By the time we hit first switchback, it’s wide enough for two to walk side by side, and the landing has a small bench tucked out of sight from the road far below.
Dimitri pauses, ordering Anton to bend down and tie his unlaced boot. I take this opportunity to enjoy the cool breeze from the water and observe the island.
In the distance, I spot the old resort. Or at least what’s left of the burned foundations, collapsed roofs, and vine-covered ruins. Still, the shapes remain, matching my memories.
The restaurant. The hotel. Dots of structures that used to be separate cabins. And of course, the beach.
There’s the path where I found Mom’s body. The bushes have grown tall and wild, surrounded by a jungle that creeps closer every year.
Dimitri glances back and spies where I’m staring. He smiles, teeth blinding white against his bruised skin. “Where we first met. That day is one of the happiest of my life. But we have to keep moving. Not much farther, Boss.” The endearment has become a mockery, reminding me of every lie I believed without question.
I spin away from the view of my past, not wanting to confront the memory of the scared, grieving girl struggling to deal with the trauma of her mother’s death.
Up, up, and up the stony stairs she climbed…
The words surface unbidden in mydedushka’svoice, a man who loved me unconditionally. I recall the line from one of the stories he would tell me at bedtime about a princess climbing stone stairs up a mountain. She searched for treasure—or maybe magic—that would help her father strengthen hiskingdom so much that no outsiders would ever dare to attack or invade.
Of course, the princess’s story had a happy ending, because that’s what children’s stories do.
“Up, up, and up the stony stairs she climbed. And behind green vines, with the glittering blue sea stretched out behind her, the stone door appeared…”
I was so enthralled with the story that I’d asked my father if it was true. He’d laughed and shaken his head.
But I still rememberdedushka’sface behind my father’s back and that knowing smile. And I’d always wondered.
Now, on the stone stairs, surrounded by vines, I have to ask myself that question again.
Was the story real? A fairy-tale version of reality?
Or a hidden secret like the one we sent to that archivist, Paige?
Did she and the other women go through similar experiences when I used them? If so, I deserve every moment of this captivity and more. I’m nearly as bad as Dimitri.
Okay, maybe I’m not that bad. I’d still rather throw myself off a cliff than fuck a half-sibling.
But if the story was about something real, how would Dimitri know?
Then I remember. When I was a child, coloring at his table as part of my therapy to “get all the bad memories out,” I’d told him the storydedushkatold me.
I recounted so many others.
Dimitri knows every secret from my past, probably even ones I’ve long forgotten. Final proof that all his actions were a means to an end.
I lift a foot, put it down, and stumble.
There’s no next step. The stone ahead of me lies flat, running all the way to a vine-covered cliff face that rises toward the sky.
Confused, I glance around. The six goons have spread around this open space. To the east and west, the sky is open. We’ve traveled far above the canopy.
Behind green vines, with the glittering blue sea stretched out behind her…
It’s real.
It’s actually real.
Yakov and Sly drift aside as Dimitri comes for me.
“It’s finally time.” His fingers dip under the neckline of my sweater, and I brace myself for whatever comes next.
