Page 181 of Silenced

“If Linton survived…”

“He won’t survive for long.” Misha pats my shoulder. “We’re on our way toNav. Brace yourself.”

“For?” I rasp, fearing the worst.

“When Cassiopeia sees you, you’ll regret surviving. I saw her give you shit back atNavearlier. I reckon you need to brace yourself for her reaction.”

I’m too exhausted to deal with the silent question lacing the words, and I’m in too much fucking pain to even care.

I owe him no explanations. Not in this, not in anything.

Ten minutes later, when Igor and Misha help me into the hospital room, I learn what he means.

Not only that Dmitri lives still—thank God—but that Cassiopeia can communicate with bats when she hurls herself at me, her hands patting me down, making things hurt worse than they did originally.

It’s worth it.

Each pat, each shout and screech is indicative of a solid truth—she loves me.

No ‘think’ about it.

And I wouldn’t change that for anything.

“What the hell are you trying to do to me? Turn me fucking gray? Look at the state of you!” she shrieks. “How did this happen? Are you trying to break my heart?”

It’s the last question that has me snagging her fingers in my damaged ones and pressing a kiss to her knuckles.

“Never,solnyshko,never.”

Her tension doesn’t abate, but Misha’s does.

Visibly so.

Enough that I notice it even though Cassie’s reaction to my injuries takes up almost all of my attention.

“Be lucky that you look like death or I’d go for your balls,” she growls, apparently unappeased. “And don’t even think about sex until you’re out of that cast.”

The louder she gets, however, the more her feelings for me shine through, and the happier my soul is.

Mysolnyshko.

She burns the brightest when all around me, the darkness takes over.

46

CASSIE

My temper hasn’t lessenedwhen Nikolai’s arm is set in a cast or after he groans as Grigoriy resets his dislocated shoulder or after his three broken fingers are taped up with splints.

The fact that he came in drenched keyed me into the fact that he was lucky to not bemoreinjured. A pool had spared him from the worst, but that’s not exactly reassuring.

Seated between Dmitri and Nikolai in the two-bed ward, I listen to Misha and Igor discuss the aftermath of the last few days’ events.

The Krestniy Otets, the Bratva head, will have Nikolai on his shit list and the city is going to want answers for a massive gas explosion. Never mind the turf wars that sprang up overnight where the Bratva vanquished their enemy.

Hence the lockdown.

News reports say the fires will rage for days and the lockdown might too in an attempt to stop the looting and rioting.

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