“Why?” I sniped. “So I can die for you like my mom did?”
It was a low, nasty blow, and Claudia winced before she could stop herself. But she recovered quickly.
“You claim to be a thief,” she said. “Yet you’ve managed to get out of one sticky situation after another over the past several days, with no thought for yourself or your own safety. Not to mention the fact that you’ve saved my son’s life time and time again. That is the kind of bravery and selflessness that I want in a member of the Sinclair Family.”
“I am a thief,” I snapped. “A very smart one. So why would I want to put my life on the line every single day for a bunch of people I don’t even know? Who don’t matter to me?”
“But you do know us, and we do matter to you,” Claudia said, her eyes glittering. “You know Felix and Oscar and Angelo and Reginald and the guards. And you know Devon.”
I snorted. “Something you obviously don’t approve of.”
She shrugged. “Maybe not initially. I supposed that I wanted to see how much like your mother you were.”
My eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”
She shrugged again. “I wanted to see if you were loyal. If you would hold up your end of our deal. If you would put other people first, like she did.”
“I am a thief,” I repeated. “Not some bodyguard, not your soldier, and especially not some assassin. Find someone else, anyone else but me.”
Claudia got to her feet and started pacing. “There is no one else. No one else who can help me do what needs to be done, and especially no one else I can fully trust.”
I laughed again, the sound teetering on a sneer. “Me? You’re going to trust me? I swiped silverware from your tea set the very first day I met you. And you think I’m trustworthy? Lady, you are off your rocker.”
“The Draconis have spies everywhere, including in our own Family. And after what happened with Grant . . .” Her voice trailed off.
“Ah. So I’m the lesser of two evils then.”
“More like many evils.”
My eyes narrowed. “And what makes you think I wouldn’t sell you out to some other Family?”
“Because if Serena told you anything at all, then she told you how dangerous the Draconis are, especially Victor.”
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.”