Page 61 of Vicious Knight

He catches my face and runs his finger along my jaw. Once again that stroke of attraction lights up inside me.

“Don’t even think about running away. You can’t run from people like me. I love to chase but if I catch you I might destroy you.”

My stomach knots into tight loops as I watch the emotions play out on his face.

It’s strange to accept that someone so striking could be so utterly terrifying.

He releases me, picks up my little pouch, and hands it to me. I take it, feeling worse when he slips my ring into his back pocket.

“I’ll be holding on to that. Go.”

I move, focusing on putting one foot in front of the other.

I don’t look back at Thorne either.

Better if I don’t see his face.

What are the chances he’ll keep my secret?

Slim to none.

He wouldn’t implicate himself in such a way.

So I’m as good as dead.

Instinct tells me I should be calling Mom and Levgen to tell them what happened so we can flee, but I believe Thorne. I believe him when he says he may destroy me if I run.

It feels like he already has.

Chapter 14

Thorne

I stare at my computer screen looking at a picture of Gustave Bershov, Ivy’s father.

Ivy—Annika—only has a few similarities in her face to him, but she looks exactly like her mother.

Ivy.

Annika. It’s strange for me to think of her with that name but then again, I haven’t known her long enough to have gotten used to her being Ivy either.

This has been one hell of a ten days.

And now this thing with her real father. The disgraced Knight, Gustave Bershov.

The picture I’m looking at was taken before he went to the Hallows, a prison set up by the Knights to house the criminals they want to keep alive for one reason or another.

The Hallows is situated on an island in a secret location that only the leader of the Knights and his elite know. The laws there are above everything else, so they can keep you there and torture you until you beg for death.

The Knights don’t take prisoners unless they need you.

Death is the only way out. When we take the Oath and vow to live and die by it, that is what we agree to. And that agreement extends to those who become our family—like wives and children.

I’m perhaps the only reason Gustave Bershov was allowed to live.

It’s because of what I saw on the night my family were attacked. A night I’ll never forget as long as I live on this earth.

It was just after Caspian got taken. I was in the coat closet, hiding, and I was so fucking terrified I pissed myself.

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