Blood drips to the grass beneath her boots as Alicia stands, the needles that press against every inch of her flesh digging deeper when she takes a step forward.

Sebastian and his entourage gather at the bottom of the hill, a wave of reckoning that approaches the grand duke. His cane clacks on the gravel, his chin held high, and a circlet of gold nestles amongst the dark curls of his hair. Beside him are the members of the Council of Muovea, finely dressed men and women who have been forbade families and property, their sole duty to the country they serve.

When the royal family is consumed by strife, the council are the next to take command. And the grand duke foolishly denied them.

Alicia limps towards them and Sebastian greets her with a hand to her elbow, steadying her as his golden gaze flicks over her face, creases forming in his midnight skin. As a reassurance, Alicia offers him a strained smile before facing forward and walking beside the Prince of Muovea.

Within the grand duke's eyes ignites a spark of uncertainty. She sees it and relishes it like it's the first rays of sunshine on a winter morning.

"A warrant for your arrest," one of the councilmen call, a large man of bulging muscles and dark skin. Alicia danced with him a few times, and carried their drunken king on their shoulders a few times more. Isiah Batech, the one who Alicia gave the grand duke's journal, knowing it'd be in good hands.

"On what grounds?" the duke asks, that uncertainty igniting into fury. He doesn't drop his gun, nor does he tell his soldiers to lower theirs.

"I have with me a written confession from a scientist who helped you manufacture the Reaper's Curse. You're under arrest for enacting two counts of genocide and attempting another."

Alicia's gaze widens as she looks at Sebastian, a smirk playing on his lips. The scientist? The scientist that Alicia knocked unconscious and stole from? "He confessed?" she asks.

"He was all too willing to get out from beneath the duke's thumb. Though a friend of yours helped persuade him. Lena, I believe."

A surge of joy fills her at the name, and Alicia's gaze darts to the rebels behind the duke. She can't see Lena amongst them, but a small piece of her knows she's with her people and is grinning as they bring to her the duke's fall.

"Genocide?" Sergey shouts, his sharp features twisting, those thin lips lifting in a snarl. "I'm trying to save Muovea. Those creatures out there—" he waves his gun towards the wall where the fighting continues beyond, a clash of wild growls and crunching bones, "—those Ghuls are the real enemy. Not me."

"You have exiled people that weren't sick to cover your atrocities," Isiah continues and Alicia lifts her chin, willing the duke to meet her gaze, to see the consequences of his actions staring him in the face.

He may have broken Alicia, destroyed her entire world, killed her pa and her brother, but he didn't win.

"My atrocities saved lives!" he shouts, spit flying from his lips, the rage on his face like a frothing storm.

"Seize him," one of the council order, and Alicia wishes she could have been the person to utter that command.

"No!" the duke shouts, raising his gun, but one of the soldiers at his side hits the weapon from his grip and grabs his arm, twisting it behind his back. The tide has changed and it's clear the duke no longer carries the power needed to control an army.

Alicia wills all those soldiers to make the right choice and to continue doing so, but she's all too aware of what survival demands of person.

"You can't do this. These people are abusing dark magic they have no idea how to control."

"Sergey Volkov, I hereby place you under arrest—"

"Let me save Muovea," the duke rages, thrashing against the hold of the soldier and two more have to join him to help drag him away from the walls and towards the carriages. "Let me destroy the Ghuls. They need destroying."

Alicia blinks as the duke nears them, continuing to shout, his face turning red. Destroy the Ghuls? But he wants to control them. He wants an army. He wants a weapon. Why would he destroy his weapon?

"You're done, old man," Sebastian sneers, nearing the duke to jab his cane against his chest. "You deserve worse than a cell for what you did to my family and to Muovea."

Alicia sinks her teeth into her cheek as she recalls everything Sebastian has lost. Both of his parents, now a crown thrust upon him that he never wanted. And Alicia. He's lost Alicia because of the duke and nothing will ever keep her in the capital after it all.

"Sam!" someone shouts and Alicia tears her gaze from the duke as the Princess of Muovea steps from the darkness of the tunnel, black blood marring her clothes, streaking her skin. Beside her stands a Ghul, the same Ghul that they freed from the iron coffin.

Sam spits on the ground, wipes her mouth with the back of her hand, and looks over the ensemble of soldiers, exiles, rebels, and noblemen gathered before her. She has her chin raised, her eyes the colour of night. Alicia sees war in that girl's eyes, war and loathing. She spent her teenage years on the battlefields surrounded by death and horror. No fear shines in Samantha's eyes, like she was born to lead an army of immortals. "We've won," she announces, her shaky voice echoing over the train-yard. "The herd has been overwhelmed."

Relief is a tidal wave. An all-consuming, drowning tidal wave. Alicia chokes on her next breath as cheers rise, solidifying that what she heard was real.

They won. After everything...

"No!"

Her head whips up and then the duke is tearing himself from the soldiers in their distraction. He has a gun in his grip from one of them, the hammer pulled back, and before Alicia can gasp, he's yanking Sebastian back by his collar with the muzzle pressed to the prince's temple.

Sebastian winces as his cane clatters to the ground and he's forced to limp back with the grand duke.

"Samantha Safronov will help me or her brother will die."

"Sergey," Alicia says, raising her hands as the duke's moss green eyes flick to her, wild like a rabid dog that's been cornered. He's playing his final hand. He's a man with nothing more to lose and he's willing to do whatever it takes to get what he wants. Alicia has seen that same look many times before in men who've watched their empire's crumble around them. "Let him go. No one else needs to die. The herd is dead. We can handle the Ghuls."

"You don't know what I know. Power like that... how do you think this country was built?"

"Sergey—"

"On blood and bones, Alicia," he sneers. "It was built by those monsters out there and the woman who controlled them. She will tear us all apart with those creatures."

"She won't," Alicia continues trying, her eyes flicking between the vibrant fear in Sebastian's and the desperation in Sergey's. "Please."

"I will finish what I started," he says, his gaze on Sam who seems frozen, every muscle in her body locked in place. The grand duke's finger tightens on the trigger and Sebastian squeezes his eyes shut.

A shout bubbles on Alicia's lips, but before it can spill, the shot cracks the silence in the air. Her heart leaps into her throat and she lurches towards Sebastian as he stumbles. He doesn't fall. As Alicia's fingers catch in the fine material of his tunic, she realises he doesn't fall.

Something thuds to the ground and Alicia dares to look past Sebastian as the Grand Duke of Muovea crumbles, moss green eyes wide and glassy with a hole between them, a trail of blood leaking down his narrow nose.

Sergey slumps to the ground, dead before he hits it, and the silence that follows his fall is deafening.

When Alicia finally tears her gaze away from the body of Sergey, she looks up and finds Galya, smoke curling from her revolver clasped in her one hand. She holsters the weapon in the leather on her hip, satisfaction in how she tilts her chin up.

A sense of shock fills her. Shock that the man who has ruined her so thoroughly is just... gone. A part of her knew it would always come to this, she just didn't know if she'd have the strength to pull the trigger. Now she'll never have to find that out.

"Good riddance," someone spits and as Alicia steps away from Sebastian, she finds Lena staring down at the grand duke, approaching from amongst the rebels. "At least my daughter will now never have to meet her father." She lifts her gaze to Alicia then frowns. "What happened to your face?"

Lifting a hand, Alicia touches the abrasions that mar her skin and she flinches as it all comes rushing back to her. The manor, the torture, Kieran, gods Kieran. And Oliver. "I have to go," she announces on a breath.

"Go?"

She stumbles towards Lena, struggling for breath as the memory of everything chokes her.

Kieran is dead and Oliver could be too, especially now that there's no grand duke staying the cruel hands of the Ronavics.

"Oliver is in danger. The Ronavics..."

Lena's eyes widen and she reaches forward to grip Alicia's hand. "Find him. Take him to the cabin. No one knows that place exists except for us. He'll be safe there. And I'll find you there."

Alicia nods, unable to find the words to thank her, but Lena just shoves her forward and orders her to go. Not wasting a moment, Alicia goes after the man who she owes so much of her life to.