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Had she…?
The heavy staff came down again and again, and he collapsed against the force of more blows from Romulus. He held up his hands to shield his face, but a silver claw embedded at the top of the golden scepter cut deep into his chest.
Lawson tried to lift himself off the floor and Romulus clubbed him in the back with a blow so powerful it might have cleaved a normal man in half. The Great Beast of Hell hovered over him. “Silly boy,” the general said. “You should have joined us when we still wanted you. Instead, you doomed her to her fate.”
“You didn’t need to kill her. What harm was she to you alive?”
“She was useful for a time,” Romulus said, and Lawson didn’t want to think what the flicker in the fire of his eyes meant. “A pity she wasn’t any prettier, though. Otherwise I might have kept her around a bit longer.”
Lawson groaned. He looked over at the bloody toga, just feet away from where he lay on the ground. Tala was here, but he had come too late.
Romulus laughed. “Oh, that thing? No, you’re mistaken. That was not hers.”
Lawson felt a surge of hope.
“When you left her to burn in that house, I killed her myself. Besides, why keep her alive when I could gain the same advantage by having Ahramin tell you a lie? Your mate has been dead for a very long time now. Truly, you should have listened to your brothers and kept moving. But when you showed yourself at the oculus, it was clear you still had hope, just like you had only a moment ago, when I told you the clothes weren’t hers. It gives me great pleasure to watch that hope die, the hope that is your downfall.”
Lawson writhed on the floor, holding his head. He was bleeding from his wounds—and the silver poison was working its way into his blood. He would die. But it didn’t matter.
Tala was dead.
She’d been dead from the beginning.
She’d been dead since he’d left her. She was dead.…
Tala…
It was all a dream, this idea that he could rescue her, a stupid dream. A fantasy. His guilt had prodded him on because he hadn’t wanted to accept what had happened. He’d known she was as good as dead when he left her to the hounds, but he wouldn’t accept it. He knew, but if he accepted it, he’d also have to accept that she’d been killed because of him, because of who he was, what he was.
Tala had pushed him away. She knew what was going to happen. She knew that if they left her behind, the hounds would come and tear her apart. But she loved him, so she had saved him.
Tala, I’ve failed you…and now I’ve failed everyone.…
“Fenrir,” Romulus sneered. “The great hope of the wolves. The man out of time, whom time cannot hold. The one who would save them all, who would free them from their chains. I gave you a choice back then to join me, and you chose unwisely. There will be no freedom for the wolves. After today, there will be no wolves at all.”
Romulus moved to the balcony and gave the signal to commence the attack.
“Something’s wrong,” Romulus growled; he moved away from the balcony. Bleeding from his wounds on the floor, Lawson could hear the sounds of screaming and chaos, but if Romulus was not satisfied, then maybe, just maybe, his pack had succeeded in changing the orders. Maybe it meant the Sabines would survive, and so would the line of wolves.
The great general turned to him with a menacing glare. “This is your doing,” he hissed. “There is no other way. The orders were clear.”
Lawson managed a weak laugh; if this was all the victory he would taste, he would savor it before the end. “It is too late…you will not be able to change it.…”
“No matter,” Romulus said. “You were the gravest threat to the Dark Prince and you will die today.” Once again, he struck Lawson with the staff, sending him skittering to the far wall.
Lawson was too debilitated by his injuries to protect himself but he did not care. He would die, but he had saved the wolves. Bliss was wrong; he was no Fenrir, but maybe Marrok would find a way to bring them out of the underworld.
Romulu
s raised his staff again, but a voice rang from the balcony.
“Don’t touch him. You are nothing but my father’s dog,” Bliss said, entering the room. She must have climbed up from the back way to avoid being seen, Lawson thought. But what was she doing here? Why had she returned? Why did she care? Wasn’t she the one who had stolen the angel’s sword from him?
“Ah, Lucifer’s bastard. He has been searching for you,” Romulus said, smiling. “Why don’t you return to him? Do not waste your time with this filth.”
Bliss smiled. “I have a message you can send to my father.…Ahri, now!” she said as she tossed Michael’s sword to Lawson. The archangel’s blade glinted golden in the sunlight while Ahramin stepped out of the shadows. She was wearing thick black gloves and holding a heavy silver chain.
“Stay, hound. You are still one of mine. I can hear your thoughts as clearly as I hear my own. You are correct in believing you will die if you do not listen to me,” Romulus said.
