“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?”
“Yes.”
She pinched her lips together, and hurt flickered in her eyes before she could hide it—hurt and the same deep, aching, bone-weary guilt that Devon always felt.
I sighed. “No, I don’t blame you. Not anymore. Saving you and Devon . . . it’s just what my mom did. What she was hardwired to do. She was a good thief, but Mo said she was better at protecting people. He was right. If it hadn’t been you, it would have been somebody else.”
“But it was us,” Claudia said. “And I am sorrier about that than you will ever know.”
I shrugged. Sorry never changed anything.
“I knew that Serena had a daughter, although I didn’t know your name. But after your mom died, I looked everywhere for you,” she said in a quiet voice. “I had the guards scouring the Midway for lost or hurt girls. I searched for weeks, but there was never a sign of you.”
“I didn’t want to be found. Mo helped me with that. He forged some documents with the Merriweather name and put me into foster care. That didn’t work out so well, so I decided to look after myself.”
Claudia gazed at me. “Why didn’t you come here? Why didn’t you come to me? Surely, Serena told you I would help you, that I would protect you, no matter what.”
“She did. After the attack in the Midway, on our way back to our apartment, she told me if something happened and we got separated, I should come here to you, that you would take me in.”
“So why didn’t you?”
“Because I didn’t want to have anything to do with you,” I snapped. “Not when you and Devon were the reason she was dead.”
Once again, that guilt flared in her eyes, and once again, I felt like a total bitch.
“Look,” I said. “I’m sorry. I don’t blame you for her death. Really, I don’t. Not anymore. But I don’t want to get caught up in your world, either. In your fights and feuds with the other Families. I’ve been here a little more than a week, and I’ve had more than enough of that already. I’ll be lucky if Blake doesn’t corner me in a dark alley someday and beat me to death.”
Claudia clasped her hands together. “Yes, the Draconis were something else I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Victor is planning something. Some move against you and the other Families.”
She shrugged. “He’s been doing that for as long as I remember. But you’re right. This is something . . . different. Something . . . darker. Which is where you come in.”
“Really? Why is that?”
Claudia looked at me. “Because I want you to stay with the Family, Lila. I want you to truly become a Sinclair. And most of all, I want you to help me destroy Victor Draconi.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
I laughed. “Me? Join a Family for real? Your Family? And take out Victor Draconi? I can’t decide which idea is more ridiculous.”
Her lips pinched together again, and she crossed her arms over her chest. “I assure you I am perfectly serious.”