Chapter 51 #2
“That’s enough.” The hard voice of the lord I most wanted to see sounded through the room, and I immediately jumped to my feet, Azurill and I both instinctively stepping together in front of Cassan and blocking his father from getting to him.
I heard the rustle of others stepping around us, and spared a quick glance to confirm Balthazar, Ruri, Emrys, Alwyn, and to my surprise, Arianell had joined us.
All in battle armor with bloody swords and knives in hand.
I was particularly curious about the double-bladed dagger Arianell was wielding, but kept my attention focused on the asshole in front of us for now.
“Enough?” I laughed wryly, “I haven’t even gotten started yet.”
“Nor will you.” The bastard glared, his ruby eyes flaring with rage as he looked at us.
“Sorry, Lord Carnelian.” Watching his eye twitch in annoyance was more satisfying than it should be.
“But you made the mistake of leaving this Marit alive, and I’m going to ensure you’re much too dead to ever take the throne that rightfully belongs to Azurill.
I’m going to take the vengeance you’ve owed me for far too long. ”
Carnelian laughed, and I twitched forward, Azurill laying a hand on my lower back and calming me for the moment. When Carnelian pulled out a familiar-looking potion, however, my eyes widened, and I barely got to scream, “No!” before it was flying through the air.
Years of being a thief had given me instincts I trusted beyond anything else, and years of dance before that gave me the grace to move and twist through the air with reckless abandon. Both served me well through the years, but never as well as now.
I threw myself into a flip, sending me flying through the room in a dizzying spin.
Before the potion got halfway, my hand snatched it midair, and I landed with panting breath.
I turned my glare on Carnelian, backing up and placing the potion hurriedly into Ruri’s hands as Azurill engaged the lord with blades.
Azurill laughed in his face as he easily batted each blow away with the power running through him.
But he owed me blood, and blood I would take.
I rushed behind Carnelian while he was distracted with fighting Azurill, jumping on his back and placing my blade to his throat. He came to a standstill as my knife cut into the skin, his red blood dripping like rubies, matching the rest of him.
“You had my parents killed. My entire godsdamned household!” I screamed in his ear, “You forced me to live in hiding on the streets while you feasted and slept in feather beds. While I slept on lumpy mattresses in the cold, my stomach rumbling from hunger, and the nightmares of the night you destroyed my life ran on a loop in my head.” I finished with a hiss.
“True power is only gained from bold moves.” Carnelian sneered, even as he kept his head and neck completely still. “Your family was weak, and they lost everything because of it.”
“They were strong,” I argued, passionately. “Stronger than you’ll ever be. Because they knew the value of love and loyalty, two things you will never understand.”
“And you do?” He laughed wryly. “I’ve seen how you were raised, and I know you were taught to look out for yourself, to ensure your own position and survival. Just as I do. Don’t be a hypocrite.”
It was my turn to laugh, “A hypocrite? I was forced into survival mode because of you, but I was not raised that way. My parents raised me; Ula just picked up the slack once your monsters took them from me. And now, you’re going to pay for every drop of blood spilled from my blood.”
I swung myself around him and pushed him into the wall in one move, wanting to look him in the eyes, and then…
I sank the knife deep into his chest. Not close enough to his heart to kill him, but close enough to watch his eyes widen in panic.
When I pulled the knife out and stuck it in his abdomen, followed by his thigh, I watched happily as he sank back into the wall, his strength leaving him in ruby-red drops gushing from the wounds.
“Bring me Casaan,” I said, waiting until Azurill and Balthazar brought the now sobbing would-be-prince before me.
I looked into Carnelian’s eyes, “You tried to exterminate House Marit, and for that crime, I will succeed where you failed and destroy every drop of Rousseau blood in this despicable court. Your line, your lands, your imagined dynasty, all gone. All thanks to the one little girl you couldn’t kill. ”
If looks could kill, the hate and impotent rage in Carnelian’s eyes as Ruri and Alwyn held him still would have left me dead on the floor, the way he’d once thought he’d left me. I looked down at Casaan consideringly, grabbing him by the chin and forcing him to meet my eyes.
“It seems only right to start with the one who started it all himself. The man who killed my parents directly.” I smiled, a chilling thing, devoid of all warmth. I buried the new life and emotions I felt now for a moment to live in that wrath I’d spent so many years drowning in.
And then I stabbed Casaan straight through the heart.
The scream from his father echoed, and I looked to see Sienna racing into the room towards her son. A part of me almost felt bad for a moment before I remembered who these people were. They had brought this reckoning on themselves.
Emrys grabbed her, wrapping his arms around her flailing body as she tried to escape his grip, before manhandling her out of the room altogether. I looked at Azurill as I pulled the blade from the chest of my parents’ murderer. There was no disgust, not from him, only understanding and vindication.
Erodite, how I loved that man.
“Once we’re done with this one, we need to deal with the rest of them,” I told him, and he smirked slowly at me.
“Does that mean the rest of us can play with the other members of House Rousseau? Or are you going to be greedy with them too?” he teased, making me bite my lip to stop the laugh from bubbling up.
I turned to Carnelian, considering. The shocked devastation in his eyes was everything I wanted, but I could tell he hadn’t given up. Not yet. Maybe never. I hated to admit that I saw pieces of myself in him, but it gave me enough insight to know the truth.
People like us, we didn’t bend. We could only break.
So I slipped my knife to the center of his throat and rammed it straight through. Watching with a smile as the great lord broke, his blood gushing out in ruby-red waves as he choked on it. His great noble blood turned against him in the end, destroying everything he was.
It was beautiful.
As I watched the light leave his eyes, my shoulders sank in shuddering relief.
A type of peace I had never known overtaking me as I looked at the two dead lords before me.
My family was finally avenged, and now, as I looked back to Azurill, my king, my love—I knew the future was finally looking brighter than any diamond.
.