Alucard crooked his fingers, and the wooden fragments of their father’s broken desk rose up, and flung themselves into Berras, pummeling his brother until at last, he lost his footing and crashed backward, out of their father’s study and into the ghost of the house where they had lived, slamming into the far wall with so much force the building shook.
Berras fell forward to his hands and knees, chest heaving, ruined right hand bleeding. Alucard stepped over the glass, and the ring, and the fingers he’d cleaved away, Berras’s blood a slick red smear on the edge of his blade as he went to meet his brother.
It was time to end the Emery line, once and for all.
* * *
Bodies were too fucking fragile.
One damaged piece, thought Lila, and suddenly, the whole thing fell apart. It hurt to breathe, hurt to walk, hurt to speak, hurt to lean on Kell, and hurt to stand without him, but one thing kept Lila going and that was the knowledge of what she’d do to Berras Emery when she found him. A fantasy greatly aided when, halfway down the hall, the golden manacle around her wrist suddenly let go, falling to the floor in a pile of delicate chain.
As it did, Lila felt her magic come rushing back, into her lungs, her blood, the marrow of her bones. It didn’t unbreak her ribs, but it was a salve, quieting the pain.
She flicked her fingers, and the chain rose up into her waiting hand as somewhere, nearby, a roar tore through the air, an animal howl.
“What is that?” asked Kell, but a crash went up and she pulled away, quickening her pace, the pain receding in her body and her mind.
The howl had sounded like Berras, which meant he was suffering without her. And that wouldn’t do.
Lila reached the main room, Kell on her heels. It looked like a violent storm had slammed into the house. One wall had been destroyed, the floor littered with wood, and brick, and blood.
Berras Emery was on his hands and knees, trying and failing to rise to his feet. One of his hands was soaked in blood, the other clutching his ribs—Lila hoped at least three of them were broken—and Alucard was walking toward him, blade in hand.
“You think I’m the only one,” Berras growled. “You are a fool.” He looked up, and smiled, blood staining his teeth. “Go ahead and kill me.”
Alucard’s fingers tensed on the sword.
Lila had plenty of blood on her hands, but as far as she knew, Alucard Emery had never ended a life. Perhaps that made him a good person. Or a bad pirate. But in that moment, she knew, he was going to kill his brother.
She stepped forward, in part because she would be glad to put an end to Berras, and in part because she wanted to spare her old captain, because he was, for all his airs, too kind, too caring, because it would haunt him.
“You won’t stop the Hand,” Berras was saying. “We are coming for your crown. We are coming for your king.”
Alucard raised the sword, but Lila reached out and caught his wrist. As she did, the estate doors burst open, bodies in. She turned, expecting another assault, only to see a dozen royal soldiers spilling into the house, their weapons drawn and ready for a fight. They slowed as they looked around and realized they had missed it.
They took in the two Antari, and the king’s consort, and the man on his knees.
“A little late,” snapped Lila, dropping Alucard’s arm as the soldiers came forward and fanned out around him, swords leveled on Berras.
She pushed past them, following the trail of blood, picking her way through the wreckage until she found the study, the severed fingers, and there among them, what she guessed were the remains of the golden ring, though like the cuff, it was now a chain. She pocketed it, then stepped through the debris of the ruined wall in time to see Berras make one last attempt.
As Alucard turned to face the soldiers, Berras lunged up, tried to seize the blade from his brother’s hand. But Alucard stepped back, and slashed his arm through the air, and Berras was thrown backward, into the wall. This time, when the older Emery hit the ground, he did not get up again. Lila hoped for a moment he was dead, but then she saw the rise and fall of his chest. Too bad.
Alucard turned toward the soldiers. “Arrest the leader of the Hand.”
As he spoke, a crash echoed overhead. It was more than a sound—it ran through the bones of the house, shook the air as if they were standing inside of a bell. Everyone looked up. It wasn’t the kind of thing you wanted move toward, but Lila did, taking the stairs as fast as her wounded body would allow.
“Lila, wait,” called Kell, but his voice was drowned out as the crash came again, a deep, rattling BOOM.