Cold Burn of Magic (19 page)

“Thanks,” I said in a soft voice.

“You're welcome,” Devon replied, his voice as low as mine.

His warm hand lingered on my arm a moment longer before he straightened up and stepped back.

Felix looked back and forth between us, before his gaze moved over the rest of the library, taking in all the dead bodies, overturned shelves, haphazard piles of books, and busted tables and chairs. Finally, he stared at Devon.

“You know, I think Lila's right,” Felix said. “You should call your mom now.”

Devon groaned.

C
laudia showed up about twenty minutes later, along with Grant, Reginald, Angelo, and a dozen Sinclair guards, all wearing black cloaks and carrying swords. They swarmed into the library and started searching the building.

“Clear!”

“Clear!”

“Clear!”

The guards' shouts rang out from one section of the library to the other.

Devon, Felix, and I had taken refuge in the children's area, sitting at a kid-size table and matching chairs. Once the guards had cleared the library, Claudia stalked over to us, with Reginald and Grant trailing along behind her.

“Devon?” Claudia asked, her worried gaze locking on to the gash on his wrist.

“I'm fine, Mom,” he said. “It's just a cut.”

She looked at Felix, who'd escaped the fight with some cuts and bruises and an eye that was starting to blacken, before finally turning to me. She stared at the blood trickling down my leg, despite the paper towels I was pressing to the wound.

“What happened?” Claudia asked. “What are you doing here?”

I opened my mouth to tell her it was my fault, but Devon beat me to it.

“Felix and I came to help Lila pack up the rest of her things,” Devon said.

“Is that so?” Claudia murmured, staring at all three of us in turn.

Devon kept his gaze steady on hers. Felix grinned, but it was a nervous expression. I shrugged.

Finally, she faced Devon again. “Why would you do that? Without bringing any of the guards with you?”

Devon got to his feet. “Because I don't need the guards. I can take care of myself.”

Claudia started to open her mouth, but she thought better of it when she realized we were all staring at her. Instead, she jerked her head. Devon sighed and followed her over to the checkout counter, out of earshot of the rest of us. But I could imagine the lecture Claudia was giving him.

Reginald and Grant moved off to check on the guards, and I got to my feet as well.

“What are you doing?” Felix asked. “You should be taking it easy until we get back to the mansion, and we can get you healed up.”

“I want to check on something. Are you going to help me or not?”

“All right, all right,” Felix said, putting his arm around my waist.

He helped me over to the man who had attacked me, the one who'd had a speed Talent, the one Devon had commanded. I sat down on the floor beside the dead man. Felix rolled him over, and I pulled the guy's wallet out of his back pocket. But he didn't have any ID on him, no driver's license or credit cards, so I threw the wallet aside in disgust and patted down the rest of his pockets. Along with some crumpled bills, which I kept for myself, I found a pack of gum, a small comb, and one very interesting thing—a silver cuff with a wolf 's head stamped on it.

The Volkov Family crest.

I showed the cuff to Felix. He went over to a couple of the other dead guys, and sure enough, they all had a similar cuff tucked into their pockets.

Felix shook his head. “I can't believe that they're all Volkov guards.”

“Why not?”

“Because it doesn't make any sense. We don't have any major problems with the Volkovs. Besides, the Itos were the ones who probably attacked and killed Lawrence. So why would Volkov guards attack us tonight? Why not some of the Itos instead?”

I turned the Volkov cuff around and around in my hand, watching the silver gleam underneath the lights. Felix was right. It didn't make sense, that one Family would be responsible for the first attack on Devon and Lawrence and a different Family for the one here in the library. There had to be something that tied them all together—or someone.

Maybe this wasn't about the Families so much as it was about the mystery man. But surely, he had to be working for someone in order to have hired that much muscle. Either that, or he was independently wealthy. But even then, someone should know
something
about him.

“But let's say that the Volkovs were behind the attack tonight,” Felix said. “How did they even know Devon was here? Nobody saw us leave the mansion. Even if they did, they couldn't have possibly known we would wind up here.”

“Someone knew,” I pointed out. “Because the mystery man was here, just like he was in the pawnshop. He was the one who attacked Devon.”

“But how?”

I shrugged. I didn't know the answer. If I did, I'd probably know who the mystery man was and what he really wanted from Devon. Actually, I had that last part figured out already.

A few more guards entered the library. Reginald and Grant turned to them, and Claudia stopped her conversation with Devon to listen as well.

“Anything?” Grant asked.

One of the guards shook his head. “There's no trace of anyone around the building. Sorry.”

Claudia pressed her lips together, then her eyes cut to me. Her worry squeezed my heart.

“We'll talk more about this at the mansion,” she snapped. “We're leaving. Now.”

 

Felix started to help me up, but Devon hurried over and stepped in front of him.

“I've got Lila,” he said.

Devon's voice didn't crackle with magic, not like it had before, but it was a clear command all the same. Felix nodded and moved off to grab my suitcases, which had somehow made it through the fight unscathed.

Devon helped me to my feet and wrapped his arm around my waist. Despite the blood that covered both of us, he still smelled fresh and clean. I breathed in his scent, letting that sharp tang of pine wash away the coppery stench of blood—my blood.

I did that over and over again, desperately trying not to notice how gentle and considerate he was being with me, or how warm and hard the muscles of his chest were pressed up against my side.

Devon guided me to one of the black SUVs sitting at the curb outside the library. Claudia walked along behind us. She didn't say anything, but I could feel her icy gaze boring into the back of my skull, and the sharp
snap-snap-snap
of her stilettos on the sidewalk seemed to echo her displeasure. She didn't like her son helping me, and I liked it more than I should have. Neither one of us was happy.

Devon slid in the back beside me, while Felix put my suitcases in the rear, then got in on my other side. Reginald drove, while Claudia took the front passenger's seat. Grant was in another car, the one he'd driven me to the Razzle Dazzle in, with the guards following him in two more vehicles.

Nobody said anything on the ride back to the mansion, but Claudia kept glancing over her shoulder and frowning, clearly pissed at me. She thought that I'd put her son in danger.

She was right about that.

Because the more I thought about it, the more convinced I became that Devon and Felix weren't the only ones who'd been following me. Someone had to have seen me leave the Razzle Dazzle and take the trolley over to the library. That was the only way someone could have possibly been at the library to see Devon and Felix go inside. But who would want to follow me? And why would he or she think that I'd lead them to Devon?

I leaned my head back against the seat and closed my eyes, trying to puzzle it out. Trying to get all the tumblers to fall into the right spots so the lock would pop open, then I would know how the attack at the Razzle Dazzle fit in with what had happened tonight. My thoughts kept going back to the mystery man. He was at the center of this whole thing, like a blinking red alarm that I needed to disable before it went off and gave me away—or got me killed.

If I found the mystery man, I'd learn the answers to everything else.

Thirty minutes later, Reginald steered the SUV onto the grounds of the Sinclair mansion. Ten minutes after that I was in a room down the hall from the greenlab, lying on a hospital bed with the leg of my cargo pants cut open, trying not to wince as Felix and Angelo poked and prodded at my wound.

“Well, there doesn't seem to be any sign of poison, so that's good,” Felix murmured. “Just a clean slice. What do you think, Dad?”

“I agree.” Angelo leaned over so I could see his face. “You were very lucky, Lila. Three inches the other way, and he would have sliced your femoral artery wide open.”

“Yeah. Lucky me.”

Angelo got a bottle of stitch-sting and slowly poured the dark green liquid all over the wound, causing a faint, woodsy scent to waft up.

That was the only pleasant thing about it.

I hissed as the stitch-sting seeped into the gash in my leg, and I had to dig my nails into my palms to keep from snarling. The liquid burned every inch of skin it touched, even worse than if I'd upended an entire bottle of iodine over my leg.

That familiar, icy surge of magic flooded my veins as the potion did its work. I lay still despite the power coursing through my body, begging to be used, wanting to be unleashed in some way.

Angelo and Felix talked in soft voices as they moved around the room, washing their hands and throwing away the supplies they'd used to clean out the gash in my leg. But after a minute, they stopped talking, both of them coming back over to hover by the bed.

“What?” I asked through gritted teeth, staring up at the ceiling. “What's wrong?”

“Nothing,” Angelo said. “It's just . . . your wound is completely healed. Already. Normally, an injury like this would require much more stitch-sting than what I've used so far.”

“Maybe it's more of that luck you were talking about earlier,” I muttered. “Because believe me, it still hurts.”

Even as I said the words, the last of the magic evaporated from my body, taking the burn of the stitch-sting along with it. I propped myself up on my elbows, but the skin of my leg was smooth and unbroken, and I could move it without any pain.

“Perhaps,” Angelo murmured, still peering at where the wound had been, then glancing at the bottle he'd put on the nightstand next to the bed. “Or perhaps this batch is a little stronger than most. I do remember putting some extra cuttings in when I was brewing it . . .”

Felix and his dad started talking about the merits of stitch-sting versus other magical plants while they cleaned the rest of my other, minor wounds. Oscar must have brought them some of my clothes because Felix gave me a familiar blue T-shirt and a pair of black shorts to put on, since the clothes I'd been wearing had been ruined by all the blood.

I'd just finished getting dressed when a knock sounded on the door. “Yeah?”

The door opened and Felix stuck his head inside the room, his face serious. “Claudia would like to see you.”

I just bet she would.

I followed Felix to the library. Reginald was standing by the doors. He gestured for me to go inside, but he held out a hand, stopping Felix when he tried to follow me.

“Sorry,” Reginald said. “Miss Claudia only wants to see her.”

Felix rolled his eyes, but there was no way he could get past the older man.

“I'll see you later,” Felix said.

“Sure.”

If I was still here later. For all I knew, Claudia already had one of the guards firing up a cement mixer to make a special pair of shoes just for me. But I had been summoned, so I stepped into the library.

Claudia was sitting in her chair in front of the fireplace, as regal as any queen. Devon was in the chair next to her, with Grant perched on the white velvet settee across from them. Grant was leaning forward, talking in a low voice and gesturing with his hands, as if he was trying to convince Claudia about something. She didn't seem to be paying any attention to him. Her green gaze focused on me, already frosty with anger. Terrific.

“There you are,” Claudia murmured. “Finally.”

“I did have a gash in my leg, in case you hadn't heard.”

Her mouth tightened. “Grant, please leave us. I would like to speak to Lila and my son alone.”

Grant wet his lips, looking from me to Claudia and back again. “Are you sure that's . . . wise?”

“We'll be fine,” she insisted in a hard voice that left no room for argument.

Grant got to his feet. “Good luck,” he whispered as he passed me.

We both knew I was going to need it.

Claudia made a motion with her hand, ordering me to sit in the spot that Grant had vacated. I plopped down on the velvet, digging my bare toes into the rug to keep from sliding off.

Everyone was quiet, although the mantel clock kept
tick-tick-ticking
to fill the silence.

“My son tells me that you saved his life—again,” Claudia said. “That he and Felix would have walked into an ambush if you hadn't realized that someone was outside.”

I shrugged. “Just doing my job and being a good little Family soldier.”

Her eyes glittered with even more anger. “I gave you a chance to keep your head down and make some money. Not put my son in more danger. Once again, he was almost assassinated while in your company.”

Devon sighed. “It wasn't Lila's fault. She didn't even realize that Felix and I were following her until she saw us at the library.”

Claudia fixed her icy stare on him. “Well, she should have, if she is half the arrogant thief she claims to be.”

Sadly, I couldn't argue with her about that.

“And I can't believe that you were so reckless as to traipse all over Cloudburst Falls after a
girl,
” Claudia continued, still staring at her son. “You know the dangers out there. You know we've been having problems with the other Families. You were lucky those men didn't kill you.”

Devon stiffened, sitting up to his full height. “And I'm your second-in-command, the Family bruiser. I can't hide here in the mansion all day, every day. It makes me look weak in front of our own people, and it makes the Sinclairs look weak to all the other Families. That's more dangerous than anything else, even—”