Page 219 of The Harbinger

“But you wouldn’t sspeak to me. You… you left me…” she said, her speech improving by the moment.

Her ragged breaths stirred something inside me, a flicker of emotion I hadn’t felt in a long time. I wasn’t even sure if it was possible for me to feel anything anymore.

“It needed to happen.” I gripped her shoulders, and she winced. I lightened my touch, then continued, “I needed you out of the way, sothiscould happen. I needed Ruslan to know without a shadow of a doubt that I would do it.”

It wasn’t my plan to cut my papa down in front of our congregation, but after witnessing the lengths Nikolai went to ensure he was removed… something inside me just snapped into place. After watching him tear her out of the room without a second thought and so callously lock her away, it was obvious what needed to be done.

She scrambled to her knees and wrapped her arms around me, her flowery scent hitting me like a thousand jabs, her arm scraping against my throat as the drug he’d given her wore off.

I growled as the sharp sting spread across my neck, then pulled her arm away from my wound and wrapped mine around her thin waist.

“I didn’t know about Nikolai. I didn’t know he was Fuego,” she said, sobbing into my shoulder.

“Mia, it’s over. Whatever happened with you and Nikolai, it’s over. He’s gone, and so is Ruslan.”

She pulled back with shock on her face, tears streaming down her delicate cheeks. “But… he had all the answers.”

“Don’t worry about that, Mia.”

I pulled her tighter, then shifted away, steeling my spine. I’d prepared for this moment since the day I woke up in the hospital with the utter realization she didn’t belong here. She’d go home to her family and live the life she was meant to, and I wouldn’t interfere. It would be as though we’d never met.

Pulling her hand into mine, I slipped the ring Jenny gave her back onto her finger. “Take it. Maybe you can give it back to her one day.” I glanced at Vlad, who stood a few paces away. “Take her to the plane. Make sure Sergei fixes her finger before you take off, and don’t leave her sight until she’s at the door.”

Vlad stepped forward and grabbed her elbow. A tense vibration spread across my chest, my focus zeroing in on his hand.

“Don’t touch me.” Mia jerked her arm out of his grip, her strength returning. “What’s going on, Sacha? Where are you taking me?”

“Home.” I clenched my jaw, my fist tight at my side.

“But—”

I turned on my heel and stepped over Ruslan’s body. “Goodbye, Mia.”

“Sacha!” Her voice, desperate and pleading, echoed through the trees. “You can’t leave me. Don’t leave me, please.”

With each step, her wounded cries faded into the wind, replaced by my footsteps pounding against the beaten path.

My teeth clenched harder as I forced myself to open the back door and vanish inside the home I’d hated since I was a child.

She’d be happy one day, and that thought alone led me down the hall away from her.

Chapter 61

Mia

DoctorSergeisetmyfinger in the car on the way to the private airport I’d flown into months ago, and I nearly passed out from the pain.

It didn’t help that he refused to look at me, speak, or treat me as anything other than just another person.

Doctor Sergei stayed in the car when we pulled up next to the private plane and got out.

“Do I have to leave?” I asked Vlad as I stepped onto the stairs, my body still painted with intricate designs.

“Da.”

But I’d just gotten him back. I’d suffered for two weeks in the dark, sick to my stomach he was dead. Only to find out he was alive and well, scheming to kill his father and rid himself of me.

A tear touched my cheek as I stepped onto the plane—the memories slamming into me as if the past replayed in front of me like a movie. I walked down the aisle and touched the chair he sat in while interrogating me. Where he spoon-fed me soup despite his cold and callous demeanor.

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