Page 143 of To Catch A Rogue
There’d been many moments in the last couple of weeks when his conditioning had begun to shatter. Painfully. She’d been there through all of those moments.
The buzzing started in his ears.
Soon his nose would start bleeding. He had to finish this before he shattered.
A man reining a horse in hard. Laughter. Looking back at him. "Come now, Dima! Think you can keep up?"
He forced himself to grit his teeth against it.
Not now.
"Ah, pistols!" Sergey called as a servant brought them forward on a silver platter. The man opened each pistol to show there was a bullet locked in each chamber.
Obsidian nodded as the man handed him the one on the right. Most of the time the court dueled with regular bullets. It would take an impressive shot to down a blue blood with one of them, but Sergey had served in the army.
He couldn’t see the bullet in the pistol he’d chosen—there was a white spot right in the center of his vision—but he trusted Gemma when she gave him the nod.
"Ten paces apart." Sergey’s friend gave them the rules. "When I call it, you turn, aim, fire. There will be no excuses for turning early."
There were other words, but they faded into the buzzing in his ears.
Obsidian nodded, ignoring Gemma’s white face.
There was no way out of this but forward.
"I warn you," Obsidian said, his tongue feeling numb. "I don't miss."
Sergey's smile held edges that screamed at him and cut through his memory like a knife.That smile. "Neither do I."
The center of the ballroom was cleared, and they stood back to back.
"One pace!" Sergey’s friend called. "Two!"
Obsidian took a step. Then another.
Each step in time to the ragged beat of his heart.
He eased his breath in and out, trying to control it. Years as an assassin brought a tide of calm, even as hot blood dripped down his lip.
"Nine… Ten… Turn!"
It was the assassin who turned, his pistol lifting smoothly.
He couldn’t see Sergey’s chest, just the white spot, but he focused in upon it, blocking out everything as he squeezed the trigger.
Pain struck him in the left pectoral, an inch from his heart.
But blood exploded from the direct center of Sergey's chest and his body slammed backwards, striking the floor.
The splatter of blood all over his chest was not normal for a blue blood.
Sergey didn't move.
Obsidian lowered the pistol, his ears ringing from the retort. The court stayed still. Silent.
And then a woman screamed.
One of the duchesses beside Gemma clapped her hands to her mouth. "Krov' svyatogo."
