A nearby estate guard snapped a sharp rebuke, yanking the sword pressed to the man's neck tighter. The razor-sharp edge sliced clean through skin on contact, and bright red blood trickled slowly down his neck.
"Shut your mouth! How dare you speak disrespectfully to the marquis!" The knight beside him barked sharply.
Leopold suddenly huffed a low, bitter laugh—cold, cutting, and dripping with sarcasm, like he'd just heard the most ridiculous joke in the entire world. He felt a sharp, twisting agony, as if a blade was being ground repeatedly into his heart, spread through every fiber of his body, robbing him of his breath.
He wiped the laugh off his face in an instant, leaving nothing but bone-deep frost in his eyes. "Take him back," he ordered in a gravelly, dangerous tone.
As soon as t
