Page 103 of Black Ledger

“Make him watch as the snake ate one of his eyeballs.” Severin’s voice was an untamable wildfire. “Then I might cut off his cock, cook it, and feed it to him, and even then it wouldn’t be enough.”

A whimper escaped my lips, and I had to turn my face away from him.

His words could not be real. It just couldn’t be. He was playing me. Severin was a cunning, conniving fox. He knew how to twist words and manipulate people. He was simply telling me what I wanted to hear.

What I longed to hear every day of my three years of confinement.

I wanted him to save me, avenge me. Care for me. Come for me. Comfort me.

But none of that ever happened, and it never would.

Severin was a practiced liar.

And I needed to get away.

My chin quivered, and my hand shook, the knife jerking against Miroslav’s neck. I had set this trap for Severin. I wanted this face-to-face. I was supposed to show him the monster coming for him—let him know that he’d never escape a Fury. But I had underestimated him and his emotional and manipulative hold on me.

I was the rabbit caught in the snare. Not him.

Fuck.

Fuck.

Fuck.

Get control of yourself, Xeniya.

I pinched my eyes shut for a moment and swallowed past the lump in my throat. Then, without another thought, I sliced my knife across Miroslav’s throat, blood squirting out as I hit his arteries. It sprayed across my veil, neck, and dress.

A normal person would have been disgusted, but I had killed my first person at age fifteen. Blood was commonplace in the mafia.

Miroslav crumpled to the ground, choking and dying.

And I couldn’t even appreciate it. I was too rattled.

It was time to leave.

But my limbs were too heavy, and my feet were glued to the spot.

“When did this happen?” Severin asked softly, killing the final distance between us.

The knife slid between my fingertips. My skin prickled at his nearness, and I answered without thinking about it. “Twelve years ago.”

“And you’ve been hunting and taunting him ever since?”

“More or less.” My nostrils flared as Severin’s hands reached out and steadied my waist. My eyes snapped up to him.

“What did you mean by prison cell?”

“Stop asking questions,” I bit out.

Gentleness circled in his dark azure eyes like he was trying to reach out and touch a lost puppy. Sympathy?

The last thing I needed was sympathy.

I averted my gaze to the dying man and the pool of blood we were standing in. But when his hands slid up my waist slowly, deliberately, my gaze jumped back up to his. I inhaled sharply, my heart pounding like a war drum in my ears. Every muscle in my body was as taut as a harp string. I held my breath and my tears back, my cheeks hurting from the strain of withholding my emotions from him. But I would be solid. Diamond. Unbreakable. Unshakable. Impenetrable.

He would not know my pain.