Dark Heart of Magic (Black Blade #2)(61)

The same cruel, evil laughter I’d heard when we’d found that murdered tree troll behind the dumpster on the Midway.





CHAPTER NINETEEN


Felix called his dad and told Angelo what was going on. We stayed with Vance until the rest of the Sinclairs showed up. Claudia, Angelo, Reginald, Mo, Oscar. They all came, along with several guards, and they all stared at Vance’s body, as shocked and horrified as the three of us.

I told Claudia and the others what I’d seen when I’d used my soulsight on Vance, and she and Mo put their heads together, wondering who might have done this. But I hadn’t seen the killer, only heard that sick, sick laughter. I hadn’t liked Vance, and he hadn’t liked me either, but Devon was right. Vance hadn’t deserved this—this level of heartless cruelty. And now, I couldn’t even tell Claudia who had murdered him.

I felt like a complete and utter failure.

I didn’t dare look at Vance again, not even for a second, so Devon put his arm around my shoulder and led me out of the woods, with Felix on my other side and Oscar fluttering around us. We got into one of the Sinclair SUVs, and Reginald drove us home.

Devon made sure that I got to my room okay, then handed me off to Oscar, who ordered me to take a hot shower, put on some pajamas, and get into bed. I did as the pixie asked, even though I felt disconnected from my own body as though someone else were going through the motions for me.

Oscar fussed over me, pulling the sheets and comforter all the way up to my chin. Then he flew over to his trailer, rustled around inside, and came back out with a pixie sword. It was no bigger than a needle, but a dull stain on the end told me that it had been dipped in poison, probably copper crusher venom. Poison was often the only way pixies could survive against larger mortals, magicks, and monsters.

Oscar fluttered back over and landed on my nightstand. “Don’t you worry about a thing, cupcake. I’m going to keep watch tonight. Ain’t nobody getting to you the way they did to Vance. Tiny will stand watch too, won’t you, Tiny?”

Over in his corral, the tortoise let out a low, huffing noise that sounded like a yes, his black eyes strangely bright in his green face.

Oscar saluted me with his sword, then started marching back and forth on my nightstand, moving from one side to the other with quick, precise movements, like a soldier standing guard.

The idea of him watching over me was comforting, and I fell asleep with the steady clack-clack-clack of his cowboy boots ringing in my ears.



I didn’t think that I would rest at all, much less sleep, but I didn’t wake up until Oscar nudged my shoulder the next morning.

“What’s going on?” I mumbled, my voice thick with sleep. “What’s wrong?”

The pixie looked at me, his violet eyes dark and serious. “Claudia wants everyone down in the dining hall ASAP.” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder at the black duffel bag sitting on the coffee table. “I’ve already got your stuff packed up for the tournament.”

That cleared the last dregs of sleep from my mind. I sat up in bed. “The tournament? Don’t tell me they’re still having it? What about Vance?”

Oscar shrugged. “Claudia told the other Families, but they think it’s an accident—that Vance went too far into the woods and got clawed up by a monster.”

“A monster that can use duct tape and zip ties? Yeah, sure.” I snorted. “A monster killed him all right—but it was a human one.”

“I know,” Oscar said in a somber voice. “I’ve never seen anybody cut up like that before. It was . . . vicious. Even though there wasn’t all that much blood.”

No blood, just bones and blades . . . bones and blades . . . bones and blades....

Seleste Draconi’s singsong voice echoed in my mind. I shivered the way I always did whenever I thought about her creepy warning, but this time I forced myself to really think about her words.

No blood, just bones and blades. . . . No blood, just bones.... No blood....

That’s what all the horrible things that had happened over the past few days had in common—no blood. The murdered tree troll behind the dumpster off the Midway. The slaughtered troll that Devon, Felix, and I had found on the Draconi property. All the other troll bodies in the ravine. And now Vance.

None of them had been as bloody as they should have been, despite all the deep, vicious cuts on their bodies. Of course, Vance’s blood had probably soaked into the ground. But something about no blood kept nagging at me— “—but surely, that’s not the first time you’ve seen something as horrible as Vance’s body,” Oscar said. Apparently, he’d been talking this whole time. “I mean, that library where you lived was in a bad part of town. There are plenty of monsters there, especially at night.”

I nodded. “Yeah. And every once in a while, I’d see the remains of some smaller creature that the bigger monsters had snacked on. But Vance . . . all those cuts on his body . . . it was something else. Worse than anything I’ve seen before, except for finding my mom’s body—and watching Grant and those two guards getting eaten by the lochness a few weeks ago.”

“But you were just defending yourself and Devon,” Oscar said. “Grant betrayed the whole Family, and he tried to rip out Devon’s magic. Yours too. At least the lochness got a meal out of him before the end. Monsters have to eat too, you know. But poor Vance. He died out there in the woods all alone. And for what? Nothing.”