Bright Blaze of Magic (Black Blade, #3)(34)

More tears welled up in my eyes, but I blinked them back as well. I couldn’t change what had happened; all I could do now was press forward and do my absolute best to make sure that the rest of my friends stayed safe.

“Now what?” Felix said. “I don’t see any signs of life, and nobody is answering their phone. I’ve tried every single person I can think of, and no one’s picked up.”

“Now we go into the mansion and see if anyone’s left,” I said. “Maybe some folks were able to hide before the Draconis found them. Then we get the black blades, get out of here, and figure out what our next move is. Follow me.”

I headed toward the mansion, and the others fell in line behind me. Our footsteps didn’t make so much as a whisper in the grass as we crept closer and closer to the mansion. Felix stopped to grab a sword from a dead guard, and I used my magic to look ahead, to stare in through the windows and get a better sense of what might have happened inside—and especially to see if there were any survivors.

But no one moved into my line of sight, and the mansion seemed completely empty and deserted.

We reached one of the side doors. I didn’t even bother trying the knob, since all the glass in the door had been busted out, probably by someone slamming a sword through it. I looked at my friends, and they all nodded back at me. I stepped through the shattered glass, with them still following along behind me, all of our swords raised and ready.

The inside of the mansion was a disaster area. Glass had been smashed out of windows, locked doors had been broken down, tables, lamps, and chairs had been knocked over. It seemed as though every single piece of furniture had either been upended or shoved over onto its side, and then stomped on for good measure. Pillows were scattered everywhere, along with books, paperweights, and crystal candlesticks that had broken apart into jagged chunks when they’d hit the floor.

But the worst part was the bodies.

They were everywhere, crowded together right in front of the doors and windows, sprawled in the middle of the hallways, slumped over the stairs. Some of them were even pinned in place with swords up against the walls, looking more like dolls than real people. And blood covered everything, from the white marble floors to the few paintings still hanging crookedly on the walls to even the crystal chandeliers that dangled down from the ceilings.

The sight of the bodies was horrific enough to freeze us all in place, but I signaled to the others that we needed to keep moving. They nodded back, and still being quiet, the four of us tiptoed down the hallway and headed toward the dining hall. I was hoping that some folks might still be alive in here, but it was just as big a mess as everything else was.

Broken tables and chairs littered the area, along with trampled platters of food. Puddles of water, lemonade, iced tea, and more covered the marble floor from where folks had dropped their drinks and the glasses had shattered. But the weirdest thing of all were the knives and forks stuck into the tables, walls, and even the ceiling, as if people had gotten so desperate for weapons that they’d started chucking silverware at their attackers.

Dinner must have been under way when the attack had started because the majority of the bodies were clustered in here. Guards, workers, even pixies, their tiny, crumpled bodies looking like small, sad butterflies compared to the larger humans. I’d hoped that we’d find some of the Sinclairs still alive, but it didn’t look as though anyone had survived the attack.

Tears burned my eyes like acid, and I had to swallow down the screams and bile rising in my throat. This was . . . this was . . . horrible. One of the worst things I’d ever seen, right up there with the aftermath of my mom’s murder. But what made this truly heartbreaking was that I’d had a chance to stop it, and I’d failed miserably.

My mom would have been so disappointed in me.

Beside me, Felix sniffled and wiped away the tears streaming down his face. So did Deah. But Devon was as stone-faced as I was, although his grief, disgust, heartbreak, and rage made his green eyes burn as bright as stars in his face. His emotions matched my own perfectly.

As I looked out over the blood and bodies, I focused on the white-hot rage burning in my own heart, more intense than any magic I’d ever felt. In that moment, I made a silent vow to myself. Victor Draconi was more of a monster than any creature that lurked in the shadow-filled alleys of Cloudburst Falls, and he was going to pay for what he’d done to my friends, my Family.

Whatever it took.

“Come on,” Devon whispered in a rough, ragged voice. “There’s nothing we can do for them. Let’s check the rest of the house and see if there are any survivors.”

He whipped around and quickly strode out of the dining hall, as if he had to get out of the room before he broke down and just started screaming. Yeah, me too.

Felix, Deah, and I followed him. Together, the four of us checked every single room, every hallway, every broom closet, pantry, and cubbyhole where someone might have holed up during the attack. But we didn’t find anyone, not so much as a single pixie, so we moved up to the next level and then up and up through the rest of the mansion.

Almost all of the bodies were on the first floor, so the destruction wasn’t nearly as bad on the upper levels. But it was still easy to tell that the Draconi guards had been through here because of all the things they’d stolen.

Silver bookends, crystal keepsake boxes, wooden carvings. All of them were gone, and the Draconis had even used their swords and daggers to pry sapphires, rubies, and diamonds out of other expensive knickknacks. I spotted one gray stone statue of a Fenrir wolf that used to have amethysts for eyes, although the sockets were empty now. The creature almost seemed to be snarling, as if it wanted to track down and bite the person who’d stolen its eyes. I knew the feeling.