Chapter Nineteen
………………………….
Henri
BEN AND STEWART DIDN’T SPEAK as they pressed themselves against the narrow corridor walls and gave us space to pass.
Their eyes popped wide as the four guards carried Victor between them. He lay face down, hovering over the floor as two guards held his bound arms while the other two carried his bleeding legs. He moaned and whimpered, leaving a trail of crimson droplets as I led our strange procession.
Down the steps, out into the gardens, and toward the blazing fortress.
The night sky lit up with orange glowing flames and black billowing clouds. A few structural parts of Victor’s home had been targeted, making two corners sag strangely as if the entire place was a blow-up castle that’d slowly started to deflate.
Perhaps everything about this place hadn’t been real.
Maybe it’d all been a fantasy as surely as a blow-up bouncy castle about to be stuffed into a box and put on a shelf in a dusty warehouse. Everything that happened in those walls would be hidden. Every horrendous thing forgotten.
I can’t forget.
I won’t.
I’ll never forget .
My thoughts turned fuzzy, a cold shiver racing through my blood.
Ily…
If she was in there while the castle deflated, she’d be crushed.
She’d be stuffed into that box and shoved on that shelf far out of my reach—
I need to find her.
I tripped and almost fell on my face.
God’s sake, Ri, get a grip .
Shaking my head, I clung to sanity instead of exhausted daydreams.
Not real.
Keep it together.
Finish this.
Victor screamed behind the sock that I’d stuffed into his mouth. He thrashed in the guards’ hold. They didn’t even look at him. Holding him as if his dramatics were utterly inconsequential.
I almost suggested they put him down and make him walk.
The sinister part of me would happily witness him crawling, unable to stand because of me. I needed him to come face to face with the same level of despair he’d forced me into. The same humbling vulnerability. The same forsaken knowledge that for all his power as a man, I’d transformed him into nothing with just two quick flicks of a knife.
A knife I hadn’t given back.
A knife I clung to with a white-knuckled grip as if I could stab through the rest of these illusions and hack away the past six months.
I could almost taste the salty sea air of Devon and hear my mother’s groan of pain down the stairs. Perhaps I’d merely passed out after caring for her during one of her many rough nights and this had all been a nightmare.
The corners of the sky seemed to fold inward, deflating like the castle.
No.
Wait!
I stood taller, fighting away insanity.
I didn’t want this to be a nightmare.
I didn’t want her to not be real.
Ily…where are you?
The world flipped upside down.
I gasped and swayed. I cried out as my left knee buckled and crunched against the grass. The hole in my side burned as if something with many teeth and vials of venom chewed through me.
Christ.
Tapping my head with the heel of my hand, I willed myself to stand.
Get up.
Stay awake.
Just a little longer.
Stewart grabbed my elbow and hoisted me up. “Come on, Mercer. Let’s finish this. Then we’ll get the pilot to fly us out of here and come back with help, alright?”
I nodded and tried to speak, but no sound came out.
“Let’s go,” the bald guard said. “Seeing as you’ve hobbled Mr Grand, you better be right about this. You better pay us what you promised. And you better be able to get us off this island because if you can’t…we’ll do to you what you did to our boss.”
“You’re going home.” I nodded, forcing myself to speak. My tongue felt swollen in my mouth, my teeth ached, my entire face unfamiliar. Every step we took, the pain I’d ignored returned, one agonising memento at a time.
The punch to my jaw by Victor.
The gunshot to my side by Larry.
The uncountable number of lashes.
The cracked ribs.
The broken ankle and forearm that had healed but not enough.
All of it clung to me like sandbags, weighing me down, making every step such a fucking struggle.
But I kept going.
We all kept going, getting closer and closer to the castle.
Jewels appeared in the shadows, standing around and safe.
A few guards who’d fought beside them noticed us and headed in our direction.
I no longer had hope but reality.
We’d won.
Fuck…we won.
I almost went down again. The sheer relief made me want to sob and slam into sleep.
No more screams echoed in the stars.
No more gunshots.
No more carnage of war.
The fight was over.
My heart skipped strangely again, tugging me toward the fire, summoning urgently, urgently to find Ily.
Incessant tears burned my stinging eyes.
I had to see her.
I felt as if I’d die if I didn’t.
I’d finally delivered on my promise. I’d vowed to get her out. It’d taken me a while, and I’d stepped off the path a few times, but…I’d done it.
I saved her.
And she… she saved me.
My knees threatened to buckle again, but I managed to stay standing. Just.
Together, we came to a stop at the garden’s edge, buffeted by the smoky heat of the ruined fortress. From here, the windows of Victor’s pride and joy glittered with flames as curtains cindered and expensive fakery turned into ash. The deck continued to smoulder, the skeletons of tables and chairs signalling an end of an era.
Everything looked purged. Purified—
A deafening drone sounded in the sky, growing louder and louder.
It rang in my ears. It throbbed in my jaw.
Oh shit.
I braced.
Was Victor’s contingency plan about to detonate?
“What’s that?” I looked around in panic.
Ben stiffened. Stewart glowered at Victor. “What did you—?”
Something exploded through the smoke hiding the stars above. Something with spinning rotor blades and piercing bright lights.
I squinted as another helicopter appeared.
Followed by another. And another. And another.
The drone was un-fucking-bearable.
The whop-whop-whop of their mechanical wings as they soared around the burning castle. The pressure beat down on us, churning the smoke into little tornadoes and wind devils.
Victor thrashed and fought.
The guards dropped him and narrowed their eyes at the helicopters. “Friends of yours?” the bald guard asked.
My vision struggled to focus. The blinking lights and speed didn’t help with my rapidly building nausea and dizziness, but I studied the tail of the closest one.
The largest helicopter hovered directly above us, buffeting us in wind and granting scents of ocean instead of fire.
Raising my hand to shield the spotlight that clicked on and aimed right at us, I followed the silver emblem painted on the tail.
An emblem I’d only seen once before.
On a business card.
For Moineau holdings.
A black Q with a sparrow soaring in the letter’s flick.
“Shit, I knew he’d come!” Ben suddenly slapped me on the back. “Told you we called your brother.”
I snarled in agony as he caught the whip marks and layered me with yet another gush of pain.
“Oh fuck. Sorry!” Ben reached for me as if to rub away my mind-melting discomfort.
Stepping out of his reach, I flushed with sickly sweat. “You…you called Q?”
“I told you that.”
“No.” I bared my teeth. “You didn’t.”
“Ah well, I was trying to before. When Stew turned the scrambler off—”
“I told your brother to check the cufflinks coordinates,” Stewart cut in. “It was the only way anyone would ever know where we are. The cufflinks were the map.” He laughed out loud. “He must’ve listened. I had my doubts, but…fuck. It worked! It really worked!”
All of us backed up as the huge hulking helicopter slowly descended directly behind us, hovering like a bird of prey in the gardens. The other flying machines soared over the wall; the whine of their engines blasted across the entire island as they prepared to land.
Their rotors vanished behind the battlements and appeared on the runway outside the open drawbridge.
My weakness faded beneath the final surge of strength.
I stood taller as the largest helicopter hovered a metre off the ground. The poor hedges wobbled and shook, evergreen leaves blasting off their stems. The guards clamped their hands over their ears, and all of us rocked backward on our heels as the pressure from the engines buffeted.
The side door slid open.
A man jumped out, followed by four others.
A man with short dark hair, a sharp widow’s peak, and fucking murder in his pale green eyes.
He’s not dead then.
A rush of relief filled me.
Was his son—my nephew—still alive?
I stepped toward him in thanks.
I paused, remembering the betrayal from my past.
I’d been a boy, and he’d abandoned me.
But as a man, I’d be the reason he almost lost everything.
I had so much to apologise for, and despite what’d happened last time we talked, he’d come. He was here. He’d help finish this.
Sucking in a deep breath, I balled my hands and—
Our gazes met.
Instead of the confusing recipe of thankfulness and guilt I felt, he looked like he fucking despised me.
No sign of forgiveness. No flicker of commiseration.
Just hate.
I staggered backward as he stalked faster and faster toward me. Raising his pistol, he pointed it directly at my heart. “On your knees, Onn Ree . Now .”
“You’ve disappointed me, Onn Ree. Time to pay.” I shook my head as our father overlaid Q. Heavier set, receding hair-line, but the same merciless eyes. “Hit her, boy, or I’ll hit you.”
“On your knees! Je vais te tuer putain !” (I’m going to fucking kill you!) Q snarled.
I snapped.
I well and truly fucking snapped.
The way he said my name.
The French accent.
The last reminder of who I was and what I’d done back in that chateau he called home.
No.
Fucking hell no.
Grabbing Victor’s bound wrists, I hoisted up his miserable weight and ran as fast as I could toward the fortress, dragging him beside me.
Victor groaned and cursed, mumbling behind his gag. Blood dripped from his cut ankles, his shot shoulder, and his leg as I tried to outrun my brother.
The castle glowed far too bright in welcome. A few more jewels appeared from the rubble, stepping toward us, drawn from their hiding places thanks to Q’s loud arrival.
Their gazes locked on Victor bouncing and moaning as I hauled him toward them.
His death belonged to Peter.
I’d promised Paavak the final blow that day in the kitchens when we somehow became friends.
I scanned the gathering jewels for him and Ily.
They’d be together.
They’ll come.
I ran faster, lumbering, swaying.
White spots blinded my eyesight as my heart thudded with exhaustion.
Q gave chase.
The hair on the back of my neck rose as he hunted.
I tried to wring out the rest of my power. I lurched forward—
Q kicked the back of my legs, sending me careening onto my face.
I tried to stop my fall, but my arms were done. My bones were on fire. My muscles utterly useless. Blood gushed from my nose as I ploughed up the grass with my chin. Gasping, I rolled onto my side, only for Q to kick me in the ribs. The same cracked ribs that’d only just healed.
I bellowed as sickness splashed sour and tangy on my tongue.
Consciousness threatened to snuff out.
Victor squirmed away, managing to tongue the sock-gag out of his mouth. “Oh, thank goodness you’re here!” He sobbed, sounding exactly like all the tortured jewels he’d maimed. “He cut me. He’s going to kill me. He’s deranged!”
I had no strength to fight back as Q grabbed my hair, yanked me onto my knees, and pressed the gun against my forehead. Ignoring Victor, he hissed, “You put my son in danger. You put my life in danger. You put my wife’s life in danger.” Grinding the muzzle of his pistol against my skin, he snarled, “You’re no kin of mine. You’re him. You’re exactly like our father, just as I suspected. And I’m going to do to you what I did to him.”
Victor simpered and kept squirming away. “Kill him. Please. He’s hurt so many. He’s a monster!”
I opened my mouth to tell Q his greatest enemy was right there. Bleeding and broken but still far too cunning.
But Q pulled back, fisted the gun with both hands, and hovered his fingers over the trigger. “Goodbye, broth—”
“ Wait !” Ben and Stewart slammed to a stop in front of me. “Don’t!”
“Get out of the motherfucking way!” Q roared.
“I was the one who called you,” Stewart spat. “You’re here because of us. You’re walking in at the end of this war because of him .” Pointing at me on the ground, he added, “He helped us. He almost died to save the jewels. Can’t you see that? Open your damn eyes!”
Ben flung his arms at the castle. Something crashed inside, chewed apart by hungry flames. “This happened because we fought together.” Pointing at my golden collar and cuffs, he said, “He’s been a prisoner for months. He’s been tortured for months . By him.” He pointed at Victor. Marching toward the true monster, he kicked Victor’s shot shoulder and stomped on his lower back.
Victor howled, then turned manic. He fought upright, managing to shove Ben’s foot off him. “Don’t listen to them! They’re just as bad as Henri! All these men are. The guards! They’re in on it! Help me .”
The bald guard crossed his arms and muttered, “That’s Victor Grand, and you’d be wise not to trust a word out of his mouth.”
Q went deathly still. His eyes snapped to Victor.
Victor shuffled backward, dragging his useless legs across the manicured lawn, turning green into glistening red. He shook his head. “They’re lying. They’re all lying. I’m—”
“I admit it’s been a while since I saw a picture of you.” Q smirked and stepped toward him. His pistol swung to point at Victor’s face instead of mine. “But it is you. I never forget the eyes of evil.” Cocking his head like a vulture, he sniffed. “You know what? A bullet is far too good for you.” Shifting back to me, he snatched up my discarded knife. “I made a vow to my wife once upon a time to see if men like you have hearts.” He launched at Victor and landed on his knees, either side of the Master Jeweler’s chest. “Let’s find out, shall we?”
Victor screamed as Q brought the knife down.
“STOP!” I used every last droplet of aliveness to throw myself at my brother and shove him off Victor. The knife caught me in the side. Only shallow. Just a nick. But it added another creep of pain that I could no longer block out.
“His death isn’t yours!” I snarled and coughed and gasped. “Peter! Paavak! Get your ass out here!”
Q shoved me off him as if I weighed nothing.
I struggled onto my hands and knees, hacking up a glob of blood.
I couldn’t catch a proper breath anymore.
I shivered with a bone-arctic chill.
“His death belongs…to the jewels,” I gasped, glowering at my brother. “Not you.”
Scowling, Q paced around Victor. He eyed up Victor’s bloody ankles and shot me a look with a raised eyebrow. And then his gaze landed on my shredded back. The mess that was left of me.
He went still.
His face filled with questions.
They fired at me like bullets, demanding answers.
But I had no energy to tell him anything.
Once again, my gaze was drawn to a shadowy part of the garden where a fire had burned out and a few jewels huddled around something on the ground.
The fact that they hadn’t come to watch the show. The fact that they’d stayed there, heads bowed, hands linked, tears glimmering on their dirty cheeks.
Where’s Peter?
Where’s Ily?
A godawful stabbing arrowed right through my fucking heart.
No…
Victor wasn’t telling the truth.
He can’t…
I crawled.
I staggered to my feet and wrapped my arms around my waist, trying to hold all my pain together. “Ily…”
The jewels sitting around the two denser shadows on the grass reminded me so much of a vigil, a funeral—
No…please, fuck no…
I broke into a wobbly run.
“Give the knife to the jewels,” Ben said behind me. “Like Henri said, Victor’s death belongs to them.”
I didn’t look to see if Q obeyed.
But then the sounds of Victor’s screeching tore through the moonlight as the crowd of jewels fell on him, delivering him the same mercy he’d shown them.
“This is for Rebecca,” someone hissed.
Victor howled.
“This is for Bet.”
Victor screamed.
“This is for Dane.”
Victor shrieked.
The beast inside me wanted to watch. It wanted to participate and tear Victor limb from fucking limb, but…
I couldn’t stop the calling, the command.
It was as if a black hole latched onto my heart and dragged me into its orbit.
I couldn’t stop it.
Couldn’t fight it.
I bolted right to the ring of silent jewels.
I didn’t look at them.
I just looked at the ground before them.
And I finally saw.
No…
My legs gave out.
I slammed to my knees beside my only friend and twin flame.
Peter lay on his back, eyes closed, face serene.
Ily lay next to him, black hair haloing the grass, dark scarlet soaking everywhere. A piece of purple silk tangled around her collar, dripping with red.
“ No… ” A cry escaped me, tattered and terrible, utterly feral with fear. “I-It’s not possible.”
The jewels moved aside as I gathered Ily’s lifeless body onto my lap.
I cradled her head.
I kissed her cold lips.
The fire that bound us.
The soul that we shared.
I couldn’t feel it.
Why can’t I feel it?!
“Ily…come on. Open your eyes.” I kissed her brow, and brushed aside her hair. “ Please open your eyes. It’s over. We won. You’re free.”
I rocked faster and faster, a hurricane of grief howling through me.
“Little nightmare, please… please don’t do this. Not now.” Tears streamed down my cheeks and landed on hers. They rolled down her chin, leaving streaks in all the blood.
Hugging her lifeless form, I reached across and grabbed Peter’s icy hand. “Paavak…come on. Snap out of it.”
Caishen bowed his head, sobbing quietly. “Henri, they’re—”
“No. Don’t say it. They’re not.”
“I tried.” Caishen gasped. “I tried to stem their bleeding. I’m sorry. So fucking sorry.”
“ Peter .” I crushed the bones in my friend’s hand. “Wake the fuck up. Victor’s waiting for you. You have to deliver the killing blow.”
Nothing.
“Ily…” I brushed my nose against hers.
No air from her lungs.
No breath in her body.
I grunted as pain I’d never felt before eviscerated me.
“Please, Ily…please don’t…”
Her head lolled lifelessly on my arm.
I gagged.
I couldn’t breathe.
I can’t breathe!
Things imploded inside me just like the falling fortress.
My ribs tumbled into ruin.
My bones shattered into dust.
My heart pounded, pounded , racing toward its final beat the longer Ily’s wonderful golden eyes didn’t open.
“ Please ,” I howled.
I rocked.
I sobbed.
I couldn’t stop moving.
Couldn’t stop touching.
Couldn’t stop shaking and quaking and—
A hand landed on my lashed shoulder. Q muttered, “ Onn Ree …she’s gone.”
If I had any strength left, I would’ve slaughtered him for that. I would’ve ripped out his motherfucking heart for sending me here. I would’ve torn out his entrails for making me find the other half of my heart, only to lose it on the day we gained our freedom.
But I had nothing.
Just death.
Just loss.
Just nothing.
Venomous calm soaked through me.
Exquisite acceptance slowed my heart.
So be it.
Choking on my tears, I slowly placed Ily back on the grass beside Peter.
Loneliness sliced through me.
Despair crushed.
I couldn’t live with this pain.
I’d never been able to live with this pain.
“I love you,” I whispered as I placed her hand in Peter’s.
“I’ll see you soon.” I kissed her one last time on her blue cold lips.
And then I turned to my brother hovering behind me.
I grabbed his hand still holding his gun.
I jerked it up and pressed the muzzle against my forehead.
“Kill me,” I hissed. “I can’t do this anymore.”
And then, I reached for the trigger.
And squeezed—