Page 136 of Deadly Knight

“Goodbye, Ivan.”

And drag it until a thin line of blood swells.

“See you inAd.”

He chokes, gurgles, his hands shifting to his throat while fighting the final dredges of breath. Air.Life.

After wiping his blood off the blade and onto his prison uniform, I pocket it and step back.

His death is quick, choking on blood until slumping over, and becoming the prison’s problem to dispose of.

“Szhech' yego trup,”I instruct the guard in the hallway to burn his corpse, wanting nothing of that man left behind.

Then I leave, vowing to never return.

Dimitri isn’t backby nighttime, so I climb into bed alone, slipping beneath sheets that probably cost as much as a course’s tuition charge. At the very least, the high-priced textbooks that have no need to be so expensive.

At some point after I pass out, his arms come around my body. His skin is cool, and his hair drips water onto my bare shoulder. Whatever job he completed must have involved getting dirty, maybe even bloody, and presumably, he’s come from the shower.

“Hey.” He kisses my shoulder, pulling me tight against him. “Sorry for waking you, but it struck me how fuckin’ happy I am to have you here.”

It’s the first job he’s gone on since my return. How many nights did he crawl into this large bed alone, the sheets cool and empty, after a job completed?

“I’m glad. Everything go okay?”

“Mhm,” he hums into my skin. “We’ll talk tomorrow because there’s something I’ll need to show you. For now, back to sleep.”

At his command, sleep steals me away, his arm holding me to him tightly; where I vow to be the rest of our lives.

Since climbing into the car,Dimitri hasn’t said shit about where we’re going. He spoke very little during the drive from the mansion, out of Moscow, and down a single-lane highway for a while until we were encased by forestry. Occasionally, his fingers drum along the steering wheel and he’ll readjust his position, giving the slightest indication he’s nervous.

Which means, I should probably be as well.

Eventually, he turns onto a skinny road—thoughroadisn’t the best term for the rocky terrain that makes my teeth feel like they’ll vibrate from my skull.

In the distance, a run-down building comes into view. Its windows are either stained or cracked, and the bush around is overgrown from lack of care. There’s something eerily familiar about it.

And then, it hits me.

“About two years ago, I finally decided to retrace our steps, starting at the hospital and taking the same road from Moscow that Polina—the lady who helped us—drove.”

She was our saviour that day and I barely recall the woman’s face, which is disappointing.

“It took many incorrect attempts and Lev hacking satellite images—don’t ask how—before finding it. Once I did, I located the property’s owner and bought it off them. The owner inherited it from his late father, but did nothing with the land; never even checked up on the place, and was pleased to get rid of it.”

Once, even a year ago, these four walls would have destroyedmywalls. It’s where it all happened, where so many of my nightmares are bred from.

Somehow, being here now, it’s lessened the impact. Maybe it’s the man beside me. Maybe it’s something else. But I don’t feel like I’m about to cry or experience a panic attack. The miserable building has lost all its power over me.

“Why would youwantit?”

He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a crumpled paper I recognize from the prison that one day, alongside a fancy pen. He unfolds the paper where only Ivan’s name remains, and then places the pen tip by theIand scratches across the entire name, completing the list.

“He’s gone. It’s where I went yesterday. Before we enter the future, everything reminding either of us of that night needs to be destroyed. And trust me when I say, it wasn’t gentle.”

Ivan’s gone.

Gone-gone.