“Dominik!” I roared over the booming crowd, my insides burning with hatred.
Every part of me ached, pain pulsing from different parts of my body, but I ignored it all, honing in on my twin brother with every shred of focus I possessed.
The vicious sounds of combat beat in my ears. The ring of steel on steel. The bellows of agony. The pleas of mercy… It all contributed to the war raging on around me.
“Dominik!” I bellowed again, pouring every ounce of anger I felt into that one word. Every ounce of pain and betrayal.
My brother’s gaze snapped to me. He snarled, baring blood-stained teeth at me. He snapped the neck of one of Talon’s soldiers in his hands and then stood to his full height, puffing out his chest. His arm rose into the air, and he moved his fingers back and forth in a “bring it on” gesture.
Oh, it’s on, motherfucker.
I flipped the blades I’d collected on my way over into a reverse grip and charged ahead. We were still a fair distance away from each other, so I was forced to defend myself as I ran.
I blocked a punch with my left hand and sliced the soldier’s throat with my right. Someone ran at me head-on. I didn’t slow down.
Pumping my legs even harder, I launched myself into the air and hit him with a flying knee strike right into his chest. He flew back. I landed into a somersault, rolling along the ground to stop next to his body. I plunged my knife deep into his forehead, ripped it out and threw it to the side to hit another soldier in the chest. I spun, throwing my other knife as someone else came running towards me, hitting him in the thigh. He went down hard.
Then I was up, running again. Dominik and I clashed like a pair of raging bulls locking horns. We grappled, snarling at one another.
“You just had to show off, didn’t you?” Dominik spat, his fingers digging painfully into my arm.
That was his problem. What was always his fucking problem. He thought I was constantly trying to one-up him in everything I did. When, truth be told, I didn’t even care enough to try.
It just came naturally.
“Jealousy is such an ugly emotion, brother.” Condescension dripped from my words, and it pissed him right off.
Like I knew it would.
He snarled, attacking me in a blind rage. I defended his blows with minimal effort. Any smart person would know I was intentionally trying to rile him up because a person who fought with anger made mistakes.
But my brother wasn’t a smart man. Never had been.
“Why did you have to have everything?” Dominik shouted. We danced in a circle, both of us attacking and blocking strikes. “All of Father’s attention.” Strike. “All of his time.” Strike. “All of his love.”
I blocked his next strike by trapping his arm under my armpit, and then I grabbed a fistful of his shirt, pulling him close to me. “Otets ne lyubit nikogo, krome sebya!” Father doesn’t love anyone but himself! I growled in his face. “How is it possible that after all of these years, you still cannot see that?!”
Dominik shoved me away, refusing to hear or even comprehend anything I was saying. He’d always been blind to the horrible acts our father committed, never able to think anything bad of the bastard.
One of Talon’s soldiers charged me, swinging his leg in a powerful arc. I hooked my arm under his leg and swung him over my shoulder, slamming him to the ground. Then I snapped his neck, turning my attention right back to Dominik like nothing had happened.
“Oh, I see it!” He bit his words out through his teeth. “I see how you manipulated him! Made him think you were the better son. Turned him against me. ’Be more like Dimitri’. ’Fight more like Dimitri’. ’Think more like Dimitri’. All my life, it was always you, you, you!” An angry, bloody-thirsty look crossed his face, one filled with so much hatred that I thought it might burn me alive.
Another one of Talon’s soldiers came at me. I ducked under his fist and front-kicked him in the chest, sending him flying back. Several times, I was forced to take my eyes off Dominik to defend against someone else.
It was infuriating.
Dominik picked up a blood-stained axe from the sand and hurled it towards me, zero hesitation in his movements. I turned my torso to the side. As the weapon whistled past my chest, I stuck my arm out behind me and caught the axe by the handle. I spun in a circle, building momentum, and launched it right back at him.
In Dominik’s hands was a shield, as if he’d anticipated exactly what I’d do and hurriedly picked it up. The axe clashed against the shield with a deafening bang. Dominik threw the shield to the side and stared me down.
“You took everything from me,” he hissed, hands clenched into fists at his sides. “My birthright. My title. My life! The role of Pakhan was mine! And you just took it from me!”
“It was never yours! It was ours!” I snarled. “We came into this world together!”
“And we’ll leave it together,” he vowed. “We all will.” Triumph shone in his eyes. “Look behind you, Dimitri. Look at your children, fighting for their lives, getting weaker and weaker with each passing second. I might die here today, but I die knowing my last act on this earth is taking you down.”
I shook my head. “As short-sighted as always, Dominik.”
He frowned, failing to comprehend the meaning behind my words.
“Father can’t have any more children. The old bastard has tried. He’s got no more swimmers left. When he dies, he’ll have no heirs to succeed him, and it will be all your fault.” I moved forward, covering the distance between us inch by inch. He was far too preoccupied processing my words to notice. “You know what that means? It means your last act on this earth won’t be taking me down. It will be destroying Father’s legacy.” Dominik paled, the consequences of his actions finally hitting home. I moved closer. “You’ve worked your entire life trying to impress that man. Trying to make him proud of you. And you know what you’ve done instead? You’ve given Father one more reason to be disappointed in you. To hate you.”
His eyes glistened with unshed tears.
Good. I continued to twist the knife.
“Father’s only memory of you now will be the son who destroyed his entire empire. The son responsible for letting the Volkov name die out, and we both know how important that is to him.”
Dominik’s head hung forward in what I could only deduce as shame.
That wouldn’t work for me at all.
I stopped in front of him and placed a hand on his shoulder as if I was offering comfort. “Dominik.” I softened my voice, giving off the illusion I cared.
He raised his head. I waited until his eyes were locked with my own, and then I plunged the knife hidden behind my back deep into his heart.
Shock registered across his face, a pain-filled gasp falling from his lips.
I smiled, evil and sinister.
“I want my face to be the last thing you see,” I whispered, dangerously low. “For you to know that your last desperate attempt to beat me…failed.” I twisted the blade deeper, and he choked, blood slipping out of the side of his mouth and down his chin.
I wished I had the time to savour the kill. To truly enjoy it. I had envisioned the moment hundreds of times. I wanted him to suffer. To beg. To cry.
But there just wasn’t enough time.
“Svidimsya v adu, brat.” See you in hell, brother. I ripped out the knife, flipped it into a reverse grip and ran the sharp edge of the blade across his throat.
Blood poured out, running down his front and drenching his clothes. He fell to the ground, crumpling like a piece of paper.
I stared down at him, sure some emotion was about to smack me in the face. Regret? Sorrow? Grief?
I felt nothing but pure satisfaction.
Finally. He’s dead—
Bang!
I spun, my eyes frantically moving around the arena.
That sounded like a gunshot.
A million thoughts streaked through my head at once. Where did that come from? Who was shooting? Who got shot? Had Talon finally had enough of this stupid farce and decided to just pick us off one by one?
Bang! Bang! Bang!
I crouched to one knee, searching desperately for my children through the sea of bodies around me. That was when I noticed Lukyan running towards Illayana, and any of Talon’s men who got even remotely close to him wound up with a bullet to the head.
Someone is protecting him?
The glint of metal out in the distance, high above the stands confirmed what I already suspected. There was a sniper up there, and they were protecting Lukyan.
What was going on? Was it a rescue?
I didn’t have time to waste thinking about it. I had to keep fighting. I had to make my way back to my children. Where was Autumn?
Did I care where Autumn was?
No.
Yes.
Oh, fucking hell.
Even as I tried to deny it to myself, I knew I was full of shit because as I searched for my children, there was a small part of me that was looking for her too.
I’d been so consumed with getting my revenge I’d failed to keep an eye on anyone.
I stood to my full height, took one step and—
BOOM!
