Chapter 56
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
PHOENIX
So close.
We were so close.
I exchange a glance with Jax at my side, Vera in his arms, frail and soaked with rain.
Get her to safety no matter what, I tell him through our bond.
His eyes harden. Before he can argue, I add: It’s an order.
Reluctantly, his stance loosens and he gives me a subtle nod. I dip my chin in acknowledgment and slowly turn to face Reizei and his men. With my head held high, I take a step closer to the father of a man I used to love. Before I slit his throat.
“Reizei. It’s been a while,” I say calmly. “I assume you know why we’re here tonight?”
His dark gaze slides to Vera in Jax’s arms. “To steal another heir from me. It’s getting rather tedious, General.”
Miss Talbot, that maid had called Vera.
No matter. There’s no time for that. Not now.
“You took Vera D’Argent against her will, locked her up, mutilated her, and used her as a way to blackmail your Ezkai General,” I say, words hard. “And that’s only one of the crimes you’re being charged with tonight.”
Reizei’s eyes widen and a slow grin stretches across his face. Then, he bursts out laughing. It irks me to no end, his arrogance. He thinks I’m bluffing. That he’s untouchable because nobody dared to arrest him before me. Now I know where Daegel got it from.
Jax’s anxiety spikes through our bond half a second before the sound reaches my ears. Metal on metal.
Reizei’s laughter dies when the weapons clash behind us.
Every muscle in my body coils. Reizei’s men are closing in from behind. The metal gate rattles behind me.
We’re trapped.
I don’t move, though. Don’t look back. I keep my eyes on Reizei. I won’t give him the satisfaction of watching me flinch.
Only when the gate tears open do I look back.
For a long, terrible second I wait for more of his men. But the black silk tunic whipping in the wind is familiar.
Noire.
He’s supposed to be guarding the back…
No matter.
More of my Ezkai flood in behind him, fanning out at my back. My heart sings with triumph.
Reizei’s men shift—weapons raised, bodies tensing as they stand behind their master. I’m ready to call it—
More ruckus comes from the side gardens. The sounds of hooves, weapons clashing. Ezkai Cassandra and Ezkai Xander both appear from the sides of the estate, and the rest of my men pour through in perfect formation, filling every gap, cutting off every exit.
Reizei’s men turn, recalibrate, and find nowhere to go.
In mere moments, he’s completely surrounded.
Thirty of my most loyal Ezkai at every angle, blades drawn, rain running off their leather armor in rivers.
I allow myself to take it in for exactly one breath.
My plan.
My army.
My moment.
But when I look back at Reizei, a ghost of a smile is still present on his face.
Uneasy coldness seeps through me. I push it down.
“Ezkai Reizei Talbot.” My voice cuts clean through the rain.
“You stand charged with the kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment, and torture of Vera D’Argent.
With coordinating a blackmail operation against the noble House Dzuni and the Order of Ezkai.
And with conspiracy to assassinate Ezkai General Kitajo Hiromasa. ”
Silence except for the rain.
“Anything to say?”
Reizei looks at me the way Daegel used to right after he manipulated me into believing what he wanted me to believe.
The reign of these men ends today.
When he doesn’t say anything, I turn to my unit. “Arrest him.”
A heartbeat passes.
Silence stretches.
And none of my men move.