Dark Heart of Magic (Black Blade #2)(93)

They both seemed so young in the photo, although they must have been about the same age as I was now. And they seemed so happy, smiling at each other, their arms slung around each other’s shoulders. Whatever happened from here on out, I was going to take Seleste’s advice—I wasn’t going to fight with my friends, and I especially wasn’t going to fight with Deah. She was my cousin, my family, my blood, and we would need all the help we could get to defeat Victor.

“So what do we do now that we know Victor’s plan?” Devon asked, breaking the silence. “Do we tell the other Families and try to form some sort of alliance?”

“No,” Claudia said. “That would just cause a panic. The fewer people who know about Victor’s secret room and what’s in it, the better.”

“But we have to do something,” Devon protested. “We just can’t sit around and wait for Victor to decide to use those weapons against us.”

I set the picture of my mom and Seleste back down on the shelf, making sure it was straight, then turned to face the others. “Don’t worry about the black blades. I know exactly what to do about them.”

Claudia arched her eyebrows. “And what is this brilliant plan of yours?”

“It’s not a plan. It’s what I do best.”

I looked at Mo, and he grinned, picking up on my train of thought.

“Just like the Parker job?” he asked.

“Exactly.”

Claudia frowned. “What’s the Parker job? Or do I even want to know?”

“It’s an assignment I sent Lila out on last year,” Mo said. “This guy named Parker had bought a very nice diamond necklace for his wife, one that I had a buyer for. But Parker was mobbed up with the Draconis, so we couldn’t steal the necklace without some serious consequences.”

“So what did you do?” Devon asked.

Mo pointed at me, still grinning. “Lila had the bright idea to, shall we say, replace Parker’s necklace with one that I ordered from a jeweler in Cypress Mountain.”

Claudia tilted her head to the side. “Lila stole the real necklace and replaced it with a fake.”

Mo nodded. “And Parker and his wife still don’t know the difference. She wears that necklace all the time to Family events. And I laugh to myself every single time I see all those fake diamonds flashing around her neck.”

Claudia and Devon looked at me, questions in their eyes.

“We’re going to do the same exact thing to Victor.” I grinned. “We’re going to steal all of those black blades and replace them with fakes. By the time he realizes the difference, it will be too late—for him.”





Read on for a peek at Bright Blaze of Magic, coming in May 2016.




“You are the worst thief I have ever seen.”

Felix Morales frowned, stopped walking, and dropped the large black duffel bag he was carrying on the ground. I winced at the clank-clank of the items inside the bag banging together.

“Why would you say that?” he asked.

“Oh, I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe the fact that you’re tromping through the woods like you are trying to kill every single blade of grass under your feet. Not to mention hacking through the bushes with your sword like we’re on a jungle safari. And then of course, there’s the talking. There is always the talking. It’s a wonder you don’t pass out from lack of oxygen.”

Felix’s eyes narrowed. “And what is wrong with having a little light conversation while we hike through the woods?”

“Light conversation? You’ve been talking nonstop ever since we left the mansion.”

“So?”

I threw my hands up in the air. “So you actually have to stop talking and be quiet to be a thief! That’s why!”

Felix gave me a mulish look and started to cross his arms over his chest—until he realized that he was still holding on to his sword, the one he’d been swinging around like a machete for the past twenty minutes. He glared at me, but he finally slid the weapon into the scabbard belted to his waist. Well, that would cut down on some of the noise. Now, if I just had some duct tape for his mouth....

Felix stabbed his finger at the guy standing with us, who was busy setting his own black duffel bag on the ground, although with far less noise than Felix had made. “And why aren’t you lecturing him about being quiet?”

“Because Devon can actually walk through the woods without cracking every single branch he steps on.”

Felix snorted. “You’re just saying that because the two of you have been sneaking around the mansion sucking face for the last two weeks.”

I tensed, still not used to having a relationship with a guy, much less talking about it with that guy’s best friend. But Devon Sinclair stepped up and slung his arm around my waist, pulling me close.

“And it’s been the best two weeks of my life,” he said, grinning at me.

With his black hair, bronze skin, and dark, soulful eyes, Felix was undeniably cute, but Devon was the one who made my heart race like a tree troll hopping from one branch to another. The setting sun filtering in through the leaves brought out the rich honey highlights in Devon’s dark, chocolate-brown hair, even as it cast his handsome face in shadows. But it was his eyes that always hypnotized me—eyes that were the same deep, dark evergreen as the forest around us.