“And what about me?” the vice admiral asks. “I thought you loved me.”
“I did,” she whispers. “And then he took you from me.”
“Don’t let your miserable father take any more from you; step away from the Queen,” he says.
“I can’t. She has to die. He won’t leave me alone until she’s dead,” she whispers as she refocuses on me. “She has to die.”
“No!” Dahlia screams as the vice admiral says, “No she doesn’t,” but it none of it matters. It’s like Saoirse’s in a trance as she bears down on me. And with my back against the stone wall of the battlements, I have nowhere to go.
“Please, don’t do this,” I beg.
“You should have listened to me when you had the chance and left,” she snarls. “Now, it’s too late.”
“Stop this,” the vice admiral says. “We can still be together if you don’t do this.”
“We can be together after I finish the job,” she counters. “If I don’t, he’ll kill you again but for real this time.”
“No!” he shouts, trying to get her attention but it’s no use. “I still love you.”
“I still love you too,” she smiles at him before she lunges at me and I close my eyes and scream.
When I realize that I’m not falling down the cliffside, I open my eyes and hear a scream as Saoirse falls to her death. When she lunged for me, the vice admiral moved even faster and shoved her over the ledge.
“Dahlia,” I whisper. Her hands are covering her eyes, blocking out the scene in front of her and when she uncovers them to look at me, she’s crying. “I’m so sorry.”
“You’re alive!” she cries as she rushes into my arms and holds me tightly.
“I’m so sorry.”
“There’s nothing to be sorry for,” she says.
“But—”
“We’ll talk it through later,” she says. “Now, we need to figure out what the fuck is going on.” She turns us to head for the door when she sees the vice admiral and stops. “What are you doing here?”
“I called him,” Taylor rasps from the floor.
“Taylor!” I run over to him, dropping down to my knees to help him.
“It’s just my shoulder,” he says. “But I hit my head on the way down like a bloody arsehole.”
“Oh, well I’m glad you’re okay,” I say. “Please don’t kill me.”
The door bangs open again and Rhys and Leo race through with a shit ton of guards.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Leo barks at Dahlia and she narrows her eyes on him.
“Do not talk to my daughter in that tone, young man,” the vice admiral snarls.
“Too soon, dude-who-hates-me,” she says.
“I don’t hate you,” he says, rolling his eyes, “I hated watching you waste your life on parties and drugs.”
“Well, my dad was dead, my brothers were dicks, and my mom hated everything about me,” she shrugs. “There wasn’t much else to keep me occupied.”
“I’m sorry, Dahlia,” Rhys says. “I was trying to protect you.”
“So was I,” Taylor says as he sits up.