Page 104 of The Phantom's Vice

“Well, fuck.”

I blink at Kain, something in my chest splintering at the sight of his indifferent expression. Just like with Ghost, I wonder what a person has to go through to make them so detached to the sight of death. I barely knew Maverick, yet it feels like holes are peppering my soul knowing that a life has just ended.

But I can’t think about that right now. I have to keep going. Swallowing hard, I tug Orion’s elbow and race to the end of the tunnel, only to find that Kain was right. There’s a giant slab of metal, where a door should be, concealing the entrance to Madam's chambers. I slam my palm to the wall in frustration, tears welling in the corners of my eyes. I look wildly around the space for something—anything—that could be used to unlock the door.

“Kain was right. There’s no way in,” I whisper, fighting the urge to claw at the stone till my fingers are bloodied. “Orion, what do wedo?”

He shakes his head, shaggy black bangs falling over his squinted eyes as he inspects the metal wall. “I don’t know. There’s no fucking way we’re getting through this thing.”

The alarm fades to the background as my heart beats in my ears, an infuriated scream tearing from my lips as I lob a kick at the wall. “Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck…” I press my forehead against the cool metal, an idea forming in the back of my mind, trying to break through the cloud of desperation.

“Orion? Does this place have some kind of guard house?”

Orion turns, his brows drawn together as he thinks. “Maybe? It would make sense. We came through the service entrance, but I assume the main lobby has something like that… Oh!” he exclaims, a smile spreading his lips. “You think…?”

I nod, trying not to let my hopes get too high. “I think we can access the security panel from there. If you can disarm the system somehow?—-”

“Already on it!” Orion calls out, his voice fading as he disappears into the tunnel, leaping over the fallen bodies in his haste. “Stay there! I’ll be back in a….”

I don’t get to hear what else Orion was going to say as his voice gets swallowed by the maze of tunnels. With nothing else to do, I stalk back intothe tunnel with Rupert to check on Kain, my hand twitching nervously over the handle of my gun.

As I near, Kain meets my gaze, his dark brown eye holding a coldness that's contrary to the way I’ve seen him look at Lillith, and I can’t help but question which is the real Kain.

“You and Orion figure something out?”

I nod, reaching down to run my fingers through Ruper’s silky fur, hoping it will calm my nerves. “Hopefully.”

Kain stares at the wall over my shoulder, seeming to be focusing on his breathing. “I’d offer you this, but…” his great chest heaves a sigh as he waves his empty gun in the air. “All out of bullets.”

“That’s—that’s okay,” I murmur, shooting a nervous glance down the tunnel and praying for Orion to hurry up. “Are you… gonna be okay?”

He shrugs, wincing slightly as he adjusts his grip on his ribs, causing fresh red blood to pool through his scarred fingers. “Probably. I’ve survived worse.”

I try not to look at Maverick’s broken body lying next to him and wonder if he will suffer the same fate. There’s already been so much loss today, and I don’t know how much more I can take.

“You know Lillith will never forgive me if youdie,” I whisper, straightening when I’m sure he’s not going to try to follow. “So don’t. Okay?”

“You?” He chuckles weakly, some of the ice melting in his gaze at the mention of his love. “She’d never forgiveme.Hell, I’m pretty sure she’d follow me to the dark just to whoop my ass for leaving her. She seems sweet and innocent, but the woman is downright vicious.”

A small smile tips my lips despite the tears welling in my eyes. “You really love her, don’t you?”

He nods, his eye glazing over with some unspoken memory. “More than life itself.” Suddenly, he faces me, his gaze telling me all the words he doesn’t speak. “Just like you do Ghost.”

I open my mouth to disagree, but Kain’s knowing squint has the words dying in my throat. “He needs you, Brett. He needs you to save him from himself. I couldn’t—hell, now that I’m sitting here, I realize I never eventried.But you did. Youare.You don’t give up on him, even when he’s given up on himself. I’ve never seen him so passionate, so…” He looks off again, lost for the words he needs to describe the change in the masked assassin. “He’s doing this for you, you know? He doesn’t think this world deserves you—doesn’t thinkhedoes. What he’s doing now—he thinks he’s removing everyrotten thing from the earth to make it better for you. He’s sacrificing himself because he views himself as one of those things.”

“How do you?—?”

“Because it’s how I used to feel when I first met Lillith,” he murmurs, his gaze softening with a faraway look. “I wanted to burn the world down, even if it meant I forfeited my life. For her, I would have done anything. But she showed me that you can’t force the world to its knees—instead, you must let go. More importantly, she taught me that the best things bloom when given the freedom to do so…”

A long pause ensues as Kain peers up at me through a drooping eyelid, his chest heaving erratically as he finishes with, “But that was advice for me. Not for that masked maniac on the other side of the door.”

I choke on my surprise, but Kain continues undeterred, giving no reaction other than a slight lift in his brow. “Ghost views things in extremes. To him, letting go means death—not so different from what he’s trying to do now. He can’t see any other way to protect you.”

“But that’s… fucking insane.”

“Heisinsane,” Kain mutters, chuckling lowunder his breath. “He’s alwaysbeeninsane, Brett. And I’ll bet money that’s part of the reason you love him so much. Because you know you’ll never find that kind of devotion in another human being.”

I shake my head, even as his words drill into that little space in my heart I keep locked in an iron vault. The bastard is right, and I know it in every part of me. Ghost has bound himself to me in a way I can’t describe—like there’s a thread of light knitting our souls together, weaving the threads of our beings in a way that seems predestined by fate.

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