Page 89 of Unholy Tsar

Shit. This better work.

32

MAKSIM

The excruciating pain is the first thing I’m aware of when I wake up.

What the hell happened?

Turning my head, I try to make sense of it all, but the world swims around me. A clanking sound rattles through my skull and rough voices pierce my eardrums.

Slowly, I realize I’m on a stretcher. Men flank my sides as I’m pulled down a hallway.

“What the fuck?” I groan.

Just like that, we stop. The stretcher is dropped to the floor with a bone-jarring impact, sending another blast of pain ripping through me.

“Nice of you to finally wake up and join the party, little brother.”

That voice.

Suddenly, it all comes rushing back to me.

Vera. She’s still alive. So is Viktor.

Cecilia.

“What are you doing?” I grumble, trying to sit up. It’s even harder than I expected, and I have to shut my eyes and grimace the whole way up. When I manage to open them again, half a dozen gun barrels stares back at me, framing the face of my long-lost sister, a twisted glee lifting her lips.

“I wouldn’t make any sudden movements if I were you,” she warns. “My men can be so trigger-happy, and then what will happen to your little Cecilia?”

“Don’t you fucking say her name,” I growl. My heart starts hammering, each beat like a battering ram against my aching skull.

Cecilia is with Viktor. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

Vera raises her hands in mocking surrender. “All you have to do is follow me quietly, and she’ll be fine. For now.”

“Why are you doing this? What do you want?”

She glowers at me and takes a threatening step forward. “Everything you have, traitor.”

“Traitor?”

“Stop pretending like you didn’t leave us to die in that house. You betrayed us, and while you flourished overseas, we suffered. But now our suffering is over. Unfortunately, yours has just begun.”

“I never betrayed you, Vera. What the hell are you talking about? You and Viktor almost got me killed with your reckless greed. You were dead! I almost died!”

She rolls her eyes, disgust etched across her face. “Moron. That night was a test… which you failed woefully. You woke up in a burning house. Your family strewn around you. But you didn’t even think to save your siblings. If you had, we’d all be royalty by now. Instead, it’s come to this.”

My heart trips, and I sway on my feet, feeling the room dissolve into a dizzying haze. My very foundation seems to be crumbling. “What do you mean it was a test?”

She explains it all to me, and with every word, confusion gives way to anger.

“All that scheming. For what?” A fierce pounding ache starts up from the back of my skull and spreads around my head. “You nearly ended our bloodline. Threw it all away. For what? You could have lost your lives.” Our parents did lose their lives.

“No thanks to you,” she says with vitriol. “But enough chit-chat. We need to keep moving.” She nods at the men and kicks away the stretcher. A gun is pressed at my back as I’m led further down the hallway.

I try to walk as slowly as possible, searching for any possible escape route. There must be a way out of this. And I need to find it, quick. For Cecilia’s sake.