Page 128 of Inked Athena

Male shouts boom throughout the church, a cacophony of Russian and English, accompanied by bursts of gunfire and the crunch of bullets meeting plaster, wood, and flesh. Among the multilingual chaos, a single voice rises above the rest.

At first, it’s just another thread in the tapestry of mayhem. But it plucks at my attention the longer it goes on, until I realize why it sounds so familiar.

It’s Ilya’s.

I know that voice, though I’ve never heard it like this—loud, commanding, almost exultant. The words are gibberish to me, but the tone isn’t.

It’s the voice of someone claiming what they believe is rightfully theirs. Someone who’s finally letting their mask slip to reveal the monster beneath.

“Nyet!” The word tears from Katerina’s throat. Her grip on the gun wavers for a fraction of a second. “That lying piece of shit! He swore we’d wait until?—”

She catches herself, but it’s too late. I see the truth written in the tremble of her perfectly lined lips, in the way her chest heaves beneath her neckline.

Ilya has betrayed her. Whatever plan they had—whatever carefully orchestrated move they were going to make together—he’s thrown it all away. And now, Katerina is trapped in here with us, a heavily pregnant hostage she never wanted and an unconscious man bleeding out on the floor.

“He promised,” she whispers hoarsely. “We were going to do it together. After the funeral. Just to Sam. Not like… Not like this.”

Another burst of gunfire. Closer now. Katerina’s head whips toward the sound.

“He’s going to kill us all,” she says, and for the first time since this nightmare began, I hear real fear in her voice. “That psychotic bastard is going to?—”

A massive explosion rocks the building. The mirrors rattle in their frames. Dust sifts down from the ceiling.

And beneath my palm, Myles stirs.

My first thought is that I can’t let her see. If she sees him waking, she’ll slaughter him just to eliminate a variable.

“Ilya doesn’t love you, Kat,” I announce. “He isn’t capable of it.”

She laughs hysterically. “What the fuck would you know about it?”

“I know love,” I reply patiently. “Sam?—”

“Sam!” she screeches with more unhinged laughter. “You stupid little bitch! You think he loves you? You think you’re special?”

I draw in a deep breath to calm my nerves. We’re teetering on the edge of death here, and this insane woman’s gun is dancing wildly between us. “I think you’re in trouble, Katerina. Let me help you before?—”

“Don’t fucking touch me!”

She whips away from my outstretched hand and the butt of her gun strikes the nearest mirror. I wince as glass rains down, landing in shards amongst Myles’s blood.

Outside, more gunfire and chaos and who the fuck knows what else. It’s madness inside and out, here and there, every fucking place I look.

And at my feet, Myles is slowly dying.

I inch back toward Kat. She raises the gun, but it doesn’t frighten me. She won’t use it. Not yet.

“The baby’s kicking,” I murmur. “Would you like to feel? It might be your last chance to touch something pure.”

She opens her mouth to spit something heinous at me, I’m sure. But before she can, the bathroom door explodes inward in a shower of splinters and marble dust.

Through the chaos, a familiar voice rings out—deep, commanding, and absolutely furious.

“Hello, little mouse.”

44

SAMUIL

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