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"Don’t you dare patronize me, Charlotte," Leander said "Not now"

"I knohat you’ve been through," she said, taking his ar with herself "I couldn’t come before now I needed to kno to pin it on Hadrian and Phillipa--I brought them here, even, but I couldn’t have it be hter "Your father’s fault?"

"You’re sick," Hol We’d lose the house I heard the fights you were having, aboutat each other I assu hiive us the ital record of Leander leaving, not one I could believe There was a faint echo to his et in a room with concrete walls I know every inch of this house I was made to explore it, blindfolded, so many times, and Ihe hadn’t left I knew that he was there When you eliminate all other options--"

"Don’t you dare quote Sherlock Hol to frame them," I said in a rush "Hadrian and Phillipa All this tih to fraht your father did"

Holmes turned to her mother "He wasn’t--I wasn’t--"

"Lottie," her mother said "It wasn’t your father It wasn’t about money It was about you It’s always been because of you Do you understand? There isn’t tiave it to Leander After a long, bowstrung moment, he bit off the cap and drank its contents down Emma turned fro police assistance--" She walked toward the house, out of earshot

No oneheavy in the sky Clouds raced across it, hastened by the wind Was it shouting that I heard froainst the cliffs?

"Alistair just chased me out of the baseet out He was coust threw a hand up over hisSilently, horribly, his eyes squeezed shut "You’re all suchto pin this onto make us out to be worse than we are, and look at this horror you’ve built with your own hands"

"No," Leander said, wrapping his jacket htly around himself "Don’t pretend you don’t kno this started Not when Lucien Moriarty can say tords to his brother on the phone, and Alistair Holiven the option to either turn both Charlotte and all of his ill-gotten holdings, his paintings, his offshore bank accounts, everything over to the police--Lucien has the infor it to the authorities--or to keep me in his base operation, safely, without o nuclear He wants to bring all of us down When he spoke to Hadrian and found out that August was still alive--when he heard word fro for Milo--"

"Oh God," I said

"Well," Leander said "It’s all the same Everyone has another face Hadrian and Phillipa are in custody?"

Holmes nodded, her expression unreadable

"And I’ll be the evidence to hang theed party Poison--all it took was a single dose in Emma’s tea, administered by the oes to hell Well, I know my place in it I’ll be used, and then it’ll be over" Leander turned and spat onto the snowy ground "And after this, I’m done with it"

I took a step forward before I’d really processed what he’d said "Done with it?"

Leander swept out an arm "All this--what is any of it for? Did you hear the Moriarty boy? Monsters It takes the son of professional sadists to call us e are And you follow along in her thrall I thought--I thought, somehow, that Charlotte would find a way to transcend it But even now she’s putting blood before justice Her and herto thank you, Eebut is that Stockhol hand over his hair "God only knows I want out"

"Wait--" August stepped between us, his back to le, he looked exactly like his brother The close-cropped blond hair The dark clothes The slight hunch of the shoulders, like a uillotine "I’m sorry--I’m sorry for what I said It doesn’t have to be the truth This doesn’t have to be the end of all of us I’d had the same plan, you know, to run--but what if we both stayed? Built a bridge between our fain with, and it failed, but we could find a way to make it work There are sane men on both sides There has to be a way for us all to work this--" He reached a hand out to Leander, touched his chest

The s opened, or the click of a door shutting behind you Like your o to sleep I couldn’t place it Couldn’t tell where it caust dropped, suddenly, to his knees, and then fell in a slow dive face-first onto the ground