When Dmitri caught sight of me, the emotionless mask slipped from his face. I swallowed as his gaze held my own, a dark intensity swirling in his eyes.
The moment he spotted the chains wrapped around my body, the tendons on his arms jutted out from his skin. And when a guard shoved me forward, Dmitri’s fingers dug into his palm so deeply that I wouldn’t have been surprised if it drew blood.
Before I hadn’t been able to hear the Pakhan’s and Dmitri’s conversation over the chatter of the crowd. But I certainly heard Dmitri’s next words.
“What the fuck is going on?” he snarled, pure rage written across his face.
The Pakhan’s expression was the polar opposite of Dmitri’s. A large smile spread across his normally impassive face.
“Your final test, Dmitri.”
Icy fingers clamped around my heart as the guards pushed me towards my death.
I tried to dig my feet into the floor, but it was futile. There was no escaping my fate. Tears streamed down my face as I was marched to my demise. I wanted Dmitri’s last memories of us to be him snuggling me on the couch, and me melting into his strong arms when he’d kissed me goodbye at the apartment.
Not like this.
The guards dragged me forward, and Dmitri went to take a step towards me. The Pakhan placed a firm hand on Dmitri's shoulder and whispered something in his ear that stopped him in his tracks.
A vein on Dmitri’s neck strained against his skin, and his jaw was so tight he could’ve snapped a nut in half.
“Your final test is to kill her, Dmitri. Prove your loyalty to me.”
Pure hatred rippled over Dmitri’s face. A lesser man would’ve flinched back, but the Pakhan knew he held all the cards. If Dmitri denied him, he’d just kill him as well.
“Give up your last attachments, and I’ll make you my heir,” the Pakhan said.
Dmitri stared him down. As the silence deepened, terror suffocated me. I imagined him gutted and bleeding out on the floor….
“Do it, Dmitri,” I said. “Kill me.”
Two sets of eyes snapped to me.
Pain flashed across Dmitri’s face, but I refused to take back my words. I wouldn’t let him die because of me.
It was my turn to protect him.
“I wonder if I underestimated you, Alisa…” the Pakhan said, his eyes brushing over my face.
Finally, his expression grew dismissive. “...Doubtful.”
My fingers slid into a fist, but I refrained from the profanity laden response coursing through my mind.
The Pakhan turned back to Dmitri. “Take this knife from me and you’ll become my heir. Fail to kill her and you’ll die, too.”
At the Pakhan’s words, any lingering emotion vanished from Dmitri’s face and was replaced by that inscrutable mask.
“Let me say goodbye to her first.”
Chapter seventy-four
Alisa
Relief swarmed through me that Dmitri wasn’t going to fight this. I wanted to live more than anything, just so I could have more time with him. But I knew how this ended if he tried to defy the Pakhan.
I loved Dmitri enough to die for him.
The Pakhan shrugged and put the knife back in its sheath.
