I'm seven, and I just fell off my bike, and my sister is there to pick me up and tell me it's going to be okay.
"I've got you," she murmurs. "I've got you."
I don't cry.
I want to—the pressure is building behind my eyes like a storm—but the tears won't come.
It's like my body used up all its responses on shaking and now there's nothing left.
"Three men," I whisper against her shoulder. "He killed three men."
Rev pulls back just enough to look at my face. "RJ?"
I nod.
"They were trying to kill you, Dal. He did what he had to do."
"I know. I know that." I pull away, wrapping my arms around myself. "But the way he did it... he didn't even hesitate. Didn't blink. It was like swatting flies to him. Like they weren't even people."
Rev's expression shifts.
Something knowing in her eyes. Something sad.
"That's what they do," she says softly. "The men in this world. They become weapons so we don't have to."
"Is that what Doran is? A weapon?"
She doesn't flinch at the question. "When he needs to be. When it's about protecting me, protecting our family—yes. He becomes something else entirely." She reaches out, tucking a wet strand of hair behind my ear. "And now RJ is that for you."
"He's notfor me. He was just doing his job."
"Was he? I saw the way he was watching you at the showing, and in his eyes there was more than duty."
The question hangs in the air between us.
I think about the safe room.
The way his hands trembled when he touched my face—tiny tremors that matched my own.
The way his voice went rough when he saidwe're going to finish this conversation.
The way he looked at me like I was the only thing in the world that mattered.
"Get dressed," Rev says, mercifully changing the subject. "Doran's called a meeting. They want to discuss next steps."
"Next steps for what?"
"For keeping you alive."
Before I know it we’ve gotten ready and we’re heading to the meeting location.
The meeting is held in Aleksandr's study—a room I've never been inside before.
It's exactly what you'd expect from a man like him.
Dark wood paneling, heavy furniture, walls lined with books that look like they've actually been read.
A massive desk dominates one end of the room, but no one's sitting behind it.
