Dark Heart of Magic (27 page)

The sneaker bumped up against the edge of the chopsticks—and sent them rolling straight toward Deah.

She snatched them up the second they were in range, turned, and handed them over to me. “Here. Work your magic, Merriweather.”

I grinned. “All you had to do was ask.”

She rolled her eyes, but she was grinning back at me.

I twisted open the chopsticks, revealing the lock picks hidden inside. I gestured at Deah, and she stepped forward and held out her wrist. I inserted the picks into the padlock.

“Come on, baby,” I crooned. “Open sesame.”

A few seconds later, the lock snapped open, and I slid it through the shackle and stuffed it into one of my pockets. Deah unhooked the shackle from around her wrist and carefully lowered it and the attached chain to the floor, making as little noise as possible.

The second she was free, she went over to the table, grabbed our swords, and hurried back with them. She strapped on her own weapon, and I did the same, both of us moving as quickly and quietly as we could.

“Now what?” Deah whispered. “Do we storm outside and try to take her by surprise?”

“First things first.” I passed the picks over to Deah. “Here. Open my lock.”

“What? Why can't you do it?” she asked.

I held up my shackled hand. “Because the angle's all wrong, and I can't pick it one-handed. So you're going to have to do it for me. Have you ever picked a lock before?”

She shook her head, making her blond ponytail slap back and forth.

“Then good thing for you and me, it's not that hard.”

Deah took the lock picks from me, bent over my shackle, and got to work. I tried to talk her through it, but the picks kept slipping out of the padlock, and she just wasn't getting the hang of it.

“It's no use,” she growled. “I can't do it.”

“You have to, or we're both dead.”

Deah sighed and went back to work with the lock picks, but she gave up a minute later, when the picks slipped out of the lock again. “I'm sorry. I can't do it. You stay here. I'll go get help.”

“And I'll be dead by the time you get back with it.”

“But I
can't
do it. I don't know how, and like you said, I don't have any strength magic that would let me break the shackle.”

I tilted my head to the side, thinking about her words—and the magic that she
did
have. “What about your mimic power?”

She frowned. “What about it?”

“Well, you can do more than just fight with it, right? I mean, you can mimic the way someone moves, walks, talks, everything.”

“Yeah, so what?” Deah asked.

“Then you could mimic me picking a lock, right?”

“I suppose so,” she said in a doubtful voice. “I've never tried to do anything like that with my power before, though.”

“Well, it's always good to learn new things,” I snarked. “Now watch me and do exactly what I do.”

I imagined that I was bending over an invisible padlock, holding the lock picks in my hands. Then I drew in a breath, slid my imaginary picks into my imaginary padlock, and went to work. I pretended as though I were moving the picks around and around, feeling for the tumblers, and trying to get them to slip into place so the padlock would pop open.

I felt stupider than I ever had in my entire life, but I kept right on working. Deah watched me the whole time, her dark blue eyes narrowed, her lips pressed tight in thought. After several seconds of concentration, she slid the picks into the real lock on my shackle again. It was awkward, with her standing right next to me, trying to work on my shackle while I was moving my hand around, but she managed it. Slowly, Deah began to mimic my movements, holding the lock picks just so and sliding them around and around inside the padlock in the patterns that I was showing her.

Seconds ticked by, then turned into a minute, then two. But we kept working together the whole time. The air was hot and stuffy. Sweat dripped down my face, hers too, given how hard the two of us were concentrating, and the only sounds were our ragged breaths mixing together in the absolute stillness of the boathouse—

And just like that, my padlock popped open.

Deah stared down at the lock, still holding the picks inside it, as though she couldn't believe what had just happened. “I did it. I actually did it!”

“And you can be very proud about that later. Now help me get it off,” I said. “Hurry!”

She passed me the lock picks, which I closed and slid into one of my pockets, while she unhooked the padlock from my shackle. The second it was off my wrist, I grabbed the chain and lowered it to the floor.

“Come on,” I whispered. “Let's get out of here before she comes back—”

The door to the boathouse slammed open again, and Katia strolled inside, this time holding a dagger in either hand.

“I'm back,” Katia called out in a singsong voice.

She stopped short, realizing that we were free. For a second, the three of us looked at each other.

Then Katia laughed. She just laughed and laughed, as though our being halfway to escaping was the funniest thing
ever
.

Deah and I looked at each other. We both drew our swords and stepped together, forming a united front.

“Oh, how adorable,” Katia sneered. “Two enemies teaming up together to try to save themselves from a fate worse than death. Too bad you're both still going to lose—everything.”

“I doubt that,” Deah snapped back at her. “I've beaten you before. I can do it again. And so can Lila.”

“You'd better believe it,” I chimed in.

Katia took a step forward. Deah and I both snapped up our swords, but Katia didn't attack us. Instead, she raised the two daggers in her hands—both of which were glowing a familiar, sickening, midnight black.

“Oh, I doubt that,” she purred. “Considering that I have more magic in these two black blades than the two of you have in your entire bodies.”

I eyed the gleaming weapons. “What kind of magic?”

“Strength from the copper crusher and speed, courtesy of another tree troll in one of my traps,” Katia said, admiring first one blade, then the other. “I hate to use it all up killing the two of you, but easy come, easy go. That's the only problem with monster magic. It gives you a boost for a little while, but then it burns out of your system. It's not like human magic, like Vance's magic. His speed and strength are mine now forever. And soon, your powers will be too.”

Katia grinned and twirled the daggers around in her hands. Deah and I both tensed, ready to throw ourselves out of the way should she decide to hurl the weapons at us, but that wasn't her plan at all.

Instead, Katia raised the daggers high, then stabbed herself in the heart with them.

I
gasped in shock, and so did Deah.

Katia stabbed herself with both daggers. For a moment, a midnight pulse of blackness flashed, casting the entire boathouse in darkness, despite the bulbs burning overhead. Then the blackness faded and the light returned, but what it revealed was equally terrible.

Blood spurted out of the wounds, coating Katia's hands and the blades still stuck in her chest a dark, glossy crimson. But as soon as her blood touched the daggers, the blades soaked it right back up again, still glowing that eerie, midnight black.

Katia screamed in pain, and the midnight glow on the blades went out. In an instant, the weapons were their usual dull, ashy gray again. Katia gasped and gasped for breath, then doubled over.

Silence.

Then she started laughing again.

Katia laughed and laughed, the loud, wild, crazy sound bouncing around like a rockmunk trapped inside the boathouse.

Katia straightened up to her full height, and Deah and I both gasped again—because her eyes burned with magic.

The longer I stared at her, the brighter her eyes became, the color morphing from their normal hazel to a brilliant emerald green, with a spark of copper flashing every now and then. I supposed that it made sense that Katia's eyes would take on the tint of the monster whose magic she'd stolen—green for the troll and copper for the crusher. But the magic in her gaze kept flaring hotter and hotter, until her eyes were glowing much brighter than any monster's ever had.

Katia grunted, then pulled the daggers out of her chest. The black blades sealed up the wounds they had left behind, so it was as if she had never stabbed herself at all.

“A tree troll for speed,” she purred, holding up one of the daggers. “And a copper crusher for strength.” She held up the other dagger. “A perfect combo and more than enough magic to let me deal with the two of you.”

Deah and I looked at each other. I nodded and she returned the gesture. We both knew that we'd have to work together in order to survive this.

Just like Seleste had told me.

Katia let out a loud scream and charged at us. Deah and I split apart, with me going right and her going left. But Katia was fast—so damn
fast
. And since she had two daggers, she was able to attack both of us at once. She lashed out at Deah with one blade, then pivoted back around to me, her movements almost too quick for me to follow. I barely managed to get out of the way of her black blade before she laid my guts open with it.

Deah stepped up behind Katia and swung her sword, but Katia lashed out with one of her daggers, catching Deah across the arm before she was able to get out of the way. Deah yelped and staggered away.

Katia turned back to me. She let out another loud yell and charged forward. I was standing by the table, and I kicked out, sending it skittering across the floor toward her. The gold winner's cup also flew off the top and clattered to the ground.

That incoming table made Katia stop short, but a cruel smile curved her lips.

“That's not going to save you,” she hissed. “Nothing will. Not now that you've taken
her
side.”

“I'd rather be on her side than yours,” I said. “At least she doesn't go around murdering monsters just because it gives her some sort of sick thrill. No wonder you couldn't beat Deah. You were too worried about getting your next hit of magic to really focus on the tournament. Your dad might be a drunk, but you're nothing but a magic junkie
loser
.”

I was deliberately taunting her, calling her the one word she hated most. And it worked. Katia screamed again and threw herself forward. This time, she slammed her fists into the table top, cracking it down the center and wading through the remains to get to me. Then she raised her daggers and slammed them into my sword as hard as she could.

I grinned because the second her weapons rammed into mine, my transference power kicked in, and that cold burn of magic filled my veins. Katia had stolen the tree troll's and copper crusher's magic. Well, I was going to take it away from her, blow by blow, bit by bit, piece by piece. This first attack was already enough to make me stronger.

But not strong enough.

Katia was in a rage now, and she slammed her weapons into mine over and over again, each blow harder and sharper than the last, until finally she knocked my sword away.

She raised her daggers to bring the blades down in my chest. I lurched back, trying to get out of the way, but my sock caught on a nail sticking up out of the floor, and I went down on one knee. I raised my right arm up, knowing that it was useless and that her daggers would lay my arm open to the bone—

Suddenly, Deah was there, slamming her sword into Katia's daggers and keeping her from killing me. I scrambled back up on my feet, grabbed my sword, and got back into the fight.

Katia kept whipping her daggers every which way, but as fast and strong as she was, it still took a lot of concentration to battle two enemies at once, especially two enemies who were as good at fighting as Deah and I were. We gave her all she could handle and then some.

But we were still going to lose.

With all that stolen monster magic pumping through her body, Katia was faster and stronger than the two of us. Despite her claims that monster magic didn't last all that long, she showed no signs of slowing down. Plus, she still had Vance's strength and speed Talents to fall back on. She was wearing us down, especially since Deah and I had fought so long and hard earlier in the tournament.

My blows were coming slower and slower, and it was all I could do to parry the hard, vicious slashes of Katia's daggers. Deah was slowing down as well. All Katia needed would be another minute, maybe two, and she would be able to disarm one of us. Then the other would fall and she could cut us up and take our magic at her leisure.

The magic chilling my body wasn't enough to help me defeat Katia. I needed more magic to stop her from killing us, which meant that I had to get closer to her. Had to get her to use her strength directly on me so I could absorb as much of her stolen magic as possible. Unfortunately, there was only one way to do that. I had to actually touch her.

I winced. This was going to hurt.

Deah managed to throw Katia back, and she lost her balance and stumbled over one of the chairs. I took the moment to creep closer to Deah.

“When I tell you, unload on her with everything you have!” I hissed.

“Lila! Lila, what are you doing?” Deah hissed back.

Katia got back up on her feet. I raised my sword and charged at her, screaming all the while. Katia smirked, realizing that it was a desperate tactic, but she let me come at her, just like I wanted. I lashed out with my sword, even though I knew that the blow wouldn't even come close to nicking her. Katia blocked my attack, but instead of stepping back, I dropped my sword and darted forward, wrapping my hands around her wrists.

The second my skin touched hers, cold magic surged from her body into mine. But Katia wasn't worried at all by my change in tactics.

“You stupid fool,” she snarled. “You've just made it that much easier for me to do
this
.”

She shook off my hold on her left wrist and slammed one of her daggers into my stomach. I screamed, even though the horrible wound sent even more magic spinning through my body, the power whirling around and around like an icy tornado inside me.

Katia yanked the dagger back out. She started to wrench herself away from me, but I lashed out and grabbed hold of her wrist again. We seesawed back and forth for a few seconds, with her trying to break my grip, and me digging my fingers and nails into her skin as hard and tight as I could. At the same time, I reached down and hooked my socked foot around one of her ankles, throwing her off balance and spinning her around so that her back was to Deah.

“Now!” I screamed.

Deah didn't hesitate, stepping forward even as my scream echoed through the boathouse.

Katia cursed, finally realizing what I was up to. Once again, she tried to break my hold, but it was no use. Even as she struggled against me, all she did was make me stronger and stronger, and I tightened my grip, my fingers pressing down, bruising the bones in her wrists.

A second later, Deah rammed her sword into Katia's back.

Katia let out an agonized scream at the mortal wound and arched back, as if trying to push Deah's sword out of her body. The daggers dropped from her hands, thumping to the wooden floorboards, and blood bubbled out of her lips.

Katia stared at me, her green gaze dimming by the second, the magic and color leaking out of her eyes as they resumed their normal hazel color. Her emotions slammed into me as well, even as the power and life drained out of her, and I felt every single agonizing moment of the red-hot wound in her back.

It matched the dagger wound in my own stomach.

Katia struggled and struggled, still trying to break my grip, but I tightened my hands around her wrists and held on. She let out one final, choked gasp, then slumped to the floor—dead.