Nicolas glanced from Gideon to Laila and back. They may have beaten his body, but his spirit was fully intact. He looked not resigned, but resolved. “Think of what she will do to the ones you love. Think of what she will do to you. Do you want to live like that again? Or do you—”
A shot rang out.
Gideon flinched.
Laila sucked in a breath.
Silence bled through the square as the Commander’s body tipped slowly forward, collapsing in a heap. His eyes were blank as they stared at Gideon.
A cold numbness spread through Gideon’s chest. He stared at his mentor—a man who’d been like a father to him—now dead on the stones.
“That’s enough of that,” said Cressida.
“Papa …”
Laila moved, forcing Gideon to move, too. Sheathing his pistol, he grabbed her hard around the middle, stopping her from going anywhere near the witch.
“I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you!” Laila bucked against him. “Let me go, Gideon!!”
Gideon wrestled the gun out of her hand and threw it on the ground in front of Cressida. His arms pinned Laila against his chest, immobilizing her.
“Let me go let me go let me go …”
She was weeping now. Begging. Gideon held on tighter. This wasn’t the Laila he knew. Laila was tough. Resilient. Indestructible.
He couldn’t let Cressida break her, too.
“Keep your head,” he said again, fury bunching his chest. He wasn’t sure if he was speaking the words to Laila, or himself. “It’s what your father would want you to do.”
This was why the revolution had needed to happen. It was why Gideon became a witch hunter. To never again be at their mercy. To ensure none of them returned to power.
“Gideon?”
Gideon looked to find Alex standing next to him. His brother’s wrists were free of shackles, and his hands held out the coat of a Blood Guard officer, swooped like a basket. Inside were the guns of Gideon’s soldiers. Alex was collecting them for the witch queen.
Rune and Seraphine stood beside him.
There was an unspoken apology in Alex’s eyes as he held out the coat, waiting for Gideon to add his pistol to the pile. Gideon wanted to spit on his apology. Alex had clearly lied about killing the youngest Roseblood sister on the night of the revolution. It made him wonder how far back his brother’s involvement in this conspiracy went.
Alex was as complicit as Rune.
Gideon released Laila, who fell to her knees weeping, then dropped his gun in with the rest.
“You don’t know what you’ve done.”
Alex said nothing. Only turned to deliver the guns, followed by Rune and Seraphine. Gideon watched his brother lay the weapons at Cressida’s feet. Watched the smile spread across her lips. It was the smile from his nightmares. The smile of someone who knew the power they wielded over you, and wanted you to know it, too.
The smile of a monster back from the dead.
Cressida lifted her pistol, this time pointing it directly at him.
“One more thing,” she said. “You’re coming with us, Gideon.”
He almost laughed. “No, thank you. I’d rather be dead.”
That smile slid away.
“Would you rather her be dead?” She pointed the gun at Laila, who was still on her knees.
Gideon stepped in front of Laila, shielding her from the bullet. “You’ll find there are a lot of us who’d choose death over cowering before you again, Cress.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“Fair enough,” she said, aiming her pistol at his chest.
Gideon waited for the bullet. Welcoming it. He hoped death would come swiftly.
Except the bullet never came.
When the gun went off, his brother stepped in front of it.
SIXTY
GIDEON
“NO!”
Alex staggered back at the impact. Gideon heard Rune scream. Alex swayed and turned to look at his brother.
Their eyes met.
The blood was already blooming across his chest.
“No no no …”
The entire square disappeared as Alex came into sharp focus. His chin tipped downward to look at the red stain soaking quickly through his white shirt. He touched it with his fingers, realization dawning.
Gideon started toward his little brother. Needing to catch him before he fell. Before his eyes went as blank as Nicolas’s.
Please, no. You’re all I have left …
SIXTY-ONE
RUNE
A SCREAM TORE OUT of Rune’s throat as she watched Cressida raise the gun and pull the trigger. She’d been so consumed by Gideon in the line of fire that she hadn’t seen Alex step forward until it was too late.