Sign This

Sign This
Emilia’s POV

Sebastian turned around and snatched my arm. He grabbed me and pulled me erect just as I stood rooted to the spot, frozen like a statue. His pull jolted me, pulling me out of my shock but straight into the hotter hands of fear.
His grip on my arm was the only thing keeping me on my feet, as I sagged limply from the weight of my heart sinking deep in my stomach, my knees buckling, and my legs like lead under me.
His eyes were firm now, but I couldn't just concentrate on them; my gaze darted from his face to Aaron and Harrietta’s approaching form and those of the armed guards they came with. “Let's go, Emilia. We have to escape one way or another.” He said, and he began to pull me with him.
He looked to Headmaid Alice and Agnes, who were already on their feet too, cold sweat pulling on their foreheads, their eyes restless as they escorted the approaching force. “Shut the door close, Alice.” He barked at her and Agnes. “And cover us immediately. They have no use for you; it's us they want,” he said, and he pulled me fast towards the bedroom.
Head maid Alice was moving for the door when a gunshot cracked in the still evening air, echoing into the night. Headmaids Alice and Agnes scratched, horrified as they darted fast from the door, running to hide in the other room.
Sebastian swept our room fast with his eyes, and he growled a grunt when he didn't find a single window in it.
“I think there is a window in the next room,” I breathed, speaking as much as my wild, rampaging heart would allow me.
My breath echoed loudly out of me as he dragged me into the small living room again. Gunshots cracked wildly in the air, pellets digging into the floorboards, chipping the wood, and throwing splinters of wood in the air at us, while we ran as fast as we could for the next room. But Headmaid Alice and Agnes have locked the door from behind.
“Open it, Alice. We need to get in.”Sebastian screamed, banging his fist hard at the sturdy wooden door.
There was a moment's pause. Then a voice echoed out. “Duke Sebastian,” a voice that was evidently Headmaid Alice’s but was very strained, stretched, and clipped by fear.
My heart sank deeper and deeper into my stomach, my ears alert, following the patter of boots from outside, hearing it grow louder. Each moment sent my heartbeat to the moon.
The lock behind the door eventually clicked sharply, and then Sebastian kicked it open, racing into the room. I was about to shut the door behind me as he pulled me in when a hail of gunshots rang in the air, echoing eerily in the room.
I dropped the door fast, and it swept open wider. Headmaids Alice and Agnes screamed, filling the small room with their voices blaring louder than a siren while they ran to crouch in fear in a corner of the room.
Sebastian ignored them, moving fast past them, and pulling me faster for the window. He was about to grab my waist and lift me up onto the window when a sharp pain tore through the whole of my body, and I groaned out loud in pain, growing weak in his arms, slipping slowly to the floor between his arms and the door.
We both stared down at my dress then, and we both gasped when we saw it, the thick red patch growing in the bodice of my gown. Apparently, some of the bullets from earlier had hit me.
I gasped again, louder again, exhaling out all the air available in my lungs, and I grabbed my stomach in pain. “Emilia,” he screamed, his voice stinging my eardrums as they echoed through me. “Emilia.” He screamed in another loud, strangled voice; it was primal, guttural, and raw, like it was echoing out of his soul.
“Please stay with me, wife. Please just stay with me.” He screamed. He held onto me while pressing his hand to my wound to stop the blood, refusing to let me drop to the floor.
An indescribable agony rippled through my veins, jarring in my head, making my head ring like an alarm bell, and my eyes swirled, everything under it dimming fast into indistinct shapes.
“Please stay with me, Emilia. Please stay, wife.” Sebastian cooed now, not screaming again. He slapped my cheeks gently, shaking back life into my eyes, pulling me slowly from the depth of the darkness swarming me.
“My Duchess,” Headmaid Alice screamed, leaning away from the wall she was crouching in and walking towards us. I forced her and Sebastian a smile, stretching my lips wide at them, trying to assure them I wasn't dying when in truth, I was, when my eyes were coated in moisture, pain consuming, encroaching for my life, charging from every corner of my body.
“Press tight on the wound. Headmaid Alice's. We have to get her to a physician as soon as possible.” Sebastian echoed, his voice tuned low; I could barely hear him. It was then I looked into his eyes to see the tears streaming down his cheeks. I had never seen him cry before, not even after becoming mad and humiliated, but now I did. He didn't bother to clean off the tears as he heaved me onto his chest while Headmaid Alice pressed down hard on the gunshot wound on my stomach.
He settled me on his arms and raced fast out of the room almost like he was on steroids; it was almost hard for Headmaid Alice to keep up, but she seemed to manage, because I felt her palm hard on my stomach, keeping back my blood from pouring from me. Sebastian halted in his run, and he stumbled with me into the living room. The sudden movement caused pain to drill through me, and a raw, guttural groan drilled out of my throat.
Sebastian patted my head gently, kissing me on the forehead softly. “I will get you to a physician soon. I won't let you die. “I won’t,” he breathed against my forehead.
He tried to sound firm and confident, but the strain in his voice was unmistakable, and so was the tension in his body. I could feel it. I blinked off the tears in my eyes and looked into the room. Even before my eyes cleared, I could already feel a presence in the room, feel the stares crawling up my skin.
The room was full of guards, and they all stood around, wearing their professional frowns, and heavily armed with their rifles and swords. Aaron and Harrietta sat on the only settee in the room. Nathan stood behind them, his arms folded across his chest.
I brushed off the surprise that claimed my eyes with an oh-well, shake of my head as I spotted Brian, leaning just his shoulder by the wall just before the door. That explained everything already, explained how foolish I was to have trusted him and believed he was better than Aaron. There was no way Aaron would have found us if he hadn’t brought him here, if he hadn’t been working for him. Mom wasn't wrong; Brian was worse, worse than Aaron.
He flashed me a sad grin, his lips curling grimly when our eyes met. I dragged my eyes off him to Aaron and Harrietta, blinking off another round of tears burning behind my eyes and threatening to drop. There was no use crying. I should have known we weren't going to win. I should have known this end was inevitable. The sad end had always been predicted. I was just so foolish to think we could beat it, to think we can rewrite a fate that was already sealed…
“What do you both want?” Sebastian demanded, and I could hear the fury in his voice as I felt it beat in his arms around me as he held me tight to his chest.
Aaron sat up then, and Nathan handed him a paper, which he unrolled. He leaned forward and spread the paper on the small table in the center of the room, between all of us. “We just want you to sign this.”
I looked up to see Sebastian's lips curl in disgust as he stared at the letter and then at Aaron and Harrieta. “I guess that letter says I relinquish my throne to you.” Sebastian demanded, the disgust and hate heavy in his voice, his arms quivering with suppressed fury around me.
“Something like that,” Aaron answered.
“I am not signing that until you let us go, Aaron. I need to get my wife to a…”
“She is my sister too, just as she is your wife. Surely I wouldn't want her to die. Just sign the official documents to concede your throne to me, and I will let both of you go.”
“And how do I know you will let us go after getting what you want?” Sebastian demanded, eyeing Sebastain and Harrieta.
“And how do we know you will sign it after your wife is treated? We…” Harrieta barked. Aaron had to hold down her shoulder to quiet her. Then she hissed, throwing her eyes away from us. “Just sign the document. Haven't you played Duke long enough?” Her voice trailed off in a quiet mumble.
Aaron turned from her and back to us. The pain in my stomach burned hotter through me, my whole body crumbling under the force. But I tried not to scream, tried not to groan, and tried not to make Sebastian more anxious and more scared. I just bit down on my lower lip, whimpering softly and trying as best as I can to keep back the pain already numbing me. It was a struggle, moving my head to keep staring at Aaron and Harrietta.
Aaron sat up more now, his hands resting on his knees. He leaned to the document again, pressing two fingers on it. A guard came close, dropped a little porcelain ink bowl and a pen just beside the paper, and then dropped back to his position by the wall.
He cleared his throat loudly, looking sharply from me to Sebastian. “Just sign this, Sebastian, and I’ll get you to a doctor myself. Your wife, who is also my sister, is dying right now, and that is not exactly how I want this to end. I plan to have both of you locked up in here for the rest of your lives; that was one of the reasons why I had Brian lure you out of the palace. I don't intend to kill you, so don't make me, Sebastain.” he said. I thought I felt a bit of concern in his words, a bit of sympathy, but I refused to believe the very bastard who did this and is putting us through all this pain really doesn't want me to die.
Sebastian was silent for a while, saying nothing, just looking from Aaron to Harrieta and to the document.
Aaron tapped at the document again. “The throne is useless to both of you, Sebastian. You are mentally ill, and even if the Senate agrees to a female regent, they won't let her rule for long. So just give the throne to me, as I want it and deserve it just as you also want your lives. I might be a greedy man, but you can always trust my word, Sebastian. You know that, Sebastian, and you know that too, Emilia.” His gaze drifted to me.
I dragged my weary, blurry eyes up when I felt the tension in Sebastian's arms ease around me. I watched the smooth curve of his comb move as his Adam's apple swung low and back up as he seemed to force a hard lump down his throat. “Do you swear on your life and Harrietta that you would let Emilia live? I don't care about my life. But do you promise that you will take her to a doctor and let her live?” he said.
I wanted to protest and wanted to tell him not to consider these requests. I moved to speak, damning the sharp pain that sliced through my stomach, shooting like bullets fast to my brain, but I stopped. He was right to take the deal; there was no way we could win, and if Aaron would keep his promise of letting us live, then our sad ending wouldn't be as bad as I thought it would be.
Aaron didn't hesitate. “I swear by our lives…”
“Don't swear by my life, Aaron. I can't promise I wouldn't try to kill them should she piss me off again.” Harrieta snapped, hissing.
Aaron continued like she hadn't interrupted. “I swear on my life, Sebastian. I wouldn't kill either of you, especially not my sister, and I would get her a physician immediately if you sign it.” He said.
Sebastian waited for a moment to decide again, his gaze leaping from me to Aaron and Harrietta. Then he made a high, loud, and determined sigh, and he handed me over completely to Headmaid Alice, his hands dragging with a bit of reluctance.
He squatted, and he dipped the pen in ink and scribbled his signature fast on the document. He jumped back to his feet and took me from Headmaid Alice while she resumed pressing down on my wound.
“Can we go now?” Sebastian demanded, turning already in the direction of the door.
Aaron grinned, a twinkle lighting up in his eyes as he reached for the document on the table. “I didn't say I was going to let you go, Sebastian…”
“But you promised…”
“Yeah.” Aaron said, his eyes tracing the signature on the paper, confirming it. Harrietta leaned, staring at the documents over his shoulders too. Aarron spoke as he confirmed the signature. “I said I would get you to a physician, not let you go to one, Sebastian. Do not misquote me.” He raised his grinning eyes to us briefly from the document, and then he nudged his head to two of his guards. “Take them to a nearby physician and make sure to bring them back after she has been treated and stitched up.” He ordered.
“Yes, Lord Lancaster.” The guards chanted and bowed, and they proceeded to lead Sebastian and me from the room.
Aaron didn't even bother to acknowledge the guard's greeting; his eyes dropped back to the document immediately.
Then suddenly, his fingers tightened on the paper, and he yelled. “Stop!” his voice echoed throughout the whole room. A shiver split through me at his yell, temporarily consuming the pain ringing through my body. I sat up in Sebastian's arms while he stopped just like the guards and Headmaid Alice. I bit down on my lips to keep back the pain shooting fast for my brain while my mind went on a rampage. What was it again? Has he changed his mind? Was he going to kill us?
But Aaron's sharp gaze didn't move to us; it was directed fast from the document to Brian, and so was Harrietta's. Both of their faces folded in tight snarls.
Then it happened very fast, so fast it was almost hard to keep up. Nathan snatched the paper from Aaron's fingers, while Brian snatched a guard’s rifle. I would have expected his first target to be Sebastian and me; instead, he steered the muzzle for Harrietta, and his fingers pressed fast on the trigger.
A gunshot split the room, and Harrieta went down with barely a squeal of pain, a large pulpy hole drilled through her forehead, blood splashing over Aaron's robe.
Aaron screamed in a wild, shrill, terrified voice, jumping fast away from his wife's corpse.
He looked fast to Nathan and Brian, his eyes bulging wide out of their sockets. Nathan said nothing and just folded the documents into his pocket, while Brian directed the gun’s muzzle to him as well. And all the while, the guards just watched, doing nothing, and even Sebastian and I and Headmaid Alice knew nothing to do but watch wide-eyed at the entire scene. My eyes jumped from Aaron to Brian to Nathan, consecutively, my mind ticking wildly and fast trying to make sense of what was happening, but I just couldn't.
Aaron's chin trembled as he stared right at the rifle in Brian’s hands. He asked in a low, throaty voice that shook terribly. “What is that about? Why did you kill my…”
Brian just stretched his lips at him in an exaggerated grin, his boyish face taking on a cynical, crazy mask. “Maybe next time, brother, you’ll learn to keep treating your brothers right, especially when one is the muscle to your operation and the other is the brain.” He said. He pushed the trigger again, and another loud gunshot reverberated in the room; it shook for a long, terrifying moment.
Despite the pain consuming my arms, the agony rippling through me, I pressed my hands to my mouth, smothering a scream, and I gasped.
The pellet drilled a hole right through Aaron's forehead, splashing blood over the settee, and he fell back with just a sharp, agonizing cry—dead. Dead. His glassy eyes were staring blankly at the wooden beams of the ceiling.