Chapter 66
M y grip tightened around the hilt of my sword as I stared at the carnage surrounding us.
Yuriy and Henrick were checking on the others, grabbing the medical packs from their saddlebags to clean and care for wounds. Kirill refused to let them help him, focusing instead on closing the eyes of Dmitriy and Igor. He used his pack to clean the blood from their faces and hands.
Dead.
They were dead.
A muscle worked in my jaw as I stared at their lifeless bodies.
I wasn’t na?ve. I had lost men before. Had been the one who sent them to their deaths. But they weren’t men I’d trusted and brought into my personal squadron.
They weren’t my friends. Fury threatened to choke me as I marched toward the man I’d knocked out earlier. Thankfully, he still had a pulse.
I bent down in front of him, ignoring the pain lancing through my side as I slapped him across the face. When he didn’t stir, I did it again, and again, until finally his eyes opened.
Distantly, I registered Rowan’s unflinching gaze, her shuttered expression and the hollow look in her eyes.
Should I tell her now to look away? Would it be better or worse if she saw me act on every one of the intentions I had for this man if he didn’t answer my questions?
I weighed the cost against my limited time and my growing thirst for vengeance. She already knew I was a monster. And if she didn’t know before, she would understand, now, how far I was willing to go to keep her safe.
The man blinked, his pupils expanding and contracting as he attempted to focus on me. His expression morphed into one of panic as soon as he registered who I was. He tried to scramble away, but I placed a boot on his chest and held my blood-stained sword out in front of him.
There were so many places I could begin, but the question I had been churning over and over in my mind was the first one that escaped my lips.
“What do you want with the princess?”
He blanched, his eyes darting hungrily over to Rowan.
“Answer. Me.” I bit out the words, pressing the tip of my sword to his throat for good measure.
He took a cowardly breath, once again trying to scramble away. Like there was somewhere to go, some way I wouldn’t hunt him down and tear his soul from his body for what he and his friends had done.
“Please,” he stammered, his body shaking either from fear or the snow he was still lying in. But I didn’t give a solid damn about his comfort. “They’ll die if I don’t?—”
He didn’t finish that sentence. Instead, he darted another glance at my lemmikki and I had all the confirmation I needed that they’d come for her. To kill her. Though I still didn’t know why.
“If you don’t what ?” Taras asked, his voice just as lethal as mine. He wasn’t going to leave anything to chance.
I saw the moment he realized there was no escape for him. That there was only death and pain waiting on the other side of this conversation. He warred with himself for a moment before finally caving.
“We were paid to kill the princess,” he said, his voice filled with panic. “Some woman paid us—she said there would be more for the man that succeeded.”
The scars on my back twitched, the muscles beneath them spasming in response to a single thought. A single person.
I didn’t know of any other woman in any kingdom that had the means or motive to do something so heinous. Still, I needed confirmation. I needed to hear him say the storms-damned name.
“What is her name?”
“I don’t know. I was?—”
I barely raised my sword and he flinched, raising his arms reflexively over his face.
“I was just trying to feed my family,” he finally said.
Of course he was. But at the cost of someone else’s.
“I understand,” I said. And I did.
I understood what it was to follow orders and to want something more for your life. But his reasons weren’t important. What mattered was that he had tried to kill what was mine.
That he had even thought of harming her.
Without another word, I sliced his throat open and watched as his blood mingled with the rest on the ground.