Page 336 of Eight of Swords, Part Two

‘They—they are alive,’ he pants. ‘They are not harmed. Please just—’

But him confirming this means he was involved.

Betrayal is a shadow underwater.

Lachlan never saw it coming.

Something inside him dies.

‘You should’ve killed me.’

‘I… I love you. Please let me explain!’

Darkness decides for him.

The simplicity of devastation makes the choice.

Only death will suffice.

Lachlan hits him again and again, targeting what’ll break best, what’ll hurt most, delivering the honourless death his best friend chose.

Danya Yashin doesn’t even fight back.

‘You’re going to die for what you did,’ Lachlan tells him, hands around his throat again, this time positioning them with lethal intent.

To kill.

One dark brown eye finds him through the blood.

‘I know,’ Danya whispers, tears spilling.

Lachlan kills him.

He strangles the life out of him.

It takes minutes, or years.

Then he’s moving.

Then he’s downstairs.

Then there are people he doesn’t know.

And Blaire.

Blaire.

He hits her in the face.

And Vasily is crying, he’s saying things Lachlan cannot hear because he sounds too much like Danya. Lachlan pushes him aside.

His own people shoot him up with something.

They sedate him.

Dark, dark, dark.

Back in the water, no more pretending to be human.