Chapter 11 - The Fall
The shockwave knocked Nora and Vivian off their feet, sending them skidding across the polished floor toward the open balustrade of the grand staircase.
The air was gone, replaced by an inferno of heat and swirling black cinders.
Julian charged through the smoke, his silhouette backlit by the roaring flames behind him. He wasn't trying to escape anymore; he was a cornered animal consumed by the single-minded desire to destroy everything within reach.
He lunged for Nora, his heavy fingers clamping around her throat.
Nora slammed her back against the marble balustrade, choking, her hands fighting to pry his fingers off her windpipe. Julian’s face was inches from hers—eyes wild, teeth bared, skin blistered by the fire.
"You ruined everything!" Julian screamed, spit flying from his lips. "You and that deaf brat!"
Suddenly, Vivian Ellery threw her entire weight against Julian’s back.
She didn't use an elegant slap or a polite struggle. Vivian sank her teeth into Julian’s ear, clawing at his eyes with her manicured fingernails, screaming with a feral, primal rage that rattled the burning gallery.
Julian roared in pain, releasing Nora’s throat to elbow Vivian backward.
Vivian stumbled, hitting the weakened, fire-damaged section of the wooden railing. The ornate balusters groaned, splintering under the impact.
"Vivian!" Nora lunged forward, catching Vivian’s wrist just as the railing gave way completely.
Vivian swung out over the open drop to the marble foyer thirty feet below, dangling by Nora’s single grip.
Julian turned back, an iron candlestick raised high above his head, ready to bring it down on Nora’s skull.
"Die together, then," he snarled.
*CRASH.*
The front double doors of the mansion disintegrated in an explosion of oak, iron, and glass.
The heavy black bumper of the armored Range Rover smashed through the entrance hall, spraying marble rubble across the foyer floor.
Through the shattered windshield, Marcus Ellery jumped from the driver’s side before the vehicle had even come to a full stop.
He didn't look at the fire. He didn't look at the crumbling ceiling.
He saw Julian Croft standing over Nora on the second-floor gallery.
Marcus took the stairs four at a time, moving with a terrifying, lethal speed.
Julian turned, raising the candlestick, but Marcus didn't pause to parry. He tackled Julian around the waist at full sprint, driving the larger man back into the roaring heart of the burning study.
They crashed through the flames, rolling across the fiery floorboards. Julian swung the heavy brass candlestick, catching Marcus across the cheekbone, opening a jagged cut that bled instantly.
Marcus didn't flinch. He pinned Julian’s arm to the floor, drove his knee into Julian’s sternum, and struck him twice across the jaw with short, brutal, piston-like punches that broke bone.
Julian went limp, the candlestick slipping from his fingers into the burning embers.
Marcus grabbed Julian by his coat collar, hauled him out of the flaming room by his heels, and dumped his unconscious body onto the gallery floor.
Then, Marcus turned to the shattered railing.
Nora was down on both knees, her muscles tearing, her knuckles white, holding Vivian’s entire weight with both hands.
"I’ve got her!" Marcus roared, dropping beside Nora.
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His large, scarred hands clamped around his sister’s forearms. With a single, explosive heave, Marcus hauled Vivian back over the ledge, tumbling all three of them onto the smoke-blackened floor of the landing just as the master beam of the north wing roof collapsed into the study behind them with an apocalyptic roar.
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