We exposed Terek. We won the championship. We survived.
But Lucius didn't.
And that truth is going to haunt me for the rest of my life—that my twin brother, my other half, my greatest rival and deepest regret, loved me enough to die for me. Proved his commitment in the most final way possible.
The medical team is trying to move me, to get me away from the scene, but I can't stop staring at the flames. Can't stop seeing his eyes in that final moment before impact, when he knew what he was about to do.
There was no fear in them. No hesitation.
Just determination. And maybe, if I'm not imagining it, something like peace. Like finally, after three years of running, he'd found a way to stop. To choose. To commit to something worth dying for.
His brother. His family. Us.
The fire burns on, and with it burns the last chance I'll ever have to tell Lucius Wolfe that I loved him. That I forgave him. That he was never in my shadow—he was my equal, my opposite, my completion.
The champagne will taste like tears tonight.
The victory will feel like defeat.
And I'll spend the rest of my life wondering if there was something—anything—I could have done differently that would have saved us both.
But that's the thing about racing, about life, about the choices we make at 300 kilometers per hour with no time to think?—
Sometimes there are no good outcomes.
Sometimes someone has to lose for someone else to win.
And sometimes, the greatest love looks like a Ferrari turning into your car, accepting death to give you life.
"I'm sorry," I whisper to the flames, to the ghost of my brother, to the universe that demanded this price. "I'm so fucking sorry."
But sorry doesn't bring back the dead.
Sorry doesn't undo the three years we wasted.
Sorry doesn't change the fact that Lucius Wolfe died a hero, and I have to live with being the one he saved.
The fire finally starts to die under the assault of foam and chemicals, but it's far too late. My brother is gone, and all the championships in the world won't bring him back.
We won.
But God, at what cost?
At what fucking cost?
