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“We know this is a losing battle – me and Viktor and Kaztar. Someone has to kill Kazimir to make it stop. We’re doing everything we can to put him in harm’s way. Please, Lil, stop fighting me and start helping me.” The plea in his voice was as apparent as the concern in his eyes.
Releasing a breath, I nodded, and he released my wrists, straightening to his full height. He offered me a hand to help me up – the olive branch we both needed. My palm collided with his, and his muscles corded and flexed as he hauled me upright. Our blood mixed together from the cuts on our forearms, and I nearly laughed at the absurdity of the situation.
But then, I blinked, and something hot splashed against my face. My brother’s jaw slackened in a silent scream.
“Vadim!” I shrieked, stumbling into him and catching my brother as he fell to the ground. The sharp tip of an iron arrow pinged off my chest plate, but I didn’t notice or care as I lowered him to the ground, tears spilling over my face.
He coughed, misting the air with garnet. “Vadim, no, please, please, no,” I wailed, my hands scrambling across his chest as I fought against the tide of death.
“Liliana… I love you,” he managed to wheeze out.
“No, don’t you give up on me!” I screamed at him, holding pressure around his wound, careful to avoid the bolt.
“You can’t save me,” he rasped, his voice growing fainter and his evergreen eyes dimming.
“No, I love you, Vadim, you can’t leave me, not yet,” I sobbed, my tears slipping down my face and onto his chest.
Two heavy thuds shook the ground, and I glanced up to find Endre and Drazen racing toward me. Endre slid to his knees, careening to a stop at Vadim’s side and pressing his hands into Vadim’s chest.
My brother gave a weak shake of his head. “Let me go, Endre.”
Mirror tears poured down Endre’s cheeks. “I can’t lose you, too.”
“The Nighthounds are done,” Vadim coughed. “You have to kill him.”
My heart shattered into a million tiny pieces at the pain that etched both of their faces. Endre leaned down, touching foreheads with Vadim. “You were the best brother I could have asked for.”
“Me too,” I choked out, joining their little huddle. “I’m so sorry.”
“Nothing to be sorry for… so proud… of you.”
My world splintered then, and it wasn’t until Drazen hauled me backward that I realized my brother had died. The battle raged on around us, but grief pounded in my ears, drowning out all other sound.
Vadim was dead.
Sob after sob wracked my chest as I remained caught between Endre and Drazen. My vision was a swirl of red, white, and black, and I collapsed again, unable to support myself underthe massive weight of his death. I couldn’t get enough air, and what little I did was like razor blades to my lungs.
“Let’s get you away from here,” Drazen murmured finally, and I allowed him to scoop me into his arms. My head lolled back, all energy sucked from my body. We shot into the sky, Endre staying right with us as we navigated the peaks to the small camp that had been erected away from the battlefield to tend to the wounded.
Numbness had overtaken me by the time Drazen laid me on a cot inside a warm tent. The fire burning in the brazier mere feet away did nothing to chase away the chill that sank into my bones. Endre crawled behind me, wrapping himself around me as I started to shake uncontrollably.
“I’ll stay here,” he murmured to Drazen, though his words sounded distant, like they were muffled beneath water.
“Thank you. I need to get back,” Drazen replied, also sounding like an echo through the mountains.
“Stay whole,” Endre murmured, reaching out. The two clasped arms, their camaraderie solidified by my love for both of them.
I never got to tell Vadim that.
Drazen’s ocean blue eyes held an endless depth of sorrow, and he brushed the backs of his knuckles against my cheek before leaving us. I scarcely felt the touch, nor Endre’s, despite how we were positioned.
“Everything will be okay,” Endre reassured me with a gentle squeeze.
But everything was not okay.
And I wasn’t sure it would be ever again.
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