The truth of her words made my blood run colder than any magic ever had. It was the very thing my mom had drilled into my head over and over again—to hide my transference Talent no matter what.

“Victor collects Talents, you know,” Claudia continued in that same quiet, steely voice. “When one of his guards or a member of his Family displeases him, he doesn’t just kill them. Oh no. That would be too merciful. Instead, he rips their magic out of them and takes it for himself. He has quite a few Talents by now. That’s why he’s so powerful, and that’s why all the heads of the other Families are afraid of him. Because they know that he could kill them all, if he really wanted to. And the worst part is that Victor knows it, too—and it won’t be long before he finally does something about it.”

She tilted her head to the side, making her auburn hair spill over her shoulder. “And just think how much easier it would make things if he had your magic. No one would be able to stop him then.”

“Are you threatening me?” I asked. “Threatening to expose my Talent, my magic, just to get me to work for you? Because I don’t respond well to that sort of thing.”

She didn’t say anything.

“You know that you’d just be cutting your own throat, right? If you told Victor about my magic?”

Claudia shrugged again. I stared into her eyes and saw rock-hard determination. She wouldn’t like ratting me out, but she’d do it, if for no other reason than because I’d have to work for her just to have some sort of protection from the Draconis, just to save my own miserable skin.

I barked out a laugh. “Mom said you were the most ruthless, selfish, and coldhearted person she’d ever met.”

“And Serena wasn’t coldhearted enough,” Claudia snapped back. “That’s why she got into some of the . . . trouble that she did. Especially with your father. Did she tell you about him?”

“She told me how Romeo and Juliet they were,” I said, thinking of Felix and Deah. “How he was from a different Family and they weren’t supposed to be together and all the problems it caused.”

“That’s putting it mildly.” Claudia paused, as if debating whether to say more, but she must have changed her mind because she looked at me again. “But you are coldhearted enough, Lila. Ruthless enough. That’s why I need you. To help me protect Devon—to help me protect my Family.”

I was exactly what she said I was. Coldhearted, ruthless, selfish, and focused on my own survival, comfort, and well-being more than anything else. My feeding Grant and his men to the lochness last night had proved all of that.

My gaze moved past Claudia and focused on my mom’s tombstone. I thought back to what Mo had told me the first day I’d come to the Sinclair mansion—this was where my mom had wanted me to be, this was where I belonged. I didn’t know if Mo was right, but this was certainly where I was trapped, thanks to Claudia.

“Fine,” I growled. “Once again, you aren’t giving me much of a choice. So I’ll do it. I’ll stay and protect Devon and be a good little soldier. Just don’t expect me to be happy about it.”

For the first time since I’d known her, a flicker of a smile pulled up Claudia’s lips. “Oh, I would never expect that.”

“And don’t expect me to stay here forever, either. Just until we figure out what Victor is up to and how to stop it. After that, I’m gone. A ghost. And you will never see, hear from, or think about me again. Understand?”

She nodded. “Very well.”

“And if I’m going to stay here, then I want some say in Family matters.”

“Like what?”

“You need a new broker, now that Grant’s dead,” I said. “And that broker is going to be Mo.”

I’d never seen someone’s lips actually curl with disgust before, but that was the only way to describe Claudia’s expression.

“Mo Kaminsky? The Sinclair Family broker? My broker ? I don’t think so,” she spat out.

“It’s going to be Mo,” I snapped right back at her. “You need someone you can trust, and so do I. Like it or not, that person is Mo. Besides, he knows everyone, and he’ll be able to make deals that you never dreamed of. Not to mention ferret out information about what Victor is plotting.”

Claudia grumbled, but she nodded.

We hammered out a few more details, each of us demanding things from the other, and neither of us giving up an inch more than we had to. Finally, though, we’d covered all the major points, including my new and much improved salary. Claudia particularly winced when I told her how much I wanted, but I had her by the throat just as much as she had me.

“So do we have a deal?” Claudia finally asked.

I stared at her outstretched hand, once again wondering what I was getting myself into. But like it or not, I was stuck, and so was she.

So we shook on it, sealing our devil’s bargain.

Claudia and I walked back to the mansion, then split up. She went to go call Mo and tell him what we’d agreed to. I wandered through the halls, going from one room to the next, and brooding. But I kept running into people who wanted to hear all the gory details about the fight with Grant and the lochness, so I eventually retreated back to my bedroom. I propped my mom’s sword up by the nightstand, took off my suit, and threw on a T-shirt and a pair of shorts. Oscar fluttered around, making snarky comments and trying to cheer me up, but I wasn’t in the mood for that, either.