“I said stop!” Bronwyn counted loudly as if it would drown out the memories that Reyna brought back to her.
“You can’t change the past, but you two can have a future.”
Bronwyn ceased counting. Her eyes slid to her like a viper ready to strike. Then she sprang toward Reyna. She grasped her by the throat, crashing her body back against the table she’d indented earlier. Bronwyn held her aloft with her feet dangling off the ground.
Reyna gasped and choked. She struggled to free herself from Bronwyn’s solid grip, but it was useless. She couldn’t budge her. As she kicked and clawed at Bronwyn’s hands, she realized that she might die. That she might have finally underestimated Harrington’s ferocity.
“Bronwyn!” Beckham snapped from the doorway.
Time slowed to a standstill. Bronwyn released Reyna, lettingher fall into a heap on the ground. Reyna gasped for breath, coughing as air filled her lungs again. Her awareness of him registered and healing flooded in. Her wound knitting back together in a rush.
Bronwyn faced her brother. Every movement rigid and deliberate. “Beckham,” she said softly. A child’s voice. One who hadn’t seen her brother in fifteen long years. And hadn’t seen beyond the monster within him in muchmuchlonger.
“I’m here, Bronwyn. I’m finally here.”
“You let them take me,” she accused.
“I believed you were dead.” He took a step toward Reyna. “You were my second, mysister. Do you think I would not have torn apart the world to get you back?”
“You left me to rot.”
Another step closer to Reyna. He circled Bronwyn, getting Reyna out of danger.
“I mourned you.”
Bronwyn laughed. A discordant, high-pitched squeal.
“Fifteen long years and I missed you every day.”
“You do not feel,” Bronwyn accused.
“You know that’s not true.”
“Stop.”
“What I did to you, it was wrong. I’m so sorry. You are still my sister.”
“No!” Bronwyn assessed the situation as Beckham finally put himself directly in front of Reyna. “You are not a person,” Bronwyn said, tilting her head sideways. “And she is not leaving.”
“Your quarrel is with me,” Beckham said instead. “One last battle for the ages, B?”
“The girl stays.”
“Nonnegotiable.”
Reyna glanced between Beckham and Bronwyn. When Reynahad first met Bronwyn, it had been such a blur. She hadn’t even known until weeks later that she was Beckham’s sister. Now seeing them so close together, it was obvious.
“Reyna, go. Now,” Beckham barked.
“But what about you?”
“I will take care of this. Be ready.”
Reyna gritted her teeth, took one last look at the stalemate between siblings, and sprinted toward the door. She hated leaving Beckham behind, but what could she do? He was supposed to be in a van a mile away. She’d been so fucking freaked out by Bronwyn she hadn’t even felt him moving closer toward her. And then he’d healed her, which meant he could be weakened. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
No, she couldn’t think about that. Beckham could handle himself.
Reyna didn’t stop sprinting. She knew where she was going. She’d studied the map well enough to have a mental guide for which way to go. It would be easier with Beckham directing her, but she’d done her homework. Still worse the way to Harrington’s office was empty of people. He wanted her to find him. But there was no backing down. Not with battles raging behind her. She had to finish this. That was the only way. Cut off the serpent’s head to scatter his army.
