Page 108 of High Stakes and Soulmates
“Cyrus!” I yell.
But my call is never answered.
They crowd around behind me, ushering me forward… and I know that Louis has him. I know that I’m going to lose him like I lost Arturo. I can’t lose him—I can’t. I would tear this world apart for him. I will slaughter every last one of them.
My grip tightens on the knife Cyrus gave me. I plunge it into the neck of a man coming toward me and quicken my pace. I have to stop Louis. I have to kill them all. I have to make this nightmare end.
“Cyrus!” I yell. “CYRUS!”
As soon as I drop another body to the ground, the vampires step back, crowding around me and giving me only one path forward. They’re driving me toward the monster who has taken the man I love.
And I’m going to make him pay.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
EZIO
Past
I feel absolutely useless when I realize that I can’t even offer my brother a proper burial. I can’t hold the spade, and with only one working arm, I can’t even dig a hole.
The townsfolk come out, but they seem wary. It’s like they know something and are afraid of dealing with the dead now that they know that Louis caused their deaths.
Thankfully, a man takes pity on me and promises he’ll help the dead find their final resting place, and as the sun peeks up from the horizon, others come out to help.
“We will bury the dead; if you want to live, you need to go,” the baker says.
I know.
I should have run.
Long before now, I should have run.
Yet here I stand, holding out until the very last minute, hoping that something will come of it. Instead, all that’s come is pain and grief.
Valley stands saddled, everything I need to flee in her saddlebags, but still I remain.
“GO!” the baker yells, and I bow my head, angry at myself for risking the very life my brother saved just for another moment to wait for Arturo.
I put my foot in the stirrup and pull myself onto Valley’s back before I turn her toward the way out of town. The way that will lead me back home… but where is home if there’s no one waiting for me?
A part of me thinks of going to the estate and burning it down. Watching Louis die… but what will that solve? There are many who don’t deserve to die inside the estate, people just like Arturo who have no choice but to serve a man who has enslaved them. And I truly don’t know how I’d even trap him in the burning estate without killing innocent people.
No, I need to run.
Valley impatiently paws the ground, and I turn her back toward that tree. Just one more moment. One more…
A part of me feels confident that when I reach the tree, Arturo’s going to be waiting for me. But that’s foolish, isn’t it? If he really was coming, he’d have come to the barn where the rest of the townspeople had gathered and not waited out there where I might never get to him. It’s not like it would be hard to find us.
When Valley stops before the tree, I find that the spot beneath it where we’d read or shared meals countless times is empty, and the thought of never doing that again hits me so fucking hard.
Of course he wouldn’t be here. Maybe he knew it was for the best, maybe Louis was keeping him from leaving, or maybe he didn’t want to risk his life for someone like me.
“Fuck,” I whisper. “Come on, Valley. We have to go.” But even as I say the words, I can’t get myself to move this damn horse. I can’t get myself to run. My life is here. Part of my life is being carried off to his final resting place and the other part of my life is in that estate with a man who is not human. “We have to go. We have to go.”
Is it even worth living without trying to save Arturo? I’m an assassin. No, my style of fighting isn’t one-on-one. It’s sneaking into the homes of unsuspecting victims and killing them in the night.
That’s what I’m good at. Of course I failed yesterday… I think anyone would have. But if I were in my own element, doing what I’m successful at…
