Page 209 of The Harbinger

“Mia,” I yelled.

Nikolai glanced at me and smirked.

She’d told me Nikolai made her uncomfortable, and I should have listened.

“What did you say to her?” I asked as I approached.

“We discussed her time with you, and then she said she needed to leave. She left before I could ask her where.”

I growled, his tone irksome with a small lilt of jubilee. There was more to it than what he’d led on. But for now, I needed to find the vixen I hadn’t stopped staring at all night.

Navigating through the crowd with Nikolai on my tail, I saw her red dress disappearing around the corner.

“Mia.”

She didn’t slow down or turn back. Irritation bubbled inside me, causing my fist to clench.

Maybe it wasn’t anything Nikolai said. Maybe it was from the offering earlier—Marina’s daughter.

I rounded the corner, the tail end of her dress turning left at the end of the hall.

“Where is she going?” Nikolai said behind me.

“If I knew, would I be chasing her?”

Although, if I had to guess, she was finding her escape. But why not walk out the front door?

“Fair enough. Only trying to help.”

I turned left at the end of the hall and entered the only open door on the right, but Nikolai stepped in front of me.

“Wait. Don’t you think we should get Ruslan?”

I scowled at him. “Out of my way.”

He put his hand on my shoulder. “Don’t go in there. We should wait for Ruslan,” he said, his voice panicked as though Mia were a danger.

“If you don’t remove yourself from my path, I will cut you in two and walk between your carcass.”

Nikolai gulped and spun on his heel, entering the room before me.

Mia stood in the corner, her back to me, her hands in her lap. She’d tucked her head down, and only when I said her name did she raise it.

“Malishka, what are you doing in here?”

“She’s clearly had a hard day. Let’s let her rest,” Nikolai said.

I ground my teeth and stepped around him.

“Mia?” I inched closer, her frame stock still.

She spun around, and it happened in a flash. The glint of metal, the sharp punch to the gut, Nikolai hollering.

The earth slowed, time stopped, and for a second, it was just her and I, her blanketed expression. She wasn’t there. Her eyes were a dull void drowning in an abyss of nothingness.

“Mia. Wait. Not yet,” Nikolai yelled in an accented voice I’d never heard before, but it was too late.

“For Maria Jones, and Yana Nikolaevna. For the others…” Her voice was monotone as she spoke, pulling the knife from my gut and holding it to my throat. My hand wrapped around her wrist. “For the others who’ve been forced to utter their last words.” A sharp sting slashed across my throat, and warmth trickled down my neck.

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