Page 787 of Coal Hearts

“Ah, shit!” Ben gasped. Spinning on his heel, he looked for who’d shot me.

I followed his stare, stiffening as Larry stepped out of the night-shrouded gardens, aiming a guard’s Glock at me.

“I can’t believe I’m the one who has the honour of killing you.” He grinned. “Must be my lucky night.”

Memories of Peter warning me that Larry had bribed a guard to give him his gun when the time came tried to distract me.

I didn’t care how Larry ended up with a fucking gun.

Only that he didn’t fire it again.

Grinning, he pointed it at my heart.

I did the math on how quickly I could raise the brain-splattered machine gun. How quickly I could fire compared to him.

I didn’t like my odds.

“Any last words, prick?” Larry smirked. “Want to tell me you truly are a cop?”

Ice-cold prickles spread out from the hole in my side. I clutched it harder, grateful that it seemed as if the bullet had gone straight through.

I bared my teeth.

I braced myself—

A loud bang and Larry dropped to his knees.

The Glock fell out of his hands as he clutched his neck where a fountain of blood appeared. He gurgled and panicked, his eyes wide and welling with fear.

And that was the last time I saw the weedy, pot-belly Master alive as a flurry of gunfire let loose, slamming into him like darts.

He shuddered and jerked, falling backward as an entire clip of bullets ploughed into his chest, stomach, and legs. He twitched on the grass, animated only by gunshots, dead with his eyes wide open.

“Oh. Oh, wow.” Ben blinked and nudged me to look toward the blazing inferno of a castle. There, in the orange light of so many glowing fires, Rachel stood with blood on her cheek and a pregnant belly poking through her dressing gown.

The ricochet of firing the automatic weapon flung her backward. She landed with a thud but scrambled to her feet a second later.

Our eyes met.

I stepped toward her—

Another explosion detonated.

We all looked toward the Western corner just in time to see the tower that led to the dungeons topple and timber. It fell in an avalanche of stone. The ground shuddered beneath our feet as it vanished into the courtyard and kicked up a plume of dust and rubble.

“Fucking hell.” Ben grinned. “This is going better than we hoped!”

Rachel stumbled and clutched her belly.

I shifted to go to her, but a silver-red blur caught my gaze as smoke billowed and turned the entire island grey and hazy.

Black hair streaming behind her, long legs tripping and staggering, Ily bolted out of the gardens.

“Ily!”

She didn’t hear me.

The fire roared.