Page 211 of The Harbinger

“You deserve it,” Nikolai yelled through the chaos. “You deserve to watch him die.” Five servants surrounded him,Fuego,and tore at him, their uniformed bodies surrounding him like frenzied hyenas. “I only wish I would have done it sooner.”

Blood stained his tux shirt as he thrashed about, their fists flying, legs kicking. His lips split wide open, allowing his teeth to show through, while his right eye swelled completely shut.

A man kicked out at Nikolai’s knee, and a loud crack reverberated through the room, followed by a pitched scream. He fell to the floor, and the servants closed in.

Three other servants stopped near Sacha, followed by a familiar face.

“Doctor Sergei,” I screamed as the men rushed me and Nikolai from the room. “Don’t let him die.”

The last chunk of my severed heart fell to pieces and crumbled at my feet. A sob broke free from my lips as I disappeared around the corner, his body lying still as a statue.

The men dragged us into the ballroom, where the crowd gathered around the dance floor. The orchestra screeched to a startling halt, and the room sat in silence.

Was I next?

Were they going to murder me here on the dance floor and drink my blood?

Sacha wasn’t around to save me, and even if he was, would he now after what I’d done?

They pulled me through the throng of people as though I were being shamed, then towards the doors we’d arrived through. The same man who announced us before opened the door as they dragged me through with Nikolai’s blood-curdling screams trailing after us.

“I’m sorry.”

My pleas fell on deaf ears as the servants tossed me into the back of the limo. Ruslan’s three guards sat inside as though waiting for this moment.

“Take her to the catacombs,” he said, dipping his head and speaking to the largest of the three men. “She is to speak to no one.”

“Please. Ruslan—”

A hardthunkvibrated my skull, and a sharp sting branched across my cheek. “If you’ve killed my son, I’ll make sure you’re skinned alive in front of my congregation.”

I tucked my chin and pressed my hand against my face, hot tears tracking the contours of my fingers as the door thudded shut. Ruslan vanished inside, and we peeled away, the stillness screaming in my ears.

“I didn’t do it.”

The biggest of the three men narrowed his gaze, his jaw set tight. He leaned forward, closing in the short distance between us. “I’ll cut out your tongue and feed it back to you if you utter another word.”

I cowered, throwing myself back into the leather seats, Sacha’s blood crusting on my hands.

What had I done? What had that monster made me do? Why? Tears rushed down like a monsoon as Fuego’s sinister words echoed in my mind, telling me what he wanted of me and what he demanded.

We stopped in the middle of the road with forest trees reaching up on both sides. My mind and body numbed for the entire car ride as I worked to free it from the broken record that replayed every detail.

The smallest of the three men stepped out of the vehicle, followed by the biggest, then finally, the middle. Mr. Hulk gripped me by the elbow and jerked me out of the limo.

Tall trees loomed over us, their gnarled branches twisting like the fingers of a corpse. The stars twinkled in the frigid air, casting a pale glow over the forest floor. My breath hung like a ghostly apparition.

Mr. Hulk jerked me down a well-worn path littered with twisting roots, my dress catching and tearing on fallen tree branches. Shivers rippled down my arms, and my teeth clattered.

My toe caught, my ankle twisted, and a sickening pop reverberated through the woods. I shrieked and clutched my ankle, but he yanked me down the trail, my injured leg slowing him down.

I didn’t dare speak or ask him to give me a minute.

I saw what they would do to people who didn’t put up a fight. What would they do to someone who they thought murdered their leader?

My calves burned, and my ankle screamed louder than my echoing cries. We stopped at an old rusty iron gate, its hinges squeaking with rust as he opened it.

Darkness flooded the cellar like a black inky ocean as we descended crumbling cement steps. I gripped the damp railing and held on as he moved me down the stairs much too fast to keep up. I tumbled on the final step, crashing into the harsh earth beneath me.

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