“Yes, my wife.”
“When—when you said you killed for me. Severin. You didn’t just mean those men.”
And my smart lychik connects the dots.
“No, I didn’t mean just them.”
A shuddering breath leaves her, but she remains sitting there to the sound of honking cars and rushing pedestrians that want nothing to do with this cold evening.
“Did you do it for me or to hurt your father?”
“Will you hate me if I said both? I know I’ve hated myself long enough for that. No, not for hurting him,” I quickly added so there wouldn’t be any confusion over that fact. “I’d do that over and over again and not feel an ounce of guilt. No, I hated myself for tainting your life with my hatred for him. For poisoning your light with her heart.”
Aurora drops her head into her palms and starts rocking on the spot. “Sava.” She breathes out my name. “I can’t believe this…I—I can’t…” Aurora jumps up, her chest heaving as she starts pacing back and forth in front of me.
“I’ve always felt like I’ve known you in another life. God…” She lets out a self-deprecating laugh. “Why didn’t you tell me? All this time…all this fucking time and you never told me.” She stops for a second before those tear-filled eyes fall on me. “Do you see her when you look at me? Is that why you’re with me? Who do you love, Sava? Which one of us?”
She’s in my arms the second those questions leave her mouth. I scoop her up and hold her close. Feeling the pained beat of her heart against mine. Her heart. Aurora’s and Aurora’s alone.
“You never need ask that question, Aurora, because I’ve never loved anyone but you. I couldn’t. You’re it for me. The one every romantic soul searches for, but I wasn’t. I wasn’t looking. I didn’t even want it, yet I found on a stormy night.”
“You hated me when we met and don’t say you didn’t because I could feel it. I could see it in your eyes how much you hated me.”
“I did. Or rather, I wanted to make myself hate you because you made mefeel. Ever since you opened your eyes and made my exterior crack. Worse, you made something inside my chest crack, and I wasn’t in the habit of feeling. You know how dangerous it was for me to feel? Love meant pain to me my entire life. Yet there you were, holding my heart in your clutches without saying a single word. So, I promised to never see you again after I signed Nastya’s heart over to you. I couldn’t take a chance of ripping apart my carefully crafted system. I thought I could protect myself by staying in it. Not living, not thriving but just existing. The only problem was that you didn’t promise the same. You came to me almost every night in my nightmares. You haunted me, and when I saw you again…well, I thought fate was a fucking twisted cunt because she knew I wouldn’t be able to leave the second time. Not when I heard your voice and saw your son, alive and well—and mine. He was mine from day one.”
“Severin.” Another tear rolls down her cheek. “But…but I have her heart. And she was…how can you bear—”
My finger trails across her scar and she stops.
“No, you might have her heart physically, but it was mine you stole that night. Mine that was transplanted into your chest. Mine that you’ll carry with you forever with every beat. You hear it, Lychik? It beats for me,” I whisper against her chest and bring her hand over mine, clutching to her for dear life. “And this one? It beats for you.”
“Sava…” she whispers, tears running down her face. “This is…this is…”
“No, Aurora! No!” I snap and fall to my knees right in front of her feet. “This is it. You’re mine. Only mine. One cannot live without their heart, remember that, lychik? Promise you won’t run away from me again? Promise you and Emett are mine forever? Lychik, you need to promise me. Please! I beg you, Aurora.I beg you.” For the first time in my life, I hear my own voice crack, but I don’t care. “I’ll spend the rest of my life on my knees if that’s what it takes. I should’ve told you right away. I know I should have but I was so terrified of losing you, I couldn’t do it.Please, lychik.” I close my eyes as something wet brushed against my own eyelashes and in the next moment Aurora is there, on her knees right next to me as her hands are clutching over my face and lacing through my hair as her tear-soaked lips brush against mine.
“But you’d catch me, wouldn’t you? If I ran?”
“Yes,” I reply with dead-set determination that runs through my blood, but she smiles softly, biting into her lower lip.
“Not giving me much of a choice then, are you?”
“I told you I wasn’t the good guy.”
“No, but you are mine.” I suck in a sharp breath at her words as she tips her forehead against mine.
With the deepest sigh of relief, I gather her in my arms, standing up and crush my lips against hers, pressing her body against the brick wall behind her.
“Mine,” I growl into her mouth, and she reciprocates with the same urgency, kissing me like it’s the first time.
And it is. It’s the first time without the weight of those secrets and twisted paths. It’s just Aurora and just me.
“Never run away from me again, Aurora. I told you, I’ll chase you. I’ll always fucking chase you.” I trail my lips and teeth across her neck, down to her chest and the swell of her breasts.
“I was running from myself, not you, not realizing there was nowhere to run because you’ve held my heart from the start. Andone cannot survive without the heart, Sava. You…you are mine, Severin Minaev. My stalker, protector and monster. Mine.”
“Fuck, malysh, say that again.”
“Mine. Mine. Mine.” I seal my lips over her throat as that one repeated word vibrates through her silky skin.
