I lower myself out the window and drop to the garden below, knees hitting the soft earth hard. I wince but scramble up, slipping through the shadows of the estate like I used to as a child. The side gate is unguarded—just like I hoped. My father always did have a blind spot for his favorite koi pond.
Once I’m free of the wall, I run. It’s going to be a challenge to get back home without a phone or any means to pay someone. But I have to try. Even if it means walking all seven miles.
By the time I reach the outskirts of the Chiaroscuro estate, dusk is darkening the horizon. No police lights color the quickly falling darkness, and a sliver of hope creeps into my belly. Maybe, just maybe, I made it before the fighting started. It’s possible my brother would want to wait for the cover of night before he makes his move.
Then I see the smoke. Thick black tendrils curl into the sky like a dark omen, barely visible in the dim evening light. My stomach drops.
No. No, no, no.
I sprint the last few steps and choke on a sob. The front gates are gone. Blown open. One hangs by a single hinge, twisted like a bent limb. Bodies lie scattered across the driveway beyond. Men I recognize, men who were sworn to protect the Chiaroscuro family, lie face down in the gravel, blood painting the ground beneath them. And as I slowly make my way past their lifeless bodies toward the house, the cold, horrifying truth sinks in. The reason the police aren’t here is because someone paid them to stay away. No one came to stop it. And worst of all…
My familydid this.
As I reach the end of the long drive, my heart stops in my chest at the sight. The front of the Chiaroscuro mansion—what used to be like a fairy-tale castle, with its stone arches and climbing vines—is all but gone, three-fourths of it collapsed into a pile of rubble and ash. Flames lick the bones of the house I had started to think of as my home. Shattered glass glitters across thescorched earth. The once-impenetrable stone walls are cracked, blackened. Smoke drifts from every corner of the estate.
Sporadic gunshots still echo faintly in the distance, but there’s no mistaking the silence beneath it all. As I look upon the horror my family has wrought, an icy fear creeps up my spine.
I’m too late.
It’s almost too much for my mind to process, the fact that there’s no chance Leo could have survived this.Leo.My heart shatters, the already-fragmented pieces exploding into a million little shards as I think about how much has changed in a single day. Just last night, I was in Leo’s arms, finally ready to tell him everything. I almost did.
I press a trembling hand over my stomach, shielding the tiny secret buried beneath my skin, and a fierce denial rages to life in my chest. Leo can’t be dead.
“Leo,” I whisper. “Leo—please.”
I stumble forward, feet slipping in soot and blood, eyes burning from smoke and tears and disbelief as I make it through the shambles of the front door. The main hall is gutted, the towering roof collapsed on one side, the rubble still smoldering. I think I scream his name, but the wind tears it from my throat.
He’s dead. They’re all dead.Oh, God, what has my family done? What have I done?
I only get a second’s warning from the sound of broken glass crunching beneath someone’s shoe before someone grabs me from behind. Then a strong hand clamps over my mouth, muffling my scream. I thrash, kicking, clawing.
“Shut up,” the man growls, and then I’m slammed back into the wall of what used to be the east wing as he pins me against the scorched bricks.
My breath catches as I look up into the devastatingly handsome and terrifyingly furious face. “Leo!”
My voice breaks as I say his name again, but it comes out muffled beneath his palm. Tears of relief well in my eyes, and I bite back a sob as he slowly lowers his hand but keeps his forearm firmly pressed against across my collar bones and the base of my throat.
“You’re alive! I thought… I thought…”
His face is smeared with ash and blood, his dark hair tousled, shirt torn, chest heaving. And the look in his eyes—it isn’t relief. It isn’t even anger. It’s betrayal. Fury crackles off him like lightning, searing my skin. “You have a lot of nerve,” he spits, pressing me more firmly into the wall. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
My heart hammers, my mouth suddenly bone dry. “I–I came to warn you. I didn’t know they were going to?—”
“To what, slaughter my entire family?” he snarls, every last ounce of the love and tenderness from last night gone.
“I swear, I didn’t know, Leo,” I gasp. “I only just escaped?—”
“Youescaped?” He laughs bitterly. “What, are you telling me they conveniently had you locked up this whole time?”
“They did,” I insist.
“You really expect me to believe that?” he snarls, his eyes lethal—black, unreadable, cold. “Don’t bother lying, Sora. Your brother told me everything. Right before I put a bullet in his guts.”
I flinch, but I don’t look away. “Kenji’s… dead?” An inexplicable sadness creeps into my chest. My brother was a cruel man. Leo had every right—every reason—to kill him. Still, I can’t help but hate just how much death and destruction clings to this world we live in.
Leo scoffs. “And if I had a shadow of doubt that you weren’t involved, the look on your face just confirmed it. You were never loyal to me, were you? You’ve been your family’s little spy this whole time.”
My pulse flutters as his eyes blaze with renewed hatred. “I didn’t know. I swear,” I breathe, for the first time feeling like Leo might genuinely be capable of killing me.
