Magic Forged (Hall of Blood and Mercy #1)(48)

That was the silver lining, I suppose. Keeping their magic blocked was cruel, but if it meant he wasn’t hurting them, and if it gave them a little more freedom, that was better than the alternative.

I rubbed my forehead. “If you have the bracelets he can’t expect you to fight back, so he’s not torturing you or anything…right?”

They exchanged glances, instantly raising my hackles.

If they were trying to decide how much to tell me, that meant it was a lot worse than they were letting on.

“It’s getting worse the longer it’s taking him to seize control,” Momoko finally said.

“The Wizard Council have announced they’re not going to move to stop him—they called it an ‘in-house’ issue that should be solved by those of us in House Medeis—which is ridiculous since they know House Tellier is helping Mason,” Felix bitterly said.

“But! He’s hit a wall.” Momoko grinned mischievously. “Your parents’ human lawyers. The firm won’t proceed with the will without you there—they actually had the police come and threaten to arrest Mason when he came to their offices to try and convince them to give him all the papers and the signet ring. He had to leave because if he got arrested then the Curia Cloisters would certainly get involved because of the bad publicity.”

I placed my hands on my hips. “You said your parents are covering for you…so you’re planning to go back, aren’t you?”

“We have to,” Momoko said. “For the good of the House.”

I slightly shook my head. “But if things get worse—”

“We can’t go anywhere else, Hazel,” Felix said. “House Medeis is our home. We want to stop Mason. You’re safe, which is the highest priority. We can ride everything out from there. You just need to stay safe—and maybe see if you are sealed after all.”

Momoko nodded and forcibly smoothed her jeans with her hands. “Felix is right. We’ll be fine—it’s not like we can help Mason take over the House.”

“Yes, but—” I started.

Felix mulishly tucked his chin, and I could tell we were about to have an argument, when the door banged open behind me.

“Wizard,” Killian said, his voice like melted chocolate. “You’ve wasted enough time visiting. You need to continue your training: I have an experiment I want to try.”

I warily looked up at the vampire. “Experiment? With training?”

“Don’t worry your head about it.” Killian glanced briefly at my friends before writing them off in under a second. Without waiting for a response, he grabbed the collar of my suitcoat and dragged me behind him.

“Bye guys—don’t risk yourselves for the House,” I called to them as Killian towed me to the parlor door.

Both Felix and Momoko stared at me with open shock, their mouths dropped.

“Tell everyone I love them—oh, and do you think you could maybe bring my cellphone and wallet if you can sneak out to see me again?”

Felix appeared at the doorframe as Killian hauled me down the hallway. “Can’t do it,” Felix called. “Mason went through your room and confiscated all your stuff—phone and wallet included.”

“Why is he always so thorough? Ugh! In that case, I’ll call you on the Drake Hall phone line when I get a chance. Be safe!” I had to shout louder as Killian dragged me farther from the parlor. “Could you wait a moment?” I tried to maneuver so he didn’t strangle me with my shirt collar.

“No.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’ll walk, just let me go.”

Killian gave me one last tug, then abruptly released me so I almost lost my balance. I quickly recovered and hurried after him, trying to adjust my coat back into place. “What’s the training? More weightlifting?”

“Not this time.” When we reached a staircase, Killian led me up rather than going down below to all the training rooms.

I followed in silence until we reached the second story. “Thank you for letting me talk to my friends.”

He started climbing the set of stairs that took us up to the third floor. “I didn’t do anything.”

“No, but you allowed it, and you didn’t have to. I appreciate it.” I was mildly confused when he had us keep going past the third floor and climb the stairs to the final floor—where more of the vampires lived. I would have said it was where the top ranked vampires were, but since Josh was on the third floor with me, that couldn’t be true.

Killian elegantly shrugged, looking a bit like a model—which seemed despicable to me, but magic, and supernaturals as an extension, by its very existence made things not fair, so whatever.

I studied Killian’s back, trying to gauge his reaction. “I’m guessing you don’t care about Mason or what’s going on with House Medeis?”

“Definitely not,” Killian scoffed. He led the way down a hallway, stopping to open a door to an empty bedroom. We marched through it, and Killian opened the glass patio doors to a small balcony.

It was already pretty dark outside because of the clouds, but I still saw a bunch of vampires standing outside, carrying the special sun-blocking umbrellas they have everywhere in the mansion.

I peered over the patio ledge at them, mildly confused. “I don’t get it, how am I supposed to train up here on the patio?”