Chapter 18 #2
Roman stormed through the chapel behind her with an entire fucking army flooding in at his back.
Gunfire echoed violently through the cathedral ceilings while Viktor and Rupert fought side by side near the center aisle.
Rupert drove a man backward through one of the pews hard enough to splinter wood while Viktor shot another directly between the eyes before slamming the butt of his gun into somebody else’s jaw.
Bodies kept dropping. Glass shattered across the floor. Smoke started filling the air from overturned candles and gunfire while guests crawled over each other trying to escape.
Through all of it, Emerald only looked at me. Tears streamed down her face while she reached the chair and immediately grabbed the tape covering my mouth with shaking hands.
I saw the exact second she realized how bad the beating actually was. Blood covered the front of my shirt. My face felt half swollen shut at this point. One of my eyes barely opened fully while dried blood remained smeared across my jaw beneath the tape.
Her expression crumpled .
“Nikolai…”
The sound of my name breaking apart inside her throat nearly fucking destroyed me. Her fingers hooked beneath the edge of the tape before ripping it away hard enough to reopen split skin at the corners of my mouth. Pain tore sharply across my face while blood immediately coated my tongue again.
Emerald touched my face carefully like she was afraid I might fall apart beneath her hands.
“Oh my God…”
“I’m fine.”
The lie sounded rough even to me.
Her eyes filled with anger instantly. “You are absolutely not fucking fine.”
Gunfire exploded nearby again. A body crashed over one of the pews several feet away while Mira drove a blade into another attacker with terrifying precision. Roman fought near the altar now, blood covering his hands while he tore through Malrik’s men with cold controlled brutality.
I expected rage from him, expected recklessness. What I didn’t expect was how well the man handled himself. Roman Deveraux fought like somebody who had spent years learning exactly how to bury violence beneath expensive suits and polished smiles .
A guard rushed him from behind only to hit the floor with a bullet between his eyes before he got close enough to touch him. Emerald’s hands worked frantically against the restraints binding my wrists.
“They tightened them too much,” she whispered shakily.
Blood coated her fingers almost immediately from trying. The sight of her in that white dress covered in my blood while trying to free me in the middle of absolute chaos burned itself permanently into my head.
“You need to go,” I told her.
Her eyes snapped toward mine instantly.
“No.”
“Emerald—”
“I am not leaving you here.”
Another gunshot cracked through the chapel.
Roman shouted something across the room while Viktor slammed somebody into one of the marble columns hard enough to crack bone.
The restraint around my right wrist loosened slightly beneath Emerald’s frantic pulling.
Pain ripped through my shoulder the second I forced harder against it.
Leather tore. My hand finally broke free.
Emerald made a small broken sound halfway between relief and a sob before immediately grabbing my face. Then she kissed me .
Nothing around us existed for one impossible second after that. Not the gunfire. Not the screaming. Not the bodies covering the chapel floor. Only her. Only the taste of salt from her tears mixing with blood against my mouth while she kissed me like she thought she might lose me if she stopped.
My free hand tangled into the fabric at her waist despite the pain burning through my ribs while the other restraint still held my left wrist tightly against the chair.
She kissed me desperately. Furiously. Like every emotion she had been trying to survive finally shattered open at once. When she finally pulled back, tears still slipped down her face.
“I thought he was going to kill you.”
My forehead pressed against hers briefly.
“I’m still here.”
Then panic flashed across her expression suddenly.
“The baby!”
Everything inside me sharpened instantly.
“What?”
“I hid her upstairs before the ceremony started,” Emerald said quickly. “I didn’t know what else to do. ”
Rage crawled violently beneath my skin at the realization of how close that child had been to this entire fucking nightmare.
“Go get her.”
Emerald shook her head immediately. “No.”
“Emerald.”
“I can’t leave you yet.”
Another explosion echoed somewhere deeper inside the estate hard enough to shake part of the walls. Smoke drifted through the air now from overturned candles burning across shattered flower arrangements. The scent of gunpowder mixed with blood until the entire room smelled like death.
I grabbed the side of her face gently despite the blood coating my hands.
“You are not leaving me,” I said firmly. “You are getting that baby and bringing her back to me.”
Fear filled her expression. My thumb brushed beneath one of her tears.
“Go!”
She hesitated another second before finally nodding once. Then she ran .
The second Emerald disappeared through the side hallway, I ripped the remaining restraint free hard enough to nearly tear my shoulder out with it. Pain exploded through my ribs the second I stood fully upright.
Blood soaked the entire back of my shirt where the beating split skin open while every breath scraped sharply through my chest.
My eyes immediately found Malrik across the room. He stood near the altar staring at the chaos unfolding around him with wide horrified eyes while Roman’s men tore through the last of his guards. Fear finally existed inside him.
Our eyes locked across the ruined chapel. Recognition hit him instantly. I was coming for him.
Malrik reached beneath his jacket for a gun at the exact same moment I started moving.
The first bullet skimmed past my shoulder close enough for heat to tear across skin. The second shattered marble behind me. Then I hit him.
The impact sent both of us crashing directly through the altar hard enough to splinter wood across the floor beneath us. Pain ripped violently through my body.
Malrik recovered faster than I expected. He slammed his elbow into my jaw before reaching toward the knife hidden near his ankle. I caught his wrist first. Bone cracked beneath the force. He screamed .
Years of rage poured out of me all at once after that. Every lie. Every manipulation. Every ruined fucking thing. I drove my fist into his face hard enough to spray blood across the marble before grabbing him by the throat and slamming him backward into the shattered remains of the altar again.
“You should’ve killed me when you had the chance,” I growled.
Blood poured from his mouth while he laughed anyway. “You think this changes anything?”
I hit him again. Harder. Nearby, the final gunshots started dying out one by one. Most of Malrik’s guards already lay dead across the floor while Roman, Mira, Rupert, and Viktor finished the remaining few trying to flee.
Bodies surrounded us. Blood covered the marble. White flowers burned beside overturned candles. The chapel looked like hell. Then Emerald reappeared. Relief hit me so hard it nearly dropped me to my knees.
She held the baby tightly against her chest beneath a blanket while tears still stained her face. Blood covered the front of her wedding dress from touching me earlier while the child slept somehow through all the chaos against her shoulder.
Roman immediately started toward Malrik.
“No! ”
My voice echoed sharply through the destroyed chapel. Roman stopped. I grabbed Malrik by the collar and dragged him partly upright.
“He’s mine!”
Roman stared at me for a long second before stepping back. Malrik laughed weakly through bloodied teeth.
“Still emotional,” he mocked. “Lucien would hate what you became.”
“Lucien’s dead.”
The words visibly hit him. Then the bastard smiled again.
“If you kill me,” he said quietly, “you’ll never know who you are.”
The room stiffened around us. Roman frowned. Mira looked confused. Malrik’s swollen mouth twisted upward through blood.
“You really think Lucien kept you because he cared about you? You don’t know where you came from. You don’t know whose blood runs through your veins. You don’t know what was done to get you.”
My grip tightened around his throat. “Talk.”
Malrik laughed again .
“Why would I do that, when watching you so clueless is much more fun.”
The old version of me would’ve needed the truth. Needed meaning behind every fucked up thing that happened in my life. Needed to understand why Lucien chose me. Why he shaped me into what I became. Then I looked at Emerald.
She stood there holding that baby against her chest while tears still stained her face despite everything.
Roman stood protectively near her side while Mira watched me carefully from several feet away.
People who should have been enemies stood inside this destroyed chapel bleeding beside me because somewhere along the way revenge stopped mattering more than them. Stopped mattering more than her.
I looked back at Malrik.
“You know the difference between you and me?” I asked quietly. Blood dripped from my split knuckles onto his suit.
“You built your entire life around owning people because nobody ever taught you what love looked like. Lucien spent years teaching me pain was power. Fear was loyalty. Violence was survival.” I leaned closer. “He failed.”
Malrik’s smile weakened slightly.
“The only thing I needed to know,” I continued, “is standing right there.”
My eyes flicked toward Emerald .
“I spent my entire life pointing weapons at anyone who got too close to me. She was the only person who noticed I never actually wanted to pull the trigger.”
For the first time since I met him, uncertainty crossed his face. I smiled faintly.