Luminatii, groaning in the dust. Lord Cassius, his terror reaching out to her own.
Never flinch. Never fear.
She shook her head. Staring up at Remus’s silhouette. Determined to look him in the eye. To show no matter how much it hurt, how much her heart named her liar …
“I’m not afraid of you,” she hissed.
She heard a soft chuckle. The lesser light rising high.
“Luminus Invicta, heretic,” Remus said. “I will give your brother your regards.”
The words hit Mia harder than the Trinity’s light. Turned her belly to water. What was he saying? Jonnen was dead. Mia’s mother had said so. That truedark she’d torn the Philosopher’s Stone to pieces, stood on the steps of the Basilica Grande and fallen before this same bastard, this same accursed light. Crying on the battlements afterward, above the place her father died. Mercurio beside her as she whispered.
“It was so bright,” she whispered. “Too bright.”
The old man had smiled. Patted her hand.
“The brighter the light, the deeper the shadow.”
Ashlinn stood in front of her, Trinity blazing in her hand. Remus loomed at her back, sword raised. Behind them both, stretched across the sand and into the justicus’s own, was Mia’s shadow. Black. Writhing. But in the face of that awful light, darker than it had ever been.
She reached out to it. Teeth gritted. Eyes shut. Feeling the darkness without and the darkness within. And clenching her fists, dagger held tight
she stepped down
into her own shadow
and out of the justicus’s shadow behind
His body blocked off the Trinity’s light, the blinding flare rendering him a hulking silhouette. And lashing out with her blade, the blade her mother had held to Scaeva’s throat, the blade Mister Kindly had gifted her in the dark, the blade that had saved her life before, and now again, she buried it to the hilt in Remus’s neck.
The justicus clutched the hole she carved, a fountain of blood spraying between his fingers. Mia staggered away, drenched in red. The light still burning her. Eyes narrowed. Hair draped over her face in tangled drifts as she stumbled and fell.
Remus staggered, sword falling from his grip and quivering in the sand. Both hands to his neck now. Arterial spray hissing through his fingers. Realization dawning in his eyes—she’s killed me, O, God, she’s killed me—turning to fury, and he whirled on the girl, hands outstretched, fingers curled into claws. The blood spurted free, gushing down that barrel chest, those wolfish features draining of all their color. The justicus of the Luminatii Legion took one tottering step, two and three. Sinking to his knees. Stare locked on the girl, doing her best to crawl away along the sand.
Remus gargled, light fleeing his eyes. And with a heavy thud, his corpse toppled face-first into the dirt, the last feeble beats of his heart drenching the road a deeper red. Just as she’d always dreamed it. Just as she’d always wanted.
Dead.
Ashlinn hung still, horror on her face. At Mia’s back, she felt more shadows gathering, clustered about their owners at the garrison tower’s door.
The Revered Mother.
Solis leaning on her shoulder, bleeding and bruised.
Hush, silent as death, a fallen blade in one clenched fist.
Aalea and Spiderkiller behind him, supporting Mouser between them.
Even though they were beaten and bloodied, not one of the assassins was darkin. Not one cowed by the Trinity in Ashlinn’s hand. And faced with five of the most accomplished murderers in the Itreyan Republic, the girl did what anyone would have done in her position—lust for vengeance be damned.
Ashlinn turned and ran.
Hush and the Ministry staggered from the tower, none in a state to give chase. But with the Trinity now disappearing down the street, Mia found the pain fading, rolling over onto her belly and quietly retching. Turning to Cassius, she crawled to his side, fingers clawing the dust. The Lord of Blades was curled in a ball, clutching his chest, face twisted. Mia murmured softly, pulled his bloody hands away, paling at the sight of the wound. Eclipse was whining, pacing, ears pressed to her skull. Black teeth bared.
“… FOOL CHILD, HELP HIM…!”
“… I—”
“… HELP HIM…!”
Cassius tried to speak. Unable even to breathe. He coughed, sticky red on his lips, clutching Mia’s hand and holding tight. Drusilla hobbled to his side, the other Ministry members sinking to the dirt around him.
“You can’t die,” Mia pleaded. “You promised me answers!”
Cassius grimaced with the pain of it, every muscle in his body tensing, back arching. He fixed Mia in his stare, and she felt it in