Chapter 31 Erryn
ERRYN
Ihad seen Octavia’s face many times. It had been impossible to avoid when she was one of the most widely documented people to have supposedly died in a recent terrorist attack. But seeing her across a room was very different from watching her on a screen.
She had been the catalyst. The root of the fracture that had torn my life apart. She built the technology Vanguard used to attack me, was the reason Theo had turned on me, and if it hadn’t been for her, Claire would still be alive.
And then there was Helena.
I doubt I would have ever known Helena at all, and I didn’t know how I felt about that.
I had Octavia at base within forty-five minutes, every single one of them a ticking bomb threatening to blow, and the second she had walked through the doors, I’d locked down the entire building and escorted Octavia to my office at gunpoint.
“One wrong move and I will put a bullet between your eyes,” I warned, then barked the command for my terminals to turn on.
Octavia didn’t say a word, slipping into my seat and pulling the keyboard toward her as the monitors flickered to life, the Vanguard logo mocking me from the center of the screen.
Her fingers hovered over the keys for a moment and then she began, lines of code cascading down the screens almost immediately, moving so quickly I could barely follow what she was doing.
She leaned forward slightly in the chair as she worked with the quiet, terrifying confidence of someone who was far too comfortable in the belly of technology.
I watched in silence for a moment. “Does Theodora know who you really are?” I asked quietly.
Her hands faltered on the keys.
“No,” she replied without looking at me. “But she knows the evil things my father did to me.” She glanced over her shoulder at me, curiosity etched into her features.
“Bold strategy,” I said coolly. “Theo isn’t one to suffer liars.”
“You think I don’t know that?” There was a catch in her voice that made me look twice.
She tapped a key, and a new command window opened, and several authentication protocols began collapsing one after the other like falling dominoes.
Then the system hierarchy began unfolding across both monitors as she accessed layers that should have been buried under enough encryption to make even the best Triarchy engineers sweat.
She was good. Too good. Tech was not my strong suit; it had taken Helena’s little interferences to show me how badly my knowledge was lacking in a digital world perpetually moving forward.
It was too bad I was going to have to kill her.
I could not take any more risks. Too many stupid mistakes had gotten me here, and I was not allowing another to slip past my fingers.
Octavia’s phone rang from where it sat on the desk next to her, both of us freezing as we saw the name.
“You move from that terminal,” I warned, raising the gun as I leaned to pick up the device. “You know how it ends.”
I swiped her phone screen as I backed toward my office door.
“Of all the fucking knives aimed at my back I have dodged,” I said, answering the call. “I never thought yours would be one of them, Theodora.”
There was a long silence on the other end of the line.
“Erryn?” she breathed after a moment, and for the first time since I had known her, panic laced her words. “Where is she?”
I hated her in that moment. She had been mine once. Even past our time in each other’s beds, I had trusted her. Irrevocably. She was one of the only people I would have lain anything on the line for, knowing I was safe with her, and she had betrayed me for a woman she didn’t even know.
“I never thought of myself as a vindictive person,” I said, my temper making my voice shake. “But I must say, I’m going to really fucking enjoy putting a bullet in this one.”
I hung up, cutting off her response as I pushed back through the doors of my office to find Octavia still focused on the screens.
“How long?” I snapped, pulling my phone out and hitting the number for the front desk.
“I need—” Octavia trailed off, swearing under her breath.
“Octavia!”
“Maybe twelve minutes?” she said. “The system is fighting me. It’s already picked up my father’s death.”
I swore under my breath, the phone ringing against my ear.
The agent answered on the third ring. “Bard.”
“Lancaster doesn’t get in the building,” I snapped. “Station extra agents on my level as well.”
Octavia made a small sound of success, though I saw the faintest tremor pass through her shoulders as she leaned closer to the monitor, and I hung up.
“You are exactly how I had imagined. Theo described you well,” Octavia murmured, not looking at me.
My eyes narrowed slightly. “Is that so?”
Her fingers slowed for a fraction of a second, then resumed their relentless pace.
“She said you were fucking terrifying.”
I huffed bitterly. I don’t know why it stung, but it did. Deeply.
“I guess that’s accurate.”
Octavia exhaled softly. “And brilliant. I can see why she respects you so much. I’ve seen what this has done to her, even if she hasn’t said it out loud.” She glanced at me. “Hurting you hurt Theo, and for that, I’m sorry. For what it’s worth.”
“Stop. Talking,” I warned, raising my gun to her temple. “And finish the job.”
The minutes dragged by in silence as Octavia fought the software, muttering to herself, and then we both stilled at the sound of gunshots.
Octavia slid her gaze to mine, her face pale.
“Work faster,” I warned, bracing myself for who was coming.
It only took her three minutes to massacre her way through the faction, bodies dropping behind her. Three minutes and twelve seconds to be exact.
I counted every second until the moment Theodora Lancaster flew through my office door, her face a picture of unbridled rage as she took in my gun leveled at Octavia’s temple.
I don’t know what I’d expected. Everything I thought I knew was ash anyway, but I trusted Theo knew how fast I could pull a trigger.
When she crossed the room with speed I was proud of, and her blade came to rest at my throat, it hurt.
Not the blade itself, but the look in Theo’s eyes as she glared at me.
“You wouldn’t,” I breathed.
“You hurt her, and I will fucking end you,” Theo snarled, and I could see the conviction in her eyes. “Lower your weapon, Erryn.”
“Why her?” I murmured, searching her face. I wanted to scream, grab her in my hands, and ask How could you do this to me?
“Lower your god-damned weapon, Erryn,” she snapped, the knife grazing my skin.
“Theo, it’s okay,” Octavia called out, not looking away from the screen.
“You threw your life away for a liar,” I murmured, the silencer of my Glock mere inches from Octavia’s head and the only thing stopping Theo from slitting my throat.
“You didn’t know what she was, did you?” I asked before I could stop myself.
She deserved this. Even a fraction of the pain her betrayal caused me.
“She had the ability to fix this, and she never told you. And now look at what you have done. Everything you have worked for… gone.”
Theo blinked, the only outward sign that I had affected her as she dragged her gaze from me to Octavia.
“Sweets, what is she talking about?”
My hand tightened around my gun, Octavia’s silence heavy in the air.
“Octavia?” Theo pushed
“I’m sorry.” The word was barely more than a whisper from Octavia as she threw a tear-filled gaze at Theo.
“What’s going on?” Theo snapped, glaring back at me.
“It’s mine.” There was a waver to Octavia’s voice, though her fingers never faltered on the keys.
“Vanguard tech. Their software. The systems. It’s all mine.
I built it, perfected it. My father stole it from me and turned it into this.
” She glanced at Theo, her eyes filled with tears.
“I didn’t lie to you, I just didn’t tell you.
I would have. I would have told you everything.
But before…I couldn’t trust you. And then when I did…
I was a ghost. If I’d said anything, you would have known I could break through the firewalls, but then you would have had to tell them I was alive.
You would have had to choose between me and… ” she trailed off.
“You would have had to choose between her life and mine,” I finished, anger and grief tearing my heart open. “And I guess we know who you chose.”
“You can break the firewalls?” Theo asked, her voice choked, but I wasn’t looking at her. I was looking at the woman who had just slipped in the door, her green eyes locked on mine as she pressed her gun to the back of Theo’s head.
Helena.
“Lox,” she murmured as Theo froze. It was all she needed to say to know what she was asking—her face told me the rest. She was barely holding herself back, the knife at my throat nearly tipping her over the edge of the panicked rage she was in.
“I’m okay, Helena,” I said.
“I’d be a lot happier if that blade was removed from your throat.”
She slowly rounded on Theo, her eyes flashing.
“Theodora Lancaster,” she murmured, hatred dripping from her voice.
“I’ve wanted to meet you for a while. Why don’t you take your knife away from Lox’s neck before I cut your hand off, shove the bleeding stump down your throat, and drown you in your own blood? ”
“You can fucking try,” Theo snapped.
“Helena,” I warned. I couldn’t lose either of them. Not here. Not like this. Even after what Theo had done, I couldn’t. My heart rate was picking up, and I was struggling to think.
“She has a knife to your neck, Lox,” Helena murmured. “This bitch isn’t walking out of here.”
I tried thinking of a way out, before something happened that I couldn’t take back, as Claire’s face flashed across my mind. Suddenly, the monitors went dark, my neck stinging from Theo’s blade breaking flesh as I whipped my head to look.
“It’s done?”
Octavia swiveled her seat slowly, ignoring me.
“Theo,” she said quietly. “You are going to turn around and walk out of here.”
Helena barked a laugh. “Oh no, she isn’t.”
“And so am I,” Octavia continued, raising her eyes to me slowly. Behind her, the screens blinked back to life as they began rebooting. “The software has been removed, as you requested.”
The room was spinning.
“Prove it.”
Octavia tilted her head, leaned back, and pressed a few keys, bringing up the home page restored to the prior system.
“See?”
I crossed to my laptop open on my desk, my head spinning as I typed in my access code. Vanguard was gone. It was clean. I had come so close—so fucking close—and I couldn’t let this happen again. I couldn’t. I closed my eyes, focusing on drawing breath into lungs that felt intent on failing me.
I couldn’t.
“It’s done.” I opened my eyes to see Theo watching me warily, as if she knew the darkness that was enveloping me. She was never going to forgive me for this.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, raising my gun to Octavia.
Theo lunged, swinging her elbow back to connect with Helena’s ribs, sending Helena’s knife flying as Theo pulled her own, the two of them going down hard with the force of it as they grappled with the weapon between them.
Theo twisted, taking advantage of how winded Helena was and got above her, her weight bearing down on the blade aimed straight for Helena’s heart.
No. No no no.
Helena’s arm gave, Theo readjusting her grip as the blade shook between them, pressing closer and closer to Helena’s body.
The world slowed, the room exploding with a crack of gunfire as the recoil shuddered up my arms, Octavia screaming in fear as Theo was thrown back, my bullet taking her clean through the shoulder.
I’d shot her. I’d shot Theo. For Hel—
“Stop!” Octavia screamed, lunging between me and Theo. “Either of us dies, and it’s over, Erryn!”
But I barely heard her. All I could see was Helena, cold panic flooding my body as I sank to my knees, scooping her against me from a growing pool of her blood, Theo’s knife protruding from her abdomen.
I hadn’t even realized I had dropped my gun until I looked up to see Octavia pointing it at me with trembling hands.
“Let me take her to the medic!” I rasped, not caring that every bit of desperation showed in my voice as I fumbled with Helena’s shirt, trying to see where exactly the blade had gone in.
Helena gasped, her fingers clutching my arms, and her body stiffening as I moved her slightly.
I pushed her hair back and found it sticky with her own blood.
There was a gash to the side of her head—she must have hit it on the desk as she went down.
She was already too pale, the smear of crimson I left across her beautiful face stark against her skin.
No, no. Please no. Please don’t take her.
“Lena,” I pleaded. “Please. Not now. Open your eyes for me.”
“Theo and I walk out of here,” Octavia said distantly.
“You don’t come after us. You don’t come after her.
I have sent an encrypted copy of every file in the database offshore, and I have to enter a code into it every three months to ensure it stays locked.
If I die…If anything happens to Theo, I will not only leak the files that you have been so concerned about, I will tear down this corporation from the inside, leak the personal details of all three Chairs to the NSA, and ensure that you spend the rest of your life behind bars. Do I make myself clear?”
I couldn’t think. I couldn’t see past the woman I loved bleeding out in my arms. I didn’t even care the Triarchy was safe. I’d give it all back just to have Helena fucking look at me.
“What did you do?” I glared at Octavia as her words slowly filtered in.
“Took a leaf out of daddy’s notebook,” Octavia replied. “All I want is for Octavia Vanguard to stay dead, Erryn. Ellie Lancaster walks out of here today. Your files are safe if we are.”
Helena groaned again, and my attention snapped to her, my arms tightening around her.
I didn’t fucking care about the god damn systems.
“Yes. Just…She’s losing blood. Let me get her a medic.”
Octavia lowered the gun slowly and nodded as I fumbled in my pocket, dragging my phone out, my bloodstained fingers coating my screen as I desperately hoped Theo had left someone alive to take my call.
“Code one. Main floor, state office. Hurry!” I snapped to whoever answered, throwing one last look at them both. “Get the fuck out of my office.”