Chapter 40 - The Fall of Blackthorn
The fortress began to groan around them. With the primary power matrix severed and the security fail-safes corrupted, the structural integrity of Blackthorn Keep was rapidly deteriorating. Alarms wailed across the coastal cliffs, accompanied by the dull, thudding cadence of automated emergency scuttling charges deep in the foundation.
"The whole keep is wired to collapse into the sea," Nathaniel said, checking his tactical chronometer. "We have four minutes before the lower vaults buckle."
"Then we leave her to her kingdom," Rose said, stepping back from Eleanor, who was frantically clutching her ruined arm against the base of the shattered desk.
"You can't leave me here!" Eleanor shrieked, struggling to stand, her regal poise utterly destroyed. "Nathaniel, I raised you! I made you the king of this city! You owe me your empire!"
Nathaniel turned, looking down at the woman who had orchestrated the murder of Rose’s family, who had tried to execute his own mother on that rain-slicked rooftop months ago, and who had poisoned every shred of decency in the Vance legacy.
"My mother is alive, Eleanor," Nathaniel said quietly, his voice like grinding stones. "She survived the terrace. She survived your poison. And she will be sitting in the primary boardroom when Vance Global is rebuilt. You didn't make me a king. You made me a weapon. And weapons don't have mothers."
Without looking back, Nathaniel seized Rose’s hand, lacing his fingers tightly through hers, and pulled her toward the emergency service elevator that led to the private helipad on the eastern promontory.
Behind them, Eleanor’s hysterical screams were swallowed by the roar of the ocean as the first subterranean explosion ripped through the support pillars of the keep. The western wing tilted precariously, sliding down the sheer rock face into the churning surf below.
They emerged onto the rain-lashed tarmac of the helipad just as a sleek black AgustaWestland helicopter crested the cliff edge, searchlights blinding them against the dark. The side door slid open to reveal Marcus, battered and bloodied but grinning through the downpour, leveling a mounted machine gun toward the burning fortress.
"Get in!" Marcus bellowed over the roar of the rotors. "The whole coast is going down!"
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Rose leapt aboard, pulling Nathaniel after her into the cabin just as the main observation tower of Blackthorn Keep folded inward, collapsing into an inferno of fire, steel, and falling stone.
***
