Magic Forged (Hall of Blood and Mercy #1)(10)

“But it seems you’ve misunderstood,” Mason continued. “If you don’t marry me, I’ll start killing off the House Medeis wizards one by one and take it by force instead. We’ll begin with…your friend.”

He glanced back over his shoulder, and two House Tellier wizards dragged Felix, still unconscious, up to him.

“Felix!” I lunged, but Mr. Baree caught me and held me back.

“You can’t, Adept.” Mr. Baree had to tip his head back to avoid my fists as I tried to thrash free. “If he gets you, it’s over.”

“He’s attacked the House—do you really think he’ll let Felix go?” I snapped.

“It doesn’t matter,” Mr. Baree firmly said. “The House comes before everything.”

The House!

I whipped my gaze back to Mason. He was holding a ball of magic that crackled like electricity as he curiously watched me, his hand hovering just over Felix’s heart.

“House Medeis,” I shouted. “Can’t you do something?”

The building rattled and groaned, but nothing happened.

“It can’t, in fact.” Mason still wore his usual smile, looking as kind and calm as he had at my parents’ funeral. “I waited just until you stretched its power to its weakest. You never Ascended and bonded with it, so there is very little it can do to protect you.”

I could hear my heartbeat in my eardrums.

How. How could this happen? It was unfathomable.

“Roy, did you get a hold of the others?” Mrs. Clark asked.

Mr. Baree shook his head.

“Felix!” Momoko shouted.

“Decide, Adept,” Mason said pleasantly. “Marry me, or Felix dies.”

I tried to wriggle in Mr. Baree’s grasp, but being part hulk and part bear he didn’t flinch, even when I elbowed him in the stomach.

Great Aunt Marraine leaned closer on the pretense of soothing me, but she spoke in a lowered voice. “What are the chances after he makes Hazel marry him he’ll force her to Ascend, and then have her killed?”

“If I agree it will buy us time,” I snapped. “He can’t make me Ascend tomorrow—we don’t have all my parents’ papers or the House signet ring!”

Mr. Baree barely moved his lips as he spoke, his eyes hooked on Mason. “You’re the last in your line, Adept. Your life isn’t something we can gamble with.”

“Adept, I’m waiting,” Mason warned, his voice losing its pleasant edge.

Momoko had turned around to watch us, but she exchanged a look with Mrs. Clark, lifted her chin, and moved to stand in front of the small huddle of House Medeis wizards. “You won’t get away with this, Mason.”

Mason raised an eyebrow. “What a cliché thing to say.”

“When the Regional Committee of Magic hears about this, they’ll arrest you!”

“No, actually, they won’t.” Mason flexed his fingers, but didn’t move them any closer to Felix’s chest. “The law states clearly that House inheritance must be handled within the House—the Regional Committee of Magic and our local Wizard Council aren’t allowed to interfere.”

Momoko scowled. “And the House Tellier rats aren’t ‘interfering’?”

“Hey!” Gideon scowled.

While Momoko continued to challenge Mason, the senior wizards kept up the whispered conversation.

“We have to get the Adept out,” Mrs. Clark said.

“Indeed,” Great Aunt Marraine agreed.

“We’ll cover your retreat, Hazel, while you run,” Mrs. Clark whispered. “Go to the Rothchilds. My car is parked at the end of the driveway. Here.” She discreetly pressed her car keys into my hands.

“I can’t leave you all like this,” I hissed.

“You have to,” Mr. Baree said. “Neither you nor the House has the ability to protect us, and the House must survive.”

I winced, but he was right. I hadn’t Ascended, so I couldn’t lean on the House for power, yet. I was in no condition to fight Mason. But I couldn’t abandon them. “How many will he kill?” I asked.

Great Aunt Marraine chuckled humorlessly. “With you gone and not around to threaten he won’t kill anyone. Harm, perhaps, but he is not so stupid to shed the blood of House Medeis wizards in House Medeis itself without the payout he wants. We can outlast him.”

I shook my head, but before I could stubbornly voice my discontent, Mr. Baree interrupted me. “You must leave us, Hazel. For the House.”

For the House.

In that moment, I hated House Medeis. It came before the people who were my family—which hurt something in my chest.

But as I looked from Great Aunt Marraine to Mr. Baree, I could see the determination in their eyes. They would sacrifice themselves for me. So that House Medeis would survive.

And just as I was powerless to protect them, I was equally powerless to stop them.

I gripped Mrs. Clark’s keys so hard they bit into my palm.

“Now!” Mrs. Clark barked.

Momoko burst forward, firing off her magic in shimmering clouds. One hit Gideon, who dropped to his knees with a mewl of pain.

Mr. Baree dragged me to the end of the hallway, plopping me down on a massive window seat. He unlocked one of the windows in the honey-comb shaped window seat and kicked out the screen.