Deah crept in behind her father and brother, her head down, her shoulders slumped. She shot Felix a quick glance that was full of sorrow, worry, and misery. Felix glanced down at his phone, then back at her, his eyebrows knitting together in confusion. She must not have texted or called him about what was happening. I wondered why she hadn’t tried to warn him and the rest of us.
Victor and Blake strode out into the middle of the restaurant, but Deah stayed back against the wall, her hand curled around the hilt of the sword belted to her waist, staring at the Draconi guards instead of the other folks in the restaurant, as if she knew that her own Family members were the greatest danger to her.
When she realized that the guards were ignoring her, Deah glanced around the restaurant, and her eyes finally met mine. Her worry, fear, guilt, and dread punched me in the chest one after another, but I pushed her tense emotions aside and tipped my head at the guard closest to me, discreetly pointing at the sword in his hand.
Deah frowned, but then she realized what I was asking and gave me a short, sharp nod. So our plan had worked, and the guards were carrying the weapons that had been stored in Victor’s secret room. That meant that some of the guards were clutching real, magic-filled black blades, the source of the cold power that I’d sensed earlier and could still feel. But most of them were just holding regular old swords and daggers, which meant we still had a chance to fight back and get out of here alive.
I nodded back at Deah, then focused on Victor, since he was the one in charge. Even I had to admit that he was a handsome man, with a lean, trim figure and thick, wavy, golden hair that was brushed back from his forehead. His eyes were golden too, but instead of being warm and welcoming, they reminded me of coins that had been left outside in a blizzard—completely, utterly cold.
I knew better than anyone else that the eyes were truly the windows to the soul and that despite his handsome exterior, Victor was as black and rotten as they came on the inside, with the darkest heart I’d ever seen.
Victor was the only Draconi who wasn’t carrying a weapon. Then again, he didn’t need to; a cold chill of magic continually blasted off his body. Victor’s own magic was greater than that of any of the black blades in the restaurant, and it made goosebumps rise on my skin in a way that the other stolen magic didn’t. Maybe that was because I knew how horribly he’d tortured other people to get so much magic and so many Talents.
White stars winked on and off in my field of vision, and for a moment, the image of my mom’s broken, bloody body filled my mind. Her arms and legs bent at awkward angles, the deep, vicious stab wounds in her chest, all the horrible cuts and gashes and slashes that marred her skin, her mouth frozen open in one last helpless scream....
I blinked and blinked, forcing away the white stars and the horrible memories they brought along with them. Now was not the time to let my soulsight magic throw me back into the past and make me relive my mom’s murder. Not if I wanted to survive this and help my friends do the same.
“Good,” Victor said in a deep, silky voice, clear menace rumbling through each and every one of his words. “I’m so glad that we aren’t late to the party.”
He waved his hand and all the Draconis snapped up their weapons to an attention stance, including Blake and Deah. Blake realized that I was staring at him and he sneered back at me. My hands curled into fists. When the fighting started, he’d come after me sooner or later. Good. Let him come. I’d show him that I didn’t need a weapon to take him down.
Hiroshi Ito stepped to the front of the crowd. “Victor!” he barked out. “What is the meaning of this?”
Victor gave him a cold look. “The meaning is that from this night on, there’s only going to be one Family in Cloudburst Falls—the Draconi Family.” He looked out over the crowd, his gaze flicking from one face to another. “I’m giving everyone in this room a choice. Join my Family, become a Draconi, and swear your allegiance to me right here and now.”
“Or what?” Hiroshi barked again.
Victor gave him another cold look, as if the answer was obvious. “Or die.”
Even though everyone knew he was going to say something like that, shocked gasps still rang out, and excited, worried chatter rippled through the crowd. I ignored it all and looked around, glancing at first one Draconi, then another, trying to sense exactly which guards had real black blades and which ones didn’t.