Claudia, Devon, Mo, and all my other friends ducked out of the way as well, along with the Sinclair guards, and several hoarse shouts rose up in surprise. The sparks had barely winked out before the wind started to pick up, and more and more lightning flashed in the sky. A low rumble of thunder sounded, and a few raindrops spattered against my cheeks. The storm was almost here.
But it was nothing compared to the power that Victor was calling up.
White lightning crackled in both of his hands now, and I could feel the cold burn of magic in the air, even though I was still standing five feet away from him. His magic was stronger than any I’d ever felt before, but I supposed that was to be expected given how much power he had running through his veins. I wondered how many people he’d killed just to make himself stronger. So many people and creatures dead, just because of one man’s relentless thirst for power.
Victor kept calling up more and more magic. Then he unleashed it, hurling ball after ball of lightning at me, as though it were winter and we were having a snowball fight in the middle of the lochness bridge. With all the Talents he’d stolen, I expected him to be faster, to throw so much magic at me so quickly that I wouldn’t be able to avoid it, but Victor kept his movements slow and steady. And I realized that he wasn’t trying to kill me. Not just yet. No, he wanted to play with me first. I was the mouse to his cat right now, another creature caught in one of his traps with no hope of escaping.
I ducked the lightning and tried to move forward so that I could hit Victor with my sword. But he easily held me at bay, the lightning getting closer and closer with every blast and making static electricity gather around my own body. My transference magic stirred in response, eager to soak up Victor’s magic, and I could feel myself getting stronger with each ball of lightning that zipped past me. But I could also feel exactly how powerful he was. Sure, I had my transference power, had the ability to absorb magic, but not that much magic. Not at one time. It would kill me outright.
Still, I had to try. So with every blast of lightning, I forced myself to bob and weave and duck, creeping closer and closer to Victor all the while. A few more raindrops spattered against my face, but the storm seemed to be waiting to see who won our fight, just like everyone else gathered around the bridge.
Victor knew I couldn’t get close enough to hit him with my sword, much less actually kill him with it, and he threw back his head and laughed, the lightning in his hands crackling in time with his dark chuckles.
“What’s the matter, Lila?” he called out over the spark, hiss, snap, and sizzle of his lightning. “Not what you were expecting?”
Instead of answering him, I eased forward another step, then two, then three. He realized what I was up to and he shook his head.
“You stupid, stupid girl,” he said. “Thinking you could actually beat me. All you’ve done is gone and gotten yourself killed, just like your mother before you.”
I didn’t think it was possible, but Victor summoned up even more of his power, so that his lightning fully illuminated the lochness bridge, blazing brighter than the noontime sun. And he finally did what I’d been dreading all along. He added his speed Talent to the mix, drew his hands back, and hurled his magic at me before I could even think about ducking out of the way.
A second later, the lightning slammed straight into my body.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
The lightning hit me square in the chest, knocking me back five feet and making me lose my grip on my sword, which clattered to the cobblestones. I landed flat on my back in the middle of the bridge. For a moment, I didn’t feel anything. Not heat, not electricity, not pain, nothing.
Then the lightning zipped over my body, sinking deep inside me, and I started screaming.
And I didn’t—couldn’t—stop.
Every single part of me burned with hot, unending, electrical pain. My legs flailed, my fingers twitched, and my teeth chattered together from the shocking jolts of power. I bit down on my own tongue by accident and blood filled my mouth. Sweat streamed down my face, and I felt like every nerve ending in my body was on fire. White stars flashed on and off in front of my face faster and brighter than they ever had before. Or maybe that was just the lightning flashing over me again and again. I couldn’t really tell.
It wasn’t that the lightning just hit me and that was the end of it. Oh no. That would have been too easy. The lightning crackled over my body again and again, never stopping, never weakening, not even for an instant. It coiled around and around me like a copper crusher, as though it were a monster with a mind of its own and it wouldn’t be satisfied until I was burnt to a crisp.
Through the dazzling white flashes, I realized that Victor was slowly advancing on me, the lightning streaking from his fingers, through the air, and straight into my body. But all I could do was writhe on the ground and scream and scream and scream some more.
I was dimly aware of my transference power flaring to life, and the familiar chill of magic surging through my body the way it had so many times before. But it had never, ever been this intense, this painful before, and I realized that Victor’s magic was greater than my own. He was going to kill me, and there was nothing I could do to stop him. Right now, it was all I could do to suck down air between my screams, much less actually get to my feet and fight back.
Victor kept coming closer and closer to me. Even through the lightning, I could see his golden eyes, glowing brighter than any monster’s. He was a monster all right, through and through. His power might be pure white energy, but his heart was as black as the darkest night.
I kept screaming as the lightning flashed over me again and again. I was dimly aware of people yelling, Devon and the rest of my friends, most likely, but they couldn’t do anything to help me. They couldn’t even step onto the bridge right now without getting electrocuted themselves.
Victor stopped beside me, looming over me and giving me a triumphant sneer, lightning still pouring out of his hands in steady, crackling waves. His face twisted with sly satisfaction, and he drew in a breath, as if preparing himself to unleash a final wave of magic that would end me once and for all.
And that’s when the lochness decided to strike.
Just as Victor raised his hands to finish me off, a long, black tentacle whipped through the air, then slammed straight into his chest. The blow knocked Victor back and made him lose his grip on his magic, the lightning dimming to white sparks flickering around his hands.
But it didn’t stop him for long.
Even as the lochness reared back its tentacle to lash out at Victor again, he scrambled to his feet and gave the waving tentacle a cold, unconcerned look.
Then he unleashed his magic on the monster.
Lightning erupted on Victor’s fingertips again, but this time, instead of pouring into me, the magic streaked across the bridge and straight into the lochness. Not only that, but the harsh, crackling power zipped down the long, black tentacle, traveling over the side of the bridge and all the way into the water below.
The thought of Victor hurting the lochness gave me the strength to roll to my side, push myself onto my hands and knees, and then stagger up to my feet. Every part of me still hurt, twitched, and burned with electrical pain, but I managed to stumble over to the side of the bridge.
By this point, Victor’s lightning had lit up the entire surface of the river, perfectly outlining the lochness’s enormous, octopus-like body in the water below. Perhaps I only imagined it, but I thought I could even see the creature’s two sapphire eyes, staring up at me, silently begging me for help.
“Stop it!” I screamed. “You’re killing it! You’re killing the lochness!”
Even if Victor had heard me, he didn’t care, and his face was twisted into a snarl, his eyes shining with absolute, bitter hate. In that moment, I realized that he despised the monsters just as much as he had my mom. He was going to kill the lochness, just because he could, unless I did something to stop him.
I didn’t think—I
just acted.
I grabbed my mom’s sword from where it had fallen and stumbled forward again. I tried to raise the weapon to attack him, but it was all I could do to hold on to the sword, and I ended up just slamming my body into Victor’s instead, knocking us both down.
His head snapped back against the cobblestones and the blow stunned him enough to make him lose his grip on his magic again. Lightning still crackled around his body, though, and mine too, washing over both of us in wave after white-hot wave.
Only this time, it didn’t hurt nearly as much as before.
Part of me wondered why, especially since the lightning kept crackling and crackling around me, even though it wasn’t actually sinking into my body and burning me alive anymore. I looked down, and I finally realized what was different this time.
I was holding my mom’s sword in my hand.
And it was glowing the blackest midnight imaginable.
The blade practically pulsed with darkness that was as intense as Victor’s white lightning. I’d always thought you had to get blood on a black blade in order to make it glow, but that didn’t seem to be the case. At least, not with Victor and his lightning. Maybe that’s because it was blood magic in a way—power born of all the blood that Victor had cut out of others in order to steal their Talents and make them his own.
And I realized something important. Even with my transference power, I wasn’t strong enough to absorb his magic, but my black blade was.
And I finally realized how I could steal Victor’s magic—the same way he had stolen everyone else’s, just like my mom had said.
Victor shook off the hard blow, shoved me off him, and scrambled back to his feet. When I got back up onto my feet as well, surprise flickered in his face, as though he’d never expected me to survive for this long. For the first time since I’d known him, Victor actually looked a bit disheveled, his blood-red shirt untucked, his golden hair rumpled, his handsome face streaked with dirt.
Behind him, at the far end of the bridge, Blake and the Draconi guards shifted on their feet, glancing at each other, unease and uncertainty flashing in their eyes. I doubted that anyone had knocked Victor down in years, much less someone from another Family like me.
I risked a quick glance over my shoulder to find the Sinclairs all staring steadily back at me, their hands holding their swords high overhead, just like the Family crest, in a silent show of support. Devon, Felix, Mo, Deah, even Oscar with his pixie sword. All saluting me, all supporting me, all urging me on.
Claudia stepped forward, raised her own sword even higher, and nodded at me. I nodded back, tightened my grip on my sword, and turned to face Victor again.
“I’m sick of you Sterlings!” he hissed. “This is the end of you!”
He reached for his power again, gathering more and more magic around himself until the entire bridge looked like it was in the center of a lightning storm. But this time, instead of cringing or ducking out of the way, I faced Victor and his magic head on.
Don’t be afraid of the lightning, Seleste’s voice whispered in my mind.
And I finally realized what she meant. That magic was magic, no matter what form it was in or who was wielding it. Black blades—bloodiron—didn’t care what magic belonged to which person. All they could do was soak up power. It was the person wielding the weapon that decided what to do with that power. As long as I had my mom’s sword in my hand, I could withstand Victor’s magic.
So that’s what I did.
I stood my ground and held my sword out in front of me even as Victor’s lightning slammed into me again. But this time, instead of shooting into my chest and knocking me back, the lightning went straight into my black blade.
The sword soaked up that initial blast of magic and then all the ones after it, absorbing the magic as fast as Victor could summon it up, like a literal lightning rod in my hand. But my mom’s sword wasn’t the only thing soaking up power. So were the three black blade throwing stars attached to my belt.
And so was I.
That cold burn of magic filled my veins, more intense than ever before. My breath frosted in the air and my entire body became as cold as a blizzard. With every breath, I felt myself growing stronger and stronger, until I was more powerful than I had ever been before. In that moment, I felt like I could do anything—take on every single Draconi, swing my sword at a hundred enemies, even reach down and tear the lochness bridge apart with my bare hands.
I forced all that magic, all that power, out into the cuts, bruises, and burns on my body, using Victor’s own power to repair all the damage he’d done to me with his lightning strikes.
In an instant, my skin smoothed out, my muscles quit twitching, and my breath came easier. So I kept going, channeling the magic through my whole body until I was completely healed, as if I’d never even been injured to start with.
But I was even better than that now—I was even stronger.
I didn’t duck or hide or run from the lightning. Not anymore. Instead, I embraced it in a way that I had never fully embraced my transference power before. I had always kept my Talent hidden for fear that someone would try to take it away from me, would try to cut it out of me, but not anymore, not now. Instead, I became like the black blade in my hand—hungry for magic, eager for every single scrap of power I could soak up.
Slowly, I began to walk toward Victor.
It wasn’t easy—far from it—especially not with the lightning still crackling around my body, trying to drive me back and rip the sword from my hand at every turn. But I channeled the magic in my veins, pushing it out into my hands, arms, and legs, making them rock steady and stronger than ever before, and I held on to my sword and crept toward Victor, one small step at a time. All the while, the black blade in my hand grew colder and colder, and its midnight glow blacker and blacker until it seemed to snuff out Victor’s magic before it even left his hands.
Victor finally realized that I wasn’t burned to a crisp, that I had found a way to endure his magic, and that I was still coming for him. His golden eyes widened and his mouth fell open in surprise.
And he actually stopped.
He dropped his hands to his sides, although the lightning continued to crackle on his fingertips.
“You,” he sputtered. “You’re—you’re not dead yet. You’re not even close to being dead.”
“Now you’re catching on,” I rasped.
His eyes widened again, more shock swirling through his gaze, but the emotion was quickly replaced by cold calculation. He took a step back, looked over his shoulder, and made a sharp motion with his hand.
“Attack!” Victor screamed. “Attack! Kill the Sterling girl! Now!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Even though Victor and I were supposed to be the only ones participating in the duel, the other Draconis stepped onto the bridge, with Blake leading the charge, just like always. All the magic coursing through my veins heightened my senses and I could hear every single harsh, raspy slide of their swords leaving their scabbards and every single one of their footsteps on the bridge.
And the answering sounds behind me.
I didn’t have to turn around to know that my friends had stepped onto the bridge behind me. Even as the Draconis crept closer to me, I spotted Devon and Deah out of the corner of my eye, leading the Sinclairs. My friends eased up beside me, careful to stay away from my sword, which was still glowing that eerie, midnight black.
Victor realized that his guards weren’t rushing to attack me like he wanted, and he glared over his shoulder at Blake. “You fool!” he yelled. “What are you waiting for? Kill her! Now!”
Blake hesitated a moment longer, then sprinted toward me. My gaze flicked back and forth between him and his dad. Victor wasn’t able to kill me outright with his magic, so he was once again ordering someone else to do his dirty work for him.
“That’s it!” Victor said, urging his son on. “Kill her! Now!”
Blake let out a loud roar and quickened his st
eps, an evil grin stretching across his face at the thought of finally cutting me down. I gritted my teeth, trying to figure out how I was going to channel all the magic roaring through my black blade and body right now and fight him off at the same time.
But I didn’t have to worry because his sword never touched me.
In an instant, Deah was by my side, using her sword to block her brother’s.
“Leave her alone!” Deah hissed.
“Stay out of this!” Blake screamed back at her.
He tried to charge past her to get to me, but Deah whipped around, stuck her foot out, and tripped him, making Blake topple to the cobblestones. He snarled and scrambled right back up onto his feet, lashing out with his sword at her this time.
“Come on! Come on! Come on!” Blake screamed at the guards who were still hanging back. “Do you want to win or not?”
And with that, the fight was on. With an angry roar, the Draconi guards stormed ahead, and the Sinclairs rushed forward to meet them.
For a moment, there was just noise.
Swords clanging together, people yelling, boots scraping against the cobblestones. Maybe it was all the magic pulsing through my sword and body, but I thought I could hear the hiss of every single blade as it sliced into someone’s skin and the resulting spatter of the blood on the cobblestones.
From the corner of my eye, I spotted my friends. Devon fighting two Draconi guards, Felix and Angelo taking on two more, Mo and Claudia standing back to back, him using his tall, strong body to throw the guards around while she used her cold touch magic to freeze any that came near. I even spotted Oscar zipping through the air, the Sinclair pixies following him like a swarm of bees as they dive-bombed first one Draconi guard, then the next, stabbing the men and women with their poison-tipped, needle-size swords. It was a full-out mob war, in every sense of the word.
Except for Victor and me.
Even though we were still standing in the center of the bridge, no one dared to approach the two of us. Not with the white lightning still crackling around his hands and the black blade still glowing in mine.