Huntsman by Cambria Hebert
40
Earth
The ringing in my ears was deafening. It felt as if my ear canals were bleeding out from the close-range deafening sound. Hunching over, I curled into myself, pain almost secondary to that damn high-pitched ringing.
Almost.
Even though I was weak, I pressed my hand against my side as hard as I could. My insides were in danger of spilling out of the hole savagely ripped open by the bullet.
The bullet from my big brother’s gun.
All my life, he’d been a constant presence, a protection from the tree from which we grew. I knew he was cold and ruthless. We all were.
But not to me.
I thought we had a bond that couldn’t be severed. A bond forged in blood and solidified by survival. Tonight, his gun put an end to that.
Or perhaps it had been my gun.
Another shot popped off, the bullet embedding itself in the brick just above my head. I barely even winced despite the chunks of brick raining down over me in my fetal position.
I hoped death hurried up and claimed me. Perhaps death would be better than life. Sometimes it seemed a hell of a lot kinder.
Warm liquid oozed between my fingers. The pressure I applied seemed to be waning. His knees dropped in front of me, the gun in his hand placed on the pavement near my glassy stare.
I hated guns.
His arm shot out, fingers resting against my neck. “Play dead,” he whispered harshly.
My brain struggled to understand because I didn’t have to play. The pain ripping through me was proof.
“I’m getting rid of the trash,” Daeshim spat, jamming the gun in the waistband of his jeans.
My body was that of a rag doll, pliable and completely boneless. Extreme pain radiated when he tossed me over his shoulder, his bone digging into my rib, his fingers jabbing into the bullet hole.
My world dimmed around the edges until I was entirely numb. I vaguely wondered where he was going to dispose of my body, but as consciousness ebbed, I realized it didn’t matter because I wouldn’t be there anyway.
He was the same. But different. Maybe a bit larger than I remembered, more filled out. But his eyes were as they had always been: black ice. Upon first glance, you might not realize just how dangerous he was, unable to see the depth of the coldness he embodied because it was well hidden in those opaque chocolate eyes.
But it was there. I knew.
I didn’t think I’d ever see him again, but here he was, looking roughed up and pinned to the wall by my blade.
He stared at me with crimson smearing his lips and a bit of a wheeze in every breath. “Glad to see you haven’t let yourself go.”
Pride.Was that pride shining deep in his gaze?
Unexpected emotion crashed over me again and again like waves gobbling up a beach during high tide.
Recollections flickered, my mind a faulty video player skimming rapidly between memories but fully replaying that final night.
The night my brother killed me.
“I didn’t think I’d see you again,” was all I said.
“We both knew I couldn’t protect you forever.”
We stared at each other, saying so much without saying anything at all. I wanted to ask him why he did it. I wanted to ask him why he stayed. I also wanted to know…
“Did you take her place?” Did you carry on her legacy of venom and chaos? Daeshim, her namesake. Daeshim, heir of the Black Rose.
Confusion spilled out from beneath the bill of his hat, but then it cleared when something else dawned. “You don’t know.”
An inkling of something tingled at the base of my spine, and it was something I didn’t like. Lashing out, I grabbed the handle of my blade, twisting it just a little.
Daeshim grunted in pain, his mouth grimacing into a straight line.
“Know what?” I intoned.
“She’s alive.”
I drew back as if his words were a raging fire. Alive? She couldn’t be. I shot her. I watched her die.
“No.” I was lost in that night once more, replaying the sound of the bullet ripping into her flesh. The look of shock in her eyes and the way she folded to the pavement in that grim, dark alley. Men had cried over her body. “It’s impossible.”
“You, of all people, know it’s not.”
My eyes shot up to his. His stare was steady, eyes clear.
I staggered back. Me. The Huntsman. A man who literally lived by death. So why did finding out my very first kill was not actually a kill shock me so violently? It never once in all these years ever occurred to me that she might still be alive.
I had run without looking back, and I always just assumed.
Yes, I know. Assuming makes an ass out of you and me.
I’d based so much on that one assumption.
A humorless laugh echoed in the hall, mixing with the buzzy, flickering overhead lights.
I ran away, but I could never escape.
“Mal-Chin.”
My eyes snapped up. No one had called me that in so long. That boy was not who I was. “It’s Earth now.”
He inclined his head. “She’s never forgotten. Not even for a single minute. When she found out…” His jaw jumped, and he glanced away. When his chin lifted again, the black ice of his stare glimmered with frost. Then his eyes slowly shifted toward Virginia. “It would have been a kindness to let me kill her.”
I all but roared, throwing myself at him. As I wrenched the knife out of his arm, he moaned and slumped to the floor, a trail of scarlet dripping down the wall behind him.
“Mianhae Hyung.” I’m sorry, brother, I told him, roughly grabbing the collar of his shirt. “But when it comes to her, my kills aren’t pretend.”
I raised the blade above my head, squeezing the handle.
“Earth!” Virginia called, her voice breaking through the fog draping over my mind. “He hesitated!” She gasped, nearly falling over toward us. “Please, stop! He hesitated.”
The blade lowered a bit. “What?”
“He wasn’t going to do it. I saw it in his face. He couldn’t. He couldn’t do it to you.” Her eyes were honest and pleading, not at all as they’d been when I’d ended the man who’d tried to haul her into the elevator.
I don’t have to close my eyes to love you.
Those words lived in me now. Every breath I took whispered them. My heart beat to their cadence. This woman had just been through hell and watched me kill a man… But she loves me still.
Despite the way my shoulder screamed, the way flesh tore, causing a warm gush of blood, I lifted my brother a little anyway. “That true?”
Even if it wasn’t, it wouldn’t matter. Virginia said it, and even if it was actually a lie, I would believe her if that’s what she wanted.
“You love her.”
I dropped him onto the floor.
The sound of heels clicking steadily across tile echoed down the hall, even from around the corner.
Daeshim stiffened before pushing to his feet.
An ominous, unstable feeling rippled through the atmosphere. A rush of power and subtle arrogance reached out sharpened claws as though it were testing the waiting enemies, wondering how strong of a fight there would be.
A hard knot settled in my stomach as I turned toward the end of the hall as the click-clacking of the heels grew ever closer.
Off to my right, I sensed Neo stand from Ivory to also rotate toward the incoming presence. There were more footfalls accompanying those powerful, sharp ones, but they were secondary in sound and in thought.
She rounded the corner a moment later, her entourage fanning out behind her. They were all in black, but her?
The Black Rose didn’t need to wear the dark shade because everything else about her was black as night.
Her red heels were impressively high, adding height to her embarrassingly short frame. The nude dress she wore hugged a body she likely ate very little to maintain. Instead of a coat, she wore a cloak—leopard print and made of fur. It likely was not faux, for that meant she would have to give a damn.
The buttons down the front were bright-red leather, as was the clasp that held the fabric together beneath her chin.
Her face was likely done up in whatever Korean makeup trend was hot right now, and her black hair fell in a sleek bob to her shoulders. She’d aged, of course, but quite well. It was to be expected, as she had enough money to buy a new face if needed.
Despite her standing there in living color, practically killing me with her ruthless, piercing stare, it felt as though I’d seen a ghost. As if I were being haunted at last by a kill.
But she wasn’t dead. The single kill, which had shaped the very foundation of the Huntsman I was today, had been nothing but a farce.
All these years, I thought she was nothing but a rotting corpse, but in reality, she’d been living. Wreaking havoc and likely searching for me while planning my demise.
I couldn’t say I was happy to see her breathing. But the smallest part of me felt somewhat relieved my bullet had failed.
One less death to live with.
The unexpected thought was startling. Since when did I ever have to live with the guilt of my kills?
“Look at that,” she mused, her tone level without a single drop of affection. It was almost as if she spoke to hear herself talk. “My sons in the same room at last.”
Behind me, Virginia drew in a breath, and I shifted slightly, trying to block her with my frame. To my surprise, Daeshim shifted too, the pair of us creating somewhat of a wall.
Mother’s eyes flicked over our shoulders and then went back to pierce my brother with a pointed, cold look. “I see you hesitated again.”
If I hadn’t been shoulder to shoulder with him, I wouldn’t have known his reaction. His skin practically vibrated with anger and something else.
Fear.
He is scared of her.
My world rocked for a moment because Daeshim Hyung had never been scared of anything.
Movement caused ripples in the tense stillness, and I looked past the she-devil as my three brothers rounded the corner.
“We can’t find the—” Fletcher called but stopped the second all the men trailing my mother turned, lifting their guns.
My fist tightened around the blade as ice water flowed through my veins. Ethan moved quickly, shoving Fletcher behind him, rising to his full, impressive size. Seeming to understand the seriousness of this situation, Fletcher didn’t argue about being protected.
Beau straightened too, his eyes narrowing on the group of people between us, his gaze more assessing and alert than I probably had ever seen.
Mother was the only one who did not turn around. I felt her hawklike stare focused on me as if I were somehow a mirror and she could see my family in my reflection.
Forcing my eyes away from my brothers, I met her level gaze. “You came for me. Here I am.”
“It’s true. I did come for you. But the more I’ve watched, the clearer it’s become that the best revenge against you is to make everyone around you suffer.”
“I can assure you that this time I’ll make sure you’re dead.” It was not an idle threat. I’d lived with her death nearly half my life. I knew I could continue doing so.
She laughed, almost as if she were fond of my threat. “It’s really quite a shame you turned on me. You’re everything I’d hoped you’d be. Unlike my namesake who is nothing but a disappointment.”
Daeshim didn’t react. It was as though he’d heard those words so many times that they fell on deaf ears.
“I see you still never figured it out,” I said, drawing her attention from him.
Her lips pursed.
“I never turned on you. You can’t turn on someone who never had your loyalty to begin with.”
The temperature of her stare dropped, and cold fury rolled off her in waves. The only other indication I’d hit a nerve was the slight curl of her upper lip. “Your loyalty was owed to me by birth!”
“Loyalty is earned,” I said, bored. “But poison seems to be hereditary.” I took a step closer, and the wariness I saw slip into her gaze was so satisfying. What was even more satisfying was that every gun in the room redirected onto me. “Be careful, Mother. This poison apple didn’t fall far from its tree.”
Her dark eyes glittered as one arm came out from the cape, palm up, silently probing. The man closest to her side stepped forward, placing his gun in her waiting hand.
She moved swiftly, raising the gun and squeezing off a shot.
“No!” Daeshim shouted and threw himself in front of me.
The bullet slammed into him, knocking him back, and both of us went down.
Chaos erupted around us. Outside sirens from emergency responders grew loud. The flickering overhead lights chose that moment to blink out. The only light now came from a single window behind us at the dead-end of the hall on the other side of the elevator.
Outside, the sky was grim. I didn’t know if it was because dusk was approaching or because the air was filled with smoke from the fire somewhere in this building.
Daeshim grunted in pain as I slid out from beneath his body. The bullet had ripped into his shoulder not far from where I’d stabbed him. Blood stained his clothes. His skin was unnaturally pale. The baseball hat on his head had fallen aside, and sweat beaded his forehead, making his longish black hair cling there.
“Hyung,” I said, leaning over him. “Hyung.”
“You stupid boy!” Mother yelled. “I forbid you to die! Your life is mine!”
Daeshim’s eyes lifted to mine, bleak and tired. “Let me die,” he whispered. “I can’t go back.”
Pure hatred unlike anything I’d ever felt before burst inside me, crippling all the indifference I’d lived with most of my life.
Adrenaline gave me a burst of energy, and I forgot about the bullet wound in my back. Jumping up, I leaped over my brother and charged.
Pure panic widened my mother’s eyes, and she lifted the gun again.
“No!” Virginia screamed, and there was scuffling all around. I stayed focused with single-minded precision, not even blinking at the threat of the gun.
Go ahead and shoot me. Just piss me off even more.
But she didn’t shoot. She stood stunned by my pure hatred, and I kicked the gun out of her hand, sending it flying. I leaped on her, tackling her small frame to the ground, and wrapped a hand around her throat.
Stunned, she lay there gasping for breath as I leaned in so she could feel the hot breath of every word I spoke. “You should have stayed away.”
“I wonder what matters to you more, Mal-Chin. Revenge on your mother or the life of the woman you love?”
I glanced up at the oddly familiar voice.
The man—Kwan, my father’s best friend—stood behind me. His arm pinned Virginia against his chest, her legs dangling toward the floor… a gun pressed to her head.
“You would do this to your best friend’s son?”
“Why not? I already took his wife.” His eyes were flat, the curve of his lips amused. The gun pressed a little harder into her temple, and V winced in pain.
“You son of a bitch,” Neo roared, and there was a scuffle and a grunt off to the side. He and Ivory were also being held at gunpoint.
I leaped up, dragging my mother with me, holding her hostage the way that asshole held V. But instead of a gun, I let the tip of my blade pierce her throat, making it clear I could slice her open in an instant.
I didn’t have to look behind me to know that my other brothers were probably also being held at gunpoint. My scalp prickled as I fought the urge to turn and check. Instead, I remained focused on the man holding what was mine.
“Let them go, or her head will roll.” To prove my words, I pressed harder, making Mother gasp and bleed more.
“We seem to be at an impasse,” Kwan mused. “Maybe I’ll just let you kill her. Then I’ll take over the entire organization.”
Mother gasped.
I chuckled, then put my lips against her ear. “There’s no loyalty among villains.”
Virginia whimpered, and my eyes flew up. His hand was around her neck now, and he held her out like she was a rag doll. Her dress was so long it hid her feet and pooled against the floor.
“Pretty little thing. I might be tempted to keep you, but I have no interest in only half a woman.”
I shoved Mother away from me so fast and hard I heard her smack into the wall. Lunging forward, I threw myself at Kwan, body slamming into him, the three of us falling into a mass on the floor.
Above me, he went slack, his eyes glazing over with pain. I shoved him off, rolling him onto his back. My blade stuck out from his side, and he gazed at me with shock.
“Don’t ever touch her again,” I spat, yanking the blade free, the sucking sound it made echoing down the hall.
Kwan rolled into a fetal position, curling around the wound in his side.
Virginia lay close, and I went to her, kneeling at her side. “Are you hurt?”
“We found another one,” declared someone I didn’t know. He stepped into the hall, carrying a clearly unconscious Emogen.
Virginia gasped as the man all but dumped her unresponsive friend on the floor.
Red, blue, and white lights flashed through the window, making the walls flicker with color. Any minute now, this building would be flooded with firefighters and cops.
“Is she dead?” Virginia sobbed, still staring at her friend.
Red heels appeared next to where V sat, making me stiffen and pull her into my body.
Blood smeared her neck, and her eyes were slightly glassy. She flicked a glance at Kwan and then dismissed him as though he was now her enemy. “Time is out. You and yours are outnumbered. That blade, no matter how sharp, is no match for all of these guns.”
“I won’t let you hurt my family.”
“You could save a few, I’m sure, but not all. Are you prepared to choose?”
My arms tightened around Virginia, but my sprite lifted her chin to stare up at the woman threatening her life. “Why are you so hateful?”
My mother regarded her coolly, then replied, “Hate is easier than love.”
“Hate is for cowards.”
Mother’s eyes narrowed, then flicked to me. “Come with me, and I’ll let them all live.”
Virginia stiffened, her body cringing back into mine. I tucked an arm around her, trying to ignore the way her body shook.
“What?”
“Come home where you belong.” She flicked a glance at my unmoving brother and then back to me. “Take your brother’s place. It’s the only way all these misfits will live.”
“No,” Virginia whimpered.
“Your life in exchange for theirs.”
Over my shoulder, Neo stood in front of Ivory, trying to block her from the three guns pointed at them both. Down the hall, Ethan and Beau tried to block Fletcher from the barrels trained on them. Billows of thick smoke carrying bits of floating ash were making their way into this dim, congested hallway. From behind his shields, Fletcher coughed, and Ethan stiffened, proof that time had indeed run out.
My brother lay lifeless on the floor. The bullet in him had been meant for me.
And this venomous woman stood, albeit bleeding but unwavering, in the center of it all, every thorn making up her black rose on full display.
“Let them go.”
Satisfaction whipped into her eyes, and she smiled. “Welcome home, Adeul.” Son.
“No!” Virginia clung to me, wrapping both arms around my neck.
Reaching up, I tried to pry her away, but it was a weak, half-hearted attempt. “Let go, sprite.”
“I won’t! You promised not to leave.” Her eyes were bloodshot, her nose red. Her long hair was now severed and uneven, flower petals littering the strands. Wet cheeks from all her tears, a red lip from being hit, and the bruises forming around her neck—this was what my love looked like on her.
Poisoning guaranteed.
She was better off without me.
“I also told you I would do anything to keep you safe.” I reminded her.
“She’ll kill you as soon as you go with her!” Virginia sobbed, collapsing into my chest. “You can’t go. I won’t let you.”
“It’s better this way. I can’t run from what I really am.”
She pulled back with a gasp, eyes fierce. Her hands held my face, fingertips digging into my skin. “You are nothing like her.”
Mother laughed, a cruel, knowing sound. “Oh, dear, he is exactly like me.”
“No,” Virginia whispered, eyes still clinging to mine.
I reached up to tug her hands away.
“You were my dream,” she whispered, fingers curling around mine.
Deep hurt unlike anything I’d ever felt before carved out a hole inside me, and I knew it would be there forever. This was an ache I would live with. This was an ache that would never go away.
The lump in my throat was so swollen it took effort to swallow.
“You were my dream too,” I answered, hoarse.
“Let’s go,” Mother snapped. Her hand shot out toward V, but I caught her wrist without even having to look.
I squeezed until I knew there would be a bruise and then shoved her wrist away.
On the floors below us, I heard emergency responders yelling and sweeping the building. The noise was deafening, but the pounding of my heart was worse.
“Take care of yourself,” I whispered, leaning in to drag my nose along the tip of hers.
She cried.
Avoiding her clutching fingers, I stood, knowing she wasn’t able to follow.
I glanced at Neo. The look on his face was indescribable. “Please take care of her.”
“Come now, Mal-Chin. Let’s go home.” Her red heels clacked across the floor as she moved along, confident I would follow behind.
I would. My family depended on it.
“Let’s go!” she ordered, and all the guns in the room dropped.
Big mistake.
The drop ceiling overhead rumbled like thunder, and then a few tiles crashed in as a body shrouded in dark clothing and a black hoodie literally plummeted from above. He landed like a cat flat on his feet with knees bent. One hand braced on the floor and pushed up, his whole body bursting forward.
Shock rendered everyone still for long moments, but it was all we needed.
“Aghhh!” he roared, running forward and slamming into Mother with surprising intensity. She stumbled back, one red heel flinging off her foot, which only created more of an imbalance. As she flailed, she reached out for me.
I denied the wicked woman help, and she collided with Virginia’s wheelchair.
She gasped as she tripped, her body falling against the sole window in the hall, the old glass giving away under pressure.
Her body disappeared, plummeting out of the building, her deafening scream rising as she fell.
I went to the window, watching the cape flap around her and her arms and legs flail.
When she hit the pavement, her scream and movement ceased.
Turning from the window, I was met with many eyes, silent faces, and shock.
“She’s dead,” I announced, eyes going straight to the man who’d fallen out of the ceiling and given us all an opportunity to take control.
The oversized hood and the way he stood hunched over, chin down, made it impossible to see his face, but I knew who he was.
The man living down the hall from Virginia. The patient everyone referred to as Beast.
Without a word, he turned, rushing over to where Emogen lay unconscious and lifting her into his arms without hesitation. No one protested, not even V, when he fled the hall, taking the nurse with him.
A broken sound ripped from Virginia’s throat, shattering the charged stillness, compelling us all into action. I rushed her, tucking away my blade and cradling her into my arms, as my brothers commandeered the firepower, turning it against what was left of the Black Rose.
Before anything else could happen, emergency responders flooded the floor, and I stood in the center of chaos, wondering how in the hell I was going to explain this.