Dark Heart of Magic (Black Blade #2)(36)

Katia’s cheeks burned again, with anger this time, and her lips flattened out in a harsh line. She didn’t like Deah ignoring her. I wondered what Katia would think when she found out that Deah was dating Felix, or whatever the two of them were doing besides stupidly sneaking around. It had been obvious at the tournament that Katia wanted to hook up with Felix again. I wondered if Felix had talked to Katia yet and told her that he was seeing someone else. Probably not, given everything that had happened with the rope ladder.

“Well,” Victor murmured. “I suppose we’ll see when the tournament resumes tomorrow.”

“Yeah,” Katia muttered, stabbing her fork into the salad on her plate.

“I’ll be interested in watching you compete, Katia,” Victor continued. “I always admire strong fighters who are determined to win. Perhaps if things go well, Nikolai might let me borrow you for some . . . special projects that the two of us are going to be working on together.”

Katia blushed again, and her hazel eyes lit up with pleasure, as if she would actually enjoy working for Victor.

My stomach twisted with a combination of worry, disgust, and dread. Special projects? That certainly had an ominous tone to it. I waited, hoping that Victor would elaborate, but of course he didn’t.

Victor and Nikolai kept talking about the tournament, mainly who the other Families had entered. Blake and Katia both chimed in with their opinions. So did Carl, although his words slurred so badly that the others just ignored him. Deah kept sneaking glances at her phone.

They also chatted about the rope ladder, but everyone agreed that it was an unfortunate accident. If Victor or Blake had been behind someone cutting the ropes, they weren’t going to come right out and say so. Or maybe they hadn’t had anything to do with it and Vance was the guilty one, as I suspected.

I waited a few minutes, but Victor and Nikolai didn’t talk about anything else interesting or sinister, so I slithered away from the edge of the balcony and left my view of the dining hall. I probably had at least forty-five minutes before dinner would end, and I needed to get to Victor’s office, search it, and get out of here before then.

Still keeping to the shadows, I skulked through the mansion, moving from one hallway and staircase to the next, climbing higher and higher all the while. According to the blueprints Mo had given me, Victor’s office was located close to the greenlab, the space where both common and magical plants were grown, including stitch-sting bushes, which were harvested for their healing properties. I headed in that direction, and soon, the delicious smells of dinner were replaced by the softer, floral scents of flowers.

I sidled up to and peered in through the glass doors that fronted the Draconi greenlab. Just as in the Sinclair greenlab, tables covered with beakers, burners, and other scientific equipment took up the front part of the lab, surrounded by all sorts of plants, bushes, and even a few small, potted trees. The lights were turned down low, and I didn’t see any guards patrolling inside or pixies flying over the tables. Good. Cutting through here would get me to Victor’s office more quickly and would be marginally safer than continuing to skulk down the hallways. The castle might be mostly deserted, but sooner or later, I was bound to round a corner and run face-first into a pixie, who would be sure to yell and sound the alarm that I was here.

I tried one of the doors, surprised that it was already open. I would have thought that Victor would have the greenlab locked up tight, given all the stitch-sting and other important, expensive supplies inside, but I wasn’t about to overlook this bit of good luck. So I slipped inside and shut the door behind me.

I looked over the front part of the greenlab, but science had never been my thing, so nothing stood out to me. Still, I pulled my phone out of my coat pocket and snapped photos of the equipment and the lab setup to show Felix and Angelo later. I also took several shots of an area off to the left side of the lab—one that was filled with shelves full of bottled liquid stitch-sting.

Just like at the Sinclair mansion, heavy metal grates covered the shelves, locking away the healing liquid, but there was more of it here than I’d ever seen in one place before. Hundreds upon hundreds of bottles lined the shelves from top to bottom. It made sense, though. If Victor was thinking about attacking the other Families, he’d need a lot of stitch-sting to patch up the Draconi guards.

I put my phone away, moved through the lab area, and stepped into the greenhouse section. Herbs and vegetables stretched out in all directions, along with row after row of stitch-sting bushes. The dark, evergreen bushes weren’t quite monsters, not like tree trolls and copper crushers, but they would still poke out their sharp needles and try to scratch you if you got too close to them without paying their toll. But I hadn’t felt like carrying around ajar of honey tonight to drizzle on their roots, so I made sure to stay clear of the bushes.

And just like in the rest of the castle, everywhere I looked, I spotted something else emblazoned with that snarling dragon crest, including each and every one of the white flagstones that curled across the floor. The crest looked so fierce, so lifelike, that I thought the dragons might rise up and bite me on the ankles for stepping on their snouts.

Finally, I reached the center of the greenlab, a round, open space with paths snaking off in all directions. One enormous dragon made out of red and gold stained glass was set into the middle of the floor here, with matching flames streaming out of its mouth and wrapping around the dragon’s body, as though the creature were continuously breathing fire and about to incinerate everything around it, including itself.