Page 64 of Fall Before Her Throne

Obi and I exchanged a glance, and then he jutted his chin upward. I went up the stairs first, with Obi following closely behind. Next came Leona and Ryu, then Max, and finally Wynn.

“Cut across the top level,” I said quietly while peering ahead. “Take out any bogeys. Then I bet there’s another staircase on the opposite side that leads down to the North-side bays. Hopefully, we can intercept Giulio there.”

The further we made it into the second level, the more we saw evidence of a gun smuggling business. Busted open crates were everywhere. The wooden shaving fillings covered the ground. It looked like we’d interrupted them as they were repackaging the guns into other, nondescript and easily hidden transportation methods. False backs of armoires. Empty fridges. Anything that could fit weapons and be transported without drawing additional attention.

My head snapped up when a door slammed ahead. Voices shouted from the other side of the door. A spray of bullets came from ahead. Max shot first, then Ryuji, and then it went quiet again.

A head popped up from our right, hidden behind an overturned desk, and Obi fired before anyone else could react. A spray of red erupted from behind the man before the body fell back. The rest of us were instantly on high alert again.

Movement caught the corner of my eye, coming from one room to the side of us. I narrowed my eyes and put my arm in front of Leona to stop her just as the door flew open. Gunshots immediately went flying, and I wrapped my arm around Leona to yank her to the side, pushing her behind a refrigerator just in time.

“Cas!”

“Leona!”

“Darling!”

More shots forced us down, almost pinning us to the ground.

“Princess?” I breathed.

“I’m okay.” A quick once-over and a nod from Leona told me she was fine.

I popped up from behind the safety of the refrigerator and I fired one at the head I could see shadowed behind glass. The glass shattered, and the figure collapsed. Leona peeked out from beside me and fired two more shots, taking out the two bodies crowding the doorway.

Then everything went quiet.

Max and Ryuji crept forward, side by side, guns trained on the doorway. When one man groaned, Max fired another round into his body, silencing him for good.

After a few tense moments of waiting for an ambush, nothing happened.

“Is that it?” Ciel asked.

Ryu nudged Max. “Go poke your head in there.”

“You want me to stick my head in there and get shot in the face?”

“Yeah, better you than us.”

“Fuck you,” Max shot back. “Fine.”

Max stomped forward. He cautiously stepped over the bodies in the doorway and disappeared inside.

Leona’s hand clamped around my arm as we waited. I pulled her slightly forward, and the two of us watched through the shattered glass window as he slowly explored it.

Then Max froze. His gun pointed down. My eyes widened, and I stepped forward, watching in slow motion as his mouth stretched into a scream. The sound that tore from his throat was like a lightning bolt to my heart.

Ryuji immediately leapt forward, rushing into the room with his gun raised. If Ryu had sent him in there to die, I was going to beat the shit out of him. We all should have gone in together. What were we thinking, letting him walk into that room alone?

I sprinted forward—until I heard the laugh splitting the air.

Max’s laugh.

A belly-deep laugh—something I hadn’t heard in literal years—that had all of us frozen in motion.

“You fucking ass!” Ryu shouted. I exchanged a look with Leona as we made it to the doorway. Sticking our heads inside, we saw Max laughing his ass off, free hand pressed to his side. Dead bodies all around. No living enemies in sight.

“I’m sorry,” Max laughed. “That was just too fucking easy.”