Mikel finally pulled his helmet off, letting it fall to the platform with a clatter that echoed across the plaza. His face—a face Greyson had known his entire life without truly seeing—was contorted with rage, eyes fixed on Maximus with murderous intent.
“Get your hands off of him,” Mikel snarled, raising his gun higher.
Something in Greyson snapped. All the rage, all the pain, all the betrayal of the past days, years, lifetime, coalesced into a single, burning point of clarity.
This ended now.
He adjusted his aim, finger tightening on the trigger, ready to put a bullet through the golden mask that had haunted his nightmares since childhood.
But the Veyra were faster.
The first shot came from somewhere to his right—one of Maximus’s loyal officers firing at Mikel but missing. Then another, and another, until the air was thick with the sound of gunfire, the acrid smell of cordite burning Greyson’s nostrils.
Chaos erupted on the platform. Mikel’s men returned fire, bodies falling on both sides. Shadera dropped to one knee, firing and dropping Veyra after Veyra. Elara ducked behind the altar, clutching it with shaking hands.
Brooker’s grip on Callum must have slackened. Because in the next breath, Callum twisted away, lunging toward Lira with desperate speed.
He ran for her, reaching for her as bullets whizzed past them.
Greyson felt it in the air, felt it shift around him as a scream built on the tip of his tongue.
But he was too late.
The shot that took him came from Brooker’s gun.
A single bullet to the back of Callum’s head. His body jerked once, then crumpled to the platform, blood pooling beneath him in an expanding circle of crimson.
The world stilled, every sound muting except for the single horrifying scream that erupted from Lira’s throat.
It was a sound of pure anguish. A sound that seemed to tear through the entire city, echoing between its buildings.
To Greyson’s eyes it was slow, it was an eternity, as she ran to him, heedless of the bullets still flying around them. He watched Lira drop to her knees beside his body. Could see her lips moving and forming Callum’s name as tears fell onto his body, but he couldn’t hear anything now past the static.
A bullet caught her in the shoulder, spinning her sideways as every sense crashed back into Greyson’s body. He lunged for her, slipping over blood and bodies as he fought his way toward his wounded sister, his best friend.
His best friend.
A Veyra officer tackled him from behind, driving him to the platform floor with bone-jarring force. His gun skittered away across the polished surface, out of reach. He fought, twisting beneath the officer’s weight, but more hands joined, pinning him down.
Around him, Mikel’s loyal Veyra were falling, overwhelmed by superior numbers. One by one, they dropped, until only Mikel himself remained standing, back-to-back with Shadera as they fired in desperate defense.
But it wasn’t enough. Couldn’t be enough.
A bullet caught Shadera in the thigh, driving her to one knee with a strangled cry. Another grazed Mikel’s arm, leaving a smoking furrow in his flesh. They were losing. Had already fucking lost.
“Get my daughter out of here,” Maximus commanded, gesturing toward Lira, who still clutched Callum’s body. Her sobs transformed to a keening wail that tore something from Greyson’s soul. “And my son. Keep the heir safe.”
Veyra officers moved to obey, dragging Lira away from Callum. She fought like a wild animal, kicking, screaming, her fingers leaving bloody trails across the platform as they separated her from his body.
Other officers surrounded Brooker, forming a protective barrier as they escorted him from the platform, away from the violence.
“No!” Lira screamed, the word so raw and broken. “No! Callum! Let me go! Callum!”
Greyson struggled harder against the hands that held him, desperate to reach her, to help her, but they forced him down, a knee pressing between his shoulder blades until he could barely breathe. He watched as they dragged Lira away, her bare feet leaving bloody smears across the platform, her screams growing fainter as they pulled her down the stairs and out of the plaza.
Shadera snarled at the three officers holding her down, rage twisting onto her face as she thrashed against them.
Mikel stood still, arms pinioned behind his back, but he did not struggle at their hold.
