A tear slips from the corner of his eye and disappears into his hair.
“I love them,” he whispers. “I love them so much it hurts my soul knowing they’re out there somewhere scared.”
My chest cracks open.
Stefano swallows hard, pain flashing across his face.
“Mia is yours,” he says. “Olivia is yours. But they’re mine too. They’re my family. Our family.”
I bow my head.
For one second, I can’t look at him.
Because if I do, I may break in a way I don’t have time to survive.
His fingers tighten around mine.
“Please,” he breathes. “Bring our family home.”
I lift my eyes to his.
My brother.
My twin.
The softer half of us who has bled and nearly died trying to protect the people I love.
The people we love.
I bend and press my forehead to his.
“I will,” I whisper. “I swear it on everything I am.”
His breath shudders.
“And Mav?”
I pull back just enough to see him.
His eyes are closing again, but he forces them open.
“Make him pay.”
A cold kind of certainty settles inside me.
“Yes,” I promise. “You have my word.”
Then I walk out of my brother’s hospital room and toward the war I should have been fighting all along.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Livy
Mama won’t wake up.
I hate that.
I hate it more than the dark basement.
