Chapter 18
Nikolai
The beating started the second Emerald disappeared through the doorway.
No warning came before it. One of Malrik’s guards slammed the butt of a gun into my ribs hard enough to force me onto one knee while another drove his fist across my jaw with enough force to split the inside of my mouth open.
Blood flooded my tongue instantly. The taste of iron spread thick and metallic down my throat while hands grabbed my shoulders and dragged me upright again only to hit me harder.
Malrik watched the entire thing from across the room with complete indifference. That was what made men like him worse. Everything was calculated. Measured. Pain was never emotional to him. Pain was theater. A performance. Another method of proving ownership over the people around him.
A fist cracked against my cheekbone before another buried itself into my stomach hard enough to wrench the air from my lungs. A boot slammed into my ribs immediately afterward, sending me sideways across the marble floor hard enough for my shoulder to strike the edge of a table.
Hands tangled into the back of my shirt before I could recover fully, dragging me upright again while blood dripped steadily from my mouth onto the floor beneath us. I laughed anyway. That earned me another punch.
“You still think this is funny?” one of the guards spat.
Blood slid from the corner of my mouth while I slowly lifted my head.
“You hit like a fucking bitch .”
The guard lost his temper instantly. The next punch split the skin beside my eye.
Another struck my jaw hard enough to snap my head sideways while two more men joined in, fists and boots crashing into me from every direction until it became difficult separating one hit from the next.
Pain spread through my body in heavy waves while blood coated the front of my shirt and marble scraped against my knees every time I tried forcing myself back upright. None of it mattered.
Every thought inside my head stayed fixed on Emerald. Whether she was crying. Whether she thought I abandoned her. Whether she blamed herself for any of this. That thought filled me with enough rage to keep moving long after my body should have quit.
One of the guards grabbed my hair and forced my head upward while another drove his fist directly into my ribs again. Something cracked sharply beneath the impact. Breathing instantly became harder after that.
Malrik finally crossed the room toward me then, stepping carefully around the blood spreading across the marble floor.
“You know,” he said calmly while adjusting the sleeve of his suit jacket, “Lucien used to talk about your tolerance for pain like it was something impressive.”
Blood slid from my mouth onto the floor beneath me.
“He was wrong.” I laughed again despite the blood choking the sound halfway through.
Malrik crouched in front of me, studying the damage across my face with detached amusement.
“No,” he corrected quietly. “You were never strong because you could survive pain. You were strong because you convinced yourself you deserved it.”
Anger crawled beneath my skin hard enough to sharpen everything around me. I lunged forward instantly. A guard slammed me back down hard enough for the side of my face to strike marble. Bright light burst across my vision while blood smeared beneath my cheek.
Malrik sighed softly.
“There he is. ”
Another kick landed across my ribs. Another fist cracked against my mouth.
Eventually the violence stopped feeling separate.
The pain blurred together into one constant burning ache spreading through my entire body while blood soaked through my shirt and dripped steadily from my split lip onto the floor.
One of the guards eventually hauled a chair into the center of the room. They wanted me watching.
Hatred twisted violently inside my chest while they dragged me across the marble floor and forced me into the chair hard enough for wood to groan beneath the impact.
Leather restraints tightened around my wrists until circulation burned through my hands while another strap locked across my chest to keep me pinned against the backrest.
I jerked violently against them. The chair legs screeched across the floor. A fist slammed across my jaw hard enough to stop the movement.
“Hold him still!”
Somebody grabbed my face roughly while another tore a strip of black tape free with a sharp ripping sound.
Realization hit instantly. Rage followed immediately after.
I fought harder then. Hard enough for the chair to nearly tip sideways.
Hard enough for one of the guards to curse while trying to hold me down.
Malrik watched the entire thing with calm amusement.
“That mouth of yours has always been a problem.”
The tape sealed across my mouth brutally, pulling against split skin while blood remained smeared along my jaw.
Another strip wrapped tighter over the first until speaking became impossible.
Not that they cared whether I could breathe comfortably.
They only cared that I stayed silent. Malrik stepped back then. Satisfied.
The room around us still looked mostly untouched at that point. No flowers lined the aisles yet. No candles burned near the altar. Staff members moved quickly throughout the chapel carrying arrangements inside while others adjusted seating beneath the towering stained-glass windows.
They were building the wedding around me. Making me sit there helpless while every piece came together. Hatred burned so violently through me I nearly snapped one of the restraints trying to get free.
Music drifted faintly through the room while workers hurried to finish preparations.
White flowers slowly covered the altar piece by piece.
Candles appeared next. Gold fabric draped across chairs.
Crystal glasses reflected warm lighting while servers moved quietly carrying trays of champagne between guests beginning to arrive inside the estate. Every second of it felt fucking sick.
Malrik remained nearby through all of it, occasionally giving instructions to staff members while his guards stayed positioned around me to make sure I remained exactly where he wanted. Humiliated. Helpless. Forced to watch.
Time stopped feeling real after a while.
Pain settled deeper into muscle and bone while blood dried against my skin beneath the tape stretched tightly across my mouth.
One eye had swollen enough to blur part of my vision while my ribs burned every time I breathed.
None of it compared to what waited for me once the chapel doors finally opened.
Everything inside me stopped the second I saw her.
Emerald stood at the entrance wearing white.
The dress wrapped around her body like something out of a dream.
Soft lace clung against her skin while diamonds rested around her throat and wrists, catching the candlelight every time she moved.
Her hair fell over one shoulder in loose waves though strands had already slipped free from crying.
She looked breathtaking. She looked devastated.
Her eyes found mine. Tears filled them instantly the second she saw the condition I was in.
Fuck…
That expression nearly destroyed me. Not fear. Not disgust. Pain. Pure fucking pain.
Emerald took a step toward me before one of Malrik’s guards gently redirected her toward the altar instead.
Her eyes never fully left mine while she walked down the aisle.
Tears continued slipping silently down her cheeks while blood stained the front of my shirt and the restraints cut deeper into my wrists every time I tried pulling free.
The priest began speaking somewhere near the altar, but the roaring inside my head drowned most of it out.
All I could see was Emerald standing beside Malrik looking completely hollowed out from the inside.
Her hands trembled. Every few seconds her eyes drifted back toward me like she needed reassurance I was still alive .
The priest eventually reached the vows. Malrik turned toward Emerald and reached for her hands.
Rage exploded through me so violently the chair nearly tipped backward when I lunged against the restraints again.
A guard shoved me down immediately while another grabbed my shoulder hard enough to bruise.
Emerald flinched at the sound. Malrik smiled.
Then somebody dropped.
One of the guards positioned near the chapel entrance collapsed onto the marble floor with a sickening crack before anyone fully understood what happened. The room froze.
One second passed…Two…
Then gunfire exploded through the chapel.
Screams erupted instantly afterward while another guard dropped beside the first. Bullets shattered stained glass windows across the walls while guests scrambled in every direction trying to escape.
Candles toppled onto flower arrangements.
Bodies crashed through pews while blood sprayed across white marble floors beneath the chaos.
The entire room detonated into violence. Emerald ran toward me. Her dress dragged across bloodstained marble while gunfire ripped through the chapel around us. Guests screamed and shoved past each other trying to escape toward the exits while Malrik’s guards reached for weapons too late.
A man grabbed Emerald’s arm before a knife buried itself through the side of his throat so fast I barely tracked the movement .
Mira.
She moved through the room like something carved from violence itself. One second she stood near the chapel entrance beside Roman. The next somebody hit the floor bleeding out at her feet.