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.