Page 68 of The Pakhan's Bride

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I stay on my feet. I am not here to give her the satisfaction of ceremony. She licks her lips, waits.

I catalog the details—the way the floor slants, the pattern in the dust, the smells of wax and metal. I draw a slow breath, force my heart to slow down.

"You always wanted it to end like this," I say.

She smiles, not unkindly. "We both did."

The attic holds its breath.

We are alone. There's no more running.

Ekaterina starts with the old voice she used to talk the nuns out of detentions, or to sweeten the confession booth. "I always said you'd be the one to kill me," she says, hands folded in her lap. "It's almost biblical, don't you think?"

I stay quiet, let her fill the space. She's always needed an audience. "Do you remember when we were little?" she says, voice softening. "The night Papa made us memorize the Manifesto? You fell asleep halfway through, head on my shoulder. He was so angry, said you'd never amount to more than a pretty face."

She smiles, but it doesn't reach her eyes. "I knew then that I'd have to do the heavy lifting. You'd get the name, the legacy. I'd get the work, the risk."

The wind rattles the eaves. I can smell the sweat under her perfume. She traces a line in the dust on the trunk, a nervous tic from childhood. "You think I wanted this? You think I wanted to be the one pulling strings while you got to play the princess?"

I shift my weight, just enough to show I'm still listening. Ekaterina leans forward. "After Mama died, Papa went insane. You know that, right? He was always a little cracked, but after the funeral, he wasn't even there anymore. Just a ghost with a gun and a mission. He was grooming you to be the next him. All I wanted was out."

She glances at the gun in my hand. "You could shoot me now, but I think you want answers first."

I stare, let her talk.

"You were always the innocent one," she says. "The men loved you for it. The girls envied you. Papa needed it. He made me promise—PROMISE—not to ruin you." Her voice goes brittle. "He said if I did, he'd cut me out. Like Mama."

She licks her lips. "So I did what I had to. I lied. I took the beatings. I made the alliances. I kept you clean, even when you didn't want to be. Even when you hated me for it."

I say, "Why Lev? He's just a kid."

Her jaw clenches. "Because you needed a reason to act. You were always waiting for someone to tell you what to do. Even now."

Suddenly, she stands. She's shorter than me, but she fills the attic like a bomb fills a room. She says, "I never wanted to hurt him. I just needed you to see the world as it is. Not as you want it to be."

She moves to the window, looks out at the dead orchard. "They're coming for us, Zoya. The Albanis. This isn't about family anymore. It's about extinction."

I watch the way her fingers dance over the frame, the way she keeps her back to me, like she's afraid to see my face. She turns. "You can kill me, and maybe you'll feel better for a day. But then what? You take Lev, go back to the house, play wife to thePakhan, and wait for the next wolf to come eat your heart?"

I grit my teeth. "What was the plan, then? Take the boy, ransom him for leverage?"

She laughs, a bitter, beautiful sound. "Leverage? There is no leverage. The Albanis want us dead, not bargaining. The Riccis don't care about us at all. The only person who gives a damn about you is standing in this room."

She steps closer, and I let her. Her voice drops, raw. "I loved you. But you were the pretty one. The good one. So I did what I had to do to make sure I wasn't just another shadow behind your name."

I don't move. I let the words sink in.

She sits again, the old weight settling on her shoulders. "Papa lied to us both. The whole diplomacy act was a cover. He was making deals with both sides, and neither trusted him. Project Zoya wasn't about you. It was about making sure the Baranov name survived, one way or another."

She looks up, eyes shining. "I took the job with the Albanis because it was the only way to keep us alive. You think Konstantin would ever put you in charge? He can't even look at you without seeing what he's about to lose."

I blink. "He's not the enemy."

"No, but he's not your future either."

She looks at her hands, then at me. "I never wanted any of this. I just wanted you to live."

"You could have tried telling me the truth."