My mouth dropped open. “How can he do that? It has to be illegal!”

“It would be,” Momoko sighed and dropped her hands in her lap. “Except he says we’re wearing them for training purposes—which is allowed.”

I made a sound of outrage.

Magic-blocking bracelets were mostly used on wizards and fae who broke the law. But wizard Houses occasionally used them for punishments and training—we had a pair or two lying around House Medeis in my parents’ day. But purchasing enough bracelets to cuff all the wizards sworn to House Medeis should have done more than raise a few eyes, it should have set off some alarm bells.

“The Wizard Council can’t possibly believe he’s got cuffs on everyone in House Medeis all the time for training purposes!” I scoffed, naming the wizard subcommittee that over-saw regional wizard issues.

“They’re turning a blind eye.” Felix balled his hands into fists. “We’ve sent emails and text messages out to the other Houses—they still won’t help.”

“At least since we’re wearing the bracelets he doesn’t have to physically subdue us—though he won’t let anyone leave the house unless it’s to go to work,” Momoko said.

That was the silver lining, I suppose. Keeping their magic blocked was cruel, but if it meant he wasn’t hurting them, and if it gave them a little more freedom, that was better than the alternative.

I rubbed my forehead. “If you have the bracelets he can’t expect you to fight back, so he’s not torturing you or anything…right?”

They exchanged glances, instantly raising my hackles.

If they were trying to decide how much to tell me, that meant it was a lot worse than they were letting on.

“It’s getting worse the longer it’s taking him to seize control,” Momoko finally said.

“The Wizard Council have announced they’re not going to move to stop him—they called it an ‘in-house’ issue that should be solved by those of us in House Medeis—which is ridiculous since they know House Tellier is helping Mason,” Felix bitterly said.

“But! He’s hit a wall.” Momoko grinned mischievously. “Your parents’ human lawyers. The firm won’t proceed with the will without you there—they actually had the police come and threaten to arrest Mason when he came to their offices to try and convince them to give him all the papers and the signet ring. He had to leave because if he got arrested then the Curia Cloisters would certainly get involved because of the bad publicity.”

I placed my hands on my hips. “You said your parents are covering for you…so you’re planning to go back, aren’t you?”

“We have to,” Momoko said. “For the good of the House.”

I slightly shook my head. “But if things get worse—”

“We can’t go anywhere else, Hazel,” Felix said. “House Medeis is our home. We want to stop Mason. You’re safe, which is the highest priority. We can ride everything out from there. You just need to stay safe—and maybe see if you are sealed after all.”

Momoko nodded and forcibly smoothed her jeans with her hands. “Felix is right. We’ll be fine—it’s not like we can help Mason take over the House.”

“Yes, but—” I started.

Felix mulishly tucked his chin, and I could tell we were about to have an argument, when the door banged open behind me.

“Wizard,” Killian said, his voice like melted chocolate. “You’ve wasted enough time visiting. You need to continue your training: I have an experiment I want to try.”

I warily looked up at the vampire. “Experiment? With training?”

“Don’t worry your head about it.” Killian glanced briefly at my friends before writing them off in under a second. Without waiting for a response, he grabbed the collar of my suitcoat and dragged me behind him.

“Bye guys—don’t risk yourselves for the House,” I called to them as Killian towed me to the parlor door.

Both Felix and Momoko stared at me with open shock, their mouths dropped.

“Tell everyone I love them—oh, and do you think you could maybe bring my cellphone and wallet if you can sneak out to see me again?”

Felix appeared at the doorframe as Killian hauled me down the hallway. “Can’t do it,” Felix called. “Mason went through your room and confiscated all your stuff—phone and wallet included.”

“Why is he always so thorough? Ugh! In that case, I’ll call you on the Drake Hall phone line when I get a chance. Be safe!” I had to shout louder as Killian dragged me farther from the parlor. “Could you wait a moment?” I tried to maneuver so he didn’t strangle me with my shirt collar.

“No.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’ll walk, just let me go.”

Killian gave me one last tug, then abruptly released me so I almost lost my balance. I quickly recovered and hurried after him, trying to adjust my coat back into place. “What’s the training? More weightlifting?”

“Not this time.” When we reached a staircase, Killian led me up rather than going down below to all the training rooms.

I followed in silence until we reached the second story. “Thank you for letting me talk to my friends.”

He started climbing the set of stairs that took us up to the third floor. “I didn’t do anything.”

“No, but you allowed it, and you didn’t have to. I appreciate it.” I was mildly confused when he had us keep going past the third floor and climb the stairs to the final floor—where more of the vampires lived. I would have said it was where the top ranked vampires were, but since Josh was on the third floor with me, that couldn’t be true.

Killian elegantly shrugged, looking a bit like a model—which seemed despicable to me, but magic, and supernaturals as an extension, by its very existence made things not fair, so whatever.

I studied Killian’s back, trying to gauge his reaction. “I’m guessing you don’t care about Mason or what’s going on with House Medeis?”

“Definitely not,” Killian scoffed. He led the way down a hallway, stopping to open a door to an empty bedroom. We marched through it, and Killian opened the glass patio doors to a small balcony.

It was already pretty dark outside because of the clouds, but I still saw a bunch of vampires standing outside, carrying the special sun-blocking umbrellas they have everywhere in the mansion.

I peered over the patio ledge at them, mildly confused. “I don’t get it, how am I supposed to train up here on the patio?”

“Remember, I said we’re experimenting in your training,” Killian said in his velveteen voice.

“Yes,” I cautiously agreed. “What do you have—planned!” I yelped when Killian scooped me up with an alarming amount of finesse. It was a weird sensation. No one had picked me up like this since I was a teenager, and because he tucked me against his chest I was a lot closer to his face than I wanted to be. In fact, I was now so close that I could see the deep red color of his eyes had flecks of black, which is what made his gaze so much darker than any of his underlings. “What are you doing?” I demanded. I didn’t know what to do with my hands—the adrenaline surge said I should grab onto his jacket and cling for life, but instinct told me that would be a horrible idea. Despite my panic I did notice that Killian was cool—temperature wise, I mean. I was starting to get jealous—I was sweating again—until Killian chuckled.

“I just said.” He spoke in that deceptively light tone I didn’t like. “Experimenting.”

And then he tossed me over the side of the patio. As if I was a bad apple he was casually throwing away.

Chapter Thirteen

Hazel

I screamed as I fell four flights, my eyesight turned blurry from the wind, then something hit me with the force of a train, and I briefly lost all my air.

When I could finally see—and breathe—again, I realized Celestina was holding me much the same way Killian had. “W-w-where?” Bewildered, I looked around. Celestina was standing on the ground floor, just under the patio. She must have caught me when Killian threw me.

“You’re safe, Hazel,” Celestina said in a cooing, calming tone.

“I am not safe,” I wheezed as she slowly set me down. I took a few staggering steps, then glared up at the patio.

“Did your magic break free?” Killian called down in a careless tone.

“You could have killed me!”

Killian leaned against the patio ledge. “That was the point. I wondered if a traumatic event would unseal your magic.”

“I was attacked by a mantasp!” I shouted. “That would have counted as traumatic if that’s all it needed to unseal me!”

Killian shrugged. “It was worth attempting.”

“No, it was not!”

“Also,” Killian continued as if he couldn’t hear me, “I was bored.”

“You can’t toss me over a patio because you’re bored!” I hollered.

“I’m starting to understand that—your yelling is more unpleasant than boredom.”

“GOOD!”

Killian’s smirk—its charm inescapable even from several stories away—re-appeared, and he beckoned to me. “Come back up here.”

“NOT ON YOUR LIFE!”

Killian’s laugh echoed across the mansion grounds as I turned, still irate, to Celestina.

She met my scowl with a slight smile. “I would never hurt you,” she said.

“Yeah, super convincing after you let him throw me off a balcony.”

“I knew I could catch you,” she assured me.

“Uh-huh.” I peered up at the tall vampire, and some of my defensiveness left me as I realized Celestina had her thick black hair down for once. “Did you get your hair cut?”

“Do you like it?” She turned in a circle, a beaming smile turning up the volume of her vampire beauty.