Chapter 10 - The Fall Of The House Of Mercer
The deafening blast of the twelve-gauge shattered the night.
The heavy buckshot struck Julian square in the left shoulder, the kinetic force violently throwing him backward off balance. He slipped on the wet slate tiles, his knife flying into the darkness.
He grabbed wildly for Sarah’s gown to drag her down with him.
I threw the shotgun aside and dove headfirst across the slick roof, sliding across the wet slates on my stomach.
I caught Sarah’s wrist with my left hand just as Julian’s weight dragged her over the edge. With my right hand, I slammed my fingers into the iron gutter bracket anchored into the heavy oak fascia board.
The metal groaned under the sudden three-hundred-pound shock load.
Julian hung in empty space beneath Sarah’s dangling feet, his fingers desperately digging into the hem of her torn gown.
"Ryan! Pull me up!" Julian screamed, his arrogant bravado instantly vanishing into raw, pathetic terror. "I'm your brother! We're twins! You can't let me die!"
"You killed my memories!" I yelled into the storm, my muscles tearing as I held Sarah’s entire weight with one arm. "You tried to slaughter my children!"
"The money is yours! Take the money!" Julian shrieked as his grip on the wet fabric began to slip. "Ryan! Please!"
"The Mercer family ends tonight," I whispered.
Sarah kicked her leg free from his desperate grasp.
Julian fell.
He didn't scream on the way down. There was only the distant, hollow crash as his body struck the iron spikes of the Victorian garden fence twenty-five feet below, followed by absolute silence.
With a final surge of adrenaline, I hauled Sarah up over the ledge and pulled her shivering, exhausted body into the warmth of the attic dormer.
She collapsed against my chest, her tears hot against my frozen neck.
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"You came back," she sobbed. "You remembered."
"I don't remember the past yet, Sarah," I whispered, wrapping my coat around her shoulders. "But I know who I am now. And I'm never letting you or Maya go again."
