Page 37 of Conquer

Then I’m already halfway to the terrace door, my fingers grasping at the handle. My first fully coherent thought is to run to the stable. Warn Vadim.

And I don’t even see the blow coming.

A force slams into me from behind, and I go down hard, landing on my side in the shadow of the dining table. Dazed, I turn, scrambling for purchase over the flooring. I only catch a glimpse of silver, flashing through the air before…

Pain!

It’s so sharp and all-consuming I can’t breathe. The air leaves my lungs, my body drained of everything but fiery agony centered around my left shoulder. Again. Again.

A distant thudding registers with the remaining logical part of my brain—pairing the sickening sound with that of a butcher, plunging a blade into a hunk of meat. Stabbing through it.

I can’t move.

I can’t even scream.

But my only coherent thought is of Vadim.

And Magda.

God, I can sense them, tramping across the terrace, their laughter raucous as my attacker retreats. I hear Magda first, her tiny voice high-pitched with excitement. “Can we have pizza again?”

“Of course,” Vadim says, sounding closer. “Go get washed up—”

“Don’t!” It takes everything I have to claw at the floor and drag myself behind the counter and out of view. “Vadim, don’t let her in!”

Silence falls with the swiftness of a candle being blown out. Or maybe I’m just losing consciousness? Either way, I feel like I’m hearing everything as if from underwater, muffled, and distant.

“Chérie,” Vadim says, his voice garbled. “I left my…at…stable…go fetch for me?”

A heartbeat later, heavy footsteps rush to my side, and I sense warm fingers prodding my forehead. “Look at me,” Vadim urges in a tone so hoarse it makes my heart ache. “Look at me!”

But I can’t.

My vision is already blurring, darkening around the edges…

Until I can’t see anything at all.