Bright Blaze of Magic (Black Blade, #3)(39)

Oh, the monsters could still spring out of the shadows, attack, kill, and devour me and my friends. I wasn’t so foolish as to think they would suddenly become tame and lovable and let me pet their furry and scaly heads like they were cute, wiggly puppies just because I gave them a few quarters and some candy bars. They were still monsters, after all. They had all those sharp teeth, talons, and claws for a reason, and they had to eat just like the rest of us did. But I wasn’t afraid of them anymore.

Seeing them . . . it almost felt like . . . home.

Ever since I’d started working for the Sinclairs earlier this summer, I’d been counting down the days until Victor was defeated and I could finally leave town and all the ugly memories here behind. But now, I wasn’t so sure I wanted to go. The mountains, the monsters, the magic, even the bad memories . . . it was all part of Cloudburst Falls.

It was all part of me.

Just as it had been part of my mom before me. Serena had worked for the Sinclairs, and she’d dealt with the monsters, paying the tolls and respecting the creatures, their quirks, and their territories. She had been happy to do it, to follow the old ways and traditions, and she’d taught me to do the same. More than that, she’d instilled her love of all the rituals in me as well. I liked carrying around quarters and chocolate bars and knowing that I could communicate with the monsters in a way that other people couldn’t or simply didn’t take the time to. It was my mom’s legacy to me, and I couldn’t have left it behind even if I’d wanted to—and I didn’t want to anymore.

Sure, my mom had been murdered here, and I’d spent four years hiding and just trying to scrape by. Not exactly fun times. But I’d also found Devon and Felix and Oscar and Deah, and I wasn’t about to lose them now. Not to Victor Draconi or anyone else. I wasn’t about to abandon Mo, Claudia, and all the other captured Sinclairs when they needed me most. I was going to stay and fight for all the things I cared about—and for the future I wanted for myself.

My friends remained tense and quiet, but I started humming a soft tune, the same one that my mom used to hum whenever she was packing her coat full of monster supplies. Despite everything that had happened tonight, despite all the loss and grief and heartache, this was still exactly where I wanted to be.

The others gave me strange looks, wondering why I was humming, but they didn’t say anything. A couple of minutes later, we rounded a corner and stopped in front of a brick building that took up this particular block. A stack of splintered books adorned a faded sign planted in the lawn that read CLOUDBURST FALLS LIBRARY—WESTERN BRANCH.

Devon grinned and let out a low chuckle, realizing exactly what I was up to. “Only you would think to come back here. Brilliant, Lila. Bloody brilliant.”

I grinned back at him. “I do try.”

Deah shook her head. “I don’t get it.”

“The library?” Felix frowned. “But this is where you lived before you came to work for the Sinclairs.”

“Exactly,” I said. “And no one knows that but us, so there’s no way that the Draconis will even think to look for us here. Trust me, we’ll be safe. At least for tonight. Tomorrow, we can figure out what our next move is. But right now, we’re all about to drop from exhaustion. We need a place to lay low, and this is it. Now, come on.”

I headed over to the side door that I had gone through so many times before. Seeing the locked door was like catching up with an old friend, and it took me less than thirty seconds to pick it open with my chopstick lock picks. We slid inside and I shut and locked the door behind us.

Felix pulled out his phone and used it as a flashlight again, but I didn’t need any light to see by; I’d long ago memorized the library’s layout. I led my friends down the aisles, past the shelves of books, and over to a door that led into a storage room. I picked open that door, then another one at the far end of the storage room, and we walked through the opening and down the steps to the library basement. I told everyone to stand still for a second, then went over and ran my fingers over the touch lamp that I’d set up in the corner.

Soft white light filled the basement, revealing a mini fridge, cases of bottled water, and a metal rack crammed full of canned and dried food, along with bottles of dark green liquid stitch-sting. Several battered suitcases full of clothes were stacked on top of each other, and two small cots covered with sheets and blankets were lined up against another wall, with a large, inflated air mattress lying on the floor in front of them.

And then there were the weapons.

Several duffel bags peeked out from underneath the metal rack, the cots, and even the corner table where the lamp was. The tops of the bags were all open, revealing the dull, ash-colored swords and daggers inside—the real, magic-filled black blades that Devon, Felix, and I had stolen from Victor over the past two weeks. The chill of magic emanating from the weapons filled the air, making it feel even cooler than it really was in the basement, but I didn’t mind the sensation because it told me that no one had been near the weapons since the last time I’d come down here.

Claudia had asked me to take the weapons somewhere safe, and this was the first place I’d thought of.

The library had had one of its fundraising sales earlier this summer, right around the time I’d packed up most of my stuff and had moved to the Sinclair mansion. After the sale, I’d snuck back into the basement to check on the rest of my things, and the furniture I’d left behind had still been here, hidden behind boxes of old, used books that hadn’t gotten sorted through and sold.