Siege of Shadows (Effigies #2)(132)

“Cut the communications.” Prince motioned to the techs. “Make sure he can’t hear us. This has gone on long enough. Resume the weapons launch.”

“Dad!” Brendan cried, grabbing his arm.

“Enough!” He yanked his arm out of his son’s grip. “We need to take out Saul. Now!”

Take out Saul. I straightened my back and looked at him, horrified. He was going to use Minerva. But Rhys was there.

And June.

“Get ready to launch—”

“Not happening!” Chae Rin raised her hands and the ground began to rumble beneath us, but before she could get started, a gunshot cut her off, the bullet burying itself in her arm.

“Chae Rin!” Lake caught her before she could fall to the ground.

“What are you doing?” Brendan stared at his father, whose gun was still pointed and smoking.

“Saul is making us look . . . look like fools.” Prince’s arm trembled. “The world is watching. We need to take action.”

“The world will watch us destroy a city!”

“The world will watch us save a lot of other cities. We need this. We need this for the Sect. I will not allow this terrorist to crush what I’ve built.”

This was the desperate man who’d shaken hands with political devils at Blackwell’s party, sullying his name if it meant rebuilding the Sect in the eyes of the world. Only here, his desperation was obvious. It curled off of him like the pungent smell of alcohol.

He was willing to kill them. His own son and the girl who shared my face.

Brendan couldn’t conceal his fury. “You won’t let them destroy the Sect you built, but you’ll destroy your son with your own hands.”

“He’s already been branded in front of the world. My son. It’s too late for him.” Prince turned his back to his eldest. “And I . . .”

“No. You don’t care.” I walked forward dazedly, as if in a dream. The face of my sister weighted each of my steps. June was alive. And now both she and Rhys were about to die. All because of this man. All because of him. “You don’t care if your son lives or dies. That’s what you’re trying to say.”

Prince met my gaze defiantly, his back tall with the grim pride of a thousand cowardly fathers before him. “I raised a warrior, not a murderer.”

“You dare be ashamed of him?” Brendan gripped his own gun, still in its holster against his waist. “The way you trained him. The way you brutalized him. Brainwashed him. Did you think he would see the difference?”

Prince’s eyes flashed. “Start the launch.”

“No!”

We all yelled it. Brendan’s gun was pointed at the technicians, but he didn’t know where or who to shoot. I wanted to set everything on fire. My mind was screaming. Rhys, Natalya, June. Ghosts swirled around me, goading me to finish everything. But as my mind conceived of the fire, as my fingers began to spark, I thought of my parents, my sister, being rolled away on stretchers in body bags. I thought of their charred bodies, and my hands gripped my own forehead instead.

June couldn’t be alive.

It had to be a trick Saul was playing.

Psychotic Alice’s sick game. Cruel Nick’s malicious assistance.

It was . . . it was . . .

“Father.” Brendan stumbled back against the terminal, his knees buckling. He fell to the ground. “What have you done?”

“What I had to,” Prince replied coldly.

Nobody said anything.

I could see the digital clock running down from five minutes on the right-hand corner of the screen. Saul didn’t know. Rhys didn’t know. June didn’t know. And no one else still in the city knew. They were going to be hit. They were all going to die.

Someone’s terminal began to beep. “Sir, we’re getting a video call,” said one technician on the other side of the room.

“Patch him in.”

If Director Prince had known that it would be Blackwell’s smug face appearing on the screen, he may not have given the order. The man looked livid as Blackwell rested his elbow on his chair’s armrest and rubbed his forehead, amused and exasperated all at once.

“Arthur,” he said. “I didn’t think you could go through with such a thing. The Council is very disappointed.”

“The Council?” Prince sputtered.

“We’ve been watching the situation closely. I told them you shouldn’t be allowed to handle such a situation, but after all, you are a high-ranking official in the Sect.” Blackwell tapped his fingers against his crossed knee. “Perhaps that was the problem from the beginning.”

The skin hanging on Prince’s chin trembled as he shook with fury. “It was the Council who told me to finish this. Senator Abrams himself told me to take this course of action. I have dealt with Saul. I’ve finally ended this nightmare.”

“And so you have.” Blackwell grinned. “And now I’m dealing with you.”

A troop of police burst through the door behind us. Lake, Chae Rin, Belle, and I scrambled out of the way as they came in fully armed in riot gear, their shields up, their guns pointing at everyone in the room.

“The building is surrounded,” one yelled. “Director Prince Senior and Junior, and all present Sect personnel—you are under arrest for treason and acts of terrorism.”