“Your terms?” Eli grabs Queen Boudica from his shoulder and sets her down beside Casper. He takes a casual step toward Nero. He keeps his mouth slack, his voice even. Is he actually considering it, or is he psyching himself up to do something brave and foolish?
I try to yell at Eli to do what Nero asks to save their lives. But all I can get out is a zombified moan.
“It’s all very simple. I’ve arranged everything,” Nero says. “Mackenzie will take over the August family, and the marriage between you and my daughter Olivia will go ahead as planned. Mackenzie tells me the two of you used to be friends – for the good of the empire, you will be friends again.”
George’s eyes are wide and terrified as she watches Eli. Nero jabs the barrel against her cheek. Eli’s gaze flicks to something behind Nero’s shoulder. I can’t see what he’s looking at. But Icansee his features fold into his Sherlock Holmes Orgasm Face – the face he makes when he’s figured something out.
Eli Hart has a motherfuckingplan.
“George,” Eli calls. “Gym class.”
George’s eyes darken with recognition. She clasps her hands together and drops her body weight, becoming a narrow, dead weight in Nero’s arms. He leans forward to attempt to drag her up again, and that’s when a dark shape barrels from the garden behind him.
Livvie.
She’s covered in bloody scratches and quills from crawling through the succulent garden, but the grim look in her eyes is terrifying. She raises a blood-soaked hand that clutches something round and red. At first, I think it’s someone’s heart, but then I see its surface is covered in long, terrifying spines. It’s a cactus she’s ripped from the garden bed.
Nero howls as the cactus collides with the side of his face. Spines stick from his skin, his ear, his eye. He throws his hands up to claw at the plant, dropping his gun behind him. Livvie catches it easily, spins on her heel toward Noah, and takes out her brother with a bullet between the eyes.
Noah wastes no time. He lurches forward and grabs his own weapon, swinging around to shoot Nero’s next son as he storms through the ballroom toward us.
Eli strides toward Nero, and Casper skids after him, desperate to get to Livvie. He sinks his teeth into Nero’s leg.
“Argh!” Nero stumbles back, shaking his leg to get Casper off. But the tenacious little dude is chomped tight. Queen Boudica mews her encouragement.
Nero’s foot clips the edge of the swimming pool. He swings his arms in a vain attempt to keep his balance.
It doesn’t work.
He falls.
He hits the netting on top of the pool. The netting that keeps the lion inside.
The netting snaps.
Nero crashes into the pool. Eli runs across the patio, wrapping his arms around George. Gabriel lumbers after them, still holding me over his shoulder. Queen Boudica leaps back onto Eli’s shoulder, and Casper jumps into Livvie’s open arms. We crowd around the edge of the pool. Gabriel slides me off his back. My legs still won’t work, but he and Eli hold me upright.
I want to see this.
Nero lies on his back, his legs flailing uselessly. He still tears at the spines in his face, his cries broken by coughs and gasps as he struggles to regain his breath. In the corner, the lion rears up, stirred by the cries, by the tang of Nero’s blood in the air.
“It looks like you’ve been indulging in too many pasta meals, Imperator,” Eli laughs.
“Daughter, help me out of this pool.” Nero’s face contracts with fury. “I command it.”
“Fuck you,” Livvie calls down to him cheerfully. “I’ve spent my entire life trying to impress you, but you never saw me. Well, the great Nero Lucian can fucking see me now. I’ll be the last face you see before that lion tears you to pieces.”
Nero turns then. He sees the lion at the same time the beast pounces. Nero’s screams echo across Harrington Hills. They’re beautiful – wild in their torment. They’re the screams of a man finally doing what he should have done right from the start – bowing to Claudia fucking August.
I etch every beautiful moment of it to memory. There will be many moments in my undoubtedly short life where I will need to recall this bloodletting, and revel in it, and learn from it.
When it’s done, when the screaming stops, when all that’s left is a red-lined pool and bloody chunks of meat, I let out a breath. A great weight lifts from my shoulders. Gabriel brushes his lips across mine. The lion drags the stump of a leg across the bottom of the floor, drops down, and gnaws at the end.
“Is it safe to leave this open?” George touches the snapped netting.
“I think so,” Livvie says. “He’ll be too full now to want to move anywhere for a while. Plus, I don’t think he can jump out of this pool. The hole is over the deep end.”
“Thaaaa—” I moan.
