Deathstalker 07 - Deathstalker Return

to have known in advance, but none of them had spoken to her either. She'd thought of them as her people, but in the end they answered to Finn, just like everyone else. Most of them had already left the House, leaving her behind, leaving her alone. Anne looked from one monitor screen to another, watching as the MPs died, and wondered whether eventually the Paragons would come for her too.
    "Don't worry," said Finn, from the doorway. "I won't let them hurt you."
    Anne turned and looked at him blankly. "How did you get in? I always keep that door locked."
    "I am the King," said Finn. "And no doors are locked to me." He walked into her office, pulled up the visitor's chair and sat down beside her. He watched the killing on the monitors for a while, and then turned to smile at Anne.
    "You really mustn't worry, Anne. You're quite safe. You're with me."
    "Even though you don't need me anymore?" said Anne, in a perfectly steady voice. She was proud of that, at least. "The House and the MPs, and the managing of their security; that was my job, my life. My reason for existence. You knew that. And now you've taken it all away from me. I had friends once, and now they're gone too, thanks to you. Even poor Jamie's gone. Can't I have anything for myself, Finn?"
    "The House had to go," Finn said reasonably. "I can't afford to have enemies at my back, and the Paragons needed a little raw meat to keep them quiet. The people shall have me, and only me. I am King, and I will not suffer any competition. You'd better come with me, Anne. You'll be safe with me."
    "And do what?" said Anne. "What is there left for me to do now?"
    "I told you," said Finn. "You're going to be Queen. I always keep my word, when it suits me."
    "The Queen has no power," said Anne. "No influence… no work. I'll be just a pretty ornament on your arm. I'll be everything I always despised in other women. And all thanks to you, Finn."
    "You're welcome," said Finn, looking at the killing on the monitors again.
    After she'd watched the House burn, Anne went home. Finn did offer to go with her, but he was clearly very busy, so she politely declined and went home alone. The streets seemed unusually empty of people, but there were security guards everywhere. None of them sought to interfere with her. Everyone knew she belonged to Finn Durandal. She let herself into her house, and wandered down the hall into the living room. She looked at it for a long while. It seemed somehow strange and unfamiliar, as though she'd gone into the wrong house by mistake. As though she'd lived in it for so long she'd stopped seeing it. The room was very neat, very ordered, everything in its place. Just like her life used to be. She'd seen that as a trap, once, and longed desperately to be free of it.
    Only now did she realize she was looking at a room without a trace of personality.
    Well, she was someone now. She was going to be Queen. By allying herself with Finn, she'd got everything she ever thought she wanted: a new life, a new body, even the beginnings of love with Jamie…
    and it had all come to nothing. She should have known better. Happy endings weren't for people like her.
    She sighed, and sat down in the nearest chair. It wasn't her favorite chair, and once that would have mattered to her, but not now. Her house was her old life, and she didn't belong there anymore.
    There were drinks and even drugs about the place, Finn had always seen she got whatever she wanted, but she didn't want any of them now. She wondered if she ever had, really. She'd just been so desperate not to be the old, boring, safe Anne… She was pretty sure now Finn only let her have the drink and drugs because he thought it would make her easier to control. He always felt easier when he had some form of control over people.
    He said he wanted her to be his Queen. Anne knew what that meant. She would stand beside him on state occasions, in her new lovely body, smiling endlessly; for the guests, for the people, for the cameras.
    And her marvelous brain would slowly atrophy, unused and unwanted. She would smile and smile, and no one would hear her screaming inside. Once, she had had real power, and real friends, but she had thrown them all away. She had betrayed everyone and everything she once believed in, and all for Finn, who cared for no one.
    Lewis and Jesamine: outlawed and on the run.Douglas : awaiting trial and execution. And her poor Jamie: shot down in the street like a dog.
    And I killed Emma Steel