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I breathed through the pain. There was silence, and then I heard laughter.
My eyes snapped open, and I wish in that moment…I was blind.
Sophia laid on the ground. Lifeless. Bloodied. Her neck was torn open.
The man who once was holding onto her held his stomach and continued to howl with laughter. The others joined.
My bullet missed him.
My bullet went through Sophia’s neck.
I killed Sophia.
I killed my little princess.
I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the scene in front of me. My lips parted, and I screamed a soundless scream. My fingers dug into the dirt, and I sobbed to the moon.
My whole body quaked viciously, and I was cold…so cold…so, so cold.
The man walked toward me, but still I couldn’t stop looking at Sophia. Her tiny body was broken. I broke her.
He took the gun from my hand and hit the barrel of it into my temple. Another searing pain hit me. Blood seeped from my brow, and it dripped down the bridge of my nose and the coldness of it lingered over my dried lips. I could taste the metallic essence of it. I was soggy and shivering. My breath came out in harsh, broken panting.
Darkness clouded my vision. And from the corner of my eyes, I saw the abbey on fire. The building burned in bright red flames. Someone dragged Sophia’s limp body and threw her into the raging fires.
I could only watch.
I fell…I fell hard into the pit of darkness.
Everything hurt.
Until nothing hurt.
Silence.
“Angel.”
I was being rocked back and forth. “Shhh, Angel. I got you. You’re safe. I have you, sweet Angel.”
Lyov’s strong voice broke through my memories. I was on his lap, and he cradled me like a baby. He kissed my forehead and continued to whisper soothing words into my ears.
My whole body was shaking, and my teeth chattered together, as if I were still cold from that day.
Lyov’s arm tightened around me. He wrapped the bedsheet around us, trying to warm my shivering body. He continued to hold me like a baby, and I curled more into his embrace.
“It…was…a massacre. They came…to…destroy…us. I lost…everything. I…killed…her.”
Chapter 14
Lyov
I never knew the meaning of true horror until the moment I listened to my Angel relive her memories. The faraway look in her eyes, those silent tears running down her rosy velvet cheeks…they were my undoing.
In this moment, Maria wore her broken heart on her sleeve. My chest ached, and I felt anger, a deathly fury at the men who had a hand in destroying my Angel’s life—her innocence taken in the blink of an eye. I felt a deep, surprising need to avenge the women whose honor were taken from them before losing their lives in such a cruel way.
But the anger was only a shield of pain at Maria’s words. I felt everything she felt, and my heart clenched when she released the first agonized sob, her body shaking with each assaulting memory. My emotions turned jagged, and my insides were tight in knots.
I curled my arms around her body and pulled her into my lap, listening to the horrifying tale of how she went from a happy young lady to being kidnapped and thrown into a cage, where monsters were sneering from the outside, watching the show.
The story of beauty…to ugliness.
The world isn’t exactly beautiful. But there are some people who don’t deserve to be touched by the ugliness of it. Maria was one of those. She didn’t deserve this.
And I somewhat had a hand in her undoing.
I was the fucking Master behind it all. I owned The Royalist. Those men were doing what needed to be done to put money into our pockets.
I never cared where these women came from. I never cared what was being done…all I cared was that my business flourished. All I cared about was by the end of a night, I was a richer man by a few million.
I never realized that this was the nightmare. That I was unknowingly breaking so many innocent souls.
My arms tightened around my Angel, and I closed my burning eyes. The Devil perched on my shoulders, whispering in my ears, trying to drag me down to hell again. But I shook my head. Not anymore.
This ended here. Tonight.
This fucked-up arena, the place where the Masters sat…everything was about to be burned to the ground. Only the ashes would be left, scattered to the open air.
Maria and I sat there for the longest time. Her tears eventually stopped, and her sobs turned into tiny hiccups. Her breathing was harsh against my neck. Her arms were curled around me, holding so tight.
She thought of me as her shield. Her protector. Her savior. Yet I was none of that. It made me sick. What a cruel fate.
“…Maria,” I said, my voice coming out in a hoarse whisper. I cleared my throat, the emotions heavy there.
