Smoke was slowly filling the room as Lewis decided what to do first. Obviously, Jerome was at the top of the list in terms of how agonizing his death would be. “You’ll be first, then…” The assassin moved quickly, slamming his foot into Jerome, pushing him against the wall. With a powerful kick, Lewis vaulted off the man, using the opportunity to throw two daggers into each of his hands, pinning him to the wall.

Shocked, the others seemed not to know what to do, and stood there in shock. It was after a volley of curses from Jerome that they finally tried to act. Felix pulled a flail from a mount on the wall, twirling it. He wanted revenge, and it was obvious that he would do just about anything to get it.

The spymaster made his way out of the room, cursing them all. To him, they were all fools that deserved the house coming down on them.

“How flakey,” Lewis replied dully. “Simone, if you would bring him back please…I’m not done playing with them just yet.” He took a threatening step towards Felix, who was now shaking, the memory of their torture sessions still fresh in his mind. “Felix,” he said clicking his tongue. “You saw what we did to each other…you know very well that a weapon like that can’t hurt me.”

“You insane bastard!” Felix yelled as he rushed Lewis, bringing down the flail hard. The assassin merely sidestepped the obvious attack, and drew his sharpest dagger. He slashed both of Felix’s hands off in an instant, and the flail fell with a heavy thud on the ground.

“You’ve been disarmed,” Lewis said as he slammed his fist into Felix’s chest. “Now stay here for a moment…:” From behind him, a strong presence appeared, and before Lewis could do anything, he was lifted off the ground, hands wrapped firmly around his neck.

Ah. The bodyguard. Lewis could feel the man attempting to crush his windpipe, and while technically he could succeed, it wouldn’t kill Lewis. Not easily, at least. The assassin swung forward, and then used what little momentum he had to slam his leg back, aiming for the man’s groin. It took until the third try for Lewis to strike gold, and the man dropped him. Lewis his the ground hard, coughing and wheezing as his windpipe tried to correct itself. It wasn’t fast enough, though, and Lewis found himself on the receiving end of a strong kick in the stomach.

Lewis rolled over in agony, holding his stomach and trying to defend himself as best he could. Think. Fucking think…anything He was out of his element. Simone? Get him while he’s preoccupied!

Simone nodded as she descended the stairs going past her uncle who stared at her in shock. It was like what Felix had said.

“You aren’t the same.”

“Why would I be? Only the weak break. The strong evolve,” it was an off comment as she didn’t bother to stop what she was doing. She would catch the spymaster easily enough. A circle of flames appeared around him with a great bird descending and picking him up. She dropped him back inside the house and turned back into her human form.

Jerome and the others watched the bird transform in eerie black flames back to Simone. “I will have to insist that everyone stay put.” She waved her arms at them before placing a hand on her hip and watching Lewis for a moment. It didn’t shock her that someone made for being a bodyguard would have an upper hand on Lewis.

A sigh left her lips as quickly pulled a thin small dagger from a thigh sheath. Throwing it she managed to nail the bodyguard in his back. It immediately dropped Edward and Sigmund looked at his niece. “You would do this to your own people?”

“Why not? You did it to me easily. You slept peacefully at night knowing full well what that fey lord was going to do. You weren’t upset when Auclair burnt down and if you were it was because you couldn’t have it.” Her cold eyes stared him down. “Now watch what I’ve learned,” Simone opened her mouth and a song left it. A deep purple shimmer appeared across Lewis as a healing spell took place but it was much more than that as Lewis felt himself get stronger and faster than before.

That should put you on even grounds. Try now.

“THE SONG, STOP THE SONG,” the spymaster yelled but Simone was utterly focused and she easily dodged Felix and Sigmund’s attempts to stop her. She was nimble and could keep her vocals going even when moving something she had worked on being able to do so she wasn’t useless. She didn’t want to be a sitting duck for Lewis to be worried about.

Lewis felt the power of Simone’s song, and with it the strength he needed to overcome the rest of those in the room. In a whirlwind of daggers and blows, Lewis brought Sigmund to his knees, a dagger in each of his legs. The assassin frowned, kneeling down for a moment. “I’m running out…” He yanked one of them from the man’s leg, and kicked him in the face, twirling around to throw the dagger at his next mark.

Peter, the spymaster, had been “dancing” with Simone, and the dagger nailed him square in the back, severing his spine. Immediately, he fell down, unable to move, only able to watch in horror as things happened around him. The assassin walked up to him, and yanked the dagger out of his back.

“You all deserve so much worse than this…” Lewis propped Peter up against the wall so that he could see his fellow conspirators. It was evident that Lewis had something to say.

“All of you…are pathetic,” Lewis said with little emotion. “You lack any kind of power of your own, instead selling each other out for little tidbits of what you perceive as power. You wallow in this filth, thinking yourselves so high and mighty, yet here the one who you sold out stands above you.” He walked up to Jerome, and slammed his fist into the man’s stomach.

As the man started to cough up whatever was in his stomach, Lewis took a step back. “And you…you disgust me the most. You betrayed someone who opened themselves to you, all for personal gain. You’re nothing but trash…”

The fires were spreading around them as Lewis spoke, licking at all of them. Jerome struggled helplessly against the daggers in his hands, while Petter watched, terrified as the flames spread closer and closer. Edward was just starting to rouse, but he was far too injured to make any escape. And last, Felix, who was still staring down at where his hands used to be, who had accepted his fate.

Lewis walked to the set of steps in the house, and sat down on the lowest one. “And now…we’re going to watch you burn.” There wasn’t a hint of his usual insane smile. “Should you make any attempt to end your lives faster, I’ll stop it from happening. Should you make any attempt to escape, I’ll simply cut your legs off…” Still no hint of enjoyment.

“You will all suffer till the very end.”

Simone was a little taken back once it all started. She found herself pulling herself up onto a table to watch everything. Her gray eyes holding more life in them than they had since they arrived. It wasn’t the usual kill them and watch their blood spill. She could feel how pissed Lewis was and she could see her own flames spreading. “You’ll burn just like they did. Just like my father. Just like me.”

Her voice was quiet as she slipped off the table and moved over to Lewis. Jerome called out to her and she stopped a moment to look up at him. She was wondering what he would say to her. “Please, Simone come on. You know that we were destined to marry and be great. We still could. You just have to forgive me. I was short-sighted but I saw how wrong I was. I do love you. I really do. Let me go Simone.”

She scoffed a bit and moved over to Lewis and sat just below him leaning her head against him. “You both are going to burn alive!” Sigmund yelled at them. “What would that prove?”

“We’re not going to burn too death Old Man,” Simone narrowed her eyes on him. “I was reborn from fire by Lewis’s hand. These flames won’t hurt us because they are us. They will, however, hurt you.” Peter was the first to catch on fire and he was panicking and screaming as it crept up him.

Time went by as Peter burned, his screams only heightening the fear of the others as they slowly died down and he passed. It was shortly after that when Felix fell headfirst into the ground, either passed out or dead from blood loss. No matter, he had been tortured already and had paid his dues. Sigmund was next as the flames started to catch him. He begged and pleaded before his screams started, and just like the last, he was consumed in the black flames.

Felix was overtaken swiftly as time moved on, leaving only Jerome as the flames moved ever closer. Once more, he tried to beg and plead with Simone. Soon, the lies stopped, and he spewed vile hate at her, that she deserved everything that happened to her and more, and that he always thought of her as nothing more than an object to be owned and shown off. Finally, the flames started to eat away at him.

Tears. Then screaming. And finally silence.

Lewis wrapped his arms around Simone, and held her, letting her take a moment to either relish in it all, or come to terms with it. How she felt was not up for him to decide, and for once, he felt their resonance at its lowest. Perhaps it was for the best.

“No matter what…I love you, and I will do anything for you…”

Simone felt a mixture of all sorts of emotions. Choking them down was lowering their resonance where before she would let them flow freely. She was more like a doll than anything as she sat and watched the death before her. It was slow, it was perfect, and it was wrecking her on the inside.

The determination to see them all pay was finally being followed up with the agony of it all. Her heart and mind had been so stunted by the deaths the fey lord had granted her. The younger version of her still had all the freshness of the love these people had shown her and it hadn’t gone away with her death. Their betrayal hit her like a ton of bricks and she wanted to cry.

However, the tears never came just the silent screaming on the inside as she choked it all down. She never wanted Lewis to feel this and he wouldn’t. Her eyes batted up at him as she gave a tiny smile, “I know, I love you too.” It was almost for a minute as if Lewis’s emotional state was being mirrored back at him. It was almost too empty even for Lewis.

The flames twirled in a wicked rage before they fizzled out leaving the corpses of the dead and the house in shambles. Simone had gone limp in his arms as the resonance tattoos gave off a light tingle from a disconnect of sorts. She was breathing which was good but this was perhaps the first time that this had happened. Where she had been overwhelmed and used too much of herself to the point of exhaustion.

She just needed time and she knew that Lewis would give her that.