The next instant, his hand smashed through the wall—wood splintered, bricks cracked, and a startled gasp was cut short. The assassin's hand wrapped around the Baron's neck like a vice, yanking him clean through the shattered wall.
The impact was brutal. Bones cracked—ribs, shoulder, probably part of the spine. The Baron's body hit the stone ground like a discarded sack of meat. Blood spurted from a gash along his side of his gut.
The assassin loomed over him.
A tall figure, dressed in shadowy armor, his presence suffocating. Black eyes burned with malice, a twisted hunger hidden beneath their cold surface. He tilted his head slightly, voice lilting with a mockery that crawled under the Baron's skin.
"Now~ now~ Baron," the assassin whispered, almost playfully. "What do we have here? A very happy little family…"
He looked past the man, through the gaping hole in the wall, where the Baron's wife and two children stood frozen in horror.
