NIKOLAI

I had a half-dead woman in my arms and an itch in the back of my throat.

“Who is she?” Igor asked with an air of mischief I was accustomed to, and I turned to glare at the roguish-looking man with a smirk playing on his purple lips.

“I haven't the faintest idea Igor, prepare the horses, we’re going back to my Stone city castle.” I breathed over my shoulder at my best man, letting my eyes roam over the woman’s bare neck, the thin gold chain of a necklace caught my eye.

It was the same kind I had stretched in a tight ring around my neck. The...