Cold Burn of Magic(89)

I thought of the absolute cold, utter emptiness I had seen in Victor’s heart during the Families’ dinner. The cruelty that radiated off Blake like heat off the sun. And Deah . . . well, I didn’t know much about Deah, but she was one of them. When push came to shove, she’d most likely fall in line with the rest of her Family.

“Okay, I agree that the Draconis are dangerous.” I shook my head. “But there’s nothing I can do about that.”

“But don’t you want to avenge Serena?” Claudia asked in a soft voice. “Don’t you want to make Victor and Blake pay for what they did to your mother?”

My gaze locked onto my mom’s tombstone, and the pain of losing her hit me as hard as the moment I first opened my bedroom door and realized she was dead, tortured, murdered.

“Yes,” I said, my voice a hoarse rasp. “I want to make them pay for what they did to her. But I’m also smart enough to know I can’t do it by myself.”

“You don’t have to do it by yourself,” Claudia countered. “Not anymore. Not with me behind you. Not with the entire Family behind you.”

So just think of what you can do here, with all the magic, money, power, and resources of the Sinclair Family at your disposal, Mo’s voice whispered in my mind.

It was a tempting idea—so very, very tempting. Just like Claudia’s first offer to be Devon’s bodyguard had been. That offer had almost gotten me killed. Going up against the Draconis would surely be the death of me.

I shook my head again and surged to my feet. “Mo was right. I saved Devon, so we’re going to forget all about me working for you. I’m going back inside to pack my things, then I’m leaving. Don’t follow me, don’t try to find me, and don’t even think about asking Mo where I am. Just leave me alone, and I’ll do the same for you. Okay?”

I started down the aisle, heading out of the cemetery. I’d just put my hand on the wrought-iron gate to push it open, when Claudia spoke again.

“I know about your magic, Lila,” she said, her voice more steel than soft now. “About your soulsight . . . and your transference power.”

That was enough to stop me cold. I whirled around to face her.

Claudia slowly approached me, her green gaze level with mine. “Serena once told me that both Talents run in your family. Transference is one of the rarest Talents. A once-in-a-generation kind of power, if you believe some folks. People have tried to kidnap Devon to get his compulsion Talent. But your magic, Lila? People would do anything to get your transference Talent—anything. Especially someone like Victor Draconi.”

The truth of her words made my blood run colder than any magic ever had. It was the very thing my mom had drilled into my head over and over again—to hide my transference Talent no matter what.

“Victor collects Talents, you know,” Claudia continued in that same quiet, steely voice. “When one of his guards or a member of his Family displeases him, he doesn’t just kill them. Oh no. That would be too merciful. Instead, he rips their magic out of them and takes it for himself. He has quite a few Talents by now. That’s why he’s so powerful, and that’s why all the heads of the other Families are afraid of him. Because they know that he could kill them all, if he really wanted to. And the worst part is that Victor knows it, too—and it won’t be long before he finally does something about it.”

She tilted her head to the side, making her auburn hair spill over her shoulder. “And just think how much easier it would make things if he had your magic. No one would be able to stop him then.”

“Are you threatening me?” I asked. “Threatening to expose my Talent, my magic, just to get me to work for you? Because I don’t respond well to that sort of thing.”

She didn’t say anything.

“You know that you’d just be cutting your own throat, right? If you told Victor about my magic?”

Claudia shrugged again. I stared into her eyes and saw rock-hard determination. She wouldn’t like ratting me out, but she’d do it, if for no other reason than because I’d have to work for her just to have some sort of protection from the Draconis, just to save my own miserable skin.

I barked out a laugh. “Mom said you were the most ruthless, selfish, and coldhearted person she’d ever met.”

“And Serena wasn’t coldhearted enough,” Claudia snapped back. “That’s why she got into some of the . . . trouble that she did. Especially with your father. Did she tell you about him?”

“She told me how Romeo and Juliet they were,” I said, thinking of Felix and Deah. “How he was from a different Family and they weren’t supposed to be together and all the problems it caused.”

“That’s putting it mildly.” Claudia paused, as if debating whether to say more, but she must have changed her mind because she looked at me again. “But you are coldhearted enough, Lila. Ruthless enough. That’s why I need you. To help me protect Devon—to help me protect my Family.”

I was exactly what she said I was. Coldhearted, ruthless, selfish, and focused on my own survival, comfort, and well-being more than anything else. My feeding Grant and his men to the lochness last night had proved all of that.

My gaze moved past Claudia and focused on my mom’s tombstone. I thought back to what Mo had told me the first day I’d come to the Sinclair mansion—this was where my mom had wanted me to be, this was where I belonged. I didn’t know if Mo was right, but this was certainly where I was trapped, thanks to Claudia.