Dark Heart of Magic (21 page)

His voice dripped with disgust, telling everyone within earshot his low opinion of the remaining competitors. But even worse was the sharp, pointed look he gave Deah, and all the malice shimmering in his golden eyes. It was a clear warning that she would win the tournament or else something very unpleasant might happen—to her.

“Yes, sir,” Deah said in a faint voice.

Victor must have sensed my staring at him because he turned and looked in my direction. My gaze locked with his, and my soulsight immediately flared to life, letting me feel the absolute ice of his emotions and all his hatred for everyone around him—including his own wife.

In that instant, I realized that Victor barely tolerated Seleste and all her odd behavior, and only kept her around because her visions of the future were useful. The second she stopped being useful . . . well, I was willing to bet that Seleste would end up just like my parents—dead.

I shivered. I could easily imagine Victor tearing Seleste's Talent for seeing the future out of her. Part of me was surprised he hadn't done it already. Or perhaps he only wanted the information from the visions and had no desire to actually experience them for himself. Not if it meant being like Seleste.

Seleste noticed Victor staring at me, and she brightened and headed in my direction. Mo grabbed my shoulder again, his fingers digging into my skin in a clear warning.

“No matter what she says, act like you don't know what she's talking about,” he muttered.

“Why?”

“Just do it, kid,” Mo hissed.

Seleste marched over and grabbed my hands. “Darling! There you are! It's so good to see you again!” she beamed at me, squeezing my hands tight in hers.

With her strength Talent, it felt like she was on the verge of cracking my bones. I winced, and she loosened her hold.

“Oops. Sorry. I don't know my own strength sometimes.” She winked at me. “Just making sure that you were real. Sometimes, I have to do that, you know. I'm sure you remember that about me.”

“Um, okay.”

It seemed that she had mistaken me for my mom again, so it wasn't hard to pretend to be confused. But why did she keep doing that? It wasn't as if Seleste had actually known my mom . . . had she?

I frowned, but I didn't have time to focus on the thought, not with Deah glaring daggers at me, and Victor and Blake striding over, scowls fixed on both of their faces.

Seleste kept staring at me, but Victor stopped and looked at Mo, his lips puckering in thought.

“Um, who are you?” I asked Seleste, keeping up the charade that I had never met her before.

Just like that, her sunny smile vanished, and utter misery filled her face. “You know exactly who I am. I'm Seleste, your best friend. Don't you remember me?”

I looked at Mo for help. This time, I wasn't faking it.

“Hello, Seleste,” he said in a soft, gentle voice. “I think you're a little confused. I don't think you've ever met Lila before. Lila
Merriweather
.”

He put a little extra emphasis on my fake last name. I didn't know why, but it worked, and I could almost see the proverbial light bulb snap on above Seleste's head.

She looked at him, then me, then back at him. “Oh. I guess you're right. My mistake.”

She shrugged, then turned, looped her arms through Victor's and Blake's, and started skipping away with them. At least, she tried to. They weren't having any of the skipping, but they let her drag them off into the crowd. Then again, they didn't have much choice, with her strength magic pulling them along.

Deah stayed behind, though, and she turned her hot glare to me the second her father and brother were out of earshot. “Who does my mom keep confusing you with?”

Before I could think of some lie, Mo answered her. “Lila's mother,” he said, still staring after Seleste. “Her name was Serena.”

Startled, I glanced at Mo. Why would he tell Deah my mom's name? If she told Victor and he put two and two together, then he would know that I was Serena Sterling's daughter. He might also realize that I knew he'd murdered my mom, and my anonymity, my only protection from him, would be gone.

Deah looked back and forth between Mo and me. “Is that name supposed to mean something to me?”

Mo gave her a sad smile and shook his head. “Of course not. But Serena was an old friend of your mom's. I was Seleste's friend too—before she married your father.”

He muttered the last few words, and Deah's face tightened with even more anger.

“Well, whoever your mom was, stay away from mine,” Deah snapped.

“Don't worry about that,” I snapped back. “That crazy lady is all yours.”

Her hands clenched into fists, and her blue gaze slammed into mine, letting me feel all of her white-hot rage and how protective she was of her mom.

“My mom is
awesome
,” Deah snarled. “She just happens to see the world a little differently from everyone else. But that doesn't make her crazy, and it certainly doesn't give you or anyone else the right to make fun of her. So why don't you keep your snotty opinions to yourself.”

I held up my hands. I wasn't going to argue with her anymore. There was no point in it. Besides, she was right. I didn't have the right to make fun of Seleste, and I was ashamed that I had. Mocking people was something that Blake always did, and I had zero desire to be anything like him.

Deah glared at me another second, then stormed away.

The second she was gone, I turned to Mo. “Why did you tell her Mom's name? Why would you do that?”

Mo tipped his white straw hat back on his head. “I know, I know, it was stupid. It's just that I hadn't seen Seleste in so long. Most of the time, Victor keeps her locked up in one of the towers in the Draconi castle. Besides, I wanted to give her and Deah some kind of explanation.”

My eyes narrowed. “How do you know Seleste anyway?”

He stared after the Draconis instead of looking me in the eye. “We used to be friends. Way back when we were about your age.”

“Who was friends?”

“Me, Claudia, Seleste, and your mom. Well, really, it was the girls who were tight. I was more friends with Serena than anyone else. And, of course, Claudia and I weren't friends at all after we stopped dating.”

My mouth dropped open. “You and Claudia
dated
?”

“Yeah,” Mo said in a distracted voice. “For a while. Before she met Lawrence, Devon's dad.”

I'd always thought that Mo and Claudia had some past connection, but I never thought it was something like
this
. Calm, serious Claudia with cheery, boisterous Mo? I just couldn't picture them together. But if they'd broken up way back when, it would explain the tension between them now.

Mo kept staring in the direction that Seleste and Deah had gone, his eyes dark with memories and feelings he wouldn't let me see. After several seconds, he shook his head, as if clearing the cobwebs of the past out of his mind, and plastered a smile on his face.

“But that's all over with now, kid. How about I buy you a funnel cake? With tons of powdered sugar, just the way you like it? You're going to need a sugar buzz before the final matches start.”

I frowned. Mo loved money as much as I did, and he never,
ever
offered to buy me anything unless he was trying to distract me. I wondered what had happened between him, my mom, Claudia, and Seleste, and why there was still so much secrecy and tension about it even now. But he'd changed the subject, which meant that the conversation was closed. Besides, I was never one to turn down free food.

“Sure,” I said. “A funnel cake sounds great.”

M
o and I went out into the fairgrounds, where he bought me the biggest funnel cake we could find. He started talking to some folks he knew from the Ito Family, and I finished my cake, murmured my excuses, and drifted away from him.

I had some time before the final matches started, so I wandered through the fairgrounds, looking at all the cheesy carnival games, T-shirts, flags, and more. If it was cheap, tacky, and brighter than a flashing neon sign, you could buy it here. The vendors called out to me, hawking their wares and trying to get me to play their games, but I ignored them.

I ended up on the edge of the fairgrounds, staring out toward the lake and trying to make sense of everything that had happened over the past few days, from the murdered tree trolls to Seleste's strange behavior to all the secrets Mo wasn't telling me.

The deep blue of the water shimmered in the distance, but instead of concentrating on the pretty scene, I started walking along one of the cobblestone paths until I reached the tree line.

My thoughts turned to Vance, and the image of his cut-up body filled my mind. I wasn't anywhere close to where he had been murdered, but I still found myself peering through the branches, wondering who had killed him and why. Why had the killer taken Vance's Talents instead of someone else's, someone with much stronger magic? And how did all the murdered monsters fit into this? Or were they even connected to Vance at all?

My mind spun around and around, trying to figure things out. But there were no answers to be found in the dappled shade of the woods, so I turned to head back.

And that's when I heard the giggles.

Giggles? Out here in the woods?

I was still wearing my sword, and my hand dropped to the weapon's hilt, despite the seemingly innocent sounds. I crept a little closer to the trees, tilting my head to the side, listening and looking into the thin afternoon shadows. The
crack-crack-crack
of twigs crunching underfoot sounded, along with more giggles. Through the trees, I spotted two figures heading toward me.

A second later, Blake stepped out of the woods about ten feet away from my position. And he wasn't alone—Katia was with him.

From their rumpled clothes and Katia's messy hair, it was obvious what they'd been doing. They saw me at the same time I did them, and the three of us stopped and stared at each other.

“Sorry,” I said. “I was just taking a walk before the tournament starts up again.”

Blake snorted. “Sure you were. Or maybe you just like to watch, you freak.”

He shoved past me, driving his shoulder into mine and nearly knocking me down, but I ground my teeth together and held my tongue. The tournament was supposed to resume in fifteen minutes, and I didn't need to get into a fight with Blake right now.

Katia pulled her dark red hair back into a ponytail and smoothed some of the wrinkles out of her white sleeveless shirt. Then she lifted her chin, marched over, and stopped in front of me.

“Go ahead,” she said. “You look like you want to say something.”

I shrugged. “It's not really my place to say anything.”

Her hazel eyes glittered, and she crossed her arms over her chest. “Say it anyway.”

I sighed. “I know you're upset about Felix, but messing around with Blake won't make you feel any better in the long run. Blake is
not
a nice guy.”

She shrugged back at me. “Maybe I'm tired of nice guys. After all, Felix was a nice guy . . . until he wasn't. Besides, how do you know what would make me feel better? You're too chicken to even do anything with Devon.”

I stiffened. “I don't know what you're talking about.”

Katia's smile was full of sneering pity. “I've seen the way he looks at you, and you look the same way right back at him. But instead of actually doing something about it, you keep him at arm's length. It's stupid, if you ask me. Especially since he's such a
nice guy
, right?” she mocked me with my own words.

I ground my teeth together and didn't say anything. There was nothing I
could
say because she was exactly right about me being scared of how much I cared about Devon. When it came to risking something as fragile as my heart, I was as skittish as a rockmunk facing down a copper crusher.

Katia sighed, and some of the ugly tension drained out of her face. “Look, I appreciate you trying to warn me about Blake, but I know exactly what kind of guy he is, and I can take care of myself. Drunk dad, remember? Besides, Blake and I were just messing around. Nothing serious. It's not like I think he actually
cares
about me or anything.” Her features hardened again. “I made that mistake with Felix. Trust me, I won't make it again.”

I didn't respond.

“Anyway, I've got to get back to the tournament, and so do you.”

“Yeah,” I said. “See you over there.”

Katia moved off, heading back toward the fairgrounds.

I stood there for a few seconds, thinking about her harsh words, which hit a little too close to home. But I couldn't do anything about them now, so I sighed, turned around, and followed her back to the fairgrounds to get ready for the final rounds of the Tournament of Blades.

 

I had barely set foot back in the fairgrounds when Oscar came zipping through the air, stopping right in front of me.

“There you are!” he practically shouted. “I've been looking everywhere for you! Come quick!”

Oscar buzzed around and around my shoulders, trying to herd me toward the stadium.

“What's wrong?” I asked. “What's happened? Has someone else been hurt?”

Oscar shook his head, and his wings twitched in agitation. Even his tiny black cloak seemed to bristle with anger. “They shook up the tournament, flipped the brackets around and everything. That's why you need to get over there right now.”

I frowned. “What do you mean they flipped the brackets around?”

“You'll see,” he said in a dark tone.

The pixie shooed me into the stadium. I thought that most of the Family higher-ups would be back in their boxes by now, including the Sinclairs, but Claudia, Reginald, Angelo, and Mo were standing by the chain-link fence, talking to the officials. Devon and Felix stood a few feet away, watching them.

“What's going on?” I asked, walking over to them. “Oscar said they changed the tournament.”

Felix snorted. “Oh, they changed it all right—which is what Claudia and the others are arguing about with those idiots.”

He stabbed his finger at the officials. Claudia was right up in their faces, her hands on her hips, her green eyes blazing with anger. I couldn't hear exactly what she was saying, but her sharp tone let everyone know she wasn't happy.

Mo looked over at us and shook his head. Devon and Felix both sighed.

“Good luck,” Felix said, clapping Devon on the shoulder, then turning and doing the same thing to me. “I know this will be tough. I'll be rooting for both of you at the same time. No matter what happens, there won't be a loser here today. You guys know that, right?”

Devon nodded, but I was still confused.

“How can you root for both of us at the same time—” Suddenly, I realized exactly what was going on.

I'd been scheduled to fight Deah in the next round of the tournament, with Katia facing off against Devon. But the tournament had changed, and the brackets had been flipped—which meant I had to fight someone else now, and since there were only four of us left, that meant only one thing.

“Oh,” I whispered. “Oh
no
.”

“Oh no is right,” Oscar said, landing on one of the fence posts.

I looked at Devon, but judging from his tense expression, he wasn't any happier about this than I was. Because now, instead of fighting Deah next, I had to fight another Sinclair.

I had to fight a member of my own Family.

I had to fight Devon.