CHAPTER 63
We fall.
My feet are off the walkway and I’m spinning, the last three and a half loops around my waist unwinding like a spool of thread.
A thread that can rip me in half.
I push Lambert away, using both hands and feet. By the third twist, we’re separated enough that when the rope runs out, his effort to hold on to me fails and we come apart.
A narrow force stops me instantly while momentum flings my limbs downward and my head lashes forward and back like a whip. Lambert continues plummeting seven more stories to the ground, landing across a rack of vertical iron rods. Several tear through his flesh with sounds I wish I couldn’t hear and will never forget. He lies facing up, two thin poles extending through his torso and another coming out of his neck.
One hand reaches for the metal piercing his throat, but Lambert’s upper arm is also pinned and his fingers only manage to brush against it. He gurgles and strains as blood bubbles on his lips and spreads out from the wounds on his chest. Frantic, unfocused eyes search the sky, unable to find whatever itis they seek, until he suddenly gasps and ceases to struggle, his wrist slackening to rest on his shoulder. Finally, his whole body relaxes with the release of one long, shuddering breath.
His heart beats once more.
And stops.
I dangle high above, bent over the rope at my waist with the reopened wound bleeding down my left arm to my fingertips. Several drops land on Lambert’s face to trail back like tears.
“Cat!” Remi shouts from above. “Cat! Are you all right?”
I groan. “I may have actually broken something. A rib. Or two.” I twist around to shift the pressure of the rope from my stomach to my back, and it slides up to my armpits. For a moment, the relief it gives me washes out the residual pain.
Remi’s face looks over the edge of the portico, his green eyes so wide they’re white all the way around. Simon appears next to him. “Hang on. We’re pulling you up.”
I release myself to gravity, arms and legs hanging limply, and barely notice as I slowly drift higher. Then hands are grabbing my arms and hooking under my shoulders to lift me onto the walkway. Simon pulls my legs away from the edge as Remi cradles me in his lap, crying. “Why the hell did you do that?” he sobs.
“Wouldn’t you have done it for me?” I ask. Breathing hurts less now that all my weight isn’t supported on a thin line.
Oudin leans over Remi’s shoulder. Half his face is swelling with bruises, but he looks better than I expected. “What happened? Where’s Lambert?”
Remi explains what he saw as Simon carefully pulls me into his own arms. To my surprise, Remi lets me go without a fuss.
“You’re bleeding,” I tell Simon, noticing the wound on his left temple. Lambert must have struck him there.
“Never mind that.” Simon bends down to hug me. “I’msorry,” he whispers in my ear. “I should have known it was him. I failed you.”
I bury my face in the collar of his shirt. “Neither of us wanted it to be true. And you did know. The only part you got wrong was what he wanted.”
Simon eases away enough to look me in the eye. The flaw is lost in the shadow of his brow. “And what was that?”
I sigh. “Me. He was trying to leave me with only him to turn to.” I offer Simon a weak smile. “But his plan didn’t include you forgiving me.”
“How could I not?” Simon strokes my cheek. “I’ve never known anyone to fight so hard to protect those they love.”
My skin warms under his gentle fingers. “Do you remember the question you thought in the kitchen? About whether I would protect you?”
Simon’s hand freezes. “You heard that?”
“Yes.” I reach up to touch the scab at the corner of his mouth. “You were bleeding.”
He frowns. “It’s not very nice to listen to someone’s thoughts without their permission.”
“It was an accident. I didn’t know what I was doing.” Sort of.
“Hm.” Simon glances at Remi and Oudin, who are peering over the edge of the walkway at Lambert’s body, speaking in low tones.
“Do you remember my response?”