A Shade of Kiev 2 by Bella Forrest Page A

from down the corridor.
    That scream made all my hairs stand on end. It made every nerve in my body tingle. It brought all my fury and frustration boiling to the surface.
    I couldn’t contain it any longer.
    “Elsbeth!”
    I flung my door open and raced down the corridor toward Elsbeth’s room. It was empty. The sounds were coming from Dorian’s room. I pushed his door open and inhaled sharply. Dorian had his sister pinned on the bed, a blade poised in the air, threatening to strike her. She screamed and struggled beneath his grip.
    “Stop fighting. I warn you, Elsbeth,” he hissed down at her.
    I saw red.
    Launching forward with all the force my body could muster, I threw myself against Dorian. It wasn’t my strength that sent him crashing to the floor, but my speed and the element of surprise. Before he could get to his feet again, I jumped down on top of him, knocking his head against the floor. I stamped on his back and crushed his hand against the floor with my heel. He cried out and released the dagger. I picked it up, and without a second thought, drove it right into the back of his neck.
    Dark blood splattered everywhere as his life force drained from him.
    It was only once he became still that I realized the gravity of what I’d just done. I looked at Elsbeth, and saw nothing but relief… which soon turned to panic.
    “Come with me!” she whispered urgently. Blood stained my skin, clothes and hair. She grabbed my hand. “You must leave this place before someone comes.”
    She ran to the bedside table and opened its drawer, retrieving a key. Then she caught my hand and pulled me to the edge of his room, where she moved aside a tapestry, revealing a narrow door. Opening it, she pulled me through and shut it behind us. There was a narrow staircase leading downward. It was dark, and Elsbeth ran forward with alarming speed. It was all I could do to not trip up and fall.
    After several minutes, we hit a flat surface. She gripped my hand as she pulled me forward through a series of tunnels.
    “Hurry!” she panted. “Faster!”
    We ran for what felt like almost half an hour until finally we reached another door. She pulled out a key from her cloak and opened it. We both stumbled into the sunshine of the beach. Blinded by the sun, I staggered around on the sand, trying to scan the coastline.
    “I have to leave you here now,” Elsbeth gasped.
    “What will happen to you?” I asked.
    “I’ll be all right,” she said. “But you must flee. As fast as you can! I don’t know how long I can keep his body hidden.”
    I gripped her head and planted a kiss on her rough sweaty forehead before running off along the beach, trying to keep to the trees lining the border of the beach so that I wasn’t in direct view of the mountains.
    I ran along the sand until I reached the spot where I had first arrived. I breathed out a sigh of relief to see that my boat was still moored there. I raced across the stony beach and leapt into the boat. Of course, I had no dolphins now. My only option was to grab the oars that were stored beneath the floorboards of the deck and begin rowing.
    I rowed for hours, far past the point where my arms felt like they were burning off. I forced myself to move forward until the peaks of the mountains disappeared from view. By this time, I was on the verge of passing out. The oars fell limp in my hands and I lay stretched out on my back, gazing up at the sky which was beginning to darken.
    It was becoming cold.
    I had no spare clothes—and the clothes that I had were soaked with seawater and blood. I crawled to the cabinet at the front of the boat and breathed out a sigh of relief to find a blanket there. I stripped out of my old clothes and, now completely naked, wrapped myself tightly within the blanket. Then, unable to move my aching limbs anymore, I curled up on the narrow bench in the center of the boat and closed my eyes.
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    T he sun shone down as we swam in the river. The handsome