Chapter 14 - Blood and Ash
The lighthouse beam completed its slow circle, casting Evelyn’s face in brilliant, skeletal relief before plunging the landing into momentary darkness.
Julian stepped onto the platform, placing himself squarely between the armed guards and Clara, who slumped against the cold concrete wall, clutching the infant pod to her chest.
"It's over, Evelyn," Julian said, his voice raw, his breath coming in white plumes against the freezing rain. "The police have the hospital records. Vance talked. The whole city knows."
Evelyn laughed—a dry, brittle sound that was instantly swallowed by the roar of the sea below. "You poor, naive boy. Vance didn't talk to anyone. He suffered a sudden, fatal coronary while in police custody twenty minutes ago. A tragic consequence of his advanced age and the stress of your violent assault."
Julian’s stomach plummeted. "You killed him."
"I protected our interests," Evelyn replied coldly, taking a slow step toward them. "Just as I will protect them tonight. Do you honestly believe the board will accept a runaway, unstable heir and a common woman over me? Tomorrow morning, the headlines will read that Julian Sterling suffered a psychotic break, took his wife and child into the storm, and tragically drowned off Blackthorn Reef. The wreckage of your yacht down there is all the proof the world will need."
She gestured toward the guards. "Take the baby. Throw the woman over the cliff. Julian will come with me—he will be admitted to a private psychiatric sanatorium in Switzerland, where he will remain comfortably sedated for the rest of his natural life."
The guard on the right stepped forward, his boots scraping on the wet concrete, his hands reaching for the harness of the incubator pod.
"Don't touch her!" Clara screamed, her fingernails clawing at the guard’s arm.
The guard struck Clara across the face with the back of his hand, sending her sprawling onto the stone landing.
Julian’s vision went red.
Ignoring the pistols aimed at him, Julian threw himself forward with animal ferocity. He tackled the guard at the waist, driving both of them over the concrete safety rail.
They plummeted twenty feet down onto the jagged granite shelves below.
The impact crushed the guard beneath Julian’s weight, the man's spine snapping against the stone with a dull thud. Julian rolled across the sharp barnacles, pain exploding through his left shoulder, his collarbone splintered.
He looked up. On the platform above, the remaining two guards turned their weapons toward the ledge, leaning over to fire down into the dark surf.
Clara moved.
Gathering the last ounce of strength in her battered body, she grabbed a heavy iron mooring wrench left by the lighthouse maintenance crew beside the doorway. With a desperate, two-handed swing, she smashed the tool into the back of the second guard’s knee.
The man screamed, his leg collapsing beneath him. As he fell, his finger clenched around the trigger of his assault rifle, sending a wild, deafening burst of automatic fire ripping through the ceiling of the generator shed.
The bullets severed the high-voltage industrial power conduit supplying the lighthouse’s main halogen lamp.
May you like
A shower of blinding white sparks erupted across the platform. The severed power lines whipped violently through the air, their exposed copper tips striking the auxiliary fuel tank stored behind the generator.
The world vanished in a brilliant, deafening roar of orange flame.
