Victor waved his hand. “A foolish, childish sentiment. Magic is the only thing the monsters have that’s worth taking. Magic is the only thing that’s worth anything.”
I could have argued with him, could have told him how the monsters were beautiful and special in their own unique ways, how they should be respected and protected, instead of tortured and slaughtered, but I decided not to waste my breath. He hadn’t listened to my mother back then, and he wouldn’t listen to me now. Victor was too blinded by his greed, his thirst for power, to hear anything but the twisted desires of his own dark heart.
Blake shifted on his feet again and then shuffled back a step, eyeing his dad with a wary expression, as if he’d never realized exactly how depraved his father was.
“Serena realized that I was the one who had set the traps and that I was killing the monsters for their magic. She found the black blades I had hidden away, the ones I was going to use to rise up against my father and take control of the Draconi Family.” Victor stopped his pacing and looked at me, his handsome face twisting with rage, even all these years later. “She went down to the lochness bridge and threw them all into the Bloodiron River—every last one. She cost me years of work, and I had to start all over.”
So that’s why Victor hated my mom. She’d stolen all his black blades and monster magic to stop him from killing people back then, and I’d done the same thing again now. And I was going to die for it, just like she had. Like mother, like daughter, after all.
“After Serena got rid of my black blades, I decided I wasn’t going to risk doing something like that again. At least not immediately,” Victor said. “Instead of relying on a stockpile of weapons, I decided I would start taking magic for myself. And not just monster magic, but Talents from other people. Power that would last, instead of burning out in a few hours the way monster magic does. And it worked. Far better than I ever dreamed.”
He held out his hand, and a ball of white lightning sparked to life in the center of his palm, crackling and spitting and hissing as though it were a living thing. I could feel the raw, electrical energy across the short distance that separated us, and my transference magic stirred again, wanting to reach out and tap into that power. My stomach roiled and bile rose up in my throat. The lightning was the most monstrous thing I’d ever seen because it was the direct result of people’s pain, suffering, misery, and death.
“You see,” Victor purred, a sly smile curving his lips. “There comes a point when you can amass so much magic, you go beyond mere Talents, mere speed or strength or enhanced senses. You can eventually take so much magic from so many people that you can physically manifest it—call the power up in any way, shape, or form you like.”
He stepped forward so that he was standing right in front of me, the lightning still crackling in his palm. “I’ve always been fond of electricity.”
I shuddered and leaned my face and body as far away from him as I could. All the while, I kept flexing my hands and arms, harder and faster than before, still trying to get some slack in the ropes that bound me to the chair. I had to get out of here—soon—before Victor electrocuted me to death where I sat.
This . . . this must have been what he’d done to my mom. He must have stormed into our apartment that day and stunned her with his lightning the way he had Claudia at the White Orchid restaurant. Then, when my mom couldn’t fight back, he had slowly moved in for the kill, cutting her up just because he wanted to, just because it amused him, just because he wanted to make her suffer.
Victor stepped back and the lighting vanished, although I could still feel the electrical echoes of it in the air all around me, pricking my skin like dozens of tiny pixie swords.
“Your mother coming back to town and keeping Devon Sinclair from me was the final straw, the last insult in a long string of them,” he said. “At every turn, all the years we were growing up together, Serena Sterling was always there, always standing in my way and taking the things I wanted.”
Another thought popped into my mind. “Like the Tournament of Blades? Mo told me she beat you in the tournament one year.”
His eyes glimmered with fresh anger. “Not just that one year, but every single year from the time we were kids. But she wasn’t the only one who stood against me. So did your father.”
“Luke Silver,” I whispered. “You killed him too.”
“Luke was the Draconi Family bruiser, my right-hand man,” Victor said. “At least until Serena came along. He got all moony-eyed over her, and nothing I said or did could break her hold over him.”
“He loved her and she loved him,” I snapped. “There’s nothing wrong with that.”
He shrugged. “Love is a concept I’ve never understood. A sappy, foolish emotion at best, but it completely turned Luke against me, and he started seeing things from Serena’s point of view. Started wanting to protect the monsters instead of taking their magic.”