Page 11 of Fall Before Her Throne

I exhaled through my nose. “I can guess.”

“And? What is your response?”

I barely held back my bitter laugh. “Does it matter?” I gestured to his back. “What is your response? Are you really going to accept what this means?”

“We shall see.” His words said one thing, but his tone said another. He was just as unhappy and confused about this as I was.

“Oh, yeah?” I snorted. “And what about the other guys?”

Leona was one thing. Ryuji, Ciel, and Wynn were another.

This was so fucked.

“Hmm.” He clicked his tongue. “I think it is time for the truth from Maximiliano, once and for all. He owes it to all of us.”

Yeah, it was about fucking time. Too many secrets, too many lies, too many mistakes. The time to confront them had come.

I dragged my hands down my face. “I don’t know if I can…”

The words died in my throat. Max slumbered on.

“Neither do I,” he said, giving me a look. Obi’s dark eyes, as always, revealed nothing. Except I knew him well enough now to know that he had plans on plans on plans, and this would just get added in there somehow.

Max shifted, clutching the sheets with faint murmurs in his sleep. I still needed to get him out of those bloodied suit trousers. “I’ll get him changed from here. We’ll deal with it when he wakes up.”

Obi clasped my shoulder and left me staring down at our enemy.

This could go one of two ways, and I had no fucking idea which path was the right one.

4

LEONA

Igot lost twice heading for the guest room where we’d kept Max. I took a wrong turn on the main floor and went to the sparse library at the back of the house, overlooking the backyard. Obi had already started moving things around; I could see his presence through the laptop on the antique desk and the backpack sitting in the desk chair. But the last I’d seen him, he was heading to catch a few hours of sleep.

Next, I went upstairs and unknowingly walked past Max’s room. Somehow, I got turned around, and I absentmindedly walked down the stairs again before I realized what I was doing. I blamed it on sleep deprivation.

This house was absolutely huge and gorgeous with flashes of natural light now that the sun was breaking over the horizon, but I had a feeling that it would be quite a while before I got used to it.

The previous owners left furniture haphazardly around—large sofas, statement coffee tables, lounge chairs, bed frames, tables. There was even a table in the dining room that rivaled Max’s mother’s wood table, without Ryuji’s recent additions. Everything seemed in good shape. Maybe a little outdated, but it was more than we expected. Apparently, Obi had purchased the house and all the contents after the previous owners died and left everything behind with no one to inherit it. Even though we weren’t officially owners, which I was still a little salty about, it was genuinely the best-case scenario. He told me we could redecorate, but for now, we needed to rest without the threat of imminent death. We lucked out with the beds.

When I finally found Cas, he was sitting in a loft area upstairs which overlooked the dining room below. This space was large enough to use as some kind of sitting room or game room. Right now, there was only a plush couch and a lounge chair pushed against the wall. Cas sat in the chair, looking out the floor-to-ceiling windows of the dining room, holding a cup of what I hoped was water but was probably something else.

“Hey.”

His head popped up, and he gave me a small smile, which made his blue eyes crinkle. “Hey, love.” The words were heavy and thick with exhaustion. Dark circles sat in bags under his eyes and invisible weight curled his shoulders inward.

Guilt sliced through my chest like a blade. One day, when all of this was over, I would give him that tropical island we joked about once. A safe place for us to grow old together, where he could relax after a lifetime of pain and conflict. He deserved it.

“How are you?” I leaned against the chair and looked out the window with him. Ciel hated these windows already. Too hard to keep secure from snipers, he had grumbled earlier.

“Fine.” He yawned. Cas had been with Max all night while the rest of us sat up shop. Obi, Ryuji, Ciel, and Wynn had just finished installing new cameras and setting up a few perimeter alarms. Ciel had brought spares into his go-bag before we left. He complained they weren’t as secure as he’d like, but it was the best we had right now.

I’d fallen asleep for a few hours on a couch in front of the unlit fireplace in the living room. I’d practically begged to keep helping until Wynn had plonked me there and sternly told me to sleep. The rest of them had been up all night, but after I’d woken up, I’d ushered them off for some food and sleep. We’d meet back in the living room for a family meeting in a couple of hours.

“How is he?” I glanced toward the hallway. Max’s room was the furthest away from all the others.

“Sleeping,” Cas answered while he dragged his hand down his face. “Bandaged and stitched up. He’s been out for a while. As long as nothing gets infected, he should be fine, but he’ll be in pain for a while.”