Page 170 of Seeking Shadows

Nico ignores me.

“Aren’t you feeling nostalgic? I broke your leg before. Here I am, doing the exact same thing,” he taunts. “Are you going to cry like a little bitch, just like last time?”

"Stop!" Mia shouts.

He barely glances at Mia. "You chose poorly, daughter. This is their failure. The weakest. Not even Evermore wanted him. That’s why I can’t trust your judgment."

The weakest.

“It was the weakest of them who ruined your face, father." Mia's voice cuts through the air like a blade. "Because he has something in me that you will never understand. Love. Loyalty.”

“Loyalty, huh?”

Nico smirks. Then his boot presses down again.

I bite back a groan, but the pain is unbearable. A thunderclap splitting me in half.

“I can stop whenever you want,” Nico muses. “I can take you back to your pathetic little territory and leave you there. You can save yourself. But you can’t have her.”

He tilts his head.

“Choose. Your life or Mia.”

“Mia,” I rasp without hesitation.

He underestimates me. Thinks I’ll save myself and leave her behind.

He has no idea.

If I die, I die by her side. If this ends, I fight every second for her.

Nico’s fist slams into my jaw. The taste of blood floods my mouth.

“I will break every part of you before you can have my daughter,” he says, voice dark with promise.“And I will enjoy every second of it.”

"I'm going to kill you," Mia spits, thrashing, but there are at least six guards holding her down. She's unarmed. They can hurt her.

I look up, my muscles trembling, but my voice is steady.

"You can break every bone in my body, and I'll still find a way to crawl back to her."

"Okay."

"No!"

Mia's scream cuts through the air like a blade.

Before anyone can react, she rips free from the guard restraining her, moving with brutal precision. The knife in her hand plunges into his throat as if he were nothing. Blood gushes hot and thick, his body collapsing in a lifeless heap. Her gaze burns like wildfire.

I count, watching as she tears through the six men who had held her back, their deaths so swift they barely register. The task doesn’t even seem to require effort.

Nico doesn’t move. He simply raises the knife in his hand, his expression eerily relaxed. With a slow, deliberate motion, he drags the blade across my throat—just enough to draw blood, not enough to kill me.

"One more step, and I'll rip his throat out."

Mia freezes.

Her eyes lock onto the thin line of blood trailing down my neck as if it's something hideous. And her body stops.

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