Bright Blaze of Magic (Black Blade, #3)(85)

My final battle with Victor had frozen everyone in place and startled them all into absolute silence, except for Devon, who hurried over and dropped down beside me, with Oscar buzzing around our shoulders.

“Lila! Are you okay?” Devon asked, gently cupping my face in his hand.

All I could do was nod. I didn’t even have the strength to speak right now.

Slowly, all the guards, Sinclairs and Draconis alike, crept forward. So did the Ito and Salazar guards who’d come up behind the Draconis on the opposite side of the bridge. A few whispers broke out as they realized that Victor was dead, but they quickly faded away and everyone was still and quiet again. The guards all kept staring from me to Victor and back again, shocked that I had actually done it, that I had actually killed him and ended the threat he represented to the Families and everyone in Cloudburst Falls—mortal, magick, and monster alike.

“No!” a loud, anguished voice cried out. “No! Dad! No!”

Blake sprinted forward, fell to his knees, and shook Victor’s shoulder, but of course, Victor didn’t wake up, and he never would again. Once Blake realized that his dad was really and truly dead, he scrambled to his feet and whipped around to me, hate filling his eyes.

“You! You killed him!” he snarled.

Blake raised his sword and charged at me, but once again, Deah was there to swing her blade into his and stop him from hurting me.

“That’s enough, Blake!” she snapped, pushing him away from me. “It’s over. Look around you. Don’t you see? It’s over!”

And it was.

Dead guards—Sinclairs and Draconis alike—littered the bridge like crumpled dolls. More Sinclairs were standing than Draconis now, but both sides had sustained heavy losses. Members of the Ito and Salazar Families had been killed as well, since they’d engaged the Draconi guards from behind.

Blake looked around. For a moment, I thought he would stand down, but his mouth tightened into an ugly slash, and more and more anger, hate, and disgust filled his eyes.

He glared at me. “You!” he screamed again. “This is all your fault!”

“Blake! Stop!” Deah yelled. “It’s over!”

She moved in front of her brother again, trying to stop him from attacking me, but he used his strength magic to barrel right past her. Deah hit the cobblestones hard, but she scrambled around, trying to get back up onto her feet in time to stop Blake from killing me.

But she didn’t have to because Felix was there.

Felix stepped up and slammed his sword into Blake’s, knocking him away from me. But Blake just wouldn’t give up.

“I’m going to kill you, Morales!” he screamed. “You and all your stupid friends!”

Blake charged at him again, but Felix slid to the side at the last second, just the way I’d taught him during our training bouts. But Blake was too committed to his charge to stop and he ran right into the side of the bridge, where his momentum flipped him up and over the side into the water below. Blake screamed as he plummeted toward the river.

Then . . . silence.

Deah got back up onto her feet and rushed over to the ledge, staring down into the river. So did Felix. After several seconds, he turned and shook his head at me. Deah kept staring down at the river, tears shimmering in her eyes, and Felix gently put his arm around her shoulder. She let out one small cry and choked the others back, although a few tears slid down her face. Despite everything, Blake had still been her brother and Deah had loved him, along with Victor.

The seconds ticked by, and no one moved or spoke. Finally, Claudia strode forward, moving past me, Devon, Oscar, Felix, and Deah until she was standing in the center of the bridge in front of the remaining Draconis.

“Victor is dead and his cruelty along with him,” she called out in a loud, strong voice. “My champion has won the duel. By law, that makes you all part of my Family now.”

The Draconis grumbled, shifted on their feet, and looked back and forth between each other and Claudia. They didn’t know what to do now that Victor was gone.

“I do not believe that you are bad people,” she called out again. “You just had a bad leader. I don’t want to hurt you, any of you. We’ve all lost friends over the past few days, and there’s been more than enough bloodshed here tonight. It’s time to end this cycle of violence, this mistrust and suspicion between the Families once and for all. Don’t you agree?”

More mutters, along with a few murmurs of agreement this time.

Claudia looked out over the crowd again. “I’m offering you all a choice. Strip off your red cloaks and hats, take off your gold cuffs and weapons, and join my Family. Not because we have beaten you, but because you want a fresh start, for yourselves and all of Cloudburst Falls. A place where we can finally live together in peace, without the threat of war constantly looming over us.”

Claudia didn’t have Devon’s compulsion magic, but her voice boomed through the night, and more and more of the Draconis started nodding, agreeing with her. Several even started doing exactly as she asked, pulling off their cloaks and hats, throwing down their weapons, and slipping the gold cuffs off their wrists. One by one, the Draconis cast off the remnants of their old Family and embraced their new one.

Slowly, they walked across the bridge, stopping to bow their heads to Claudia, then headed past her, taking their place in the ranks with the Sinclair guards. The Sinclairs eyed the newcomers with more than a little suspicion, but no more fights broke out and I knew that we were finally on our way to a real, lasting peace.