Page 96 of Monsters Wear Crowns
I didn’t even realize I was screaming until Rafe let go of me. And then he became chaos incarnate. One second, he was beside me. The next, he was across the room in a flash of black fury. Moreau’s men didn’t have time to react before Rafe’s fist connected with Moreau’s jaw and sent his gun clattering across the floor. But he didn’t get to finish it. He didn’t get to make it count.
The swarm hit him like wolves.
“Take them!” Moreau snarled, blood dripping from his mouth, but his eyes were locked on me. He wiped his lip and smiled like the devil. “It won’t be long now. You’ll see I’m the only one you can trust.”
I surged forward, rage burning white-hot in my chest, but the room erupted again before I could answer. The roar of bodies, boots pounding the floor, fists crashing against flesh. It was all sound and motion and heat.
Rafe fought like an animal unchained. Like a man with nothing left to lose. I saw his elbow break a man’s nose, blood spraying across the wall. He slammed another’s head into the corner of a table hard enough to dent the wood. But there were too many.Five? Six?They came at him from every angle, and he welcomed them, fists and teeth bared, a snarl on his lips that didn’t sound human.
I clawed, kicked, slammed my heel into a kneecap, and felt the satisfying crunch. But we were outnumbered. A boot collided with my ribs, the crack of it lighting fire through my side. I crumpled, slamming onto the floor, my hands scraping against wood slick with blood–Vincent’s blood.
“Rafe!” I choked, my voice breaking.
I found him in the chaos. He was still swinging, even as three men pinned him. Blood streaked his face, his jaw clenchedwith savage fury, but it wasn’t just rage in his eyes–it was grief. Raw, soul-crushing grief.
Because Vincent was gone.
Betrayal still hung thick in the air. Vincent, who had fought beside us, had smiled with us, had ultimately chosenwrong–and paid with his life.
Moreau stood back like a conductor watching his orchestra, calm, distant, and cold. He watched the violence like it was entertainment. He raised a hand, brushing flecks of Vincent’s blood off his pristine sleeve. “Subdue him.”
One of Moreau’s men lunged toward me.
But I moved first.
My elbow rammed up into his throat. He gagged and stumbled back, and I scrambled for a weapon–any weapon. My gun was gone, kicked under furniture, or stolen. But a knife glinted on the floor. I dove for it, fingers closing tight around the hilt just as another attacker came at me.
I pivoted to face him, heart thundering, but Moreau’s voice cracked like a whip.
“Enough!”
Everything froze.
“Stand down.” His men hesitated but obeyed.
I didn’t lower the knife. “I could kill you right now,” I said through gritted teeth. My hand trembled, but not from fear.
His smile curved slowly and smugly. “No, you couldn’t. But I admire the fire.”
Behind me, Rafe snarled–a guttural, vicious sound that tore through the room. He was still fighting, even as blood poured from his mouth and his knees were forced to the ground. His muscles strained against the hands holding him back, his entire body thrumming with tension like a loaded gun. He was horrifying and beautiful all at once.
Moreau watched him with something like awe. “Look at him,” he said softly. “Stillclinging to the illusion of power. This iswhat happens when you chain yourself to a monster. Sooner or later, someone stronger comes to take the throne.”
“Stronger?” I hissed. “You think strength is hiding behind a dozen armed men?”
He chuckled, tilting his head. “Oh, Adela. Haven’t you learned yet? In this world, strength is perception.”
He turned to Rafe, who met his gaze with such hate it scorched the air between them.
“Let her go,” Rafe said, his voice like gravel, his wild eyes lethal. “She’s not part of this.”
Moreau’s smile faded just a fraction. “No. She’severythingin this. You made her a part of this the moment you dragged her into our little war.”
“She didn’t have much of a choice.”
“She’s here, isn’t she?” Moreau’s eyes glittered. “And I think you underestimate how tempting certain…offers can be.”
My heart turned to stone. “What are you talking about?”
