Chapter 7

Seven

Islinked quietly back into the dining room, interrupting a conversation about classic cars my father and Mason were having. Business talk had clearly been put aside between courses. Sitting down, I returned to my soup. A moment later, I caught sight of Lucien coming back to his seat.

I tried not to look at him, not to make eye contact. I could tell he was doing the same, but he wasn't being very subtle about it. I could feel every stolen glance, every side-eyed look. It was hard not to be a little excited.

He was, after all, still very much that dangerous man from the nightclub, and the effect he had on me hadn't been dulled now that I knew his name. If anything, he was more dangerous. He was a Diaboli, a mage with weird powers over demonic entities and their kin.

What secrets did he know?

Dinner resumed more or less normally after my brief moment away from the table. We had our starters, then our main course arrived, and shortly after that, dessert was served. A creamy cheesecake with a raspberry sauce and a side of cream, it looked delicious.

As we ate, I looked around at the rest of the table. Despite our earlier apprehension and the stressful day we'd had, everyone was looking much more relaxed. It didn't look like my father was feeling at all vulnerable, not anymore, not the way he was talking to the patriarch of the Diaboli family.

They were laughing so much, you'd have thought they were the oldest and bestest of friends.

My mother though, she and Carlahad just about exchanged pleasantries, but they hadn't said much to each other since. I doubted if they had anything in common. My mother was a little older than Carla was, and honestly, she was something of a recluse. Carla, however, looked like she lived and breathed to attract attention, and that was bound to rub my mother the wrong way.

Looking at Max, he seemed to be a little more tense than everyone else. I wondered if he was still feeling the effects of his first hangover, or if he just felt a bit out of place. I made a mental note to speak with him later to make sure he was doing ok.

I finally let my eyes roam over to Lucien, who was wiping the corners of his mouth with a napkin having finished his cheesecake. Our eyes locked. I saw his Adam's apple work. I glanced at my plate, at the last piece of cheesecake left, then looked up at him again. He swallowed once more.

Grinning slightly, I forked the piece of cheesecake, gave Lucien my eyes, and very carefully slipped the fork into my mouth, letting my lips close around it. Lucien's eyes widened. He grabbed the edge of the table with one hand and looked as if he was visibly straining. I shut my eyes, chewed, and swallowed, savoring the experience of exciting him from across the table.

When I opened my eyes again, though, the entire dining room was dark. A chair drew back, scratching roughly against the wooden floor. "Dad?" Max called out. "What's happening?"

"I'm not sure," my father said.

My heart surged into my throat. The room was pitch black; I couldn't see the stars beyond the windows, or even the windows themselves.

A current of power suddenly pushed through the room, knocking me out of my own senses for a moment. Magic. It bore through the room like a freight train, forcing me to get up quickly, to react. Just as soon as I went to stand, though, someone grabbed my shoulder and forced me to sit back down.

The lights flickered on again, and my heart started beating like a jackhammer against my chest. The room was now full of people, each of them clad in black, with a cowl over their heads and dark masks that covered most of their faces. There were two behind my father, two behind my mother, and another four behind Max and me.

I tried to get up, but one of the men behind me squeezed my shoulder, digging his fingers into my skin hard enough to cause me to cry out.

"What is all of this?!" my father roared. "Diaboli, what have you done!"

Mason Diaboli put a finger up to silence my father while he finished the last piece of his cake. He took his time with it, labored over it. Then, when he was done, wiped his mouth with a napkin and placed it gently on the plate.

Who were these people? And why were they in our house?

"There's been a change of plans," Mason said.

"Change of plans?" my mother asked. "What are you talking about?"

"An alliance with your family sounds… interesting. But we now have an advantage that I hadn't considered we would ever have."

"Dad, what are you doing?!" Lucien asked.

"Shut up, Lucien," Mason barked. "The grown-ups are talking."

One of the men standing behind the head of the Diaboli family slipped something off his neck and handed it to Mason. I recognized it instantly, and as soon as I did, my blood ran cold in my veins. I felt like I was going to throw up. Everything, every last bite of food I had eaten tonight, came gurgling up.

They have the amulet.

"Nifty little toy," said Mason. "Funny that it should have fallen into my hands, don't you think?"

"That doesn't belong to you," my father said.

"No, it doesn't. I believe it belongs… to you."

Mason placed the amulet on the table. My father went to grab it, but Mason yanked it back a few inches by its chain.

"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.

I didn't want to leave my father behind, but if anyone knew how to take care of themself, it was him. Max, though—Max needed my help, and there were two men already chasing him.

"This could have gone so much better for you," said Mason Diaboli.

This time, I didn't see the flash of red with my own eyes—but I felt it. The sudden surge of magic, of that infernal power they had. Tears filled my eyes, blurring my vision as I ran after my brother. I couldn't think about what had just happened; I had to focus, to keep my attention on Max.

Maybe my father was okay.

I saw Max head for the main doors. By the time he got to them and pulled them open, one of the guys who was running after him had caught up to him. I grabbed hold of a nearby candelabra and smashed it across the back of the head of the first guy I got to. The sound drew the attention of the one who had Max's arm. When he turned to look at me, I roared at him, and slammed the candelabra into his cheek.

"Bee!" Max yelled, and he reached for my hand.

I stretched toward him with the amulet in my hand, sending a trickle of my power into it to activate it. We had to get out of here, and this was the only way to do it. But just as the amulet activated, and the world began to shift, I felt someone take hold of my wrist—it was one of Diaboli's men.

I couldn't shake him, and as long as he was holding onto me, I was going to take him with us wherever we went.

I looked over at Max, who was shaking his head and screaming the word "No!"

I didn't have a choice.

I let go of him and the amulet, sending him into the Ether, and letting myself fall back into regular reality… and into the hands of the Diaboli.