Page 122 of Dangerous Promises

"This only ends one way!" Chet shouts, head shaking and eyes wide as he smiles like a madman, reveling in the chaos he's created. "Finish this here! Or all of you die!"

"Sage, come to me," Alexei says, imploring me towards him with those intense stormy gray eyes that I can't seem to ignore. Chet laughs maniacally in the background but all of it fades away as Alexei draws me into his orbit in the unspoken way that only he can. Even now there is nothing I can do against the pull he has on me.

I drop to my knees in front of him, eyes downcast on me from where he sits.

"Just finish this, princess," Alexei says, his voice smooth like a caress. "We made this promise. End this for us."

I drop my head, tears flowing freely as my silent sobs threaten to drown me.

Why does this feel so much like losing something great? Like losing something big?

All I know is that I won't survive it this time. One time was too many. Whatever Alexei and I are… whatever we had. It is different. Electric. Like a flow of current that pulses through my body just to keep my blood pumping and my body alive. Cutting it off and stopping it would be like asking my heart to stop beating.

Alexei jiggles his foot against me, and I look up at him.

"I'd rather it be me than you," Alexei says.

"I'd rather it be me," I say, whispering through the tears.

"But it isn't," Alexei says, calmly staring me down. "It's me."

His eyes are satisfied in resolve. He isn't unsure at all. He looks at me like this is the only place he wants to be even if it all ends here for him now. In the end, we did make a promise. In the end, one of us must die.

"Do this," Alexei says. His face barely moves, but I can tell it is a sad smile, a finality in which there is peace. "Finish it."

"Listen to him, Sage," Chet says, chuckling and biting his lips in frenzy.

"You shut up!" I yell, throwing my words towards him. "Just shut up."

I stay sobbing on my knees even as everyone stays quiet around me. Not Dad or Anton, Freddie, or Isla, or even Alexei right now, dare so much as to move or speak until a decision is made. Though it is silent enough to hear a pin drop, the air is filled with tension and pressure. Everybody waits for me to make my next move.

I know from experience how this must go. There is no getting out of this. And once again I am forced to finish something that I didn't mean to start.

"There's nothing else to be done, princess," Alexei says.

He knows as well as I do what must happen and his face drops in relief when I finally wipe the tears from my eyes and stand over him.

I flip the knife in my hand and stare at it, at the sharp blade, remembering just how hard you have to push to cut into flesh. Alexei is the one who taught me to cut, after all.

"Do it," Alexei says. "Just how I showed you before." I nod as I look at him. My hand shakes when I brace it on his shoulder, but still I hold him steady. I look deep into his stormy gray eyes, hoping to say everything I'm too scared to verbalize with just a single look.

Our eyes hold.

I take the knife and slide it into the flesh of his stomach.

Chapter

Fifty-Three

Sage

Chet laughs.

Isla screams.

I go silently postal.

Alexei's jaw hardens as the knife goes in, nostrils flaring with deep breaths but he doesn't react otherwise. Not enough anyway to give Chet any kind of satisfaction at his pain. My hand shakes as I let go of the knife and leave it in his stomach, covering my mouth in shock as I back away.