Dark Heart of Magic
Page 7

I focused on the sword belted to her waist, admiring the wolf scrollwork that covered the hilt. A black blade like that was worth even more than her necklace. And the girl carried herself in a confident manner that said she knew exactly how to use the weapon.
Devon smiled back at the girl, and the two of them exchanged a quick hug. “Katia. It’s nice to see you again.”
Deah noticed me frowning at them. She raised her eyebrow and smirked, clearly realizing that I was jealous. I ignored her.
Katia turned to Felix and gave him a slow, lingering smile that deepened her dimples. “Hey, Felix.”
“I . . . uh. . . .” Felix’s mouth kept opening and closing, and opening and closing, as though the sight of her stunned him so much that he couldn’t form a single coherent thought.
Something that made Deah frown and me smirk at her.
“Hey, Katia,” Felix finally mumbled.
Despite the fact that his clothes were still slathered with persimmon pulp from our encounter with the tree troll, Katia went over, opened her arms, and enfolded Felix in a tight hug that went on . . . and on . . . and on . . . before she pulled back and kissed his cheek.
Deah’s expression cranked up from frown to all-out glower. I smirked at her again, and she focused her glare on me for a moment before turning it back to Katia.
But Katia didn’t seem to notice the other girl’s hostile expression, and she nodded at Deah and Blake. A wink of light caught my eye, and I realized that Katia was wearing a silver cuff stamped with a wolf’s head. So she belonged to the Volkov Family. Weird. I’d never seen her around before, and I’d made it a point to know all the guards and important members of the Families, so I wouldn’t be tempted to steal from the wrong person when I was picking pockets on the Midway.
Devon realized that I didn’t know who the girl was, and he held out his hand, pointing to her, then me. “Katia Volkov, this is Lila Merriweather. Lila, Katia.”
“Nice to meet you,” Katia said, smiling.
I nodded. “You too.”
“Katia lives up north in New York, near Bigtime,” Devon explained. “Carl, her dad, is Nikolai Volkov’s brother. Carl and Katia head up the Family branch where they live.”
“A much smaller branch, from the rumors I’ve heard,” Blake piped up. “It’s just you and your dad now, right?”
Katia’s smile slipped a bit. “Yeah. Just us now.”
“Come to town for the tournament?” Devon asked.
Katia’s unease melted away, and her face warmed again. “Yep, representing the Volkovs. Are you competing again this year?”
Devon nodded. “I am.”
Blake snorted. “Not that he has any chance of winning.” He slung his arm around his sister’s shoulder. “In case you all have forgotten, Deah is the defending champion, and she’s the favorite to win the tournament again this year.”
Deah shrugged off his arm, then looked at Katia. “But you gave me a really good fight last year.”
Her voice wasn’t unkind, but Katia’s smile vanished, and she didn’t respond. Nobody liked to be reminded that she’d lost.
I hated to be a totally clueless tourist rube, but I had no idea what they were talking about. “Um, what tournament?”
All five of them looked at me like they couldn’t believe I’d asked that question.
“The Tournament of Blades,” Devon said. “The Families sponsor it every summer.”
“Yeah,” Felix added. “Several people are picked from each Family, and they all compete out at the fairgrounds until there’s just one person left.”
“Oh. That.”
I did know what they were talking about—I’d just never actually gone to the tournament. I’d asked my mom once if we could go, the last summer she’d been alive, but she’d told me no, that there was too great a risk of someone from one of the Families recognizing her. She’d left the Sinclairs and Cloudburst Falls before I’d been born, and she had never let anyone except for Mo know that we came back to town every summer.
After she’d been murdered, I’d been so busy getting shipped from one foster home to another, then striking out on my own and trying to steal enough to make ends meet, that I hadn’t paid much attention to the tournament, except for all the extra tourists it brought to town, giving me more phones and cameras to swipe and take to Mo to fence.
“You seem to know an awful lot about the tournament, Morales,” Blake sneered, “for someone who’s never actually entered.”
Felix’s hands clenched into fists again, and an embarrassed blush spread across his cheeks.
“And you talk a lot for someone whose kid sister beat him out at the tournament last year,” I shot right back.
Blake opened his mouth to make some snide remark, but Deah put her hand on his arm.
“Let’s go,” she said. “We’ve wasted enough time with these losers. We need to practice for the tournament, remember?”
“Yeah. Right.”
But Blake wasn’t nearly as enthusiastic about the contest as he’d been before. He glowered at me again; then he and Deah headed down the path away from us.
Devon, Felix, and Katia all relaxed as soon as the Draconis vanished from view, but I kept glaring at the spot where Blake had disappeared.
Katia wrinkled her nose. “Um, what’s that smell?”
Felix winced. “Oh, that’s us. We were dealing with a tree troll earlier.”
“We were just on our way back to the mansion to get cleaned up,” Devon said.
Katia nodded. “Maybe we can catch up tomorrow then.”
She might have been talking to Devon, but she looked at Felix as she said the words.
“Sure,” Felix said. “That would be great. Just text me.”
“I’ll do that.”
Katia leaned over and kissed him on the cheek again. She gave him another bright smile, waved goodbye to Devon and me, and moved off into the crowd.
Devon and I waited until she was gone before we both looked at Felix.
“What’s your girlfriend going to think about Katia?” Devon asked in an amused voice.
“Shut up,” Felix growled and stomped away.
“What was that all about?” I asked.
Devon grinned. “Felix and Katia spent a lot of time together during the tournament last year.”