A/N This is not the end. I still have to do the epilogue. So don't give up on me yet, okay? All will work out for the best in the end. Okay, thank you all for my reviews. It makes me want to update, which I do. For this chapter, I ask that you all review because this is a vital chapter in my story.

Nubia

Chapter twenty-four: Torres

Novellee stalked into the king's bedchambers. The wedding was to take place in fifteen minutes. Everything was in place. All that was left was for her to leave the evidence where it could be found. The rest would be up to Morrison.

She slipped through the door, into the room that held the bed. Burdock had been the brain behind the operation. Novellee owed it all to him. She had been lost for a while, but after trusting him and giving him her faith, she had thrived, taking immediately to the idea.

The plans had come into action a few nights ago. Alanna, George, Numair, Daine, Kel, Raoul, Neal, and Dom had been added in and they were in on the plot. They still didn't know that Roark was Morrison, but they knew enough that they knew he would be at the wedding. Novellee headed back for the open courtyard where the wedding was taking place.

Foolish man, she thought. Roark/Morrison had gone through great lengths to allow his son to do whatever he wished for his wedding and that was exactly what had happened. Torres had decided that he wanted an outside wedding so the sun can witness as its child was married away. Novellee snorted with disgust. The man was practically crawling on the ground the royals walked on. He called Mary Ell his sunshine girl.

The king hadn't been included in the plan because they needed him to remain in the dark to keep the guests from being calm. She wanted panic more then anything. Panic was the key.

While Novellee's hired clusters of attendants screamed that Morrison was attacking and spread general panic as the fled and Numair created an illusion that they were, indeed, under attack, George would whisk the princess and queen to safety. Then Novellee would confront Roark saying that they knew everything and eventually he would omit to what he had done.

In case Morrison had men waiting for the signal to attack, Novellee would seal the room from allowing people to enter. They could exit without trouble, but if they tried to enter, they would be blocked.

If Morrison ran, Novellee was to chase him down and drag him back. Alanna was to secure Morrison's son from running away. If he struggled, Novellee had given her permission to use force or knock him out. Everyone else was there simply to witness or to help out if something went wrong.

Coming onto the balcony, Novellee took the bow and the single arrow that had been hidden there the night before. She was dressed all in black to make her look like an assassin. Which she was, she thought with dry humor.

She shot the arrow into the center aisle as Mary Ell walked down it, missing her nearly. She would get it for cutting it that close, but the woman looking for the arrow was expecting it to be there. Novellee smiled as the awaited panic began. She watched Morrison halt his men.

The chamber cleared a lot faster then Novellee would have expected. What had really surprised her was that Morrison was still standing next to the alter were his son stood facing the statue of a goddess, where he had been when the panic had begun.

Some how, she hadn't expected him to be so honorable that he wouldn't run from his fate. In fact he looked positively calm, with out any worry at all.

"The games up Morrison!" She called as she moved to the edge of the balcony. She jumped over the side and slid down one of the columns that held it up. She began to walk towards him, her hips swaying in a hypnotic motion, her mouth curved in a smile that held no humor.

Looking at her, Burdock knew that he would love her forever and that when this was over he would make her his wife. He wanted her to be happy and he thought that he could make her so.

Jon looked at Novellee like she was crazy. Did she really think that Morrison was here? Here they were among friends. Morrison couldn't have infiltrated their forces so well as to be at the wedding. Imagine his surprise when his life long friend, Roark, spoke in answer to Novellee's challenge.

"Oh?" his voice was rich and cool as it had always been. But all Jon heard was the sound of the knife whooshing as he was stabbed in the back. His best friend, the friend that he had confided in, the friend that he hadn't shared with anyone else, not even Thayet, had betrayed him. "And what game is that?"

"Your game of disguises. You've been revealed as the traitor and bastard that you are. We all know what you plan to do and it won't be completed. We've stopped you. And now, you die."

Novellee reached for the dagger that rode high on her hip. She pulled it out and advanced further on him. She was five feet away, moving into the position to lunge for the kill when Torres stepped in front of his father to shield him.

Novellee realized that that was the firsts time she had ever seen his face. And maybe that was why she took it so hard. But it was like being slammed in the stomach by a galloping horse.

The face was the same, she thought with cold detachment. The eyes were definitely the same cold blue stare. His brows still arched and his mouth still twisted into that sneer, the sneer that had haunted her dreams for years.

Here he was standing in front of her. The man that he killed her brother. And she still wasn't free to kill him yet. She had to deal with Morrison first. She wanted to scream, wanted to weep. This wasn't fare. Again she would cross paths with her tormentors and again she would have to let them go.

She had to deal with Morrison first, and the knowledge that she had to was like another kick in the gut. Her breath sobbed out before she could control it. She whimpered quietly at the crippling force of her misery and her knees buckled. But she locked them stiff. She would deal with Morrison and then she would kill him.

She took a deep breath then spoke, her voice so cold the onlooker's shivered. "Step aside, Torres," his name itself was a curse on her lips. "I deal with your father at this moment. You're time will come."

He looked into her eyes and maybe he saw the intent, because he shivered and looked away first. And like the coward he was, he stepped aside and left his father to his death.

Morrison made a move to run and Novellee sprung, hooking her right arm around his throat, her left through his arms to keep them pinned to his side. "Any last words?" she hissed in his ear.

Jon came forward, the hurt in his eyes. He looked at the man that he had trusted with his life. He had given his daughter to his son, given him everything. He had trusted his wife in his hands. What if Roark had killed her, Jon thought desperately. His world would have crumbled without Thayet and he had endangered her life with this man.

"Why?"

The word lashed through the air, cutting in its harshness. To everyone's horror and disgust, he laughed. He laughed.

"Why Jon? Why did I do this? Why not? No one could have stopped me. No one even knew that I was going to do this until this bitch from Serinda stopped me. I always hated you Novellee. I was glad when I sent my son to kill you and your family. But you survived like the cockroach you are.

"And you Jon. I hated you too. Always so gracious to me, your poor friend. The boy who couldn't even become a knight. I bet everyone was just so proud of you when you took me under your wing and made me your friend. It made me sick!" his voice rose in a shout and Jon flinched.

"I hated you so much. And when you made me an advisor, I wanted to kill you. I didn't want your charity, yet you lavished it on me. All I wanted was to see you dead. So I began planning. I slaved away endlessly perfecting everything.

"Marrying my son to your daughter was the last piece to the plan. Soon I would have you killing each other in your suspicions. It was the perfect plan. And I only regret that Novellee didn't die like she was supposed to ten years ago. With out her, I would have become ruler. And you would be dead, Jon. And I would spit on your grave. Of course, I would keep Thayet alive, so I could rape her. How would you feel, Jon, as you looked down on the world and saw your wife in my bed?"

Jon gave Novellee a nod and she slid her knife across his throat, cutting off his evil laughter. His body slumped to the floor with a thump. Novellee looked up to watch as Thayet and Jon embraced in a hug, both trembling with the force of their emotions.

She looked around and saw all of them, every one of the Tortallan's that had become her friends. They were looking at Morrison, dead at her feet, and at Jon and Thayet. She would miss them, she thought as she turned to Torres, intending to kill him too.

Instead, he was gone and she saw his retreating back as he fled from the courtyard, into the castle. Her heart jumped to her throat as she thought of loosing her opportunity and she headed after him, running as fast as she could.

She left the courtyard and found herself in a corridor in the castle. Three guards guarded the door. They had delayed Torres and she was right on his heels. But as she burst through them, she knew that they were Morrison's men and they would slow her down considerably if they caught her.

Which they did.

One grabbed her arm and she used the other one to throw the dagger. She gave a smile when she saw it hit the mark. He was dead and her brother was finally avenged. But she would bask in the glory later. The guards had her attention as they turned her around.

She screamed as one guard's sword pierced her skin near her heart. All in the courtyard heard her scream and they came running for her. But it was to late. Blackness shrouded her vision as her heart stopped and her life ended in that moment.

Alanna rushed into the hallway after Kel, Dom and Neal. They had already done away with the guards and Neal was working hard on Novellee, trying to bring her back. Alanna added her Gift to the effort.

Damn her! Alanna cursed in her head. She loved the girl like a daughter, from the tip of her stubborn head all they way to her damn stubborn toes. She wouldn't let her die.

Burdock fell to his knees beside Novellee's prone figure, his heart in his throat. She couldn't be dead, or even broken. She was his life, his love. With out her, his heart would die and his soul with it.

He grabbed her lifeless hand and began to pray. He didn't want to loose her, not without hearing her say she loved him. Tears welled as the minutes passed. Too many minutes. She should have woken up by now. Why wasn't she awake yet?

His eyes lifted to Alanna's, pleading with her and she sobbed as she too felt tears well. "I'm sorry Burdock."

And he knew, as sure as he breathed in that moment, that she was gone. Alanna watched as he slowly broke down. He looked at her face, at her hair, and willed her eyes to open so he could see their gray gaze again, just one more time.

But they didn't. And he knew that they never would. He sobbed, his heart dead and his soul non-existent. Laying his head on her chest over the heart that would never again beat, he sobbed out his grief.