“I’m surprised by you, sister,” she says to me. It’s surreal watching her move and talk – my mirror image, and yet everything about her feelswrong. “You expended all your resources going after the men, and you let little old me sneak in here and collect my treasure. People are always underestimating us, aren’t they? I expected more from you.”
Cali flicks off her safety, but Noah makes a hissing noise and she holds fire.
“Good girl,” Mackenzie grins, nodding to the device in her fist. “This is a grenade. If I lift my finger off this switch, I go bye-bye, and take all of your boyfriends and the precious treasure with me.”
Shit.Shit.
Gabriel takes a step back, moving me behind Cali as if her body could somehow shield us from an explosion. Mackenzie hoists the bag higher on her shoulder and nods toward the garden wall. “If you’ll all excuse me, I’ll be climbing over that fence with my prize. Don’t try and stop me. Don’t send anyone after me. You have no idea what I’m capable of. You may still have your life and my house, Claudia, but I’d sleep with one eye open if I were you. Now, get out of my way.”
She steps toward the wall, her pert lips set in a determined line. As Cali steps back, she brushes against me. My fingers slide over the hilt of her curved knife. Cali starts to jerk away from me, but she sees something in my eyes and snaps her hand back. “Take it,” she mouths.
Close your fingers,I command my body. Slowly, achingly slowly, my fingers obey.
Mackenzie waves at us with her free hand as she takes another step toward the wall. The backpack is heavy and ungainly, and she wobbles on spiked pumps as she walks.
I drag the knife from Cali’s belt and press my feet into the ground, hoping I can hold myself upright. Every movement is heavy, weighed down by the drug clinging to my veins. I raise the blade and stagger forward just as Mackenzie swings around to face me.
“Oh, no you don’t…” With her free hand, Mackenzie reaches for her nearest weapon – the syringe of tranquilizer she shot me with. I know that another dose of that stuff will kill me. Mackenzie thrusts her other hand out, reminding me of the grenade she’s just crazy enough to detonate.
Only I’m too slow and too committed to stop. I summon every ounce of strength left inside me, every atom of love and trust for my family, and I wind the blade the way I’ve seen in Medieval-sword-geek YouTube videos as my body half-barrels, half-topples toward my sister.
The blade connects with Mackenzie’s arm just above the elbow. My weight sinks down on top of it, giving the weak swing the power it needs to slice through her flesh and find the bone, which splinters and shatters as my weight bears down on it.
Mackenzie reels in slow motion, her face collapsing in horror. Blood drenches her golden hair, the light catching on the shimmering strands as they’re splattered in crimson.
Her arm flies through the air, the finger still pressed firmly on the grenade.
Something else flies through the air and reaches it. George slides across the ground. Her elbows scrape raw as her hands fold around Mackenzie’s severed fist. She pushes her fingers down on the trigger.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” George screws her eyes shut. “Someone take this thing away from me.”
Mackenzie turns to stare down at me. Blood rains from the stump on her arm. She doesn’t even bother to touch it. She’s gone to another place. Her white teeth glitter from within her bloody mask. “Well done, sister. I’d salute you if I could.”
The backpack slides off her shoulders. Metal cylinders roll across the patio. Blood spurts from her severed arm, painting Eli as he rushes to George. Mackenzie turns her head to smile at him.
“Sweet little Eli. So earnest. So easily manipulated. Nero was wrong about you – you never had it in you to run his empire. And Gabriel Fallen,” she grins at my beautiful, broken angel as he tugs me under the shoulders, dragging me back from her. “I had such plans for you. I was going to enjoy breaking your mind.”
She drops to her knees. It’s a struggle to keep her head upright.
“And little Noah Marlowe who grew up so good,” she smiles. “You hated me so much. You were the only one who saw through the mask I wore. You always see the truth. I’ll leave you with this last truth, which I think you know in your heart even if you haven’t said it aloud. I knew exactly what they were going to do to your brother. I knew that drug wasn’t tested. I knew it was dangerous. Ienjoyedroping Felix in, knowing I had the power to destroy your family.”
An inhuman roar tears from Noah’s throat. He lunges forward.
But I get there first.
As my sister pitches forward, I jam the knife into her back, twisting the blade with all my strength. Her blood splatters my face, my eyes. It’s in my mouth. I taste my sister’s life as it leaves her body.
My sister turns her face to me. She bares her teeth, and her nails dig into my flesh, and she tries to lift the syringe but her body doesn’t work any more and Iknowthat if things had been different, I could have loved this crazy bitch.
“Goodbye, sister,” I say.
Mackenzie Malloy is still holding on, still clinging to her final, bloody battle, as the final spark of life fades from her icicle eyes.
50
George
Iwait in the drawing room while the boys bury Mackenzie and Antony in the grave they dug for Claudia. There isn’t much of Nero left, so we leave him in the empty swimming pool and let the lion finish off his meal. He’s earned it.
