“And where were you, Lila?” Victor asked. “Why, I would think such a loving, devoted daughter would have immediately come to her mother’s defense, but you weren’t there. I’d heard rumors that Serena had a child, and I was always so disappointed that I didn’t get the chance to kill you in front of her before I finished her off. Why weren’t you there that day?”

Every word out of his mouth was like a knife to my heart, which was exactly what he wanted, but I kept my face blank. I wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction of realizing how guilty I felt that I hadn’t been with my mom that day, even if I would have died right alongside her. White stars winked on and off in front of my eyes, but I forced them away. I couldn’t afford to think about my mom right now or how Victor had hurt her. Still, I had to clear the emotion out of my throat before I could speak again.

“She knew you were coming for her after she spoiled your plan to kidnap Devon, so she sent me out for ice cream. Of course I didn’t realize it at the time.” My voice came out as a harsh rasp and I had to force out the next words. “I was on my way back to our apartment when I heard her start screaming.”

Even now, four years later, I could still taste the strawberry cheesecake ice cream that I’d been eating, still feel the two cones slip from my hands, still hear their soft splatters against the lochness bridge even as I started running, trying to get to my mom in time....

More white stars flashed on and off in front of my eyes, but I ruthlessly blinked them back. Now was not the time to get thrown back into the past. Not if I wanted to survive whatever cruel torture Victor had in mind. I needed to stay sharp, stay focused, and not remember how he had utterly destroyed my world that hot summer day.

“So you found your mother’s body, and then did what? Stayed in town and hid all this time?” he asked.

I shrugged a third time, even as I started flexing my hands and arms again, still trying to get some slack into the ropes that tied me down. “It wasn’t like I had the money to go somewhere else.”

“No,” he murmured. “I suppose you didn’t.”

Victor stared at me again, the cold curiosity in his eyes crystalizing into something hard and ugly. “But you’ve meddled in my affairs one too many times, just like Serena did. She should have stayed away. I warned her that if she ever came back to town, I would kill her, but she just didn’t listen.”

“Why did you hate her so much?” I wanted to scream out the words, but my voice came out as a choked, ragged whisper instead. “Why did you kill her?”

He looked down his nose at me. “We all grew up together. Me, Serena, Claudia, Seleste, even that fool Mo Kaminsky. The Families were much friendlier back then. I always thought my father was too soft, playing so nicely with everyone else. He could have easily taken control of the town and crushed all the other Families, but he preferred to live in peace. He said there had already been too much bloodshed over the years and he wanted it to stop.”

“But you didn’t want it to stop.”

“Of course not,” Victor said. “The Draconis founded this town. We’re the ones who built it up out of nothing. The Sinclairs just rode along on our coattails, copying every single thing we did. Cloudburst Falls belongs to the Draconis, to me, and no one else.”

The cold vehemence and ringing conviction in his voice made me shiver, and even Blake shifted on his feet, as though this side of his father made him uncomfortable.

“So I came up with a plan to take control of the Draconis and then all the other Families,” Victor said. “I’m sure you can guess what that plan was, since you’ve interfered in things just like your mother did.”

For a moment, I didn’t understand what he meant, but then I thought of that secret room in his office, and the answer came to me.

“Black blades,” I whispered. “Your plan was the same back then as it is now. You were going to give black blades filled with magic to everyone who was loyal to you so you could attack and overwhelm all the other Families.”

“Precisely—until your mother found out what I was doing.”

I stared at him, and Victor started pacing back and forth in front of me.

“Your mother snuck out into the woods one day to meet your father, and she stumbled across one of my monster traps,” he said. “Naturally, she let the monster loose, but that’s not all she did. She destroyed that trap and all the others I’d set in the area. Serena always had a soft spot for the monsters. I can’t imagine why.”

But I knew why. “Because they were just monsters, just animals like any others. They didn’t deserve to be trapped, tortured, and killed just because you wanted their magic.”

Victor waved his hand. “A foolish, childish sentiment. Magic is the only thing the monsters have that’s worth taking. Magic is the only thing that’s worth anything.”

I could have argued with him, could have told him how the monsters were beautiful and special in their own unique ways, how they should be respected and protected, instead of tortured and slaughtered, but I decided not to waste my breath. He hadn’t listened to my mother back then, and he wouldn’t listen to me now. Victor was too blinded by his greed, his thirst for power, to hear anything but the twisted desires of his own dark heart.

Blake shifted on his feet again and then shuffled back a step, eyeing his dad with a wary expression, as if he’d never realized exactly how depraved his father was.

“Serena realized that I was the one who had set the traps and that I was killing the monsters for their magic. She found the black blades I had hidden away, the ones I was going to use to rise up against my father and take control of the Draconi Family.” Victor stopped his pacing and looked at me, his handsome face twisting with rage, even all these years later. “She went down to the lochness bridge and threw them all into the Bloodiron River—every last one. She cost me years of work, and I had to start all over.”

So that’s why Victor hated my mom. She’d stolen all his black blades and monster magic to stop him from killing people back then, and I’d done the same thing again now. And I was going to die for it, just like she had. Like mother, like daughter, after all.

“After Serena got rid of my black blades, I decided I wasn’t going to risk doing something like that again. At least not immediately,” Victor said. “Instead of relying on a stockpile of weapons, I decided I would start taking magic for myself. And not just monster magic, but Talents from other people. Power that would last, instead of burning out in a few hours the way monster magic does. And it worked. Far better than I ever dreamed.”