Page 7 of Teach Me How To Fly

I was still standing in the same place, swallowing hard and keeping an empty glance. I couldn’t tell what that feeling in my heart was, but it felt like it was breaking.

4

MAKSEN

It hurt me that I had to push her away when she wanted to take care of me. I knew she saw everything by the way her chest was caved in, while her gaze didn’t know where to look first.

She didn’t even raise her eyes to mine as she always did. She just kept staring at my injured leg, with her neck bent forward and her voice breaking with every word she spoke.

It fucking hurt me to tell her to leave. And the moment she finally made eye contact with me, I saw the tears filling her eyes and I knew I fucked it all up.

But I didn’t need her at that moment.

I didn’t need anyone. But Iwantedher.

Yet the thickness I felt in my throat made me realize that the guilt grew inside my limbs for the first time in my life.

I’ve always tried to be soft with Annalise and not make her feel the coldness that was so characteristic of me. In fact, I didn’t even try. It came naturally whenever I was around her.

She always made me feel comfortable enough to let down my guard and just be me for a moment. She didn’t look at me as ifI was the most feared murderer in the dark world. She looked at me and saw her childhood best friend, and she loved me for that.

She loved measher best friend.

And I loved her the same way — or at least, that’s what I tried telling myself.

Lukyan’s snoring took me out of my mind and my jaw tightened. He was sleeping since we hopped up on the plane, as if we weren’t on our way to sell thegirls. But I knew he didn’t care about their souls, nor that they werechildren.

My breath began to get heavier as I clenched my fists, just thinking about how I couldn’t save any of the poor souls from tonight. My muscles tensed at the need to shout at and destroy every single person who created theNochnoy Tuman?*organization.

But then, a dark thought crept into my mind, reminding me that the person who built this organization from scratch was actually dead — and that person wasmy father.

Lukyan used to tell me how much my father loved his business and how unscrupulous he was when it came to fame in the dark world and money. He taught me how to be the man my father would’ve wanted me to be and I listened to him until I realized that wasn’t who I was. I just had to continue this legacy because it was all I had.

Or at least, I had to pretend that I was keeping the business alive while I alone had founded my own secret organization to save these children.

I tried to save the girls from tonight, but Lukyan managed to destroy my plans and not release them out of his sight.

He didn’t know that I was creating my own plan to get those children out every time he assigned me to these missions. He just knew that I sold them to other influential men from Europe.

The thought of seeing those little girls in a few minutes, crying for help and being taken by the most gruesome men out there left me with a lingering feeling of crawling flesh.

I had to be strong enough to not let this affect me, but it did. I could kill anyone on this earth who’d done such things to children. Seeing those young souls getting destroyed by men who not only didn’t give a shit about them, but who took advantage in the most unimaginable ways ignited a fire inside me — a fire I knew I couldn’t put out until I would kill all the people who loved to hurt children.

“Son,” his voice took me out of my thoughts instantly.

I raised my gaze at him, keeping an unbothered facial expression on. I didn’t say anything, I just kept looking at his face, hoping he would continue speaking because I didn’t want to show any interest in what he had to say.

He blew out a noisy breath and cleared his throat before he started talking. “We need to sell them all at the highest price.”

We were both playing a game of make pretend, as he seemed to entirely forget the way he put a bullet in my leg, and I played along, at least until I found a better way to piss him off.

“You know we’ll do it no matter what.”

“I know. I trust you on this,” he said, pinning me with his eyes. “And I don’t want you to betray me ever again.”

“I didn’t betray you.”

My muscles quivered and the heat was flushing through my body like a fucking tsunami. He was testing my patience really badly.

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