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“What exactly is your plan here, Diaboli?”
“It’s simple, really,” Mason said, taking a sip of his drink and leaning back in his chair. “Somewhere, in this house, you have something I want. This little amulet of yours allowed my people to enter your home, bypassing every last spell you could have possibly put up. So, if you want to walk out of this alive, you’re going to give me what I came for.”
“You wouldn’t kill us. You can’t.”
“I couldn’t… then. But I’m already in your house, Ethera—and so are my people. We’ve already won this war—the only choice you have to make is how many casualties you want to take.”
“The war is over, Diaboli!” my father yelled. “We signed a treaty!”
“We signed that treaty because we had no choice at the time,” Mason spat, “And in signing that treaty, we lost the thing that makes us Diaboli. The Infernal Engine is our birthright, it should never have gone into your vault, and I want it back. Now.”
“You can’t do this!” my mother said.
“Oh, but I can, and I have. It’s nothing personal—just business. You understand.”
“You come into our home,” my father said through his teeth, “You accept our hospitality, eat our food at our table, and then you hold us hostage unless we give you what you want… you’re disgusting.”
Mason leaned a little closer to my father. “You’ve heard that one about the scorpion and the frog… right? We were never going to be friends. Eventually, someday, this was going to happen. I mean, you didn’t seriously expect my family to just sit on our hands for the past thirty years, did you? We’ve been looking for a way in, and as luck would have it, the way in fell into my lap just last night.”
“Dad, stop!” Lucien said, standing.
“I thought I told you to shut up,” Mason snapped.
“This isn’t right!”
“Save it. Now, I won’t ask again. Sit down and shut up—or else.”
It was my mother who took the initiative. Somehow, she managed to grab the knife on her table and jab it through the wrist of the man who was holding her down. The man screamed, and a moment later, the entire room was in chaos. Several of the newly arrived men were turning their attention on her, and that meant they were no longer holding onto Max and me.
Carla started waving her hands, and I felt the magic surge up through her. I broke past Max and threw myself on top of her, sending us both toppling to the floor. Carla yelled and groaned, her magic was still coming through, but she couldn’t channel it properly.
Instead of focusing it on my mother, she tried to focus it on me.
I saw her eyes flash red, she sneered, and turned her hands toward me. Before she could hit me with her magic, I rolled underneath the table. Red light erupted from her hands and shot through the space I had been in a moment ago, putting a hole in one of the table legs and making one of its corners collapse.
Plates, glasses, and cutlery went flying. All I could see from down here were feet rushing around the room—and the amulet. It had fallen to the ground, somewhere between my father and Lucien’s father.
With the table corner between me and Carla, I had a clear shot to it. There was another flash of red light, my mother screamed, now, but her scream was cut entirely too short. It was almost choked out of her.
As my hand wrapped around the amulet’s chain and I pulled it toward me, I saw my mother fall to her knees… and then collapse on the ground a few paces away from where I was. She was looking at me, her eyes wide, and glassy, but entirely still. There was a hole in her chest that burned with red light.
Something caught in my throat, then. I couldn’t speak or make a sound. I wanted to scream. All time had stood still, and I could hear the frantic beating of my heart between my ears. I could see clearly what had just happened, but I didn’t want to believe it.
“Do you see what you’ve made me do?!” came Mason Diaboli’s voice.
“Adeline!” my father roared. “You killed her!”
“You killed her, Ethera. All you had to do was give us the Infernal Engine, and your wife would still be alive.”
No, I thought, the word repeating over and over, no, no, no, no!
“You son of a bitch!” my father screamed. I heard him struggle, like he wanted to throw himself at Mason Diaboli, but I couldn’t see what was going on. The pain in his voice vibrated through me in ways I hadn’t thought possible. I wasn’t able to speak, or scream, but internally, I was shaken to my core. It took every ounce of strength I had to rip my gaze away from my mother’s corpse, only because I heard Mason Diaboli turn his attention toward my brother.
“I’m giving you one more chance, Ethera,” he said, “Take me to your vault, or I’ll kill your son, too.”
“Max,” my father yelled. “Shut your eyes and run!”
A flash of bright, white light filled the room. If I hadn’t been under the table, I may have been blinded by it. On my hands and knees, I fought to get to the other side of the table. I saw Max turn tail and make a break for the dining room door. When I managed to crawl out far enough to stand, I went after him, amulet in hand.
