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I have.
With one quick arc, I plunge my knife into the soldier’s throat and twist. The blade grinds against bones and hot blood spurts over my fingers and down my wrist. He gurgles and chokes, sinking down in his chair like a deflated balloon.
Nikandr would have kept this man alive. He would have tortured him for days—weeks, if necessary—to get the answers we need.
But Nik isn’t here.
I’m the only one left.
3
LUNA
There is no window in my cell. Not even a peek of daylight to help me know what time it is or how long I’ve been here. The only thing that helps me mark time is when a guard arrives with a sip of water.
By the fourth swallow of water in fuck knows how many hours, I don’t care that I’m naked or cold. There is only thirst.
I claw at the cup like an animal. The guards seem to like that, the way I paw at their hands to get a drink.
I don’t care what they like. I don’t care who they are. When the fifth small glass of water is thrust through the bars of my cell, I don’t even look at who is standing on the other side. I lunge for the water and tip the glass back—only to find it empty.
I crumple to the floor, sweeping my hands on the cement in case I somehow dropped it. In case it spilled and I didn’t realize.
“I bet Yakov loved this,” a deep voice sneers. “The sight of you on your knees.”
I look up to find Akim grinning down at me.
For the first time in hours, I forget about water. I stand up and muster up the tiny amount of moisture in my mouth to spit at him. “Go fuck yourself.”
His smile widens. “You should watch your tongue. Babies can hear their mothers while they’re still in the womb. Did you know that?”
It takes a second for me to register what he’s saying. What it means.
He must be able to read the shock on my face, because he grins viciously. “Did you think I wouldn’t find out?”
“But how did you?—?”
“The same way I have you here,” he snarls. “Because I always get what I want, Luna. Always.”
A shiver works down my spine. “What are you going to do to me?”
“Be careful,” he warns. “Don’t ask questions you don’t want to hear the answer to.”
My heart races; my lungs tighten. I can’t breathe. I gasp for air, trembling all over. “Don’t do this to me.” I hate the way my voice squeaks out of me, high-pitched and terrified. But I can’t help it. “Yakov doesn’t even—He was going to leave me. We’re in a fight.”
In the few moments of clarity I’ve had since I was abducted, I came up with a plan. I’d convince Akim that Yakov doesn’t care about me. Whatever it took to get out of here.
But now…
“I hate to be reductive, darling, but you’re just the wrapping paper on the real present now.” Akim looks me over, admiring my “wrapping” with pitch black eyes. “You are carrying Yakov Kulikov’s one and only offspring. That makes you my new best friend.”
“Is it normal for you to imprison and torture your best friend?”
“Only if it furthers my plans,” he says with a lazy shrug. “I hate to break it to you, but you aren’t special. Plenty of people have died in this cell before you came along. More will follow. It’s the way of the world.”
“It doesn’t have to be.”
He arches a brow as if he’s curious, but there is no light in his eyes. “What are you proposing?”
