I dispassionately rested the edge of my katana on his uncovered neck, making his face turn red with fright and the veins in his neck pop. “This is your only warning, Tellier,” I said in a cold, dispassionate voice. “Come after me or my family—or even think of helping Mason again—and I’ll find you. And if that happens, it will only take one lightning strike to fix it. Do you understand?”

Gideon nodded.

I stood, pausing when my vision briefly turned blurry and my stomach again voiced its doubts.

For a moment I wanted to kick Gideon hard in the ribs for all those times he’d tortured me, picked on me, and made my childhood miserable.

But even though so much of what I had thought to be truths were lies, I knew if I did something like that, I’d be no better than Gideon.

I made my way to Mason.

He was in the worst shape. His limbs were still twitching, his clothes were smoking, and the lightning had actually torn one of his shoes off. He couldn’t stop moving.

I didn’t kneel by him, but I did rest the edge of my sword against his neck as I had with Gideon.

“Mason, do you agree it is your loss?” I asked with ice in my voice.

It took a few moments before he stuttered out, “A-agreed.”

I slowly blocked off my magic pathways, and my wizard’s mark flickered out.

“Hazel!” Momoko flew toward me, Felix right behind her.

“You did it—you crazy girl!” Felix messed up my hair, but guardedly watched the House Tellier wizards scrape themselves off the ground and edge toward the sidewalk.

The House Rothchild wizards stood awkwardly at the edge of the porch and were almost run over by the outpouring of House Medeis family members.

“Adept!”

“Hazel—you’re home!”

“Welcome home, Adept!”

I laughed as my family crowded around me.

Franco—Felix’s older brother—dabbed at the smeared blood on my hand with a washcloth. “We’ll have to get you to the doctor.”

“Surely we could afford a fae healing potion?” Great Aunt Marraine asked.

“Hazel, Hazel!” Ivy stretched her arms out to me, holding the macaroni necklace she tried to give me at my parents’ funeral.

Behind me, Mason groaned.

I reached out a hand to brush Ivy’s head, but grimaced at the dried blood on my hands. “Just a minute, Ivy.”

I stepped back from my family and returned to Mason, watching him.

He was still in pretty bad shape. He’d need a doctor, but I was pretty sure he could speak without stuttering now, given that he was sitting upright.

“Mason.” I did my best to imitate the icy, uncaring tone Killian used when he was at his worst.

It must have worked to some degree. Mason’s skin turned ashen as he looked up at me.

I stabbed my sword forward—stopping just short of piercing his throat.

(This brought gasps from my House Medeis family.)

“You admitted your loss. House Medeis is mine—as it always was,” I snarled.

Mason’s throat bulged as he swallowed, and his hands started to shake again.

“Because I’m not like you, I’m willing to offer you mercy. You will leave House Medeis today, and by tomorrow I want you out of the Midwest Region.”

Mason audibly ground his teeth, but I didn’t care if he was angry.

“Your false paperwork that declared you Adept is no longer valid. From this moment forth you are considered an exile of House Medeis.”

“Be reasonable—”

“You tore House Medeis apart with your selfish ambition, and terrorized the family we have grown up with.” My voice was so frosty the air felt colder. “It’s called mercy because I’m granting you something you are unworthy of, Mason. You deserve pain and suffering, but in the spirit of the Medeis I grant you this chance.”

I leaned in so my face was so close to Mason’s he could feel my hot breath. “However. If you attack me or any member of House Medeis again, I will kill you.”

That raised another round of gasps and concerned murmurs—of course, fighting, much less killing, was not the Medeis way.

It didn’t matter, though. Despite the pain he was obviously in, Mason’s eyes still glowed with hatred.

Given that he hadn’t killed anyone, and that House Tellier was just as guilty as he was, I wasn’t expecting much of a punishment from the Curia Cloisters—though I would hound them endlessly until they booted him from our region, and I was going to embark on a rampage to figure out how the Wizard Council had approved Mason as Adept without officially meeting. But I’d be true to my word—all of it.

The Paragon clapped loudly. “Hazel Medeis is rightful Adept of House Medeis.” He was still sitting out on the sidewalk, his quill pen clenched between his teeth. “And might I say, that was positively a wicked attack! I don’t think I’d ever seen wizards use an attack that affected an entire area around them. Well done! Even Aphrodite was impressed!”

Aphrodite, still secured against the Paragon’s chest in her baby sling, flicked one of her giant, hairless ears. “Mmert.”

I laughed and waved to the fae and his cat. “Please, Paragon and Aphrodite. I invite you both into House Medeis.”

“Fantastic!” The Paragon got to work disassembling his easel. “I have some questions to ask you now that Drake isn’t hiding you away in his Hall. Do you—”

“ADEPT!”

Some of the members of House Medeis screamed, but I’d already heard the scuff of grass behind me.

Days of drilling prompted me. Without looking back, I whipped my sword behind me, unflinching when it pierced flesh.

Mason.

I turned around, but his fate had already been sealed.

Mason had attempted to jump me from behind. Instead, I had stabbed him through the chest. He wasn’t going to make it, because he had chosen cowardice and greed over my mercy.

A dagger slipped from his limp fingers—probably what he meant to kill me with—before he collapsed to his knees.

I stepped closer to him. The difference in our height meant I didn’t even have to crouch when I pulled my sword clean. “Just because I offer mercy, doesn’t mean I’m stupid.”

Mason’s eyes were still wide with shock as he died.

I wasn’t happy with his death, but I wasn’t going to regret it.

Mason had made a lifetime of poor choices. Ending it because he couldn’t let go was his decision.

Judging by the shocked expressions of everyone from House Medeis, I wasn’t sure they saw it quite the same way.

Great Aunt Marraine was shaking so hard I thought she might collapse, and Mr. Baree was watching me the way one watched a rabid wolf.

Momoko, however, had a hardened smile and a gleam in her eye that told me she understood, and Felix had a thoughtful expression settle on his face as he rubbed at the magic-reducing bracelet.

“What a mess.” The Paragon peered over my shoulder. “Make no mistake—you acted in self-defense. I would be happy to testify such a thing, as I’m sure any of the fine wizards from House…what House are you again?” He turned to Gideon.

“H-House Tellier, Paragon.” His legs shook as he bowed to the Paragon.

“That’s right, the House of ugly color combinations. For real—your ancestors should have looked at a color wheel.” The Paragon wrinkled his nose at Gideon, then pulled a cellphone with a neon green cactus cover from Aphrodite’s sling. “I’ll ring up the Elite and tell him some wizard reinforcements are needed to come down and handle everything.”

I looked around for my sword scabbard, then realized it was useless—there was no way I was putting my katana away when it was spattered with blood. “Thank you, Paragon.”

“Adept…” Great Aunt Marraine said in her quavering voice. “How could you…?”

“Things are going to change for House Medeis,” I said simply.

“I’m sure. But you are injured, Adept.” Mrs. Clark’s face was white when she glanced past me at Mason, but the smile she gave me was still motherly. “We really should see to your injuries first.”

The pounding ache that rippled out from the top of my head was starting to get distracting. “Okay,” I agreed. “But we also need to find the keys to get those bracelets off you all.”

“I know where they are!” Franco grinned at me. “Felix, come help!”

Felix glanced at Momoko, who curled an arm around my mid back, tugging me so I leaned into her. “I’ve got her,” she said. “She’ll be okay until we get these stupid bracelets off.”

“I am not a child the two of you need to watch,” I grumbled.

“I disagree, Adept.” Mrs. Clark’s face was sorrowful as she and Momoko guided me across the lawn. “You are still a child, who has been forced to deal with horrors no human should.”

I didn’t answer—I was busy holding my breath as we crossed the threshold of the House, wondering if it was going to smite me for openly saying I valued my family first.

Mercifully, it was silent, and I relaxed just a little.

“I happen to have a few fae healing potions on me,” the Paragon declared as he shamelessly followed us inside and looked around. “Why don’t you set Adept Medeis on a chair, and we can get one in her, yes?”

They settled me in the closest spot—a rickety wooden chair settled in the hallway.

The Paragon pushed a golden potion encased in a glass vial into my hands. It had that faint floral taste that always accompanied fae magic, but it also tasted warm and musical—like piano music.

And as I took a swig of my potion I peered up at the Paragon, and wondered how, exactly, he had heard that I was going to attack Mason, and that I was no longer in Drake Hall…

Chapter Twenty-One

Hazel

In the end, there wasn’t any fallout from Mason’s death.

As the Paragon had offered, he’d phoned the Elite, who sent out guards from the Cloisters to collect Mason’s body.