Chapter Fourteen:

Spen

It's about four in the morning when we hear the shot. I get up to investigate and immediately hear my mother begin to scream. My wife, Caroline, is faster than I and races into the next room faster than I can. She begins screaming shortly after. I'm running now and notice that they're both in Larkin's room.

Larkin.

I see my brother lying in a pool of his own blood, pale and lifeless. Larkin carries a gun in his left hand and a note in his right. I can just barely see the wound in his head through the mane of black hair. I touch his arm, which is still warm. I sob, pulling my brother into my arms and holding him like I did when he was a kid.

Then I feel it. It's faint, but there. A heartbeat. A heartbeat.

"He's still alive." I shout and without wasting another second, I carry him out of his room, racing against the little time I have to get him to the infirmary. I barge through the doors and immediately start yelling for a doctor. A few nurses bring over a gurney and I lay him down, following them as they bring him to a room, hooking him up to a machine. They close the wound in his head, but don't do much else. "What are you doing to him? Why aren't you actually trying?"

"There's not much we can do."

"What do you mean that 'there's not much you can do'? YOU'RE MEDICS FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!" I bellow, and then it hits me. Vivian. Vivian was trained for this kind of stuff, not these so-called nurses. "Keep him alive, I'll do the rest." And I storm out of the infirmary as fast as I can.

It takes me minutes before I get to the security sector and minutes more to send the message. I pace the halls, waiting for a reply. But it's when I get outside to get to her myself do I find him. Indigo is dressed as a pilot and sits on the wing of a plane. He smiles cruelly as I approach him.

"I was wondering when you would show up; I knew it was only a matter of time."

"Why are you here?" I ask him.

"Mourning the loss of your brother. He is dead, isn't he?"

It takes me two seconds to realize that Larkin didn't commit suicide. "Why did you try to kill my brother?"

"Because it wouldn't be genuine for when Vivian learns that her dear, true love has claimed his life because she wouldn't give him a moment to explain how this was your fault. It will shatter her. Did you even read his suicide note?"

I take the note from my pocket and read the handwriting that belongs to Larkin. I'll love her until the day I die. "You can bring down your family all you want to take the throne, but you stay away from mine or I will personally cut off all your resources and make sure you're the one that's dead."

I leave him and race back to the security sector where the reply is waiting. Meet me at Dead Man's Pier.

It takes me three hours to fly there. By then the sun is low in the sky, having just risen. I stand there, anxiously waiting. The pier is a beautiful place, despite the name and I would've taken an extra moment to take it all in, but I was on the verge of a panic attack. Dead Man's Pier was sacred ground between us and the Royal Army. Fifty or so years ago a battle was fought here between us. Everyone on both sides died. The president and the new queen agreed that no more battles would happen here and it would be a meeting place for peace.

"Strange to think that the men with our titles were once fighting to the death here." Says a voice in the shadows. I turn and see the Captain of the Royal Guard standing twenty feet away, dressed in his red uniform.

"But unlike them I'm not here to fight you."

"You can't, not on hallowed ground at least." He stretches out his hand. "Dawson."

"Stephen" I shake his gloved hand.

"What is it you wished to speak about?"

"Vi-Ruby, I need her help."

"Why do you need Ruby's help?"

"My brother Larkin was shot in the head. None of our medics are qualified enough to save him, only she is."

"Larkin and Ruby aren't on the best of terms. What makes you think that she will help him?"

"I have to believe that somewhere she still loves him." I explain.

Dawson looks out at the glistening sea. Finally he looks at me. "I'll talk to her, but her answer is hers and hers alone. Abraham is too weak to move so it's all or nothing. I stand by her choice, and you must do the same."

Dawson nods, and then leaves. I look out at the sea once he's gone, praying that Vivian, somewhere, has the heart to save him. I blame myself, but it's too late to change my choices, so I can only pray that she makes the one that will save my baby brother.

My father died when I was ten. Larkin was only three. My mother worked day and night to support us, but at the end of the day I was the one raising him. We were close. I taught him how to shave and how to point a gun. I taught him how to tie his shoes and I taught him how to fight. At the end of the day we had each other.

But I pushed him away. I turned him against me. It's my fault that he hates me.

It's my fault that he was shot.

I practically killed my baby brother.

I sit with him now in the infirmary, my walls falling down. I cry, not caring that I myself was trained to show no emotion. I hold Larkin's hand, praying to God that he will stay. I want to make everything right between us, but I have to keep protecting him. I can't lose him. I just can't.

I let the doctor's words sink in and I pray for a miracle.

"Larkin might not make it through the night."