The Manor Siege

The volley of gunfire was a deafening roar, chipping stone and shattering the ancient oak of the doorframe. Julian shoved me backward, his body a hard line of defense against the lead storm.

"Inside!" he screamed. "Fall back!"

We tumbled into the Grand Hall, boots sliding on dust and plaster. Dante and Chloe fired blindly into the smoke, covering our retreat, before kicking the heavy doors shut.

*Clang.*

The sound wasn't wood hitting wood. It was the heavy, industrial slam of security shutters dropping into place.

I spun around. Metal plates had descended over the windows. The front door was sealed by a thick iron gate. We were sealed in.

"Welcome to the kill box," Lucius's voice boomed from hidden speakers, distorted by static and malice. "I rigged the manor with C4 ten years ago. Just in case."

A digital timer projected onto the wall above the fireplace flickered to life. Red numbers counting down.

*10:00.*

"You have ten minutes," Lucius said. "Find a way out. Or become dust."

"He's insane," Felix stammered, looking at the blocked exits. "There's no way out. The chimney is blocked by the shutters."

"The library," I gasped, the memory surfacing through the panic. "There's a priest's hole behind the hearth. It leads to the sea cliffs."

"Lead the way," Seraphina ordered.

We sprinted. The house groaned around us, the foundation destabilizing. Dust rained down like a shroud. We tore through the corridors, past the portraits of dead ancestors who watched our flight with painted indifference.

We burst into the library. It was a cavern of shadows, the shelves toppled, books rotting on the floor.

"There," I pointed to the massive stone fireplace.

I ran to the mantle, searching for the release mechanism—a hidden lever disguised as a molding. My fingers found it. I pulled.

The back of the fireplace ground open, revealing a dark, narrow tunnel.

"Go!" I shouted.

Julian pushed Felix toward the hole. "Move!"

But before Felix could step inside, a blast of violet energy struck the wall next to his head. Stone exploded. Felix fell back, scrambling away.

I turned.

Lucius stood in the doorway we had just come through.

He looked monstrous. The exoskeleton had fused with his body, metal cables weaving in and out of his flesh like veins. His skin was gray, cracking like dry mud, revealing a pulsating violet light beneath. The Obsidian Blade hummed in his hand, a hungry, living thing.

"Leaving so soon?" he rasped.

Julian raised his rifle. He didn't hesitate. He pulled the trigger.

The bullets hit an invisible barrier a foot from Lucius’s chest and disintegrated.

Lucius flicked his hand.

A wave of force hit us. I flew backward, slamming into a bookshelf. Pain radiated through my spine. I looked up, dazed.

Dante and Chloe were on the floor, groaning. Seraphina was pinned under a fallen beam.

Lucius walked toward me. The sound of his mechanical steps was heavy, inevitable.

"You have the blood," he said, raising the Blade. "But you lack the vision."

He prepared to strike.

"Lucius!"

The voice was gravel and iron.

Lucius stopped. He turned.

Stepping out of the shadows of the tunnel entrance was a figure in a heavy wool coat. He leaned on a cane, but his eyes were burning with a fire that matched the Titan’s.

Grandfather Silas.

"You," Lucius sneered. "I should have known you'd crawl out of your grave."

"I built this house," Silas said, stepping into the room. "And I won't let you destroy it."

"It's already destroyed, old man. I'm just burying the ashes."

Silas moved faster than I thought possible. He swung his cane, striking Lucius in the knee joint. The metal buckled. Lucius stumbled.

"Run, Aria!" Silas shouted.

I tried to get up, but my legs wouldn't obey.

Lucius roared. He backhanded Silas with his mechanical arm. The blow sent my grandfather flying across the room. He hit the wall with a sickening crunch and slid to the floor.

Lucius was on him in a second. He grabbed Silas by the throat and lifted him off the ground with one hand.

"You were always weak," Lucius hissed, his face inches from Silas's. "Sentimental. You hid the power because you were afraid of it."

"I hid it," Silas wheezed, blood trickling from his mouth, "because of you."

Lucius’s eyes flared violet.

"Goodbye, Father."

He squeezed.

The sound was a dry snap, like a branch breaking in winter.

Silas went limp.

Lucius dropped him. The body hit the floor with a heavy, final thud.

I stared at the unmoving form of the man who had raised me. The man who had given me the key.

A scream tore from my throat, raw and animalistic.

"NO!"