Devon stiffened, sitting up to his full height. “And I’m your second-in-command, the Family bruiser. I can’t hide here in the mansion all day, every day. It makes me look weak in front of our own people, and it makes the Sinclairs look weak to all the other Families. That’s more dangerous than anything else, even—”

He cut off his words, but I knew what he’d been about to say, and why Claudia was so worried about his safety.

“Actually, the men would have killed me and Felix, but they would have let Devon live,” I said. “At least for a little while.”

Claudia frowned. “And how do you know that?”

“Because the mystery man wasn’t trying to kill Devon,” I said. “He was trying to kidnap him.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

Claudia’s face remained blank, but her gaze flicked to her son, just for a second. But that was long enough to confirm my suspicion that something else was going on here than someone simply trying to kill Devon.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“The guys who attacked us all had swords, and they were very eager to use them on me, and Felix, too. But when the mystery man finally got close enough to Devon to kill him, he didn’t run Devon through with his sword. Instead, he clamped his hand over Devon’s mouth, put a dagger to his neck, and tried to drag him off. If he wanted your son dead, the mystery man could have stuck that dagger in his back easily enough. But he didn’t. He wanted to take Devon—alive.”

Claudia and Devon didn’t respond, so I decided to fill in the blanks for them. I knew most of the answers to my questions. All I needed now was some confirmation.

“Forget about the mystery man,” I said. “The really interesting thing is what happened during the attack.”

Devon tensed before he could stop himself, although Claudia remained calm.

“Oh?” She arched an eyebrow. “And what would that be?”

“I killed two of the men, but I was injured and the fight wasn’t going my way. In fact, one of those guys was about to take my head off—until Devon opened his mouth and asked him to stop,” I said. “And surprise, surprise, the guy froze. Just like that.”

I snapped my fingers, and they both flinched at the sound.

“The guy stopped cold, even though I could tell exactly how much he wanted to kill me.”

I paused, but neither one of them said anything, so I continued.

“And not only did the guy not kill me, but Devon barked out a few more commands and the guy actually turned on his friends and started killing them instead. All on Devon’s orders. He said exactly five words to the other man—stop, turn around, protect us—and that’s exactly what the guy did, even though I could tell just how much he didn’t want to.”

They still didn’t respond.

“On the ride back to the mansion, I started thinking about the first fight in the Razzle Dazzle. And it occurred to me that the guy who attacked Devon didn’t actually swing his sword at him. Instead, he grabbed Devon’s neck. At the time, I thought the guy was going to choke him to death. But really, all he was doing was keeping pressure on Devon’s throat so he couldn’t speak. To keep him from giving any of his special orders.”

Silence. Absolute silence.

A minute ticked by, then two, then three.

Finally, Claudia sat up straight, raised her chin, and fixed me with a ruthless glare.

“You will never, ever tell anyone what Devon did in the library,” she snapped. “Or I will kill you myself.”

My mouth fell open. It was bad enough Claudia was forcing me to work for her Family, but I’d saved Devon from being kidnapped again. And now she was threatening me? With death?

Anger bubbled up inside me, as hot and bitter as acid. My hands clenched into fists, and I opened my mouth to tell Claudia Sinclair exactly what I thought of her—

“Enough, Mom,” Devon said. “That’s enough. Lila saw what I did. I can’t hide it from her. Not anymore.”

Claudia sucked in a breath. “Devon, think about this. You don’t know what you’re saying. The more people who know, the more—”

“Danger I’m in,” Devon finished. “Yeah. I got the memo on that a long time ago.”

He stared into the fireplace, even though it was cold and empty. I wondered if he was thinking back to that day on the Midway, when my mom had saved him and Claudia. I’d always wondered why he’d been targeted by so many men. I’d assumed it was because of some Family feud, but I was beginning to think his special power might be the real reason.

Devon shook off his memories and turned to me. Despite his bravado, the worry in his green eyes pinched my heart.

“It’s my Talent,” he said. “What I did to that guy in the library . . . it’s called compulsion. I tell someone what to do, and they automatically do it—whether they want to or not.”

Compulsion was a rare Talent. I’d heard of it, but I’d never actually met someone with the power to make other people act against their own free will. No wonder the mystery man wanted to kidnap Devon. As long as he held Devon prisoner, he could get Devon—and whoever he forced Devon to compel—to do exactly what he wanted.

Or worse, the mystery man could take Devon’s Talent for himself, rip the magic right out of Devon’s body, and kill him in the process. It was the same thing my mom had always feared would happen to me if someone learned about my transference power.