Nobody moved or spoke for a moment.

I looked at Deah. “Thank you again for helping us.”

She nodded, but she stared at the floor instead of at me. Betraying her Family and her father was no easy thing, despite how evil Victor was.

I glanced at Devon and Felix, who both nodded. We’d discussed this for several days now, and it was finally time to ask Deah to do one more thing.

“Come with us,” I said.

Her head snapped up, and she looked at me with wide eyes. “What?”

“You heard me. Come with us. Go pack a bag, get Seleste, and come with us. Right now.”

She stared at me, and my soulsight kicked in, letting me feel all of her emotions. Electric shock. Sharp worry. Stomach-churning fear. For a moment, warm happiness mixed in with the other feelings, but it was quickly smothered by cold sorrow. I knew what her answer was going to be before she even opened her mouth.

She shook her head, her golden ponytail slapping against her shoulders. “I can’t do that. You know I can’t.”

Felix stepped forward and grabbed her hand. “Please, Deah. You’re not like the other Draconis. You don’t belong here.”

“But I am a Draconi.” She glanced at me for a second. “At least, part of me is. But that doesn’t matter. I can’t go with you. My dad would flip out if he realized that Mom and I were gone. And you all know what he would do if he realized that we’d defected to the Sinclair Family.”

We all winced. Victor would attack the Sinclairs with every guard he had in order to get them back. Deah’s mimic magic and Seleste’s visions were Talents that he didn’t have and would never let slip through his fingers.

But Felix cared too much about Deah to give up so easily. “Please,” he repeated. “Just come with us. We can figure out the rest later. Let’s just get you and your mom out of here while we still have a chance.”

Deah stared at him, and I saw and felt all the warm, soft love she had for him. She bit her lip and shifted on her feet, as if she were actually considering changing her mind and going with us—

One of the knobs creaked, and the double doors rattled in their frames.

We all froze.

Someone was trying to get into the office.

CHAPTER THREE

The doors rattled again, harder than before.

Devon, Felix, and Deah stared at the doors, but I darted forward, grabbed the back of Devon’s and Felix’s cloaks, and pulled them across the office.

“Hide! Hide! Hide!” I hissed, shoving them down behind a long red couch shot through with gold threads near the back of the room.

Devon and Felix dropped the duffel bags with the real black blades onto the floor. I winced at the loud clank-clanks of the weapons rattling around inside the bags, but the two of them quickly crouched down out of sight. There wasn’t enough room for me to hide behind the couch too, so I sprinted over to the wet bar in the corner, dropping behind the gleaming wood. Then I peered around the end of the bar, looking at Deah, who remained frozen in the middle of the office, right in front of Victor’s desk. She stared back at me, her hot, sweaty panic flooding my own body. Deah wasn’t supposed to be in here any more than we were, but I stabbed my finger at the door.

“Open it!” I hissed again. “Remember that this is your mansion!”

Deah stared at me another second; then her mouth tightened, and she gave me a sharp nod, understanding what I was saying and what I wanted her to do. She drew in a deep breath, then squared her shoulders, marched over to the doors, turned the lock, and threw them open.

A guy wearing black cargo pants and a red T-shirt emblazoned with a gold dragon stumbled through the opening. His golden hair was a shade darker than Deah’s, and his thick, strong body was all muscle. He would have been handsome, except for his brown eyes, which were cold and empty, just like those of all the dragon carvings in the mansion.

Blake Draconi, Deah’s older brother, Victor’s second-in-command, and the guy who’d helped murder my mom.

Blake straightened up and stared at his sister. “What are you doing in here? Especially with the doors locked behind you? You know that Dad doesn’t like anyone being in his office when he’s not around.”

Deah chewed her lower lip, and I could almost see the wheels turning in her mind as she tried to come up with some explanation that wouldn’t make Blake any more suspicious than he already was.

My hand dropped to my sword. If necessary, I would draw the weapon, leap to my feet, and defend Deah, but I decided to see how things played out. Devon, Felix, and I still needed to get out of here with the real black blades, and I’d rather sneak out undetected than have to fight my way through Blake and the rest of the Draconi guards.

But Deah had been dealing with Blake her whole life, and she knew exactly how to handle her half brother. She crossed her arms over her chest and gave him the same flat look that he was giving her. “First of all, the doors weren’t locked.”

“Yes, they were,” he insisted. “I couldn’t get them open no matter how hard I tried.”

“Maybe they were just stuck,” she replied in a cool, slightly mocking voice. “Or maybe you need to start hitting the weight room a little more often.”

An embarrassed flush stained his cheeks a dark, mottled red. Blake had strength magic, so he should have easily been able to open the doors, something that Deah knew. His eyes narrowed at the insult, and he opened his mouth, but she cut him off.

“Besides, if the doors had really been locked, then how could I have gotten in here to start with?” she scoffed. “It’s not like I’m a thief or anything.”

I rolled my eyes. Now she was just being snarky.

“Well, why weren’t the doors locked?” Blake snapped, still not ready to believe her.

Deah shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe Dad forgot to lock them before he went to meet with Nikolai Volkov. He left in a hurry, remember?”

Blake crossed his arms over his chest and gave her another suspicious stare. “But that still doesn’t explain what you’re doing in here.”

“I put my mom to bed a few minutes ago, and I walked back this way to check that the greenlab was secure for the night. I noticed that one of the office doors was cracked open, so I came in here to make sure that everything was okay.” She threw her arms out wide. “Which you can totally see it is.”