The Reckless Reign (Book 3, The Culled Crown Series)

Chapter 72

It was like the world stopped turning. I felt utterly frozen, unable to do anything but stare.

Cohen was yelling, "Stop! Stop! Please! Please, stop!" He lunged towards Nadia, but Caine's guards converged, holding him back by the arms.

Kai swiveled on his heels, the movement so abrupt that that I didn't entirely track it. Caine moved too, turning me towards Kai, a reminder of what would happen if he dared pull the trigger.

Caine's own gun dug into my head with enough force to bruise. I tried to twist away from him, trying to get to my friend, to Cohen or Kai, to someone who could help, but Caine's grip on me only tightened.

I felt Caine's attention shift to Nadia, heard him inhale, begin to speak—begin to give another order that would likely end with more blood.

The blast of a gun shook the entire room, echoing off the high ceilings and making me shrink back from Caine. It cut off his words, drowned out Cohen's yelling and Nadia's cries of pain.

Blood rushes in my ears, my chest tightened, and bile burned at my throat. For a split second, I thought Caine had shot me. I closed my eyes tight, my breath coming in sharp inhales and exhales as I tried to register what had happened. Had he truly done it?

But no pain ever came. By the time I realized that it was Kai's gun that had fired, the guard holding Nadia was already falling. He toppled to the ground behind her, his body flopping like fish as blood spirted from a hole in his forehead. It pooled in a wide circle around his head, growing steadily even after the man had gone still.

Kai crossed the room his arms moving around Nadia's waist just as her knees gave out. He kept her standing, one arm wrapped around her upper body, her good hand tangling in the front of his shirt. In an instant, Kai had his gun back on Caine.

Every gun in the room was still pointed at Kai, but none dared shoot.

Crimson blossomed from Nadia's right shoulder and her upper arm. The fabric of her shirt was torn, the tatters of it concealing the majority of the grisly details. But it was bad, that much I could tell by the gray pallor of her usually warm brown skin. Blood ran in rivulets down her bicep and forearm, twining like ribbon through her fingers. The sound of it dripping onto the floor seemed to echo in the deadly silence that followed the echo of the gunshot.

Her eyes were wide with fear and shock as she clung to Kai. He said something to her, words too quiet for me to hear, and she nodded. She whispered something back. Kai shifted her slightly, moving so he stood between her and a majority of the guns.

"Who would you have as queen, prince?" Caine said, his attention still on Cohen. My friend struggled against the guards holding him, his attention kicked on Nadia. When Cohen did respond right away, Caine said, "If you would have the healer, you should choose quickly. She only has so much blood in her body, after all."

Where is Jaxon?

Kai tried press a hand to Nadia's wounds, a sorry attempt to stifle the bleeding, but she whimpered at the pain of his touch and angled further away from him. He pursed his lips and I could see the apology written all over his face. Could see as he whispered the words to her.

"I caught the healer first, you know." Caine said, drowning my attention back to him. "I thought it would draw in our dear, sweet Monroe." His lips pressed into the flesh of my neck, his breath hot as he said, "Always one to put others before herself. It's charmingly predictable. What I didn't expect, was for the exiled prince of Erydia to come after her too. Perhaps I should have. Maybe it's the will of your damnable goddess that the two Warwick boys would be hell bent on fuc—"