Darling didn’t stop until he’d returned to the palace and met Maris in the back gallery hallway.
“You’re hurt.” There was no missing the concern in Maris’s tone.
Darling didn’t answer. Rather, he walked past Maris and entered the reception room so that he could open the bar and yank a bottle of Tondarion Fire off the shelf. He removed the top with his teeth, before he poured the searing alcohol over the wound on his arm. Then he took a deep draught of it.
Maris headed toward him. “Dar—”
Darling cut his words off with the point of a sword that he aimed at Maris’s heart. He’d pulled it out so fast that her vision hadn’t even registered his movements. It was almost as if Darling was a Trisani who’d manifested his weapon into his hand with his thoughts.
Maris froze while Darling drank half the bottle in a matter of seconds. “You can’t keep this up, Darling. No one is going to let you live if you continue to slaughter everyone who’s ever wronged you.”
“Let them try and I’ll burn it all to the ground and take as many of them with me as I can.”
“This isn’t a game.”
Darling sneered. “It’s never been a game, Maris. And I’m through talking.” He smiled then, but it was filled with bitterness and hatred. He said something to Maris that she couldn’t understand before he lowered his sword and walked away.
Maris turned the video off and returned Darling’s computer to the nightstand. “That was what we were dealing with before you came here.”
“What did he say to you at the end?”
A tic started in Maris’s jaw. “ ‘I won’t forgive. I won’t forget. Let hell open and rain my wrath down on them all. I will not be stopped and I have no mercy left inside me. I am death and I revel in the killing of my enemies. Bring me them all until I’m drunk on their blood.’ ”
Yeah, that was extreme, and that was the same man who’d overturned his desk in a fit of rage the night Maris had brought her here. “Weren’t you afraid of him?”
“Honestly? I was at times. Afraid for me, but mostly for Darling.” He glanced to where Darling slept on the bed. “If you leave, Zarya, he won’t come back again. I know it. He’ll be destroyed.”
And if she stayed, her allies would do everything they could to kill him.
“Where is that rank little bastard!”
Her eyes widened at the sound of a shrieking female voice outside in the hallway. A second later, the doors to Darling’s bedroom flew open to reveal a tall, auburn-haired goddess.
Zarya’s jaw went slack at the sight. The pictures she’d seen didn’t do Annalise justice. The woman was frighteningly beautiful.
And she was fiercely pissed.
Lise swept the room with an imperious glare before she stormed toward Darling with a furious snarl.
Zarya put herself between Darling and his sister. Not sure of Lise’s plans or the source of her anger, she wasn’t about to let the girl hurt him.
Just as Zarya thought she’d be attacked, Lise ran at Maris and punched him so hard in the jaw that his head snapped back.
“How could you? You sorry son of a bitch! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!”
Completely dumbfounded, Zarya was frozen in total shock as the girl continued to assault Maris until he wrapped himself around her and held her tight against his body. Still, she fought, shrieking so loudly that it echoed through the room.
“Sh, Lise,” Maris breathed soothingly in her ear. “It’s okay.”
Lise sobbed hysterically as she fought against Maris’s hold.
Never had Zarya seen anything like this. Was there some kind of madness that infected Darling’s entire family she needed to know about?
What had Maris done to Lise to cause this?
Syn came rushing in with an injector.
When he went to sedate her, Maris stopped him with a fierce shake of his head. “She’ll be all right.” He tightened his hold on Lise’s body. “Breathe, little sister. Just breathe.”
Tears flowed down her cheeks as her lips quivered. “I hate you!”
“I’m so sorry.”
“No, you’re not! You asshole!” She tried to hit him again, but he held her fast. Instead, she reared her head back, smashing it into Maris’s face.
Somehow, he maintained his grip on her.
Lise shrieked again in frustration. “Do you know what it’s like to hear that your brother’s dead on a fucking news broadcast? Do you? Why didn’t one of you call me, you sons of whores!”
Maris’s patience with her never wavered. When he spoke, his tone was calm and soothing in spite of the bruises that were already forming on his face. “He’s not dead, Lise. He’s not. I swear it, sweetie.”
Finally, Annalise started calming down. “W-what?”
As Hauk came into the room to check on the commotion, Maris dragged her toward the bed. “He’s sleeping. See…” He led her hand to touch Darling’s upper lip so that she could feel his breath against her skin.
Her tears fell even harder. The immense relief on her face once she realized her brother wasn’t dead made Zarya’s own eyes water.