by R. E. Carr
Mina’s eyes turned from amber to black. “I’m afraid, I need you to die,” she said, then sank her teeth into his neck.
Mina sat silently in the corner of her VIP lounge, tears rolling down her face. The lifeless husk of Javier splayed at her feet. Blood now spattered across her once-spotless dress. She didn’t look up as a new set of footsteps echoed across her otherwise silent dance hall.
“Oh Mina, what have you done?” a genteel, grandfatherly voice asked. “What have you done?”
Mina looked up with bloodshot eyes. “He found out the truth, father,” she said softly to the gentleman with tanned skin and salt-and-pepper hair. “He found out about Geoffrey and threatened to expose it to everyone, if I would not give myself to him and renounce my house. I . . . I couldn’t let him. I—”
Merlin sat down next to her and wrapped a comforting arm around his youngest daughter. He nudged at the corpse with the heel of his boot. “Do not worry, child, it won’t be traced back to you. It was always a risk using the traitor, but his abilities were simply too precious not to try and bring into the family. Geoffrey might not have been as strong, but in a few generations, who knows? The important thing is that you have finally stepped up and done what you needed to do a long time ago. I’ve indulged your gentleness, Mina, for far too long.”
“Then you are pleased with me again, Father?” she asked, wiping a tear from her eye. Merlin smiled warmly. He pressed his forehead against hers.
“I am so very proud of you, my daughter. Now that this sordid mess is said and done with, we can focus on bringing our family back together. Geoffrey will never have to know the real reason he was such a disappointment.”
Mina’s smile tightened as she embraced her father. Her tears fell onto his shoulder and for the briefest of moments, Merlin’s eyes took on a far-away, glazed look. Mina winked to the corner, the faintest of smiles on her lips.
“I still think I’ll try to save him, Father. After all . . . Geoffrey still might be useful one day.”
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Mandy J. Crook for not only editing this manuscript and helping it be readable, but proving that Australia actually exists . . . and wasn’t just made up by NASA to annoy the Flat Earth Society. Also, she would like to thank her awesome Bite Club for getting the story to a point that anyone could edit it, and keeping the author sane as she finished the fifth installment of her six-part “trilogy”. Lastly, every book is judged by its cover, so the author needs to give a hearty shout-out to Reginald Atkins once more.
If you would like to learn more about the author and her works, please feel free to check out www.rachelecarr.com - where you can sign up for updates and hear about upcoming releases. You can also find the author in Twitter @totalrecarr or Facebook at www.facebook.com/totalrecarr .
Of course, the author would like to thank her fantastic Four fans most of all, because without you, none of this would be possible. See you for One, the epic conclusion of the Rules Undying series . . .