Grace and Fury (Grace and Fury #1)(78)

Asa spit and scrambled. He was suddenly a stranger, someone she had never really known or understood. Everything she’d believed, all the feelings she’d harbored, crumbled to dust. He had manipulated her.

He had lied to her. Preyed on her. He’d taken her rebellion, her agony for her sister, and twisted them into something he could use. It was so obvious now.

Asa wanted to be the Heir. He wanted the power, the adulation, the attention. He wanted everything his brother had, and she hated him for it.

Fury bubbled up inside her, hot as lava.

He had betrayed her.

Tried to kill her.

Malachi punched Asa in the face, knocking off his silver mask. Asa’s eyes rolled back in his head and his body went limp. Malachi started to rise.

But it was a ruse. Asa surged up, thrusting upward with his dagger. He caught Malachi in the stomach. Malachi never made it to his feet. Instead, he crumpled.

Nomi dropped to her knees by his side. He had no corset to save him. She pressed her hands to his jacket, against the wound. He moaned. Behind them, Asa staggered to his feet.

“It’s okay, you’re going to be okay,” she whispered, crying.

But she knew the truth. Nothing was okay. Blood seeped over her hands.

Asa stood over them. “Nomi, you shouldn’t have warned off your cousin,” he said reproachfully. “But this will work out fine. Why an attempted assassination when you can have the real thing? Thank you for leaving that note in my brother’s room. You behaved beautifully.”

Nomi’s heart twisted. She’d trusted him. He’d promised her everything she wanted, and it was all a lie. Every kiss, every touch they’d shared became poison. She swallowed back bile.

Footsteps clattered through the doorway. Nomi looked up.

Eyes wide, Maris slammed to a halt. She stared, mouth open, at the bloody body of the Superior, still slumped in his chair. “I—I was looking for Nomi. What—”

“Marcos!” Asa called. “If you would.”

From a shadowy doorway at the opposite end of the room, the stocky, mountainous guard and a few of his friends appeared. Asa gestured to Maris. “Can’t have witnesses wandering off, can we?”

“Run!” Nomi shouted.

Maris turned, but the guards reached her before she got more than a few steps. Marcos pulled Nomi to her feet. Through the doorway, the faint sounds of the party grew louder, pressing ever closer. Nomi prayed it was a convoy coming to check on the Superior, that there would be witnesses to Asa’s crime.

Malachi groaned at her feet. She reached for him, but Marcos yanked her back up.

“You can’t kill us all,” Nomi said, struggling against the guard’s iron hold.

“Of course I can.” Asa brandished his dagger.

The distant voices were getting louder.

“Asa killed the Superior!” she shouted, as loud as she could. “The Superior is dead!”

She could hear footsteps now, speeding up.

Asa faltered only for a moment. “Well,” he said, nodding to Marcos. “I did promise you would see your sister again, didn’t I?” Nomi stared into his brown eyes and wondered how she’d misjudged him so entirely.

“Get him up,” Asa ordered, gesturing toward Malachi. “Put him on the boat with the girls. When he dies, throw him overboard.”

The Heir’s eyes were closed, his breathing ragged. Nomi cried out as one of Asa’s guards hauled him over his shoulder, his head rolling on his neck.

Maris stood frozen, watching everything with eyes so wide Nomi could see the whites all around. Her chest heaved faster and faster with every breath.

Marcos pushed Nomi from behind. The other guards hustled Maris. As they were herded through the door in the back of the room, Nomi heard Asa shout, “Help me! My father!”

The door slammed behind her just as the footsteps thundered into the room.





THIRTY-NINE



SERINA


SERINA HELPED THE women on the balcony secure the handful of surviving guards with their own shackles. One of them lunged forward, shouting.

Anika shot him in the face.

The rest were quiet after that.

“We should kill all of them,” Anika said. Her cheek and one of her arms were streaked with blood, and a bruise marred her temple.

“We can’t.” Serina put herself between Anika’s firearm and the guard she was pointing it at. “We might need them for leverage. They might have special ways they communicate with the mainland, or codes to unlock the rations or something. We should wait.”

Anika lowered the weapon, a little too slowly for Serina’s taste, seeing as it was pointed at her belly now. “Fine,” the girl said. “I’ll wait for now.”

But she spit on the nearest guard as she stalked over to help lead them down the stairs.

Serina collected all the guards’ weapons and left them in a pile in the back corner of the balcony. She’d have to ask Val if there was a safe place to store them in the guards’ compound. She prayed no guard had remained behind during the fight. She had no desire to continue this war.

Serina turned back to the carnage. Slash lay crumpled over the body of a guard, her eyes unseeing. Serina knelt next to her body and put a hand on her shoulder. Today was Slash’s victory.

Serina helped carry body after body down the stairs. They laid each out carefully on the stone stage, now sticky and red with blood.