Page 180 of Dukes Are Forever
Malloryn's gaze focused through the sights of the pistol, narrowing between Balfour's eyebrows. Could he take the shot? All those years spent practicing for this moment, and suddenly he wondered if he was good enough.
Not to kill Balfour, but to save her.
"I'll kill her," Balfour warned, the knife tightening just enough to make Adele squeak. A thin trace of blood slid down her throat.
"You'll kill her anyway." He saw Catherine overlaid on the scene. Her face begging him to rescue her.... But when he blinked, all he could see was Adele, and she begged for nothing. Shebelieved, her eyes shining as she stared at him with utmost trust. "It's what you do. Just to prove you can."
"Do it," Adele mouthed, and his hand stopped shaking as his resolve firmed.
"Adele." He focused on Balfour's forehead. "Do you remember what Gemma taught you?"
"Yes," she whispered, tensing.
"Good."
He took the shot.
The bullet ricocheted as Balfour jerked to the side. Adele drove her palm up into Balfour's wrist, jarring the knife from her throat and stomping on his heel. Balfour tried to jerk her back in place, but she flung herself to the side and Balfour was forced to dive for cover.
Malloryn strode forward, firing on Balfour with every step. Blood splashed on Balfour's shoulder, and then Malloryn clicked empty.
He flung the pistol aside and scrambled to where Adele lay clutching at her throat. Blood dripped between her fingers, and his heart hammered, but when he looked at the wound, it was superficial.Thank God. Relief burst through him.
"I'm fine," she gasped. "Go!"
"Get to the roof," he told her.
"Not without you."
"You don't understand." He didn't want to try and explain. Time was running out. The chance for either of them to escape this mess was rapidly narrowing. He could feel the building shuddering beneath his feet. The air was growing hotter, thicker.
He couldn't let Balfour escape, but nor could he deny that if he stayed, his own chances faded.
Adele lifted her chin stubbornly, her cheeks stained with soot and her eyes red-rimmed from the smoke. Dark bruises circled beneath her eyes, as if she'd taken a blow to the face. She'd never looked more beautiful. "I understand perfectly. Not. Without. You."
Malloryn pressed his forehead to hers. To grant her this meant making a huge concession. But he had to accept, just this once, that he couldn't sway her. "Then stay out of this."
"Go and kill him."
Years of hate and fury turned into a cold, hard lump in his throat as Malloryn stood and faced his enemy. Endless games stretched out in the past, battles over the council table when the prince consort held power. Secrets. Lies. Espionage.
And revenge.
He'd thought once that seeing Balfour dead would finally ease the burden of debt from his shoulders, but it hadn't. There'd been a cold, hollow nothingness within him the day he helped cast the prince consort down and slit Balfour's throat. An emptiness he couldn't seem to slake in the years that followed.
And then Balfour returned, and Malloryn had realized he'd spent so long striving to destroy this man that he was still trapped in that vicious spiral. It was almost a relief to start the game afresh. To know there was something to tilt his lance at.
This man had ruined his life.
But Malloryn had allowed it to happen.
And worse, he'd allowed it to consume him.
Until Adele had finally shown him a path clear of this bloody spiral. He didn't want to die here, with the promise of their relationship so newly unfurled before him. He wanted time, damn it. Time to explore it.
Time to learn how to be Auvry again.
"And so it ends," Balfour told him.
