She whipped her sword out in a quick counterstrike, although it wasn’t nearly as vicious as her brother’s attack had been. Blake dodged her blow and came right back at her, attacking her with all the skill and strength magic he had. But Deah was the far better fighter, and she parried his blows with ease, using her mimic magic to copy and counter every single one of his moves, even as her face grew harder and tighter with each of Blake’s charges.
Her own brother was trying to kill her and it was breaking her heart, one clash of their swords at a time. Deah whirled around and her eyes locked with mine, just for a moment. The red-hot needles of her pain and anguish stabbed me in the gut, just as Blake was trying to do to her with his sword.
Once again, I started to head over to help her, but a man screamed, the sound louder and sharper with fear than all the others. I whipped around just in time to see Claudia clamp her hands around the wrists of the Draconi guard that was attacking her. As soon as her skin came into contact with his, Claudia blasted the guard with her magic, and his hands immediately turned a dark blue from the force of her cold touch Talent. The guard screamed again and wrenched his wrists out of her grasp, although his own frostbitten hands flopped uselessly by his sides, his sword painfully frozen to his own fingers.
Claudia turned to freeze another guard who had been creeping up on her, but that man quickly backed away from her, as did all the other Draconis.
Except for Victor.
He’d been hanging back during the fight, letting his guards do his dirty, bloody work for him, but now he stepped up so that he was standing directly in front of Claudia. The way they were facing off reminded me of an old spaghetti western that Poppy and I had watched a few weeks ago.
“You think you’ve won?” Victor snarled. “You haven’t won anything. I’ll get my weapons back. And by the time I’m done with you, you’ll wish that you and everyone else in your pathetic Family was dead.”
Claudia’s hands curled into fists. “I will never give you those weapons,” she spat out. “I’ll die first.”
Victor’s hands tightened into fists as well. “Something that I will be happy to help you with.”
The guards standing between them realized that they were in the line of fire, and they scrambled out of the way. Claudia and Victor didn’t move, though, each one glaring at the other, even though the fight still raged in the rest of the restaurant.
I looked for my friends. Deah and Felix were still battling Blake, and Mo, Angelo, and Reginald were standing back-to-back-to-back, punching, kicking, and lashing out at the guards who surrounded them. Devon was fighting two more guards, trying to reach Claudia again, now that he realized she was about to go toe-to-toe with Victor.
But I was closer to them than Devon was now, and it was up to me to help Claudia battle Victor. Good. My hand tightened around the hilt of my stolen sword and another surge of strength flowed from the black blade into my body. I’d waited a long time to make Victor pay for what he’d done to my mom, and this was finally my chance.
But I was too late.
Even as I headed toward them, Claudia surged forward to touch and freeze him with her power the same way she had the guard. But Victor casually waved his hand, as if he wasn’t worried about her magic at all.
And that’s when the lightning started.
At first, I thought that I was just imagining the white lightning that was crackling on Victor’s fingertips. But the sudden, intense chill of magic flooding the restaurant told me the lightning was very, very real—and very, very deadly.
Claudia stopped short, her eyes widening as she stared at the lightning flashing on Victor’s hand. She couldn’t get close enough to freeze him with her magic, not without getting electrocuted herself, and Victor knew it. He let out a low, satisfied chuckle.
Then he reared back and threw his lightning magic at her.
Crackling white streaks of magic erupted from Victor’s palm, zipped through the room, and slammed straight into Claudia’s chest, knocking her back. She hit a table and dropped to the floor. She didn’t move after that, and I couldn’t tell if she was just unconscious or dead.
My heart twisted and a scream rose in my throat. Claudia couldn’t be dead. She just couldn’t be. Not like this. Not like my mom. Not at Victor’s hand.
“Mom!” Devon screamed, his voice rising above the crashes, clangs, and bangs of the fight. “Mom!”
He started shoving people aside, more desperate to get to Claudia than ever before, but it was no use.
Victor snapped his fingers at the guards that were flanking him. “Bring her and all the other Sinclair leaders!” he called out in a loud voice.
Two of the guards hustled forward, grabbed Claudia, picked her up, and carried her out of the restaurant. Meanwhile, more guards split off from the people they’d been attacking and quickly cornered Mo, Angelo, and Reginald up against one of the walls.
This time, I was the one who screamed and started shoving people out of my way. “Mo!” I yelled. “Mo!”