“Yeah,” Mo said in a distracted voice. “For a while. Before she met Lawrence, Devon’s dad.”
I’d always thought that Mo and Claudia had some past connection, but I never thought it was something like this. Calm, serious Claudia with cheery, boisterous Mo? I just couldn’t picture them together. But if they’d broken up way back when, it would explain the tension between them now.
Mo kept staring in the direction that Seleste and Deah had gone, his eyes dark with memories and feelings he wouldn’t let me see. After several seconds, he shook his head, as if clearing the cobwebs of the past out of his mind, and plastered a smile on his face.
“But that’s all over with now, kid. How about I buy you a funnel cake? With tons of powdered sugar, just the way you like it? You’re going to need a sugar buzz before the final matches start.”
I frowned. Mo loved money as much as I did, and he never, ever offered to buy me anything unless he was trying to distract me. I wondered what had happened between him, my mom, Claudia, and Seleste, and why there was still so much secrecy and tension about it even now. But he’d changed the subject, which meant that the conversation was closed. Besides, I was never one to turn down free food.
“Sure,” I said. “A funnel cake sounds great.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Mo and I went out into the fairgrounds, where he bought me the biggest funnel cake we could find. He started talking to some folks he knew from the Ito Family, and I finished my cake, murmured my excuses, and drifted away from him.
I had some time before the final matches started, so I wandered through the fairgrounds, looking at all the cheesy carnival games, T-shirts, flags, and more. If it was cheap, tacky, and brighter than a flashing neon sign, you could buy it here. The vendors called out to me, hawking their wares and trying to get me to play their games, but I ignored them.
I ended up on the edge of the fairgrounds, staring out toward the lake and trying to make sense of everything that had happened over the past few days, from the murdered tree trolls to Seleste’s strange behavior to all the secrets Mo wasn’t telling me.
The deep blue of the water shimmered in the distance, but instead of concentrating on the pretty scene, I started walking along one of the cobblestone paths until I reached the tree line.
My thoughts turned to Vance, and the image of his cut-up body filled my mind. I wasn’t anywhere close to where he had been murdered, but I still found myself peering through the branches, wondering who had killed him and why. Why had the killer taken Vance’s Talents instead of someone else’s, someone with much stronger magic? And how did all the murdered monsters fit into this? Or were they even connected to Vance at all?
My mind spun around and around, trying to figure things out. But there were no answers to be found in the dappled shade of the woods, so I turned to head back.
And that’s when I heard the giggles.
Giggles? Out here in the woods?
I was still wearing my sword, and my hand dropped to the weapon’s hilt, despite the seemingly innocent sounds. I crept a little closer to the trees, tilting my head to the side, listening and looking into the thin afternoon shadows. The crack-crack-crack of twigs crunching underfoot sounded, along with more giggles. Through the trees, I spotted two figures heading toward me.
A second later, Blake stepped out of the woods about ten feet away from my position. And he wasn’t alone—Katia was with him.
From their rumpled clothes and Katia’s messy hair, it was obvious what they’d been doing. They saw me at the same time I did them, and the three of us stopped and stared at each other.
“Sorry,” I said. “I was just taking a walk before the tournament starts up again.”
Blake snorted. “Sure you were. Or maybe you just like to watch, you freak.”
He shoved past me, driving his shoulder into mine and nearly knocking me down, but I ground my teeth together and held my tongue. The tournament was supposed to resume in fifteen minutes, and I didn’t need to get into a fight with Blake right now.
Katia pulled her dark red hair back into a ponytail and smoothed some of the wrinkles out of her white sleeveless shirt. Then she lifted her chin, marched over, and stopped in front of me.
“Go ahead,” she said. “You look like you want to say something.”
I shrugged. “It’s not really my place to say anything.”
Her hazel eyes glittered, and she crossed her arms over her chest. “Say it anyway.”
I sighed. “I know you’re upset about Felix, but messing around with Blake won’t make you feel any better in the long run. Blake is not a nice guy.”
She shrugged back at me. “Maybe I’m tired of nice guys. After all, Felix was a nice guy . . . until he wasn’t. Besides, how do you know what would make me feel better? You’re too chicken to even do anything with Devon.”