The invisible pressure around my throat tightened. My vision blurred as I struggled for air, Conrad Thornton's cold eyes watching me with clinical detachment. The room's excited murmurs faded beneath the thundering of blood in my ears.
"St-stop," I managed to choke out. "Liam... Knight..."
Conrad's eyes flashed dangerously. His hand snapped forward, releasing the pressure on my throat only to connect with my face in a brutal slap that sent me crashing to my knees.
"You dare speak his name to me?" Conrad snarled, looming over me. "As if invoking him would save you?"
I tasted blood, my cheek burning from the impact. The assembled elites of Havenwood had gone deathly quiet, their earlier eagerness to witness my punishment replaced by genuine terror at Conrad's explosive reaction.
