Bright Blaze of Magic
Page 51

I had to help Devon, but I couldn’t just go barging outside right into the middle of all the Draconis. They’d kill me in a second, then turn their swords on Devon. No, I had to be clever about things.
And the best way to do that would be by hiding in plain sight, just like Deah and I had out on the Midway.
The Draconi guard I’d knocked out earlier was still sprawled across the floor near the front of the warehouse. So I rolled him over onto his side, stripped off his red cloak, and put it on over my blue coat. Then I grabbed his red cavalier hat from where it had fallen to the floor and stuffed my black ponytail underneath it. I also snatched the gold cuff off the guard’s wrist and clamped it onto mine, above my own silver Sinclair cuff. Hopefully, no one would look at me closely enough to wonder why I was wearing the crests of two different Families.
Once my hasty disguise was complete, I opened the warehouse door another couple of inches and slipped outside onto the street with everyone else. All the guards were so focused on Devon and making sure that he didn’t escape that no one gave me a second look. I eased up behind two guards, then slowly tiptoed to my right, moving around the circle of them until I was standing off to Devon’s right. I’d only have one chance to break through the ring of men and get him to safety, and I wasn’t going to fail. Not at this.
Devon was not going to die like my mom had.
I glanced around, looking at the part of the ring where the guards were the thinnest, then at the surrounding streets. I didn’t see Oscar anywhere, but hopefully, the pixie was waiting for the best time to strike, just like I was. In the distance, Felix peered around the corner of the warehouse and flashed me a thumbs-up, telling me that the others had gotten to safety and that he and the guards were waiting back there. Now all I had to do was get Devon away from the Draconis, down the street, and around the corner, and we could escape with everyone else. Once we were all together, we could plan our next move and everything would be okay again.
Or at least as okay as it could get in the middle of an all-out mob war.
“Why do you hate us so much anyway?” Devon asked, stalling for time. “What did the Sinclairs ever do to you?”
Victor’s mouth twisted and anger flashed in his golden eyes. “It wasn’t all the Sinclairs. Just one of you. A girl named Serena Sterling. A long time ago, she interfered with my plans, tried to stop me from taking over this town. She actually succeeded too—for a time. But she’s gone now, as dead as dead can be, and nothing is going to stand in my way. Especially not you, boy.”
He snapped his fingers at his guards again. “Take him alive, and bring me the weapons.”
That was my cue. Even as the guard closest to me raised his weapon, I stepped up and rammed my sword into the man’s side. He screamed and fell to the ground, and I leaped over him and stabbed another guard, then another one, trying to take out as many men as I could before I lost the element of surprise.
And I wasn’t the only one.
Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a flash of silver. A guard yelped and clapped a hand to his neck, as though he’d been stung by a bee. But it wasn’t a bee, it was Oscar with his pixie sword—one that was dipped in copper crusher venom. The guard’s eyes rolled up into the back of his head and he fell to the ground convulsing. Oscar saluted me with his sword, then zipped through the air to stab another guard.
For a moment, the other Draconis were frozen in place, wondering what was going on and why one of their own was attacking them, but then I stepped up next to Devon and whipped off my cavalier hat, and everyone realized that I wasn’t one of them.
“Lila!” Devon shouted. “Lila!”
I grinned at him. “At your service. Now what do you say we get out of here?”
He grinned back. “Why, I thought you’d never ask.”
Devon moved so that we were standing back to back, and together we fought the Draconis, with Oscar darting in and stabbing the guards whenever and wherever he could. Everything else disappeared except for the feel of Devon’s warm back pressed against my own, my sword in my hand, and the blur of red-cloaked guards in front of me. I whipped my sword back and forth again and again, clearing a path through the ring of men. All we had to do was break free of them, run down the street, get to the corner, and we’d be safe.
Unless Victor decided to unleash his lightning on us first.
I kept looking past the guards in front of me, waiting for him to do that very thing, but Victor stood back out of the way, his gaze locked on the bag of weapons still sitting in the street right in the middle of the fight, more interested in the black blades than anything else. Apparently, he thought his guards could handle us and he didn’t feel the need to help them. Yet.
Devon cut down the man in front of him, finally slipping out of the ring of guards. He saw Felix waving to him at the corner and sprinted in that direction. I made a move to follow him.
But Blake had other ideas and he shoved his own men out of the way so that he could step up and fight me.
“I’m going to kill you if it’s the last thing I do!” he screamed.
“Bring it on!” I yelled back at him.
Blake screamed, charged forward, and slammed his sword into mine. He hit my weapon again and again, trying to use his strength magic to overwhelm me so that he could ram his sword through my chest. But every time his sword struck mine, all he did was feed me more and more of his own power, until my body was so cold with magic that my breath frosted in the air.
As much as I wanted to stay and fight Blake, the most important thing right now was getting out of here. So I lashed out with my foot, tripping Blake and making him stumble past me. I turned to run, but another guard stepped up to block my path, cutting me off from Devon, who finally realized that I wasn’t behind him. He turned around, halfway between me and Felix standing at the curb, with Oscar hovering in the air beside him.
Felix kept yelling and gesturing for Devon to run, but Devon only had eyes for me. He stopped, turned around, and started to head back to help me.
And that’s when Victor finally decided to get into the fight.
He casually waved his hand, sending a streak of white lighting zipping down the street in Devon’s direction. Devon’s eyes widened, but he managed to throw himself to one side, out of the way of the blast. He got right back up on his feet, though, and started toward me again.
Felix sprinted down the street, grabbed him from behind, and started dragging Devon back toward the corner, even though Devon was struggling with every step. In the distance, I heard the low, throaty rumbles of several cars roaring to life. Angelo and Reginald must have found the Draconi vehicles parked on the streets around the warehouse. Mo would know how to hot-wire the cars, since he’d shown me the same trick long ago.