Page 78 of Diamond Kisses

The goodbye.

The loss.

Ily never looked away from me.

She didn’t say a word.

But I felt all of them.

Her love, her sacrifice, her pleas for me to stay sane.

I roared like a beast.

I kicked and bucked and motherfucking sobbed at the helplessness, the weakness, thepowerlessness.

“Ily! Don’t. Victor,please—”

“Fuck this!” a man bellowed. “Now. Do it now!”

A scuffle in the distance.

A curse and a command.

And then…the loudestcracksliced the air.

A bang followed.

A volley ofpop, pop, pop.

A man screamed.

A glass fell to the ground, shattering into crystal shards as two Masters went from standing to falling into corpses.

For a second, no one moved.

Men scowled and blinked and—

Anothercrack.

Another Master became nothing more than a carcass.

And then everyone and everything exploded.

Bullets ricocheted into painted panelling, sending fragments of tapestries and artwork flying.

Gunfire rained.

Masters bolted.

Victor froze and looked up. The blade in his foul hand dripped with Ily’s blood. “What the—” He reeled backward as a bullet smacked him in the shoulder. He cursed and stumbled backward. The dagger fell and bounced off the stage.

Ily fell sideways.

She clutched her throat, stemming the wound he’d caused.

“Ily,” I shouted. “Get down!”

More low-flying bullets whizzed past as guards opened fire on whoever fired first. The ballroom became chaos. Nothing but anarchy and mayhem.

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