My skin prickles with unease. Claudia said it right when she revealed her secret to us that she was stealing Mackenzie’s house because she wanted to get out of her crime family.
So why is she hesitating?
Why is there a flicker of interest in those icicle eyes?
The silence stretches for an eternity, while I watch my beloved kitten tear Brutus’ hand bloody trying to escape. Tears prick in my eyes.Please, get loose and come to me. Give me a clear shot.
I never thought I could even threaten someone with a gun, but now I don’t care about destroying my future. This bastard has my cat. I itch to pull the trigger and let loose on his smug, drug-addled, kitten-hurting face.
But I can’t risk hitting Gizmo.
So I wait.
I wait for Claudia to decide my fate.
When Claudia speaks, her voice drips with malice. “You think this is some great, magnanimous offer you’ve bestowed on me? You’re pathetic. You’velostyour empire. That’s why you’re hiding in this shithole.”
“Hiding?” Brutus cackles. “Oh, baby girl. Sweet, innocent baby girl...”
“Don’t call me that.” Claudia’s voice is death itself. “You crossed the Rubicon when you killed Daddy, but you misjudged your die roll. Thehomo sacer may have faded, but you’re still a dead man walking. The Triumvirate wants you gone. Why would I tether myself to a loser like you? You only want me because my name will give you the legitimacy you need to hold on to your throne. You’re right about one thing, Brutus. Iama queen. And I don’t need a man to rule over me, especially not one who turns on his only brother and touches innocent children.”
Her breath rasps over those final words, and Isee. I see her truth blazing in her eyes, the secret heart she’s kept locked away even as it burns her from the inside. Iseethis man has taken a piece of her he had no right to take, and that even though she’s waited and bided her time for this moment of her revenge, she’s not here for herself.
Sheneedsto claw his eyes out, to open his chest cavity and lay his organs bare, to drench herself in his blood until it washes away what he did to her. But she won’t move because of Gizmo. Because of Noah and Gabriel and Antony. She’s here because she will take Brutus’ power before she allows him to hurt the people she loves.
She’s here because of me.
For the first time, IseeClaudia.
Ifeelthe rush of her formidable love washing over me.
I taste her wicked strength on my tongue.
In that moment, I truly believe she is a queen – beautiful and invincible.
There’s a hissing sound as a blade kisses the air.
Brutushowls– a broken, inhuman sound.
He drops Gizmo as he’s flung backward. My baby girl somersaults across the dirt, lands on her feet, shakes herself off, and trots over to me.
“Mew?” She looks up at me with those big eyes, completely unharmed, inquiring about the food situation. Relief floods me as I pick her up, feeling her tiny heart thundering in her chest. I sit her on my shoulder and turn back to the scene.
Brutus is sobbing and gibbering as his body convulses with pain. A blade sticks straight out of the center of his hand, through the scar of the sword and vine, pinning him to the wooden post. He’s trapped. He cries as he tries to pull the blade out, but it’s buried up to the hilt and the blood gushing from the wound makes it impossible to grip.
A smirk dances across Claudia’s face as she pulls back her arm and lets a second blade loose.
Hissss.
It buries itself into his other arm, near the wrist. Blood spurts like a fountain from the wound, tainting the stale air with its distinctive tang.
Brutus looks up at Claudia with wide eyes. For the first time, I see a flicker of terror behind the drugged haze.
“Claws,” Antony drawls. “Do you want me to finish him?”
“No.” Claudia holds out her hand toward Noah, palm flat. “We should bury him alive, but I’m not that patient. I’m not giving him another chance to hurt someone. I’ll have your gun.”
Noah looks like he wants to argue, but he drops the weapon into her hand. She points it at Brutus’ head, her finger on the trigger. She looks completely at home with that gun in her hand, her perfect skin streaked with Brutus’ blood, her eyes dancing with joy.
