Chapter 152

NIKOLAI

Time seemed to stand still as I swung the silver sword in a neat arc, striking the stretched meat of my best friend’s neck and feeling the sword spasm in my death grip before cutting cleanly through the bone and clanging up to my shoulders against the hard rock of the dias.

My heart pounded wildly in my chest as the brightly colored room blurred in my vision for a moment before I caught the lapse and blinked everything back into focus.

The silence was so loud that my ears rang from the nothingness, not a breath, not a word, nothing but quiet. I watched Igor’s blood-spattered head roll quietly down each stone staircase until it toppled in a neat circle and stopped on the floor.

I was breathing fast, and heavily, with my fingers shaking on the hilt of the executioner sword I still held tightly in my hand and yet I couldn't manage to shake it off.

It was like a part of me had died the moment I held the blade.

My fault! It was all my fault. I had let my best man turn into a trait