Page 148 of Scarlet Promise

Blood sprays, and the stench of urine and the sound of high-pitched screams fill the room.

I take my time with each finger. Some I take off joint by joint; others, I take apart even slower. When he’s fingerless, I hand Demyan the hammer.

He smashes in one knee.

As the screams and sobs die down a little, Demyan says, “There are some who take the tongue, the eyes, the toes, and the fingers and leave them alive, long enough to wish they were dead.”

“Let’s do that,” I say.

Demyan then starts in on the other hand as I hold it.

Then I smash in his other knee.

When we finish, we retreat to the background, and Demyan looks at me.

“We could do that, if you wish. We can keep him alive as long as you want.”

I’d do anything for Alina. Be a monster and also not.

Right now, I’m monster enough.

Right now, I’ve gone further than I know she’d like.

But I also know if I continue this path and take my time, it may change something between us. Some parts I could tell her about. But anything more? No.

Then those unsaid things would lie there. A bad start, a festering wound. And more…it would hurt her that I crossed so many lines for her. That’s what I can’t live with. I love Alina enough to end this now.

“I think it ends now, Demyan.”

He may think I’m a coward or even unworthy. Or he may understand.

“For Alina,” he says. “You’d deny the pleasure of making this piece of shit suffer for her. Because I know my sister, and it would kill her to know you kept going.” He raises a brow. “Right?”

“Right.”

“Then it’s done.”

I nod, take my gun, and head back into the room. Melor’s hanging on, and I look him in the eye.

“You’re getting out easily.”

I point the gun at him and pull the trigger.

I feel cleansed,not just from the shower I’ve taken, but from walking away.

Melor’s gone, and if Alina ever asks, I’ll tell her what we did and how it ended.

If she asks.

But now that he’s dead, that chapter is, too. The page has turned, and I’m home in every sense of the word.

I cross from the bathroom, naked, to the bed, where an exhausted Alina still sleeps. Albert lifts his head and huffs at me for disturbing him, but he moves a little to let me climb back into the bed.

Alina, mymalyshka, my love, turns, sighs, and snuggles into me in her sleep, a smile blooming.

I brush a kiss over her forehead, my heart filled with hope, happiness, and love.

And I realize what that means.