“Who else?” I shrugged, my hands fisting. “Brimstone.”
“But I thought you killed the men who hurt you on the mountain?”
“Not all the board members were there.” I gritted my teeth against another flush of sickness. “There’s more of the leeches, which means...they’re all in on whatever Marcus was doing with my blood. This hasn’t ended with him.”
“Blood!” Her eyes lit up. “That’s right!”
I scowled. “What?”
“Maybe they don’t know anything apart from the fact that your blood turns on the reactors. How long has it been since they’ve been on? Your company will be losing an insane amount of money every day. They could just be here because of—”
“Money.” I rolled my eyes. “You think they’d kill all your guards just for money?”
“Money makes people do horrendous things.”
“This isn’t just about the money, Rook—”
“Ten seconds!” the man yelled. “If you don’t come out, I’ll kill someone every minute until you do.” A single gunshot cracked through the air like a whip. “Oops, my finger slipped.”
A high, piercing scream cut short.
Rage exploded through me, hot and blinding. The weakness didn’t burn away, and the flames didn’t return, but fury fed me just enough strength to fight.
They were killing my people. In my home. Because of me.
I snarled, low and vicious.
“Lucien...” Rook warned. “Think this through—”
Wrenching my hand from hers, I lunged for the double doors. My legs felt like lead, but adrenaline and wrath propelled me forward.
Whisper flew after me. His deep, guttural growl matched my anger as his black shadow glued itself to my side.
“Lucien!” Rook cried out as I tore out of the pavilion, staggered down the veranda steps, and skidded to a stop in the centre of my courtyard.
Excruciatingly bright sunshine stabbed my eyes, but I braced myself and searched the Whispering Dragon wall that was meant to keep us safe.
On the spine of the stone dragon—slithering off into the distance and encompassing Ashfall Cliff—stood countless men, all dressed in tactical gear and holding weapons. I scanned each one until I locked eyes with a man holding a pistol, the muzzle still pointed in the direction of the girl he’d just shot.
A girl I didn’t know. A servant whose only crime was thinking she was safe working here. Fresh blood bloomed across her back where she’d fallen face first onto the pavers.
“No!” Auntie Mei screamed. “Lanlan!” Pushing out of Uncle Wen’s shielding embrace, she tore across the courtyard and dropped to her knees beside the dead girl. Tears tracked down her cheeks as she rolled the girl over, brushing back hair and checking for a pulse. “Wake up. You have to wake up.”
“Mei!” Uncle Wen hobble-chased after his wife, his cane clicking.
I wanted to roar at them to get back inside.
My hands shook with the violent need to rip the leader’s throat out. I wished I had the same level of power I’d wielded when blowing up the Eastern Crucible, but...nothing. Not even a wisp of smoke. I hadn’t felt this hollow even in my worst days in Cinderkeep.
Stepping toward the wall, I hissed, “Get the fuck off my property.”
Whisper crouched low beside me, ears flat, fangs bared.
The leader gave a low chuckle. “How about we skip the posturing and threats and get to the good stuff?” Running his hand over his gun, he shrugged as if all of this was a big misunderstanding. “You and the girl can come with us quietly, or we finish what we started.” His smile turned sinister, muddy brown hair soaking up the sun. “If you refuse, every servant, cook, and gardener—every person you care about—will die. One by one.”
“Fuck. You.”
His gun swung up, aiming right at my metal-encased heart. “I told you. I don’t have time for threats or bad language. I have orders and those orders are to bring you with us. We’re already late. So...just walk out of that fortified front gate of yours and acceptthat you are, and always will be, the property of Brimstone Industries.”
