She had barely finished speaking before guards from all three Families started shooting to their feet, raising their hands, and declaring that they wanted to be there tonight. Mo got up and started going around the room, taking down the name of everyone who wanted to come to the duel, as well as pairing up folks to go work down on the Midway today.

But the most surprising thing was that people started coming over to me.

One by one, they approached me, saying how proud they were of me and wishing me good luck. And it wasn’t just the Sinclairs. Members of the Ito and Salazar Families came over and offered their thanks as well. Once again, the faint hope shining in all their eyes took root in my own heart. My throat closed up with emotion and all I could do was just nod at everyone, shake their hands, and accept their soft touches and pats on the shoulder.

I might have started working for the Sinclairs in order to get revenge on Victor, but now, I was truly a part of the Family. And I was going to protect my Family the best way I could.

Or die trying.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

One by one, all the guards, workers, and pixies left the dining hall to head down to town and their assigned stations, but my friends and I stayed behind in the Ito mansion.

Poppy led us to one of the game rooms, complete with a pool table and a large-screen TV, but none of us felt like relaxing or goofing off. Not when we knew what was coming tonight. But Poppy popped in an action movie and we all sat down on the couches and pretended to watch it. Eventually, the others started talking, but I got up and went out onto one of the balconies.

The Ito mansion was a little lower down on Cloudburst Mountain than the Sinclair compound, but the view was just as spectacular. It was a little after noon and the summer sun was shining in the clear blue sky, but the neon lights of the Midway still glowed, pulsed, and flashed down in the valley below, as though they were competing with the sun to see which could shine the biggest and brightest.

I put my elbows down on the warm stone ledge, thinking about everything that had happened over the past few days. A few minutes later, the door behind me whispered open and Devon stepped outside to join me. He leaned his elbows down on the ledge as well, and the two of us stood there together, our shoulders touching. We didn’t speak for a few minutes.

“I know why you feel like you have to do this,” he finally said, looking at me. “Why you have to face Victor. I understand. But I want you to know that you won’t be doing it alone. I’ll be right there with you, every single step of the way.”

He reached over and squeezed my hand, and I laced my fingers through his.

“I know,” I said. “And I love you for that.”

I hadn’t said the words to him before when we’d been together in the library, and I’d almost died last night. I could still die tonight. So I wasn’t going to let another second pass without telling him how I felt, potential jinxes be damned.

He blinked, as if shocked by my words, but then his whole face lit up, shining brighter than the sun and all the Midway lights combined. “You love me?”

For a moment, I felt unsure, since the words had just slipped out, but it was too late to take them back now, and I didn’t want to anyway. I nodded, staring into his eyes. “Of course I do. You’re kind, thoughtful, considerate, supportive, and you always think about others before yourself. Not to mention the fact that you’re handsome and charming and you live in a mansion.” I grinned. “You’re a hard guy not to love, Devon Sinclair.”

My voice was light and teasing, but the look in Devon’s eyes was anything but. That hot, hot spark in his green, green eyes erupted into the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. A wave of love washed over my heart and spread throughout my entire body, bringing a dizzying rush along with it. Without a word, Devon stepped forward, cupped my face in his hands, and pressed his lips to mine.

It was a soft kiss, just a brief touch of his lips against mine, but I felt more in this one kiss than I had in any of our others because I loved him, and I knew that he loved me too.

All too soon, we broke apart, but Devon opened his arms and I stepped forward and laid my head on his shoulder. And we stayed like that, wrapped in each other’s arms, for a long, long time.

The rest of the day passed by in a blur, as Claudia, Mo, and the others planned who would be on the lochness bridge with me, where the rest of the guards would be positioned, and what everyone should do depending on who won the duel. All too soon, their plans became reality, and it was time for me to face Victor.

According to reports, the truce was holding down on the Midway and none of the Ito, Salazar, or Sinclair guards or workers had been attacked by the Draconis. The Volkovs were keeping to themselves and staying out of things completely, just the way Claudia had predicted.

Around nine o’clock that night, I was back in the guest bedroom, putting on my gear for the evening. For once, I wasn’t wearing my mom’s trench coat. Instead, tonight I’d opted to wear a black cloak in honor of the Sinclairs. In fact, I was wearing the same outfit that I had during the Tournament of Blades—black boots, black pants, and a white sleeveless silk shirt, topped by the black cloak. I hadn’t bothered with a black cavalier hat, though. I hated wearing those hats. The stupid feathers always fell down into my face.

“You look good,” Oscar said, fluttering around me the way he had been ever since I’d come back to the bedroom. “Just like a Sinclair.”

I nodded and finished pulling my black hair back into its regular ponytail. I thought about sticking my chopstick lock picks through my hair like usual, but I didn’t want to lose them during the fight, so I left them in one of the pockets of my mom’s coat, along with her ironmesh gloves.

I looped my black leather belt with its three bloodiron throwing stars around my waist and tucked several quarters into a hidden slot on the belt, just in case I needed to pay the lochness’s toll. I didn’t know how the monster would feel about a duel taking place on its bridge, but I wanted to be prepared.

For the final touches, I slipped my mom’s star-shaped sapphire ring onto my finger, then slid her black blade into the scabbard hanging off my belt.

I stared at myself in the mirror over the dresser. Oscar was right. I did look like a Sinclair, especially with my silver cuff flashing on my right wrist. But I also thought that I looked like a Sterling—like my mom. And that made me happier than anything else, because I knew that she would be proud of me, no matter what happened with Victor tonight.