“No, he will not.” Theo stood firm. “I will not allow it.”
“Who are you to say what is allowed and not?” Logan hissed. “We swore an oath to the court, we swore to rid the world of the plague of witchcraft.”
“Logan, listen to yourself,” Theo implored, allowing his frustration to bleed through. “This is not who you are, this is not what Temperance would have wanted. What started out with the best of intentions has degenerated into utter madness. Look at them, Logan. Really look at them. They are children, barely older than Temperance when she was taken from us. Is this what God truly wants? For us to become the murderers of children? We were supposed to protect the innocents, not strike them down in His name.”
“Heresy!” Logan bellowed. “You have allowed yourself to become corrupted by these creatures.”
“It is you who has become corrupted, brother,” Theo said, his heart aching. “This is not the path, and it can lead only into darkness.” Theo held out his hand to his brother. “Please, Logan, I implore you, do not force my hand. I have no wish to harm you.”
“You are no brother of mine.” Logan’s eyes flattened to a cold, glittering black. Waves of anger emanated from him as flecks of spittle appeared at the corner of his mouth. “You have been possessed by the devil.”
“Logan,” Theo warned. “I beg you, do not do this.”
“Witch!” he shrieked. “You have been corrupted by these spawn of the devil’s whore.”
Theo looked at him with sad eyes. So, this was it, this was where the line had finally been drawn. Logan’s rage and thirst for revenge had pushed him over the edge and into madness. All traces of the man he’d once known and loved were gone.
Theo straightened his shoulders, and as he looked his brother in the eye, all traces of pity had disappeared to be replaced with a grim resolve. “Stand aside, brother.” His voice was hard and filled with purpose. “Or I will make you stand aside.”
“You are not my brother.” Logan pulled a knife from his clothes. “You are a demon who wears his face, and I will see you burn in Hell where you belong.”
He lunged, and Theo grabbed his wrist with one hand and his throat with the other, using his momentum to spin him and pin him against the wooden post.
“Go now!” Theo yelled to the girls as he fought to keep his brother pinned.
“May your God be with you,” Bridget murmured and dug her heels into the mare, forcing her forward and out the open barn doors. As soon as they were free of the building, she urged the horse into a gallop and didn’t look back.
“I will find them,” Logan hissed from between his teeth. “And when I do, I will make them pay for your betrayal.”
“You will have to get past me first,” Theo growled as he steeled himself to pit his determined strength against the mindless madness of his brother.
Logan shoved him back, breaking Theo’s grip as he planted his fist in Theo’s face. Theo stumbled back, blocking the entrance, his eyes wary, his only thought to keep his brother from following the children for as long as he could before the others arrived with Nathaniel Boothe and they overpowered him.
Logan hissed and rushed at him, his blade held high. Theo raised his arm to block the downward stroke as a searing pain ripped through his forearm. The knife passed clean through, protruding from the other side of his arm, and before Logan had the chance to pull it clear, Theo twisted his arm with a determined, pain-filled cry. As he’d hoped, the hilt snapped off, leaving the blade embedded in his forearm and denying his brother a weapon.
Balling his good hand into a fist, he drove it into Logan’s stomach. The air whooshed from Logan’s lungs, forcing him to buckle and giving Theo the opportunity to bring his fist up under his chin. Logan’s head snapped back, and he stumbled, trying to regain his equilibrium.
Theo grasped the detached blade and pulled it from his arm, ignoring the white-hot pain as it grazed the bone and the intense sting as it sliced his palm. Once it was free of his arm, he let the useless piece of metal clatter to the ground.
Logan’s lips pulled back into a feral snarl as he launched himself, tackling Theo mid-chest and slamming him against the wall.
They grappled and rolled into the wall, across the floor, slamming each other into any hard surface they could find, landing a punch wherever they could. It was a dirty, mindless fight, and neither was willing to give quarter.
They slammed against the bale where the lamp sat, neither of them noticed it teeter precariously on the edge, nor did they care when it toppled to the ground with a resounding crash. Fire caught the straw-littered ground immediately, a great claw of flame devouring everything in its path. The fire let out a great roar, and the beast grew. Flames licked up the wooden support beams and across the roof. A huge sheet of red, gold, and orange broke and rippled like a gigantic wave above them.
Smoke filled the air as the two brothers continued to wrestle across the ground. Suddenly, there was a loud cracking, and Logan glanced up from where he had Theo pinned, his hands around his neck. His mad eyes widened as the beam splintered and gave way, crashing to the ground as Logan rolled clear. Theo coughed through the dust and embers thrown into the choking air. His lower body was pinned, and he struggled to pull himself free, but it was no use.
“God has his own way of punishing,” Logan shouted above the roar of the flames as he backed toward the door. “Your soul is going to burn along with the devil you sold it to.”
“Then I’ll see you in Hell,” Theo ground out between his teeth as he watched Logan pause by the door.
“You first, brother.” Logan smiled coldly as the roof gave way, sealing the doorway.
Theo dropped his head back against the floor and howled. He tried once again to pull himself free but it was no use. This was how his life was going to end. He prayed the children would make it to safety.
He coughed again as the thick, oily smoke invaded his lungs. He looked up as he heard another huge splintering sound, and the world seemed to slow. The flames flowed across the roof above him like long grass bending in a hot summer breeze, bowing and undulating with a kind of fierce beauty. The ash swirled in the air amidst the glittering embers that sparkled like tiny stars.
Theo watched as the main beam broke apart and slowly plunged down toward him, a descent from which there was no escape. He closed his eyes and drew in a shallow breath as he waited to die.
