Page 134 of 10 Days to Surrender

She retreats. A step at a time. The rain pounds harder. Through sheets of it, I watch her fade into shadow.

Then she’s gone.

I stand frozen, staring into the darkness where she disappeared. The coordinates on that phone will lead her straight to Dragan. To certain death.

But when I turn back to Ariel, I know I cannot follow. She’s curled on her side in the mud, face contorted in agony as another contraction rips through her.

My wife needs me.

My children need me.

Even as my sister-in-law runs headlong into death’s arms, I know there’s only one choice I can make.

I drop to my knees beside Ariel and gather her into my arms. “I’ve got you,ptichka,” I whisper. “I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.”

She sobs and clutches my shirt. Whether from pain or grief or if she simply wants to drag me into the pain with her, I’ll never know.

But I do know this: sometimes, the most brutal choice is staying still while the world burns around you.

So here I stay.

As thunder shakes the sky, here I stay.

As Jasmine races toward death, here I stay.

As Kosti spins his webs, as Dragan laughs, as my empire is reduced to rubble and ash…

Here I stay. Here I stay. Here Istay.

52

SASHA

“We need to get her inside,” Feliks bellows over the storm. “It’s fucking Armageddon out here, man!”

I shake my head and roar back, “It’s too late to move her!”

Together, we rip the tablecloth free, sending dishes and food clattering to the ground. The wind fights us, but we manage to create a crude shelter, anchoring it to chairs and tables with anything we can find: our belts, a string of the fairy lights, Pavel’s shoelaces. It’s not much, but it keeps the worst of the rain off Ariel’s face.

But I don’t even know if she notices. She’s beyond us now. Elsewhere. Delirious from pain as the contractions cluster closer and closer together.

Zoya thrusts a phone flashlight into my free hand. The beam judders across Ariel’s face—sweat-slick, pallid, pupils blown wide. Her lips move soundlessly around words that might be my name or a curse or both.

Her dress and hair are plastered to her. Black tears run down her cheeks. Her mouth is a bottomless O, ringed with red.

Worse, though, is the red slicking her thighs. Zoya is crouched low as Belle cradles Ariel’s head in her lap. Gina and Lora sit on either side, stunned into ashen silence.

Lightning comes. Thunder follows. The villa’s lit windows flicker once, twice, then die completely. Darkness swallows us whole as the power gives up and the fairy lights are extinguished.

“Blyat’,” Feliks curses, fumbling with his phone’s flashlight. The beam catches Ariel’s face at an awful angle, highlighting the agony etched into every line.

Ariel’s fingers dig into my forearm. “Sasha…” she moans, eyelids fluttering, eyes unseeing.

“I’m here.” I brush wet hair from her face. “I’ve got you.”

“J-J-Jasmine,” she whispers. “Where’s Jasmine?”

“Breathe, Ariel. Save your strength.”

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