Page 209 of Cashmere Ruin

“I…” I pause.Dammit, he’s got me there.“I’m a quick study?”

The last man comes over. We’re still ridiculously outnumbered, but at least like this we have a fighting chance. Right?

Right…?

“I love you,” I whisper to Matvey.

“I love you, too.”

“I don’t hate you,” Petra mutters. “Either of you.”

Well,now,we’re really going to die.

Vlad’s men take aim. I squeeze my eyes shut, preparing myself for the inevitable bloody end.

I’m sorry, May. I’m sorry I couldn’t be a good mother to you.

I’m sorry I…

“Evening, gentlemen. Care to drop those guns?”

I blink.

Grisha?

I must be hallucinating. This has to be a stress reaction of some kind. An illusion conjured by my subconscious to make my last moments bearable.

But if it is, why am I seeingGrishaof all people?

And yet, one quick glance at the room tells me it’s not my imagination’s doing. Not Grisha, not the army he’s brought with him—and not the hundreds of guns aimed at the Solovyov traitors.

It’s the cavalry.

62

MATVEY

After Grisha’s grand entrance, getting rid of the traitors is a quick affair. “Care to do the honors, boss?”

As a matter of fact, I do.

“Kill them all.”

In less than a minute, it’s over. Lena and Julia seem to take particular pleasure in teaching whoever dared disrespect their mistress a swift, brutal lesson.

“Yuri!” Petra rushes back to him. “Did you…? Were you the one who…?” She wipes the blood from his phone.

There it is: a text. To Grisha.

With our location.

“You idiot,” she sobs, and there’s no holding back the flood now. Not with no one left to fight. “You stupid, careless idiot,svoloch?—”

“He took that bullet for me.” April trembles. “I’m so sorry, Petra, Matvey— This is all?—”

But I don’t let her finish. “Hush.” I pull her close. “It was his choice.”

Choice.That’s what all this comes down to, isn’t it? Not who we are—but who wechooseto be.

---