Page 150 of Vicious Knight

Levgen told me that he’s taken over the investigation of the scar-faced man.

Although I feel better knowing that he’ll be looking into the matter from here on, and Thorne would be safer handing everything over to Levgen, it’s still unsettling.

I spend most of the day in bed. Having a concussion is no fun at all. I have moments of extreme dizziness in which I feel like I’m going to fall and fall and don’t stop falling. Then there’s the pain in my head from the actual wound.

It feels like there’s a hole there.

By nightfall, I feel slightly better, so I decide to sit by the window and do some composing.

I miss Thorne. He’s called and sent messages but I miss seeing him.

I hate that I’ll be stuck here for the next week and I’ll only see him when he comes by. I miss my friends, too.

I messaged Isabelle and Mackenzie to let them know about my family emergency so they wouldn’t worry.

I stare out the window, look at the guards by the trees in the garden and the full moon high in the sky.

I’m safe, but why do I still feel that spine-tingling sensation that I’m being watched?

Watched by the scar-faced man.

I can’t see him but I feel like he’s out there somewhere.

I feel like it’s just a matter of time before I see him again.

Chapter 36

Thorne

The moon shines brightly in the sky tonight, and there’s not a cloud in sight.

Maybe the heavens wanted to witness the ritual of the Reckoning for themselves. The original Knights believed the gods would look down from Valhalla during this trial and handpick their chosen ones.

I’m standing on the peak of the Saddle Ball Mountains with Caspian and Lucian. The three of us are dressed in our Knights tunics, but we’re wearing a black sash on our shoulders. The mark that’s worn to represent life and death. Apart from the ritual of the Reckoning, it’s also worn by executioners.

The Reckoning represents the true birth of a Knight and the death of the old self.

I put all my worries and the events of the last few days aside to be in top form tonight.

Of the eight pledges who were sent into the rough terrain for tonight’s trial, four stand before me. The four I was confident would succeed from the get-go:

Kade, Dmitri, Logan and Alek.

Tonight they were pitted against the Bratva task force and a pack of ravenous wolves while they attempted to catch two prisoners.

Blood must be spilt in this ritual, so we were given Bratva prisoners who were sentenced to death for murdering an orphanage full of children.

Our pledges retrieved the prisoners, and now they have them bound and gagged at my feet, ready for me to give the final command to complete the mission. To kill.

I look at them—Kade, Dmitri, Logan and Alek—raw-faced and bloodied. I thought my Reckoning in Russia was fucked up, but what I did to them for the last six hours will forever leave a mark.

To me, the other four might have tried, but they didn’t make the cut because they didn’t want it as much as these four did.

Tonight was the only night where no one was assigned to a group, but these four found each other and worked together to make sure they all got here.

Put simply, they understood the assignment of life and death, and it will bond them for the rest of their lives.

The other four are yet to make it back. As they have failed, I am no longer responsible for the condition they return to us, dead or alive.

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