Page 91 of Empire of Dark

This wasn’t even a choice.

Eustice looked up at me. “Brother.”

He said the word with command, with expectation of it stopping me. A pleading look flickered in his eyes, cutting through the malice that was his true nature.

He would never be more than he was. And what he was had always been a piece of shit.

Before he could say another word, I swung, slicing his head off in one clean swipe. Doing what needed to be done, nohesitation. The very thing that had elevated me far above my brothers.

For one moment of crystal-clear clarity, silence filled the air, thrumming in my head.

“Da—Dam—Dam—” Ada’s voice shook, unable to get my name out.

With the vicious red haze still pounding through my veins, I barely heard her.

I was listening to the crack of swords and screams quickly approaching the back door.

Safe.

I needed her somewhere safe.

I leapt up onto the loading platform and bolted toward her. Tackling her, I grabbed her as I opened the door on the side of the loading dock. The storage room. Good enough.

I yanked open the door and tossed her inside.

She crashed into one of the tall stacks of liquor-filled wooden crates, sending the top one to teeter off and smash into the floor, glass bottles shattering and red wine gushing out, sloshing onto the floor.

She caught herself, staying upright.

Red still raging, blurring my vision, I kicked the door closed behind me.

My head down, I stopped by the door, heaving as I listened to footsteps thundering past and then fading. People escaping the fight. Good for them.

Taking several staggering steps toward Ada, I fought the savage darkness inside of me, battling for control. I didn’t want it bleeding out onto her—consuming her as it did me.

The red haze still tinting the world, I made it to her and dropped to my knees, collapsing against her.

I needed her.

Needed her to calm me before the savage in me tore this fucking world apart, consequences be damned.

On my knees in front of her, my fingers folded into her silver dress, splitting seams with my grip as my forehead dipped inward, pressing into her belly.

She’d seen me. Seen the monster I was inside the club. Seen what I was capable of. Seen me cruelly kill my brother. Seen the darkness that was always simmering below my skin, waiting to explode.

She’d seen all of it.

And this was me begging that she unsee it all.

A moment of stillness, of silence.

Of decision.

The blade in her hand clattered down onto the concrete floor next to my knees.

Her fingers sank into my hair, clutching my head to her belly, taking the angst in my body into hers and transforming it, sending energy infused with calm back into mine.

A reversal of fortunes.