Helena shook her head. “Luc, don’t do this to me.”
“I’m sorry. It shouldn’t be you, but it has to be.”
She tried to touch him again, to push his life back where it was seeping out through his skin.
“We have to go now.” His voice rose, hard and commanding. He shook her as if trying to startle her into compliance. “Get Sebastian up. People will notice if he’s not with me.”
She stared at him, before looking to Sebastian lying in a pool of blood.
“Y-You want me to use necromancy?”
“We have to leave together,” Luc said, the remaining traces of colour draining from his face as he pushed himself up, strapping on his armour. “Get him on his feet.”
Her heart was in her throat as she closed the wounds on Sebastian, regenerating only as much as was necessary, and brought him to his feet. She had learned her lesson reanimating Soren. She was careful and brought back only a shadow.
He stood up, blank-eyed. Empty. She put his armour back on to hide the blood.
She braced herself as she looked towards Luc.
Luc sat looking at his last paladin with open grief, but when his eyes rested on her, there was only that same sadness. “You’ve always done the worst things because of me.”
The words cut her to the quick. She should have known. She should have known Luc better, enough to know he wouldn’t turn on her like that. He was too faithful.
She drew a harsh breath. “I promised I’d do anything for you.”
She helped him stand, and he pulled her closer, into a hard hug. His chin resting on the top of her head.
Helena’s eyes were burning. His armour dug in through her uniform hard enough to leave bruises behind. His hand clutched at her shoulder as he caught his breath and opened the door.
He straightened as they walked out. The warehouse was mostly abandoned; only a few of the uninjured lingered, waiting for Luc. Everyone was blood-spattered; they barely noticed the fresh blood on Luc or Sebastian. They all stood at attention.
Luc walked with his head high, shoulders squared, his shrunken frame naturally falling into the posture he’d been raised to assume.
“Sebastian and I are heading out,” he said. “You all stay here; this is a solid base, and we need it to remain defended. If we can’t recover Headquarters, we’ll depend on places like this for our forces to fall back to.”
“But—” one of the soldiers started.
“Those are my orders,” Luc said. Beads of sweat formed along his temples, and Helena could feel him wavering, fading away, that cold energy seeping into the air around him. “Sebastian, with me. Marino, you too.”
They made it up one street and around a corner into a narrow alley between two towers before Luc’s legs failed. He was too heavy for Helena alone; Sebastian had to catch him, dragging him out of sight.
Luc sank against the wall, his breath shallow as he blinked up at the little bits of sky visible overhead between the towering buildings.
“Is it dawn?” he asked, his voice almost wondering.
Helena nodded. “First light.”
He exhaled. “We were—going to see the world together, remember?”
His fingers scrabbled to find hers, his eyes still on the sky.
She took his hand, squeezing tightly, as if she could keep him longer if she held on.
“Never did see Etras …” he said, his voice faint. “Sorry. Promised I’d—take you back.”
“It’s all right,” she said.
“Will you—take care of Lila? And the baby?”
She nodded.
“Don’t tell Lila—”
“I won’t.”
His hand trembled in hers. “Promise …?”
She swallowed hard. “I promise.”
He said nothing else. When she looked up, his eyes were unseeing, the dawn reflecting in the empty blue.
CHAPTER 64
Augustus 1787
HELENA LEFT SEBASTIAN WITH LUC, PULLING FREE the reanimation and leaving the two of them hidden in the alley.
Her only thoughts were of Lila.
The air was thick with smoke and blood. She could hear fighting as she moved through the city, trying to stay out of sight. She couldn’t save everyone. Anyone.
She had to reach Lila.
She neared the last wall that was intended to mark Resistance territory. There were necrothralls guarding it. Familiar faces. The field commander from Luc’s unit with a gash in his skull that showed brain tissue underneath.
Kaine had said no one paid close attention to whose necrothralls were whose. A necrothrall was presumed to belong to one of the Undying. If she pulled the reanimation from a few, she could use them to escort her into Headquarters as a prisoner, but these were too well armed.
She needed easier targets. She turned and fled, hiding in buildings, climbing and descending old stairs and evacuation ladders, trying to find a way back to Headquarters. The combatants all had harnesses that they used to swing and rappel through the streets, navigating the levels of the city easily, but she had to find a route on foot.
The necrothralls kept tailing her. She could tell she was being herded, hunted with persistent predation. She could not out-endure the dead.
She hid, crouching behind a pillar half covered in rubble, trying to catch her breath.
Footsteps came nearer. Her heartbeat was a drum. She drew a gasping breath and jumped up, fleeing her hiding spot. She ran straight into one of the Undying, all in black.
Before she could react, a large hand gripped her head, and everything went dark.
HELENA WOKE WITH A PANICKED gasp. Kaine was leaning over her, his fingers at the base of her head. She jerked away, eyes roaming, not recognising where she was. Her head was swimming.
“It’s all right. You’re safe,” he said.
She stared up at him in confusion, trying to remember how she’d gotten there.
Everything came rushing back. Luc. Luc was dead.
She’d killed him.
The memory was like being punched in the throat.
“What—what happened?” Her mouth was dry. She looked dazedly around, trying to pinpoint their location.
Kaine’s fingers slipped away from the back of her head. His expression was calm, but his eyes were furious.
“The war is over,” he said. “The Undying have taken the city, including your Headquarters. The remaining Resistance factions are cornered; if they don’t surrender, they’ll be buried in rubble by the day’s end.”
She pushed herself up, too dazed to think clearly. She’d been trying to reach Lila … and then? She couldn’t remember anymore.
Kaine began pacing around the room.
“How did this even happen? What kind of plan was stretching yourselves across the entire city and leaving your Headquarters unguarded? And where the fuck is Holdfast?”
Helena flinched. “He’s dead.”
Kaine froze and turned sharply. “What do you mean?”
Helena stared down at her hands. She was in the same clothes. Luc’s blood was among the stains, but she couldn’t pick out which ones belonged to him. She couldn’t bring herself to speak.
“How?” Kaine asked.
She swallowed. “It was—an accident.”
She told him everything. What she’d realised, and who it had been, and everything over the months. That Luc had tricked her, and she’d reacted, and then it was too late.
“I tried to heal him …” she said, her voice shaking. “But it was like there wasn’t enough of him left to hold on. He was unravelling and I couldn’t—” Her chest seized, threatening to crack. “I was supposed to save him—” The words came out a whisper.
Her throat contracted and her whole body shook and she couldn’t make herself speak. Kaine was silent until she managed to compose herself again.