Chapter 306: The Final Confrontation

Dorian felt pain surge through his torso. He looked down and instinctively reached for the dagger, but more than the pain, he could not believe what was happening.

This woman had stabbed him.

Charlotte.

The woman he had kept barely alive for his own purposes. The woman who had been reduced to skin and bones, barely capable of speaking coherently.

She was out. Free. And somehow, she had found the strength to try to murder him.

Before Dorian could grab the dagger, Charlotte seemed to draw strength from the madness consuming her. She yanked the blade free and drove it into his abdomen again.

Dorian gasped.

His eyes fell on the dagger. Something about it looked familiar. For several seconds, his mind struggled through the pain before the memory finally surfaced.

It was his dagger.

Or at least, it looked horribly similar to the one he had used to kill Katerina’s knight in his previous life. The original weapon could never have survived all those centuries, but the resemblance was unmistakable.

Who had given her that?

Then another realization struck him.

Sebastian Remington. He had always thought there was something familiar about him. Now he understood why.

The way Sebastian had died… The same method. The same kind of blade.

Was this Maximilian? Was he doing this to him the same way Dorian had once killed Katerina’s knight?

Maximilian came back from the dead to haunt him? How did he plan all this?

Dorian barely had time to process the thought.

Charlotte struck again. This time, the blade found his spleen. Blood poured from the wound.

Dorian staggered, choking on a gasp as his hand flew to his side. He reached for his gun, but Charlotte was faster.

Wild.

Relentless.

She drove the dagger into him again.

The pain exploded through his body, and suddenly he could not breathe. The blade had struck near his diaphragm. His lungs seemed to refuse to work as he collapsed onto the pavement, desperately dragging in air that would not come.

“Help!”

The word tore out of him.

A word Dorian had never imagined himself saying.

Charlotte climbed over him, her eyes blazing with the remnants of another life, and brought the dagger down again.

And again.

Passersby screamed. Several people rushed forward, trying to pull her away as someone called emergency services.

“Stop! Lady, stop!”

The police arrived within minutes, followed by an ambulance. Dorian lay sprawled on the dirty pavement, surrounded by his own blood, barely conscious as paramedics rushed toward him.

Charlotte broke free of the people restraining her and lunged after him.

“He killed my love!” she screamed.

Her voice echoed down the street.

“I was a queen! He made me lose everything!”

She tried to reach Dorian again as the paramedics loaded him onto the stretcher.

The officers attempted to subdue her with a taser, but Charlotte barely seemed to feel it. She twisted free and raised the dagger toward one of them.

Then gunshots rang through the street.

Charlotte stopped.

Her body jerked. She fell heavily to the ground. Blood began to pool beneath her. For a moment, she simply stared into the distance, the madness in her eyes softening.

“I’m coming, Crawley…” she whispered.

Then her eyes closed. And life left her.

From across the street, Bobby’s men watched everything unfold. They had seen enough. One of them glanced at the others and gave a satisfied nod.

“Perfect.”

They turned and disappeared into the crowd before anyone could notice them. Their job was done. Now they only had to report back to Bobby.

—–

Maximilian returned to the hotel.

The bodyguards stationed outside the room straightened and nodded respectfully as he approached. He acknowledged them with a brief nod before entering.

Catherine was still asleep.

She had barely moved from where he had left her. Her breathing was slow and even, her face relaxed against the pillow.

Maximilian stood beside the bed for a moment, simply watching her. He had expected her to wake by now. After everything that had happened, perhaps her body had finally claimed the rest she had been denying herself.

He took a shower, changed, and returned to the bedroom. Still, Catherine hadn’t moved.

Maximilian sat down beside her and waited. He wasn’t in any hurry.

His phone rang some time later. It was Bobby. Maximilian answered quietly.

“It’s finished.”

A breath of relief left Maximilian.

“She’s dead,” Bobby said. “The cops got her.”

“Good,” Maximilian replied.

He ended the call and set the phone aside. It was better this way.

There would be no loose ends. No one would come looking for Charlotte, no one would discover where she had come from, and Dorian would never know exactly who had set the final piece into motion or how he died.

Maximilian looked back at Catherine.

None of that mattered now. He reached out and gently brushed a strand of hair away from her face. His fingers lingered for a moment, smoothing it behind her ear before moving over the crown of her head.

She shifted faintly in her sleep.

A smile touched his lips.

“You’ve had enough for one lifetime,” he murmured.

His thumb traced lightly along her temple before he bent down and pressed a soft kiss to her forehead.

Catherine made a quiet sound and instinctively turned toward him.

Maximilian’s expression softened.

He slipped beneath the covers beside her, careful not to wake her, and drew her gently into his arms. Her head settled against his chest as though she had been looking for him even in her sleep.

He rested his cheek against her hair and held her close. For the first time that night, there was nothing left for him to plan. Nothing left to calculate.

Catherine was safe. She was here. And that was enough.

With one hand resting protectively over her, Maximilian closed his eyes and finally allowed himself to sleep beside the woman he had spent two lifetimes trying to protect.

—–

When Dorian regained consciousness, he was being wheeled through the hospital, the ceiling lights flashing above him one after another.

His vision was blurred. The pain in his abdomen was almost unbearable, and every breath felt as though his body were tearing itself apart.

He turned his head toward the nurse beside him and tried to speak.

“Max…”

Only a broken sound came out.

Maximilian.

He needed them to know.

He needed someone to understand that Maximilian was behind this. He tried again, forcing the word through his ruined lungs.

“Max…”

The nurse leaned closer.

“Don’t try to speak. You’re going to be fine.”

Fine?

Dorian’s eyes widened.

No.

He wasn’t going to be fine.

He had to survive.

He had to bring Maximilian down.

He tried to force the words out, but his lungs refused to cooperate. The machines beside him began beeping faster, and the medical staff immediately moved around him.

“His oxygen saturation is dropping.”

A mask was placed over his face, pushing oxygen into his lungs.

Dorian struggled against it, desperate to speak, desperate to tell them who had done this to him. But the darkness was already creeping into the edges of his vision.

The last thing he heard was the frantic beeping of the machines. Then everything went black.

—–

Morning came quietly.

Maximilian opened his eyes and found Catherine still asleep beside him.

She hadn’t moved much during the night. Her head was still resting against him, one hand loosely curled against his chest.

For a moment, he simply watched her.

Then he noticed the missed calls on his phone. There were several from Sebastian.

Maximilian carefully slipped out of bed and stepped into the adjoining room before calling him back. Sebastian answered almost immediately.

“Dorian survived,” he said.

Maximilian’s expression changed.

“He’s out of surgery.”

Maximilian pressed his lips together.

For a moment, he said nothing. He had been certain the matter would be finished last night.

Apparently, Dorian Blackwood was harder to kill than he had expected.

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