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“Go to sleep,” is all he says.
My heart plummets, and as I settle back against him, a coldness trickles through my gut that keeps me from pressing the issue.
Something happened.
I know it has.
Something that Kristof can’t even talk about yet.
What on earth went down with my father?
6
KRISTOF
Leaving Alena is the last thing I want to do, but every second I remain in bed with her is a second the mole could be passing vital information to the enemy.
She sleeps soundly against me, her beautiful face free from any hints of pain or worry. I want her entire life to be like this, and for that to happen, I need to act and I need to do it with all the information.
I can’t afford any more painful deaths.
Alena asks about Nastja and Ivan, but the truth doesn’t come out. The words strangle me from the inside like I’ve swallowed pounds of barbed wire. If I don’t tell her, then it’s not real.
We can live in a fantasy where they still live.
Pressing my lips to her temple, I gently ease Alena out of my arms and onto the sheets. She shuffles and rocks against me but ultimately latches onto the pillows and curls around them instead. Kissing her shoulder, I pull the sheets over her naked body and slip silently from the bed.
Basked in soft moonlight, she’s picture-perfect, and the crushing pain of grief in my chest eases a fraction as I watch her sleep.
I love her.
And I will kill everyone who threatens her.
Slipping on a black robe from the door, I apply light pressure to the door handle to open it and slip out into the hall. Andrev is on his feet immediately, one hand on his weapon.
“What is it?” he demands, rising from his wall of rest. “Is everything okay?”
“Yes,” I assure him with a wave, keeping my voice low. “Watch her.”
Andrev nods and slips into the bedroom like a shadow. He lingers near the wall as I close the door, a silent guardian to the most precious thing in my life.
He’s different. I suppose we all are. Battle has frayed the nerves and worried the senses, and I see it in every single man and woman I pass on the way down the hall. People are jumpy and alert, lacking sleep we all desperately need and yet can’t snatch. I lost my brother and sister, but I also lost countless guards and staff in that massacre.
None of them can be replaced, and it’s clear that Aleksander is willing to kill everyone to get what he wants.
At least we share that motive.
Darting eyes track me through the house, and hands linger close to the weapon of every guard I pass down the stairs. August really did provide smothering security, but I am not complaining. I’ve lost enough and have so precious little left to protect that I will take it all.
Still, I don’t pull out my phone until I’m two floors down in the study, with only the sparkle of moonlight and the occasional hoot of an owl for company,
There, I glance at the clock and then dial Alexei’s number. Contact is a huge risk, and the window of time to talk to him is minimal at best.
But I need to know what he knows and I need to hear it from his lips.
“Hello?” Alexei answers in a hushed whisper. I recline back in a leather seat, tuck my ankles up into the window sill, and stare across the gardens to the mountain looming over our house.
“It’s me.”
