I couldn’t protect her then, and I couldn’t protect her now.
This will haunt me for the rest of my life.
But never again.
She looks at him briefly. “He should have suffered longer,” she murmurs.
“I know,” I say through clenched teeth. “But I lost myself in my anger. I needed him gone. He laid his hands on you. Hehurtyou.”
She reaches for me, trying to pull me to my feet, and I let her.
She winces as she moves, and I have to clench my jaw to keep from losing it.
Again.
Her arms slide around my waist.
“It’s over now,” she whispers into my chest.
I give a humourless laugh. “I don’t know how you can stand me. How you can even look at me.”
She lifts her head and cups my face gently.
“Because none of this was your fault,” she says quietly. “We don’t answer for our parents’ sins. I would never blame you for what he did. You were as much a victim as I was. I was blinded by rage at the beginning… and I couldn’t see that.”
Her voice cracks.
“I wanted to hate you,” she admits. “I truly did. For what I believed you did to that girl. I thought you were just like him.And, if I’m honest, I hated you for who your father is. But I was wrong…”
My chest tightens.
“I should never have blamed you or punished you for that. We don’t get to choose how we’re born, we simply are. And I hate myself for hurting you the way I did. I’m sorry, baby.”
She goes up on her toes and I bend to meet her, kissing her slowly.
Her fingers tremble against my jaw. “I had nightmares for years. I couldn’t stand being touched, not even in my sleep. But then you came into my life… and I found myself cravingyourtouch. It calmed me. You made the nightmares fade. You really are my better half.”
I kiss her again.
I lift my head just as I catch movement in the corner of my eye.
The man on the floor is stirring.
Yuri.
He must have been awake longer than I realised, because he reaches to his side, pulls a gun, and aims it straight at Octavia before I can even move.
Everything slows.
I twist us just as the first shot rings out.
The second round buries itself in me, and the pain that follows is so violent it rips the breath from my lungs.
My knees buckle beneath me.
“Milo!” Octavia screams, her voice breaking apart.
More shots fire behind me, three in quick succession.
