AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I could have laughed at that. Miroslav was no saint, I knew, but after the carnage from that afternoon, it was hard to imagine anyone thinking Borislav was an improvement. “And your tsar is so much better.”
She straightened her spine at that. Never one to back down from a fight, my Sofia. Or, not mine. Someone else’s. Possibly not even Sofia. She’d lied about everything else, why not her name?
“Borislav doesn’t kill innocents.”
By the Blood, she sounded so sure of herself. I could picture Lady Yelena, though. The look of terror on her face as she’d fallen through the floor of the throne room. She’d been expecting her first child. Lord Kazimir, abusive bastard that he was, would have been a terrible father. But Lady Yelena was a sweet girl. An innocent. She hadn’t deserved to die like that. She hadn’t deserved to die at all. “Doesn’t he?” I asked coldly. “I’m sure Lady Yelena would be happy to hear that. As would Count Andrej and the dowager tsarina.” And all the other victims in the throne room.
I saw the blood drain from Sofia’s face and instantly regretted my words. I hadn’t meant to frighten her. “What do they have to do with this?” she asked.
Regretful or not, I couldn’t stop the next hateful words from leaving my mouth. “Why don’t you ask your husband? I’m sure he knows all about the carnage your tsar wreaked in the palace.”
“Where is Lady Yelena?” Her usually husky voice bordered on shrill.
“She’s dead. Along with her husband, Tsar Miroslav, and nearly a dozen other nobles killed at the hand of the man you call tsar. Tell me, Sofia, what crime did the grand duchesses commit to deserve death?”
“No.”
I laughed humorlessly. “You don’t believe me? No, of course you don’t. I’m the villain here, just another mindless follower of Miroslav the monster.”
“I never thought that!”
“No? You didn’t use me? Didn’t take advantage of my position in Lord Kazimir’s household? Didn’t pass on the information I shared with you to your husband and your tsar?” When she didn’t respond, I scoffed. “That’s what I thought.”
She was silent for a moment. When she spoke, I had to strain to hear her. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”
What game was she playing? I couldn’t look at her. “What did you think would happen?” She’d used me, broken my heart, and now that I was captured, imprisoned, she came to say she didn’t mean it. “What did you want?”
“I wanted to go home!” Her outburst surprised me, and my gaze was pulled to her face like a magnet. “I wanted my husband not to be branded a traitor. I wanted to raise my son. I wanted to live somewhere I didn’t have to fear for everyone I loved. I wanted to live a quiet life with my family. But Kazimir and Miroslav took that away from me. Miroslav crippled my husband. Kazimir killed my son. They turned my home into a battleground. So yes, Alexey, I went to court to spy on Miroslav. And yes, I passed on what you told me. But I didn’t mean to hurt you, and I certainly didn’t mean to fall in love with you.” She gasped out the last words, clinging to the wood of my cell to keep her upright.
I stared at her, processing everything she’d said. Her husband, a crippled traitor. A commander in Borislav’s army. Father’s Blood, she was married to the Survivor of Barbezht. The man who’d negotiated the Drakra alliance. I’d seen him that afternoon, next to Borislav in the throne room. He’d looked appalled at what was happening, but he hadn’t done anything to stop it, either. Of course, it wasn’t like anyone unSanctioned could stand against the Sanctioned. Not if they wanted to live.
Lord Kazimir had killed her son. I hadn’t known that she had a son. She wouldn’t have told me, but I wished I’d known. I could have—I didn’t know what I could have done. But I wished I’d known. It explained why she’d been trying to poison the baron. She’d wanted to protect Lady Yelena and her child from Kazimir. There had been times I’d wanted to kill the abusive bastard myself, but Sofia had actually tried. Not just to help her tsar win the war, but to avenge her loss and stop others from facing the same horrors.
And she’d fallen in love with me. I turned that thought over in my head, examining it. It could be another lie, I knew, but what would be the point? Why tell a prisoner, one likely to die soon, that she loved him?
I looked over at her. She leaned against the wall of the cell, tears streaming down her face. She was so fragile. She needed me. I would regret this, but I reached out and brushed a tear from her cheek.
“I did,” I told her softly. She looked up at me, and I was surprised to feel my own eyes fill with tears. “I meant to fall in love with you.”
She let out a sob that shattered whatever part of my heart wasn’t already hers. “Alexey, I—”
I cut her off with a finger to her lips. “I told you I didn’t care how long I had with you, that every moment was a blessing. I lied.” I took a deep breath to steady myself. My hand moved tothe scarf on her head, and I slipped a finger under the edge. “I want every moment of the rest of your life. I want to help you move on from whatever happened before me, and I want to protect you from whatever comes next.” I pulled the scarf off, relishing the sight of her beautiful rows of braids. I hated myself for whatever part I’d played in causing her pain. But I hated the Survivor of Barbezht even more, for sending her to court to spy for Borislav. He’d sent his wife into danger. If she hadn’t escaped, she could have been tortured, even executed. My next words were little more than a snarl. “And I don’t want to send you back to the bastard of a husband who sent you to court to do his dirty work.”
I couldn’t restrain myself any longer. I kissed her, pouring every emotion I’d felt over the last week into that kiss. I unleashed all my fear, anger, betrayal, hurt, holding her in place with a hand on the back of her head. She didn’t pull back, though, and she kissed me just as fiercely. I silently cursed the cell that held me, wishing I could run my hands over her body.
Too soon, always too soon, I pulled back. “Don’t go, Sofia,” I whispered against her lips. She was still crying. My face was wet with tears, and I didn’t know if they were hers or mine.
“Mila,” she said in a breathless voice. I searched her eyes, trying to parse out the meaning of the word. “My name is Mila Dmitrievna.”
Fuck. She hadn’t wanted me to kiss her. I dropped her and took a step back. She wanted me to remember who she was, really. Another man’s wife. I schooled my features into a cool disinterest. “My apologies, Mila Dmitrievna.”
“Alexey, no.” She reached for my hand, and I let her take it, too confused to pull back. “I didn’t mean to feel what I do for you. I’m married.”
“Yes, you’ve said that.” Was she deliberately trying to hurt me?
“I thought he was dead.” She stopped, swallowed hard, and went on. “But he’s not. And when I found out he was alive, I had already fallen in love with you.” She shook her head. “I just wanted to know that you knew me, not Sofia.”
“I do,” I said, confused. Then I shrugged. “Or I thought I did.”
