Chapter 5: Conflagration
Before the first Vance guard could draw his weapon, the treeline surrounding the estate erupted. Lilith had not come alone. She hadn't spent the last twelve hours weeping; she had spent them calling in favors from a life she had sworn off when Chloe was born.
A hail of suppressing fire rained down on the grand staircase, forcing the guards to scramble for cover behind the heavy stone balustrades. Smoke grenades arched through the air, hissing violently as they blanketed the perfectly manicured lawns in thick, choking gray clouds.
From the shadows of the hedges, figures emerged carrying heavy, sloshing jerrycans. They moved with terrifying efficiency, ignoring the gunfire, dousing the wooden frames of the massive front doors and the imported tapestries visible through the floor-to-ceiling windows.
May you like
Flares were tossed. The gasoline caught with a concussive whoosh.
Within seconds, the grand entrance of the Vance manor was a wall of roaring, orange fury. The heat was immediate and blistering. The pristine white columns blackened, the paint blistering and peeling like diseased skin. Julian’s screams were drowned out by the crackle of the inferno and the staccato rhythm of gunfire. The empire was burning.
