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“Come on. Let’s go.” Getting to her feet, she herded me out of the room.
I secured a blanket around me and stepped out into the corridor outside. My bare feet stepped on warm, slippery blood that coated the white marble floor. Corpses lay scattered along the length of the entire hallway.
Lilja easily stepped around them with the same air as avoiding dog poo in a park.
I, on the other hand, couldn’t help but count the bodies around me. Several men gazed lifelessly at me, their corpses laying still. Yakim hadn’t spared a single man. The memory of him and the two long, slim blades in his hands rose in my mind. His every move was made with the intent to kill.
More than a dozen men lay dead at my feet. There had to be more who’d lost their lives in other parts of the manor.
It was surreal to imagine I was the reason behind this carnage. Callum sent them to get me. Guilt and bitterness washed over me, erasing the warm feelings Yakim left me with.
“Lucia! Hey!” Lilja’s loud voice broke through the haze in my mind. She was already at the end of the hallway. “They’re all dead. There’s nothing you can do for them. Just hurry over here.”
I wanted to avert my gaze from the corpses but it was impossible to do so without stepping on them. An icy chill spread through me as I kept walking through the puddles of blood.
“Remind me to get a count here,” Lilja said as she guided me down a staircase. “I want to see if I surpassed Yakim’s numbers.”
“You mean the number of people he killed?”
“Don’t let it bother you,” she said, navigating through the third-floor landing. “He’s not the bad guy here. Your brother’s the one who attacked our home. Yakim would be dead if he didn’t kill them first.”
The memory of the man who shot at us earlier rose to the surface of my mind. If Yakim didn’t take him down, he’d be the one dead and I’d be drowning in greater guilt and grief.
Lilja couldn’t imagine the guilt I suffered after Callum erased Yakim’s existence from my life. The sight of dead men and all this blood was disturbing but I was glad Yakim and his brothers survived this attack.
More corpses littered the third floor. I looked toward Lilja, wondering if she was responsible for them all.
The Volkov family was truly astounding. I still couldn’t believe I’d found my way into a den of such lethal assassins.
“Get over here,” Lilja called out, gesturing at me wildly. The corpses surrounding us may well have been part of the décor. They didn’t bother her one bit.
I hurried over to her, struggling to stop my mind from overthinking.
“Here,” said Lilja, throwing open a pair of tall, wooden doors and shoving me forward. “This is my room.”
Calling the place “room” was an understatement. It looked more like a lavish suite from a palace.
Stepping further inside, I noted the bedroom nook that housed a massive four-poster bed with soft lavender silk sheets and a mound of matching throw pillows.
There were comfortable couches and an elegant chaise lounge in the sitting area. All the curtains and furniture were a shade of lavender or lilac.
Lilja led me toward a pair of mahogany doors and opened them, revealing a massive wardrobe.
“Choose what you like,” she said. “We’re about the same height, so that wouldn’t be a problem.” Moving closer, she poked at my belly. “You’re all curves and fluff,” she commented with a chuckle. “Try some of my baggy sweaters and sweatshirts. They should fit you fine.”
My cheeks warmed with embarrassment. My body was on the slimmer side but it did look like “fluff” when compared to her uber-fit and toned physique.
Turning my attention onto the racks, I found that almost all the clothing Lilja owned was black. I stepped further in, brushing my hand against some luxurious shawls and elegant satin gowns.
Even Lilja’s sense of fashion was as unique as she was.
Callum forbade me from ever wearing black.Black’s only fit to be worn at a funeral, he’d say. He preferred I wore boring pastels in shades of pink and blue.
“I can choose anything?” I muttered to myself.
“Maybe stay away from the leathers,” Lilja said with a thoughtful expression. “Those took me years to collect.”
I chuckled. She could keep her leather stuff to herself.
