Nicole had no time for relief, because as Aífe’s blade glanced off, she drew back, her face a mask of fury, to stab again.
Nicole screamed and shifted her weight as a huge Empyreal charged towards her from Aífe’s left. When they collided, she was able to clip him with her shoulder and use the slippery floor to throw him into the pool.
She sucked in a breath at the splash, desperate for the kill scent to slam into her but knowing it wouldn’t, turning her instead into the most desperate version of herself.
Their father knocked Bells clear and slammed into Aífe as the Tène zipped across the space between them and slithered into his restraints. As Alexander went to the pair of them, Nicole grabbed a piece of rock from the semi-ruined columns, her hands still awkwardly bound, and launched it against Alexander’s head. It was a sloppy throw, but enough to make him pause and turn.
As the Empyreal who’d shoved her in the pool came at Nicole, their father’s great chains unlatched and he pressed his thumbs over Aífe’s eyes as they fell to the floor.
His powers ripped through her and she thrashed beneath him like a wild animal, bringing up the knife to slam it down into their father’s back with a shriek. Stabbing and stabbing, the blade slick and dark with blood.
Bells was screaming.
Nicole could hear Kyan roar distantly.
And pure, feral rage streaked through her. Nicole threw herself towards them, but her feet were taken out from under her. The other Empyreal slammed her into a column, rattling her bones. She barely managed to kick his leg out, which had him stepping back and falling into the pool as the other tried to climb out.
But as Aífe shoved their father off her, he zeroed in on Bells as Aífe did.
When Aífe threw her knife at Bells, their father jumped in the way. The Tène grew a long enough tail to whip around Bells’ ankle and drag her from the line of fire. But the little creature didn’t focus on their father, only her.
So the knife hit him straight in the heart.
Time seemed to stop, suspending as his shoulders caved in, as shockpainted across his features and Nicole’s own heart ripped from her body.
Glass shattered to her left, followed by Kyan’s roar of rage that shook something archaic and primal inside her.
That restarted the world.
Nicole’s gaze locked on Aífe, on her victorious, wild face.
This would be it.
The moment Nicole killed with her bare hands.
Before she could even try, her feet lifted with a momentary lightness as a blast from behind them pulsed across the pool.
She vaguely saw Aífe thrown several feet backwards and felt Kyan grip her arm so she wasn’t thrown, too, the force near dislocating it. Instead, she slammed into the floor.
Kyan’s body shielded her father and Bells, because he knew Nicole wouldn’t survive if they were dead; that she would be reduced to nothing.
But he still had hold of her.
His fingers gripped hard, locked around their binding mark on her forearm, his teeth gritted. Those fierce eyes locked on Nicole’s, wild with fury and love as he roared against the rubble, the destruction.
She wanted to sob with relief that he was here. Alive. Fighting this insidious organisation, beside her.
Everything he’d done ripped through her mind with the heat of the explosion. It made her want to rage, to grieve the time she’d wasted.
She’d been so terrified of admitting the words to herself, because loving him was one more soft part the Wake could drive a knife into. Loving him bared her throat, but it also bared his.
But if she didn’t say it, if she didn’t admit it in this moment, she might never be able to.
I love him.
Even if it was all over.
Even if she never got to tell him why. To tell him that he didn’t need to prove himself to her. She cherished his friendship, she knew where his loyalties lay, and she loved him with all her heart.
