Bright Blaze of Magic (Black Blade, #3)(60)
“I got Deah, didn’t I?” he muttered. “I told you I could get Merriweather and all the others too. I just needed some more time.”
Victor arched an eyebrow at Blake, who clamped his lips shut, knowing better than to contradict his dad. He settled for shooting Devon an angry glare, as though it were Devon’s fault that Blake hadn’t managed to capture me along with Deah earlier today.
“Regardless, you’re here now.” Victor’s gaze dropped to the duffel bag sitting at Devon’s feet. “But apparently not with all the weapons, as we agreed.”
“I want to see my mom and all the other Sinclairs first,” Devon countered. “Then I’ll turn the rest of the weapons over to you.”
Victor let out a low, ugly laugh that made my skin crawl. “You stupid boy. As if I would ever agree to turn over your mother or any of the others for one measly bag of weapons and the faint promise of learning where the others are. I’ve waited too long and worked too hard to finally have your mother at my mercy to give her up for a little bit of magic.”
“Not just a little bit of magic,” Devon said. “How long did it take you to kill all those monsters and harvest their magic?”
Victor gave him a cold look. “Don’t worry. You’ll die much quicker than they did.” He snapped his fingers. “Bring me the bag and the boy.”
The guards started forward, but Devon brandished his sword, keeping them at bay—for now.
“That wasn’t the deal,” he snapped. “You do anything to me and you can kiss the rest of the weapons goodbye. You’ll never find them, and I’ll never tell you where they are.”
A smile curved Victor’s lips, but it was one of the most vicious expressions I’d ever seen. “I’m changing the deal. And you most certainly will tell me where every single one of my black blades are. You might last a day or two, like your mother has, but you won’t be able to hold out forever. In the end, you’ll be begging me to kill you.”
Devon’s face tightened, but he kept his sword raised and his gaze steady on Victor. The guards looked back and forth between the two of them, not daring to move or speak. The tension in the air between them practically crackled with electricity.
I had to help Devon, but I couldn’t just go barging outside right into the middle of all the Draconis. They’d kill me in a second, then turn their swords on Devon. No, I had to be clever about things.
And the best way to do that would be by hiding in plain sight, just like Deah and I had out on the Midway.
The Draconi guard I’d knocked out earlier was still sprawled across the floor near the front of the warehouse. So I rolled him over onto his side, stripped off his red cloak, and put it on over my blue coat. Then I grabbed his red cavalier hat from where it had fallen to the floor and stuffed my black ponytail underneath it. I also snatched the gold cuff off the guard’s wrist and clamped it onto mine, above my own silver Sinclair cuff. Hopefully, no one would look at me closely enough to wonder why I was wearing the crests of two different Families.
Once my hasty disguise was complete, I opened the warehouse door another couple of inches and slipped outside onto the street with everyone else. All the guards were so focused on Devon and making sure that he didn’t escape that no one gave me a second look. I eased up behind two guards, then slowly tiptoed to my right, moving around the circle of them until I was standing off to Devon’s right. I’d only have one chance to break through the ring of men and get him to safety, and I wasn’t going to fail. Not at this.
Devon was not going to die like my mom had.
I glanced around, looking at the part of the ring where the guards were the thinnest, then at the surrounding streets. I didn’t see Oscar anywhere, but hopefully, the pixie was waiting for the best time to strike, just like I was. In the distance, Felix peered around the corner of the warehouse and flashed me a thumbs-up, telling me that the others had gotten to safety and that he and the guards were waiting back there. Now all I had to do was get Devon away from the Draconis, down the street, and around the corner, and we could escape with everyone else. Once we were all together, we could plan our next move and everything would be okay again.
Or at least as okay as it could get in the middle of an all-out mob war.
“Why do you hate us so much anyway?” Devon asked, stalling for time. “What did the Sinclairs ever do to you?”
Victor’s mouth twisted and anger flashed in his golden eyes. “It wasn’t all the Sinclairs. Just one of you. A girl named Serena Sterling. A long time ago, she interfered with my plans, tried to stop me from taking over this town. She actually succeeded too—for a time. But she’s gone now, as dead as dead can be, and nothing is going to stand in my way. Especially not you, boy.”
He snapped his fingers at his guards again. “Take him alive, and bring me the weapons.”
That was my cue. Even as the guard closest to me raised his weapon, I stepped up and rammed my sword into the man’s side. He screamed and fell to the ground, and I leaped over him and stabbed another guard, then another one, trying to take out as many men as I could before I lost the element of surprise.
And I wasn’t the only one.
Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a flash of silver. A guard yelped and clapped a hand to his neck, as though he’d been stung by a bee. But it wasn’t a bee, it was Oscar with his pixie sword—one that was dipped in copper crusher venom. The guard’s eyes rolled up into the back of his head and he fell to the ground convulsing. Oscar saluted me with his sword, then zipped through the air to stab another guard.