Bright Blaze of Magic (Black Blade, #3)(61)

For a moment, the other Draconis were frozen in place, wondering what was going on and why one of their own was attacking them, but then I stepped up next to Devon and whipped off my cavalier hat, and everyone realized that I wasn’t one of them.

“Lila!” Devon shouted. “Lila!”

I grinned at him. “At your service. Now what do you say we get out of here?”

He grinned back. “Why, I thought you’d never ask.”

Devon moved so that we were standing back to back, and together we fought the Draconis, with Oscar darting in and stabbing the guards whenever and wherever he could. Everything else disappeared except for the feel of Devon’s warm back pressed against my own, my sword in my hand, and the blur of red-cloaked guards in front of me. I whipped my sword back and forth again and again, clearing a path through the ring of men. All we had to do was break free of them, run down the street, get to the corner, and we’d be safe.

Unless Victor decided to unleash his lightning on us first.

I kept looking past the guards in front of me, waiting for him to do that very thing, but Victor stood back out of the way, his gaze locked on the bag of weapons still sitting in the street right in the middle of the fight, more interested in the black blades than anything else. Apparently, he thought his guards could handle us and he didn’t feel the need to help them. Yet.

Devon cut down the man in front of him, finally slipping out of the ring of guards. He saw Felix waving to him at the corner and sprinted in that direction. I made a move to follow him.

But Blake had other ideas and he shoved his own men out of the way so that he could step up and fight me.

“I’m going to kill you if it’s the last thing I do!” he screamed.

“Bring it on!” I yelled back at him.

Blake screamed, charged forward, and slammed his sword into mine. He hit my weapon again and again, trying to use his strength magic to overwhelm me so that he could ram his sword through my chest. But every time his sword struck mine, all he did was feed me more and more of his own power, until my body was so cold with magic that my breath frosted in the air.

As much as I wanted to stay and fight Blake, the most important thing right now was getting out of here. So I lashed out with my foot, tripping Blake and making him stumble past me. I turned to run, but another guard stepped up to block my path, cutting me off from Devon, who finally realized that I wasn’t behind him. He turned around, halfway between me and Felix standing at the curb, with Oscar hovering in the air beside him.

Felix kept yelling and gesturing for Devon to run, but Devon only had eyes for me. He stopped, turned around, and started to head back to help me.

And that’s when Victor finally decided to get into the fight.

He casually waved his hand, sending a streak of white lighting zipping down the street in Devon’s direction. Devon’s eyes widened, but he managed to throw himself to one side, out of the way of the blast. He got right back up on his feet, though, and started toward me again.

Felix sprinted down the street, grabbed him from behind, and started dragging Devon back toward the corner, even though Devon was struggling with every step. In the distance, I heard the low, throaty rumbles of several cars roaring to life. Angelo and Reginald must have found the Draconi vehicles parked on the streets around the warehouse. Mo would know how to hot-wire the cars, since he’d shown me the same trick long ago.

Victor waved his hand again, sending another streak of lightning at Devon, Felix, and Oscar, but it was an afterthought on his part, since his gaze was still locked on the bag of weapons, and they easily ducked the blast. The fight had moved away from the weapons and Victor headed in that direction, eagerness flashing in his golden gaze. He wanted the black blades first; then he would worry about killing us with his lightning.

Even as I raised my sword to engage the guard in front of me, another man stepped up beside the first one, further blocking my path. My heart sank. I’d never get to Devon now, not before the guards surrounded and overwhelmed me, but at least I’d saved him and the others. I’d done exactly what Claudia had hired me to do all those weeks ago—I’d protected Devon, protected the Sinclairs, protected my Family.

My mom would have been so proud of me right now.

That thought brought a smile to my face, despite my desperate situation, and I knew what I had to do.

“Go!” I yelled. “Devon, go!”

“No!” he screamed back. “I’m not leaving you!”

Even as Felix pulled him back, Devon started screaming at the Draconi guards to stop, fall back, and drop their weapons. Over and over again, he yelled out the simple commands, his voice crackling with his compulsion magic. Many of the guards followed his orders, compelled by his magic to do so, even though they didn’t realize exactly what was happening. But as strong as Devon was in his magic, it still took a lot of power to force someone to act against their will, and he simply couldn’t control them all. For every guard that Devon compelled, it seemed as though there were two more that charged at me, and soon, there were far too many for me to fight my way through.

Devon knew it too. For a moment, our gazes locked and his hot desperation and aching regret knifed me right in the heart. I forced myself to grit my teeth, throw off his emotions, and turn to fight the next guard who charged me.

“Lila!” Devon screamed again. “Lila!”

But I blocked out his anguished cries and kept moving, swinging my sword back and forth, and back and forth, cutting into every single guard that even thought about coming close to me. For a minute, maybe two, I managed to keep them at bay. But there were too many of them, and it simply wasn’t going to be enough—I wasn’t going to be enough.