Chapter 29 Chapter 29
It didn't feel like a sting; it felt like a hot iron rod being driven through my left shoulder. The world tilted, the sound of the ballroom floor rushing up to meet me.
"Natalie!" Nikolai’s voice was a jagged tear in the air.
I was falling; the adrenaline was screaming in my veins, drowning out the sudden roar of the crowd. I reached down, my right hand diving under my skirt. My fingers found the hilt of my dagger, the cold stone a grounding wire for the agony blooming in my chest.
I didn't aim with my eyes; I aimed with my soul. I whipped my arm forward as I hit the marble, the black blade leaving my hand in a blur of lethal shadow. It struck the shooter dead-center of his chest, the hilt vibrating as it sank deep. He didn't even have time to fire a second shot. He just crumpled, his life leaking out onto the white stone.
Then, the world went white.
Pandemonium erupted. The "refined" guests turned into a stampede of silk and pearls, screaming as they scrambled for the exits. I saw Alistair Rhodes dragging Vivian toward the kitchen, his face a mask of cowardice. I saw Blair trip, her silver gown tearing as she was hauled away by their security. None of them looked back.
But Nikolai didn't run. He was on the floor before I could even draw a breath, his hands grabbing for me with a desperation I’d never seen. He hauled me against him, his expensive tuxedo soaking up the hot, sticky red that was ruining my emerald dress.
"Natalie! Look at me. Stay here; stay with me!" His voice was a wreck. The man who could negotiate a massacre with a smile was gone. His hands were shaking, actually shaking, as he pressed them against my wound, trying to stop the bleeding.
"Security! Get the car to the side entrance! Clear the hall or I will kill every one of you my fucking self!" he bellowed, his voice echoing off the ceiling.
I tried to speak, but the air felt like lead in my lungs. I looked up at him, and for the first time, I saw it. The mask hadn't just slipped. His eyes were wide and filled with terror so raw it made my heart ache more than my shoulder. He wasn't the man who tested me. He leaned down, his forehead pressing against mine, his breath coming in short, panicked gasps.
"Don't do this," he whispered, a broken sound that was meant for no one but me. He tucked his face into the crook of my neck, his voice dropping so low it was barely a vibration against my skin.
"Please... Isla."
The name hit me harder than the bullet. He didn't say Natalie. He called for the girl that was sold to him. He called for me.
"Isla, stay with me. Please, my brave, beautiful girl. Just keep your eyes open," he whispered.
I felt a warm and heavy tear drop onto my cheek. Nikolai Ferro was crying. The king of the underworld, the man who saw people as disposable assets, was falling apart because I was bleeding.
"I've got you," he rasped, his voice thick with a panic he couldn't hide anymore. "I’m not letting you go. Not like this. Never like this."
He scooped me up, his arms locking around me like iron bands. He didn't wait for his men to reach us. He started running, his boots thudding against the marble, his chest heaving as he carried me through the chaos. Every time my eyes flickered shut, he’d jar me, his voice a frantic prayer in my ear.
"Isla. Stay. Stay for me."
As we hit the cool night air and the rain began to wash the blood from my face, I realized the cold front had never been real. The test hadn't been about whether I was a good weapon. It had been his way of trying to convince himself he didn't care.
He jumped me into the back of the SUV, holding me against his heart as if he could breathe his own life into me. The ride home was a blur of lights, rain, and panic. I remember the weight of his hand on my face, his voice cracking as he begged me to stay awake, and then nothing. The world just blinked out, like a candle being snuffed.
When I finally opened my eyes, I was in my bed. The room was dim, and my left shoulder was throbbing, wrapped tight in heavy bandages that smelled of antiseptic.
I tried to sit up; a hiss of pain escaped my teeth. My head was spinning and the room tilted, but it wasn't the pain that fully woke me up. No. It was the noise from downstairs; a sound rose up that made the hair on my arms stand on end.
It wasn't just shouting; it was a roar, a raw, animalistic sound of pure, unadulterated rage that vibrated through the floorboards and settled deep in my bones, and I knew who it was.
Nikolai.
I forced my legs out of bed, my feet hitting the cold hardwood. I was still wearing the emerald slip from under my dress, now stained with dark, dried patches of my own blood. I didn't care; I grabbed a silk robe, throwing it over my shoulders as I stumbled toward the door. Every step felt like a mile, but the sound of his fury was like a magnet, pulling me toward the balcony.
I reached the top of the grand staircase and froze. The living room beneath me looked like a slaughterhouse. The white rugs were ruined, soaked through with fresh, jagged streaks of red. Dead bodies were on the floor surrounding him, and four of Nikolai’s own elite security team were on their knees in the center of the room, their heads bowed, shaking so hard I could hear their teeth chattering from across the hall.
And in the middle of it all stood Nikolai. He had stripped off his tuxedo jacket. His white shirt was torn at the shoulder and splattered with blood, and his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows. In his hand, he gripped a heavy iron poker from the fireplace.
But it was his face that stopped my heart. This wasn't the man who had whispered my name in the rain. This wasn't the man who had held me like I was made of glass.
This was Hades.
His eyes were two pits of black fire, his jaw set so tight I thought the bone might snap. He looked ancient, lethal, and completely terrifying. This was the man the world whispered about in dark corners. The man who ruled the underworld with an iron fist and a heart of stone.
"I gave you one job!" Nikolai roared, his voice echoed in the room. He slammed the iron poker into the coffee table, shattering it into a million pieces that sprayed across the floor.
"One! Protect her! And you let someone put a fucking bullet in her shoulder?" he roared.