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He fired a shot at her, missing. The bullet hit Alistair instead, the right side of his head blowing open.

The room swam with disbelief, coming in hot as dizzy denial.

No…

I saw Pearl. I saw her here with me, meeting our mum, dad, and brother for the first time. A quick, brutal vision of what would never be.

No…

Everything ended by a bullet. Taken from his son who loved him, and from the son who would never get the chance to. His wife a widow now, if she wasn’t gone herself because of Caer.

No…

Elio smiled at me, eyes shining with Aidan’s touch. “You vampire-fucking piece of shit. Look what you did. Look what you took from me.”

Aidan glanced between us, delighted. He tossed the gun to Elio.

Caer didn’t move, too busy regarding me, clutching her rune disk with her newly recruited wolves behind her.

Elio caught the weapon, holding it up to his head. “Marie is dead because of you. Dad is gone because of you,” he said to me, his finger on the trigger. “You should’ve stayed in the ground when you first went in. When I saw the dirt cover you, I loved it. I wish you were still there. I wish you were gone, gone, gone. But I’ll go instead. I’ll go and⁠—”

Medusa smacked the gun out of his hand and punched him to knock him out, then picked up the gun.

A roar from outside stopped her from firing.

Aidan put a hand to his ear, leaning in the direction of the sound. “Ooo, what is that? Could it be a frostbrood here to make things interesting?”

I heard Silv on the stairs, saw a flash of his scarlet eyes.

My heart hiccupped, everything painful and chaotic and too much.

Death.

Always death and violence and sorrow.

My executioner senses tingled. There were vampires outside.

Caer began to cast a spell.

The doors crashed open and one of the icy beasts charged into the lobby—under the golden-eyed influence of Aidan.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Silvanus

Iawoke from a deep yet dreamless sleep to the sound of gunfire.

The bedroom door crashed open, coming off its hinges with a mighty boom.

Vaughn lingered in the destruction, his eyes luminous with lavender light.

“Interesting,” I growled, before leaping out of bed.

“In the name of Caer!” Vaughn spat.

Wonderful.

We charged at the same time, him taking the first swing. I dodged, slamming my fist into his stomach. He bent and I grabbed him, flinging him onto the bed.