Cold Burn of Magic(87)

We both walked over and sat down on the bench. Despite the heat of the day, the stone was cool, thanks to the shadows that cloaked this part of the cemetery. Neither one of us spoke for several minutes, and the only sounds were the faint cries of the birds and the trolls in the trees and the rustle of the summer breeze through the thick branches.

“How long have you known?” I finally asked.

“That you were really Lila Sterling? Daughter of Serena Sterling, the woman who used to be one of my best friends?” Claudia asked.

I winced and nodded.

“I realized it when I watched you fight Felix and Devon. You moved and attacked just like she used to do. I had my suspicions then, and they were confirmed the second I realized you were wearing that.” Claudia reached over and tapped my sapphire ring. “Although I’ll admit that I should have known the moment Mo told me your name. Merriweather was—”

“My grandma’s maiden name. We stayed with her a lot when I was a kid.”

I thought I’d been so clever, hiding who I really was from Claudia, but she’d known all along. I wondered if that was the reason she’d forced me to become Devon’s bodyguard, so she could keep an eye on me. Probably.

Claudia was silent for a moment. “What did your mother tell you? About the Family? About . . . me?”

“Everything,” I said. “She never hid it from me. I knew that she used to be a member of the Sinclair Family, that the two of you were close, and that she left the Family because of some fight you two had right before I was born. She said the two of you didn’t speak much after that.”

“That sounds about right.”

I could have told her more, about everything my mom had done for the Family and all the bodies she’d helped Claudia bury—literally and otherwise—but I wanted to keep at least some of my secrets to myself.

“Where did you go?” she asked. “After your mother left the Family? What did the two of you do?”

I shrugged. “We moved around a lot during the fall and winter. Ashland, Bigtime, Cypress Mountain. We stayed lots of places. Mom hired herself out as a guard to rich families, helped folks deal with their monster problems, things like that. The same things she used to do for you. Sometimes, she was just a thief, stealing art, cars, jewelry, or whatever, through the connections and jobs that Mo sent her way.”

“But?” Claudia asked.

I drew in a breath. “But we always came back to Cloudburst Falls in the summer. Mom said this was home, and that it always would be. As soon as I finished school for the year, Mom would pack us up and bring us here. She’d rent out some dinky little apartment in a neighborhood where no one would notice us, and we’d go out exploring, every single day. On the Midway, up the mountain, out to the lake and the beach. We’d eat ice cream and play games and go to the library and visit all the arcades, parks, and museums. It was always the best summer vacation.” My voice dropped to a whisper. “It was the thing I looked forward to the most, every single year. Even more than Christmas and my birthday.”

Claudia sighed. “Until the day Devon and I were attacked in the Midway.”

“Yeah. When Mom saved you.”

“I saw her that day. Just for a second. I thought she was a ghost or some figment of my imagination. Until I heard that her body had been found.”

Stars flashed on and off at the edge of my vision, threatening to surge into that wall of white and throw me back into the past, but I blinked and blinked until the stars disappeared, and I was firmly in the present once more.

“I know Victor Draconi murdered her,” Claudia said, her voice as cold and flat as my heart felt. “He’d heard a rumor about Devon’s compulsion magic, and he wanted to see if it was true. His men were the ones who attacked us that day. They would have killed me and kidnapped Devon, if not for your mother.”

I frowned. “But that was four years ago. Hasn’t Victor tried again? Hasn’t he sent more men after Devon?”

“No. Not since that day.”

A thought occurred to me. “That’s why everyone thinks that Devon doesn’t have any magic. That’s why he doesn’t use his compulsion Talent in front of anyone. To keep Victor from trying again.”

She nodded. “I managed to find the source of the rumor and . . . persuade him to tell Victor that he’d been mistaken.”

I wondered how painful that sort of persuasion had been, but I didn’t ask.

“Victor circled around for a while, but he eventually came to believe that Devon didn’t have any magic, so he moved on. Devon has been safe ever since. Until Grant, at least.”

I nodded and dropped my hand to my mom’s sword, tracing over the star in the hilt with my index finger. Her sapphire ring sparkled and flashed at the motion.

“Did Victor kill Serena himself or have it done?”

I’d expected the question, but I still tensed, and my hand curled around the hilt of the sword again.

“Himself,” I whispered, thinking of that bloody silk handkerchief fluttering into the gutter. “Blake was there, too.”

“Tell me about it.”

“No,” I snapped in a harsh voice. “You don’t get to hear about that. Not today. Maybe not ever.”

Claudia eyed my tight face, stiff shoulders, and hand clenched around the sword. “Very well. Do you blame me and Devon for her death?”