Dark Heart of Magic (10 page)

T
he crowd on the stadium floor was breaking up and drifting away when Mo and I rejoined the others.

“Lila!” Oscar shouted. “There you are! Are you okay?”

If anything, the danger and excitement had added to his sugar high, and the pixie
buzz-buzzed-buzzed
around and around my head like a helicopter.

“I'm fine,” I said, holding out my hand so he could land on it. “Really, I am.”

Oscar stalked back and forth on my palm, looking me up and down, his black cape fluttering around his shoulders, and his cowboy boots tickling my skin. It was several seconds before he was satisfied enough to fly up, sit on my shoulder, and hug my neck.

“I'm glad you're okay,” he said.

“Me too.”

I reached out and patted his tiny back, careful not to crush his wings. Oscar hugged my neck again, then stayed perched on my shoulder.

Felix shook his head. “Well, you and Devon put on quite the show. Everyone here got their money's worth today.”

“How's Henry?” I asked.

“Dad's working on him right now. He's in a lot of pain, and his leg is definitely broken,” Felix replied, his face troubled. “I'm on my way to help. I just wanted to make sure that you guys were okay first.”

He nodded at Devon and me, then broke into a jog, leaving us behind and heading toward the white medical tent.

Claudia stepped up beside me, looking me over just as the others had. When she realized that I was okay, some of the tension eased out of her slender shoulders and her jaw unclenched.

“You had me worried there for a second,” she murmured.

“Yeah. Me too.”

I opened my mouth to tell her what I'd found out about the rope, but she shook her head, stopping me. A second later, I realized why.

Victor Draconi was heading in our direction.

The folks still milling around scrambled out of his way, and whispers sprang up in his wake. Everyone stopped what they were doing to stare at us, wondering what sort of fireworks might explode between the heads of the two most powerful Families.

Victor stopped in front of Claudia, looking poised, polished, and powerful in his dark gray suit and red tie, which was patterned with tiny gold dragons. Another, larger dragon was stamped into the middle of the wide gold cuff that flashed on his right wrist. He straightened up to his full height, and the sun bounced off his thick, wavy, blond hair and highlighted the sharp angles of his handsome face.

This was the closest I'd ever been to Victor, so close that I could smell his faint, spicy cologne and see exactly how cold his eyes were, despite their rich golden color.

White-hot rage boiled through me, and I had the sudden urge to scream, raise my fists, and charge at him. So many times, I'd dreamed of getting close enough to Victor to run him through with my black blade. Of course, the one time I was actually within striking distance, I didn't have my sword, much less any other weapon that I could hurt him with.

So I forced myself to smother my rage with reason—because Victor wasn't alone. Blake and Deah stepped up beside him, with more Draconi guards behind them. Even if I could have gotten past Blake, Deah, and the guards, Victor was more than capable of defending himself.

Especially given all the Talents he had.

Magic radiated off his body, the sensation cold and strong enough to make me shiver, despite the hot, humid day. Claudia didn't know how many Talents Victor actually had or what he could do with all the magic he'd stolen from other people over the years, but I could feel
exactly
how powerful he was.

Most of the time, someone had to use their strength, speed, or other Talents against me in some physical way—punch me, shove me, restrain me, whatever—before my transference power flared to life and let me absorb their magic. In a way, anyone who attacked me with his Talents was just hurting himself, since all the magic that soaked into my body made me stronger. But Victor was so powerful that just standing next to him was enough to make my own transference magic stir to life and my body chill with magic.

Normally I welcomed the surge of strength that went along with my Talent, but right now, it made me sick to my stomach.

Victor realized that I was staring at him, and his gaze met mine.

The icy knives of his hate stabbed into my heart, and I had to bite my tongue to keep from gasping in shock or showing any sort of emotion. Victor stared at me a second longer, then swung his golden gaze back to Claudia, dismissing me as unimportant. The feeling of his hate lingered, though, even colder than the invisible waves of magic rolling off his body. I ground my teeth together to keep them from chattering.

“Claudia.”

“Victor.”

The two of them stared at each other, their faces hard and flat. All around us, the whispers faded, and everyone leaned forward, eager to hear every single word they said.

“The officials are telling me that it's an accident,” Victor said in his deep, rumbling voice. “It's unfortunate that both of our Families had competitors who were injured.”

“Indeed,” Claudia said, her voice as smooth as his. “I was on my way to check on Henry. How is your guard?”

Victor shrugged. “Just a broken arm. She'll live. Although I've already given her spot in the tournament to someone else.”

Claudia frowned. “Why would you do that?”

He shrugged again. “She shouldn't have fallen.”

“Or once she did, she should have gotten right back up and started climbing again,” Blake chimed in. “Not sat on the ground crying like a little kid who scraped her knee.”

He scoffed, as though he couldn't believe one of his Family members could be so weak. I looked at Deah, who winced and stared at the ground. She might not agree with Blake and her dad, but she wasn't going to stand up and tell them how wrong and cruel they were either.

“Funny, I remember you moaning and crying,” Devon drawled. “I'm sure you remember too. It was back in the arcade a few weeks ago when Lila put you in that wrist lock.”

Blake glared at Devon, who smirked back. Even worse, Victor stared at me again, his eyes narrowed in thought as he studied me far more closely than he had before.

“Well, please give my regards to your guard and tell her that I hope she feels better soon,” Claudia said.

“Of course,” Victor murmured, still staring at me.

His gaze locked with mine. Once again, his icy hate for Claudia and all the Sinclairs surged through me, along with cold curiosity about who I was and what I'd done to his son. This time, I couldn't hold back my shiver.

Victor looked at me a moment longer, then turned his attention back to Claudia. “I'll be interested to see how your guards do in the tournament.”

“And I yours,” she replied. “And my congratulations to Deah for finishing second today. She really gave Katia Volkov a run for her money on the course—before the incident.”

Victor's mouth flattened out. “Yes, well, second place is really only first loser, isn't it?”

Deah winced again, but she finally spoke up. “I should have beaten her. It won't happen again. And I'm still going to win the tournament. Don't worry about that.”

“We'll talk about that when we get home,” Victor said, his voice as cold with his daughter as it had been with everyone else.

Hurt flashed in Deah's eyes, and her shoulders drooped. She fixed her gaze on the grass again, as though that would hide the embarrassed blush in her cheeks.

“Until tomorrow then,” Claudia said.

“Until tomorrow,” Victor replied.

He and Claudia tipped their heads at each other; then Victor turned and headed out of the stadium. Blake glared at Devon and me one more time and followed his father. The guards fell in step behind them.

Deah nodded at Claudia, then turned to go. I don't know why, but something urged me forward, and I stepped up, reached out, and touched her shoulder.

“You really did do a great job today,” I said. “You flew through all the obstacles like they weren't even there. I couldn't have done that. I
didn't
do that.”

Deah gave me a cold look. “Don't be an idiot. I lost to Katia, just like my father said.”

She shook off my hand, whipped around, and hurried after Victor and Blake.

Deah fell in step beside them, but Victor and Blake were talking to each other, and they didn't so much as glance at her. Her shoulders slumped again, but Deah kept walking right beside them.

I frowned, wondering at the tight, twisting sensation in my own chest. It took me a second to realize that it was pity.

For the first time, it occurred to me that maybe I wasn't the only one Victor and Blake had hurt.

 

The officials announced that the obstacle course was closed so they could investigate further. They canceled the other heats for the day and announced that the competitors would be randomly seeded, with the individual matches starting in the morning. The crowd groaned, but everyone packed up their belongings and headed home. We did the same.

Two hours later, I was back in the library, sitting on a white velvet settee by the fireplace, along with Mo. Claudia and Devon were sitting in chairs across from us.

Angelo, Felix, Reginald, and Oscar were watching over Henry, who was in the mansion infirmary. They'd fixed his broken leg with some stitch-sting, and he was resting now. I didn't envy him. A broken leg was bad enough, but I thought the pain of the liquid stitch-sting seeping into your wound and yanking, pulling, and sewing all your skin, muscles, and bones back together was even worse.

“So you think the ropes were deliberately cut,” Claudia said, scrolling through the photos I'd taken on Mo's phone.

“I know they were—I could
see
it.”

“Maybe you could, but the officials didn't,” she said. “Or they chose to ignore it. Either way, they've ruled it an accident. The tournament will proceed as planned in the morning.”

I frowned. “Why wouldn't they admit that someone cut the ropes?”

“Because the Tournament of Blades is one of the biggest events of the summer,” Mo chimed in. “Nobody wants to cancel it. Even if one of the officials did realize that the ropes were cut, they would still declare it an accident. There's too much pressure from the Families to let the tournament continue for the officials to rock the boat. Too much money from ticket sales and concessions is at stake.”

Claudia handed Mo his phone. “The bigger question is who cut the ropes and why?”

I shrugged. “I don't know. I was too far down on the ladder—all I saw was the flash of the knife. Devon?”

“Katia and Deah were both on the platform when the ropes started unraveling. So were Poppy, Blake, and a few other folks.” Devon shook his head. “I didn't see anything either. Then again, I wasn't really looking.”

I drew in a breath. They wouldn't like what I was about to say, but the suspicion had been running through my mind for hours now. “What about Vance? He was up there too.”

The three of them stared at me in surprise.

“You think Vance cut the ropes?” Devon asked. “Why?”

“Well, he was right above me when it happened. And he wasn't exactly thrilled that I was in the tournament.”

I told them how Vance had tried to sabotage me before we'd reached the rope ladder.

“Throwing sand in your eyes, tripping you, shoving you out of the way. Yeah, Vance can be a jerk like that. But actually cutting the ropes?” Devon shook his head again. “That's pretty hardcore. Besides, Vance and Henry are friends. Vance wouldn't have wanted to hurt him.”

“Maybe Vance didn't realize that Henry was on the ladder too,” I said. “Or maybe he just didn't care.”

Nobody had any answers, and we all fell silent, lost in our own thoughts. Finally, Claudia got to her feet.

“Well, no matter who cut the ropes, I want you two to be careful,” she said, looking at Devon and me. “The tournament is always a bit volatile, with all the Families in one place.”

“What if it happens again?” I asked. “What if someone tries to hurt the other competitors again?”

“I don't see how they can,” Devon replied. “The individual rounds start tomorrow; so it will be all one-on-one matches, just two people fighting in the ring. Hard to sabotage that.”

Claudia and Mo murmured their agreement. Even if the saboteur was already thinking about striking again, there was nothing we could do about it tonight. So Mo left to check in with his sources and see if they had heard anything else, while Devon went to clean up for dinner.

Claudia moved over to her desk, sat down behind it, slid on her glasses, and started shuffling through her papers. I ambled in her direction. I waited until Devon had closed the library doors behind him before I spoke.

“Interesting run-in you had with Victor.”

“Yes, he was as charming as always,” she replied in a dry tone.

“Does he always treat Deah like that?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

“Why?”

Claudia looked up from her papers. “Why does Victor do anything? The short answer is simply because he can, or he thinks that it will benefit him in some way, or both. But he's always been hard on Deah, much harder than he's ever been on Blake.”

And Victor had hurt Deah much more than he ever had Blake. Victor should have been proud that she'd finished second in the obstacle course, but he'd been cold and dismissive instead, calling her a loser in front of his sworn enemies. I wondered if anything Deah ever did was good enough for him.