deah said the same thing to me right before she got captured,” I said, my stomach churning with guilt again. “And look how well that turned out.”

  “Deah said that because she knows you’ll do everything in your power to save her and all the others,” Devon said. “Just like I know it.”

  He kept smiling at me, that certainty flaring a little brighter and hotter in his eyes, mixed with another, deeper emotion, one that took my breath away with its pure intensity.

  Devon cleared his throat. “No matter what happens tonight, I want you to know something—I love you, Lila.”

  Tears stung my eyes, my throat closed up, and I couldn’t speak. All I could do was just stare at him, wondering what I’d ever done to deserve such a great guy in my life. The answer? Nothing—nothing at all. But now that I had him, I was going to keep him safe—no matter what.

  I cupped his face in my hands, leaned over, and kissed him, pouring all the emotion, all the feeling, all the love I had for him into this one kiss, this one moment. Devon’s arms tightened around me and he pulled me over, so that I was sitting on his lap. All the while, we kept kissing, our lips, our mouths, our hearts fusing together time and time again, trying to make the most of right now, since we both knew this quiet would end all too soon—and that we might never be together again.

  A minute later, we broke apart, both breathing hard and staring into each other’s eyes again. I wanted to say those same three words back to Devon, and I opened my mouth to do just that. But at the last second, I chickened out.

  “I . . . care about you too,” I whispered. “So much that it scares me sometimes.”

  And it did. So much so that I didn’t want to tell him I loved him too. I didn’t want to say the words out loud. Because I’d loved my mom, and Victor had killed her. I didn’t want to lose Devon the same way. Yeah, yeah, it was silly to think that just saying the words would put him in even more danger than he was already in, but I couldn’t help feeling it would be a horrible jinx all the same. So I bit my lip and looked at him, trying to let him see what was in my heart as best I could.

  A bit of disappointment flashed in his eyes, but it was gone in an instant. Devon wrapped his arms around me, pulling me even closer. “I know exactly how you feel. But we’ll get through this—together. You’ll see. Everything will be okay after we get the others back.”

  I nodded and laid my head down on his shoulder again, listening to the steady thump-thump-thump of his heart. I didn’t believe him about everything turning out okay, but I knew one thing for certain.

  I was going to do everything in my power to make sure that Devon and the rest of my friends made it through the night.

  Finally, around seven o’clock, we gathered up our gear and left Tiny behind to guard the library basement. Devon wasn’t supposed to meet Victor until nine, but we were too tense to stay in the library any longer. Besides, the sooner we got to the warehouse, the more time we’d have to look around and hopefully spot any traps that Victor might have set for us.

  I took the lead, since I knew the bad part of town a whole lot better than Devon, Felix, and Oscar did. The Draconi warehouse wasn’t all that far from the library, and I stopped at one of the street corners. In the distance, I could see the lochness bridge arching over the Bloodiron River, but we couldn’t go that way right now, since it was within view of the front of the warehouse and the Draconis would spot us coming. Devon would cross the bridge later on tonight, though, when he went to meet with Victor.

  I led the others through the side streets and around the bridge, finally stopping in an alley across from and at the opposite end of the street from the warehouse. I bent down and peered around the corner at the warehouse, with Devon beside me.

  The Draconi warehouse looked like any other in this part of town—a sturdy building made out of faded red bricks that had seen better days. A door was set into the center of the building, framed on either side by a couple of large rectangular windows. Even though the sun hadn’t started to set yet, lights blazed in the warehouse, the golden glow spilling out onto the street and highlighting the more than two dozen guards patrolling outside, doing a slow, steady circuit around the entire building. Through the windows, I could see more guards moving inside the warehouse, their red cloaks billowing around their shoulders.

  “Victor certainly has a lot of guards here,” Devon said.

  “Of course he does,” I muttered. “If he captures you, then he’ll have all the Sinclair Family leaders and the black blades. He’ll have everything he needs to exterminate the other Families and finally take control of the entire town.”

  “We’re not going to let that happen, remember?” he said, flashing me a grin.

  I made myself smile back at him, even though my heart wasn’t in it. But I wasn’t going to just let Devon walk straight into the monster’s den without doing my part to help, so I studied the warehouse again, looking at the doors, windows, and all the other ways that I might sneak inside and rescue the others.

  Given all the guards, going in through the ground floor was out, as it so often was, so I studied the upper level of the two-story ware
house. Windows lined that floor as well, but I didn’t see any guards patrolling up there, so I moved on up to the roof. No guards up there either. The roof it was then. Now, how to actually get up there?

  A rickety fire escape was attached to the side of the warehouse, but we couldn’t get to it, much less actually climb up it, without being spotted by the guards. So I looked at the building next door, which seemed to be deserted, judging from the lack of lights and the busted out windows. A narrow alley ran between it and the Draconi warehouse, creating a five-foot gap between the two buildings.

  Five feet. I could make that jump and so could Felix, who was coming with me while Oscar stayed behind to watch Devon’s back. Once Felix and I were on the warehouse roof, we could find an access door and stairs leading down into the building itself. After we were inside, well, I didn’t know what we would find, but Mo, Claudia, and the others were there and we were going to save them.

  We were going to save them.

  Devon and I eased back around the corner and moved deeper into the alley to where Felix was waiting, pacing back and forth, while Oscar hovered in midair beside him. Devon and Felix both wore black cloaks to help them blend into the shadows as much as possible, while a small one fluttered around Oscar’s shoulders as well. I sported my mom’s sapphire-blue trench coat like usual. We all had swords belted to our waists, and a black duffel bag was leaning up against the alley wall.

  “Anything?” Felix asked. “Any sign of Deah and my dad?”

  Devon shook his head. “No, just a lot of guards, but Victor has every single light in that place on. It has to be where he’s keeping everyone, just like Blake said.”

  Oscar twitched his wings. “Now what?”

  I drew in a breath. “Now, Felix and I get into position and see if we can sneak into the warehouse while Devon waits to meet Victor.”

  We all looked at each other, our faces serious, our bodies tense, our hands curled around the hilts of our swords, including Oscar with his needle-size pixie sword. The real danger was about to begin.

  “All right then,” Devon said. “Let’s do it.”

  Devon and Oscar stayed behind in the alley to keep a watch on the guards and text Felix and me if anything changed. I led Felix out of the far side of the alley, around the block, across the street, and to the far side of the warehouse that was next door to the Draconis’ building. I started to reach for the chopstick lock picks in my hair, but a breeze gusted down the street, and the door in front of us cracked open a couple of inches.

  “That’s weird,” Felix muttered. “Why would it be open already?”

  “I don’t know,” I whispered back. “But this is the only way we can get up to the roof, so let’s go.”

  I drew my sword, opened the door, and stepped inside, with Felix behind me. There were no windows on this side of the warehouse, so he held his phone out, using it as a flashlight, but my sight magic let me see everything clearly.

  Including the metal hooks hanging down from the ceiling.

  They were spaced equidistant apart, and each one of them was located above a drain in the concrete floor. An eerie sense of déjà vu swept over me, one that only increased when the light from Felix’s phone fell across a chair with thick, heavy ropes dangling off it.

  “What happened in here?” he whispered. “Do you think the Draconis are using this warehouse too?”

  “Nope.”

  “Why not?”

  I looked up at the hooks dangling down from the ceiling. Several weeks ago, I had been tied to one of those hooks, strung up like a slab of meat about to be butchered. And I almost had been. I shivered, suddenly cold, despite the hot, humid air.

  “Lila?” Felix asked again. “Why not?”

  “Because this is the warehouse where Grant brought me and Devon the night he kidnapped us and tried to take our magic.”

  He winced. “This has to be a bad sign, right?”

  I shrugged. I didn’t know what to make of the creepy coincidence any more than he did.

  We moved on and eventually found a set of stairs that led up to the roof. The door at the top was locked and I had to pick it open, but that was easy enough. A minute later, we were out on the roof, keeping low and racing over to an old air-conditioning unit that was near the edge. Felix and I both crouched down and looked around the metal box, staring at the Draconi warehouse on the other side of the alley.

  The roof was empty. No guards had been posted up here, which was both good and bad. Good because we could get onto the Draconi warehouse roof unseen, but bad because that meant all of the guards were most likely downstairs, guarding the prisoners.

  I stood up and sheathed my sword, judging the distance from this roof over to the next one. About five feet, just as I’d thought from down on the ground. Felix peered over the edge of the roof at the thirty-foot drop below, his face pinched tight, his bronze skin suddenly pale.

  “Um, Lila, are you sure this is such a good idea?” he asked.

  “Don’t worry about it,” I said, backing up several feet. “All you have to do is take a good running start, get over to the edge, and then jump as hard as you can. Your momentum will do the rest. Easy peasy.”

  “Easy. Right,” Felix said in a faint voice.

  His face took on a greenish tinge, but he sheathed his sword and backed up so that he was standing right beside me.

  I looked at him. “On three. One . . . two . . . three!”

  We both started running toward the edge of the roof. I reached it a second before Felix did and I dug my sneakers into the ground, pushing off as hard as I could. For a moment, it felt as though I were flying, my legs churning through the air as though I could propel myself even farther and faster with them. A soft, happy laugh bubbled up in my throat, but I swallowed it down.

  Three seconds later, my sneakers hit the roof of the Draconi warehouse. A second later, Felix landed beside me, his feet barely on the edge of the roof, windmilling his arms for balance and trying not to fall backward. I reached out, snatched his black cloak, and pulled him toward me. He stumbled forward several steps before finally managing to right himself.

  Felix doubled over, his hands on his knees, his face even greener than before, his breath coming in harsh, panicked rasps. “I never . . . want to . . . do that . . . again!”

  I clapped him on the shoulder. “You did great. Now, let’s go find your dad and the others.”

  At the mention of Angelo, Felix straightened up, wiped the sweat off his face, and drew the sword belted to his waist. He nodded at me, and we headed over to an access door that led down into the warehouse. Felix stayed by the door while I crept over to the far side of the roof, staring down at the street below. I watched the guards for a minute, then moved back over to the door.

  “How does it look?” Felix asked.

  “The same as before. The guards are still patrolling all around the warehouse. It doesn’t seem like anyone saw or heard us leap over here. So let’s get inside and get everyone out.”

  I reached out and tried the access door, but it was locked. Nothing I couldn’t fix. I reached up, grabbed the chopstick lock picks out of my hair, and went to work. It was a simple lock and it took me less than a minute to pick it. Still, I winced at the snick of the door swinging open. I didn’t know where the guards might be posted inside, but at least some of the Draconis had enhanced senses, so we needed to be as quiet as possible from here on out.

  I looked at Felix, who nodded back at me and clutched his sword a little tighter. I drew my own weapon, feeling the star carved into the hilt pressing into my skin, just like the one on the library table had.

  Thinking of my mom, I entered the warehouse with Felix right behind me.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  The access door led to a set of metal stairs that spiraled down, down, down into the warehouse. I crept down the stairs, stopping every few feet to look and listen, but I didn’t hear anything, so I felt safe enough to keep going. Felix’s harsh, raspy breaths tickled
the back of my neck, but for once, he didn’t start talking to fill in the silence. He knew how dangerous this was.

  We reached the bottom of the stairs, which opened up into a long hallway. Felix pulled out his phone and checked the time.

  “Twenty minutes until Devon is supposed to meet Victor,” he whispered.

  He sent a quick text to Devon, telling him that we were inside the warehouse. A few seconds later, his phone lit up with a new message.

  “Devon is in position on the far side of the lochness bridge,” Felix whispered again. “He says that he’ll cross the bridge and be on the street in front of the warehouse right at nine o’clock, just like Victor wanted. Oscar is staying put in the alley down the street to watch Devon’s back.”

  “All right then,” I whispered back. “We need to find the others and free them before that happens. Come on.”

  We crept down the hallway, once again stopping every few feet to look and listen. The deeper we went into the warehouse, the more faint murmurs I heard, although the voices were too far away for me to make out the exact words. Felix looked at me, nodding and clutching his sword and phone tight. He heard the murmurs too. Together, we moved on.

  We reached another door at the end of the hallway. I picked that one open as well and we stepped out into the main part of the warehouse. We were on the second floor now, on a wide concrete balcony with a metal railing that ringed all four sides of the warehouse. I motioned for Felix to get down on his stomach, and together, the two of us slithered over to the edge of the balcony and peered down at the first floor of the warehouse.

  Cages lay below us.

  Three large cages took up a good chunk of the front of the warehouse. All the cages were lined with thick bars covered with a tightly woven mesh—ironmesh, if I had to guess—and all were filled with people and pixies. Most of the folks trapped inside were dirty and bloody, with cuts and bruises on their faces, arms, and legs, but my heart lifted when I saw that all of them were wearing silver Sinclair cuffs on their wrists. Far more guards and pixies were still alive than I’d dared to hope, given the destruction at the Sinclair mansion.