Page 151 of Vicious Knight

“V etu noch' vy stanovites' muzhchinami. Zapechatay yego svoyey zhertvoy,” I speak in Old Norse, which translates to ‘On this night, you become men. Seal it with your sacrifice.’

I look at Kade, who reminds me so much of myself and stares at me as he slashes the throat of the prisoner at his feet.

Alek has been given the task of killing the second prisoner. The group assigned him with that task, not me. They think they decided this to distribute the tasks evenly, but I know they did it to make sure he’s on par with them. They’ve been a pack for years and have only just accepted him into their fold, so watching him kill will test him.

The group doesn't realize that Alek knows exactly what they’re up to, and he’s potentially more deadly alone than they are together as a group. He’s the kind of man who will do whatever he needs to do to get what he wants.

That’s why he doesn’t just slice his prisoner’s throat from ear to ear the way Kade did. Alek uses the sword on his back and rams it straight through the prisoner's throat. And he does it with a sadistic smile on his face.

“Well done, men.” Caspian steps forward. “You’ve worked hard and I am happy to select the four of you to be part of my elite. From this night onward we are brothers in arms bounded by the Oath. Take the bodies away. I will see you back on campus.”

“Yes, my Lord.” They speak in unison, bowing their heads.

They proceed to take the bodies away, and Caspian, Lucian and I look at each other.

It’s over.

We picked our elite, and now we have the task of being the elite.

“Any thoughts, guys?” Caspian looks from me to Lucian.

“Not from me,” Lucian replies. “I’ll go pack up the stuff.”

“I’ll join you,” I say, falling in step with him.

Lucian wanted to talk about the warning message. He has a contact from Markov Tech checking it out. They’re a company within our alliance. I might have given Levgen everything to investigate himself, but that doesn’t stop me from finding out where that message came from.

“Actually, cousin, I’d like a word,” Caspian calls out to me.

I stop in my tracks. Lucian glances back at me, offering a look of support. We both knew Caspian would want to speak to me at some point. I’ve been dodging him for days.

It was three days ago that the incident occurred. Prior to that, I’d seen him just after Ivy and I got back together. That’s a long absence for us.

I turn back to face him.

His expression is stern with that no-nonsense look he sports when he knows I’m keeping something from him.

It’s particularly bad tonight because I’ve never kept anything from him for this long.

“Hey, what’s going on?” I try to make my voice sound like my usual jovial self. The carefree guy who thought he had the world at his fingertips.

“How about you tell me?”

“Nothing to tell.”

“Don’t insult me with that bullshit.” His voice rises and his face hardens, showing the depth of his frustration. “Thorne, I take you for a brother. You and I have been closer than I was with Zak.”

His words are like a punch to my gut and I feel like shit. Because he’s right.

Zak was his older brother. When he was alive he was the best brother anyone could ask for, but he and Caspian never shared the closeness that we have.

“You haven’t been the same since you’ve been with Ivy. I know something's going on with you and I wish to God you would tell me.”

I stare back at him, wanting to share it all with him, but everything goes back to keeping Ivy’s secret.

It’s not that I don’t trust him, but it’s not as simple as that.

“There is something going on.” I swallow past the rocks in my throat.

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