Dark Heart of Magic (Black Blade #2)(66)

“Why?”

“Just do it, kid,” Mo hissed.

Seleste marched over and grabbed my hands. “Darling! There you are! It’s so good to see you again!” she beamed at me, squeezing my hands tight in hers.

With her strength Talent, it felt like she was on the verge of cracking my bones. I winced, and she loosened her hold.

“Oops. Sorry. I don’t know my own strength sometimes.” She winked at me. “Just making sure that you were real. Sometimes, I have to do that, you know. I’m sure you remember that about me.”

“Um, okay.”

It seemed that she had mistaken me for my mom again, so it wasn’t hard to pretend to be confused. But why did she keep doing that? It wasn’t as if Seleste had actually known my mom . . . had she?

I frowned, but I didn’t have time to focus on the thought, not with Deah glaring daggers at me, and Victor and Blake striding over, scowls fixed on both of their faces.

Seleste kept staring at me, but Victor stopped and looked at Mo, his lips puckering in thought.

“Um, who are you?” I asked Seleste, keeping up the charade that I had never met her before.

Just like that, her sunny smile vanished, and utter misery filled her face. “You know exactly who I am. I’m Seleste, your best friend. Don’t you remember me?”

I looked at Mo for help. This time, I wasn’t faking it.

“Hello, Seleste,” he said in a soft, gentle voice. “I think you’re a little confused. I don’t think you’ve ever met Lila before. Lila Merriweather.”

He put a little extra emphasis on my fake last name. I didn’t know why, but it worked, and I could almost see the proverbial light bulb snap on above Seleste’s head.

She looked at him, then me, then back at him. “Oh. I guess you’re right. My mistake.”

She shrugged, then turned, looped her arms through Victor’s and Blake’s, and started skipping away with them. At least, she tried to. They weren’t having any of the skipping, but they let her drag them off into the crowd. Then again, they didn’t have much choice, with her strength magic pulling them along.

Deah stayed behind, though, and she turned her hot glare to me the second her father and brother were out of earshot. “Who does my mom keep confusing you with?”

Before I could think of some lie, Mo answered her. “Lila’s mother,” he said, still staring after Seleste. “Her name was Serena.”

Startled, I glanced at Mo. Why would he tell Deah my mom’s name? If she told Victor and he put two and two together, then he would know that I was Serena Sterling’s daughter. He might also realize that I knew he’d murdered my mom, and my anonymity, my only protection from him, would be gone.

Deah looked back and forth between Mo and me. “Is that name supposed to mean something to me?”

Mo gave her a sad smile and shook his head. “Of course not. But Serena was an old friend of your mom’s. I was Seleste’s friend too—before she married your father.”

He muttered the last few words, and Deah’s face tightened with even more anger.

“Well, whoever your mom was, stay away from mine,” Deah snapped.

“Don’t worry about that,” I snapped back. “That crazy lady is all yours.”

Her hands clenched into fists, and her blue gaze slammed into mine, letting me feel all of her white-hot rage and how protective she was of her mom.

“My mom is awesome,” Deah snarled. “She just happens to see the world a little differently from everyone else. But that doesn’t make her crazy, and it certainly doesn’t give you or anyone else the right to make fun of her. So why don’t you keep your snotty opinions to yourself.”

I held up my hands. I wasn’t going to argue with her anymore. There was no point in it. Besides, she was right. I didn’t have the right to make fun of Seleste, and I was ashamed that I had. Mocking people was something that Blake always did, and I had zero desire to be anything like him.

Deah glared at me another second, then stormed away.

The second she was gone, I turned to Mo. “Why did you tell her Mom’s name? Why would you do that?”

Mo tipped his white straw hat back on his head. “I know, I know, it was stupid. It’s just that I hadn’t seen Seleste in so long. Most of the time, Victor keeps her locked up in one of the towers in the Draconi castle. Besides, I wanted to give her and Deah some kind of explanation.”

My eyes narrowed. “How do you know Seleste anyway?”

He stared after the Draconis instead of looking me in the eye. “We used to be friends. Way back when we were about your age.”

“Who was friends?”

“Me, Claudia, Seleste, and your mom. Well, really, it was the girls who were tight. I was more friends with Serena than anyone else. And, of course, Claudia and I weren’t friends at all after we stopped dating.”

My mouth dropped open. “You and Claudia dated?”

“Yeah,” Mo said in a distracted voice. “For a while. Before she met Lawrence, Devon’s dad.”

I’d always thought that Mo and Claudia had some past connection, but I never thought it was something like this. Calm, serious Claudia with cheery, boisterous Mo? I just couldn’t picture them together. But if they’d broken up way back when, it would explain the tension between them now.