Pain spears from my chest. Crimson soaks my fingers.
Aleksei’s face fills my vision, his face ghost-white, his hand gripping mine.
“E-Elias, I’m sorry.”
My limbs grow cold, lips numb. I choke on air. Aleksei grips my fingers, tears gathering in his eyes.
“I’m sorry,” he repeats. “I’m so fucking sorry.”
“You’ve,” I wheeze. “You’ve nothing to be sorry for. If anything…I’m sorry. I made you an orphan.”
Images detonate.
A cold night. Fury boiling in my veins.
Gun in my hand as I accosted the couple who told Vasil Çela where my family lived. The satisfaction when the bullets pierced their skulls.
A muffled sob in the coat closet.
A teenager trembling with wide, grief-torn eyes.
Aleksei.
One moment destroyed his life—just like mine.
“I-I did it,” Aleksei stammers. He presses a cloth to my wound.
“What?”
“Why do you think Agron knows you’re here?” He glances away, a rough laugh tearing out of him. “Don’t fall apart until you get your revenge, remember?”
I freeze, remembering what he said to me when I was spiraling in the crematorium.
My gaze refocuses on the hacker, whom I consider family. “You told him.”
Of course he did. I’d laugh if it didn’t hurt so much.
After all, it’s peak irony. I’d built my life on revenge. Naturally, I’d raise another version of myself.
“I’m sorry,” he chokes out, forehead dropping onto my chest. “I-I thought this would stop my nightmares. My parents’ screams. The pain.” His shoulders shake. “I regret it. I tried to stop it. Not in time—”
“Go,” I whisper. “Leave before the cops come.”
“What? No—”
“Go!” I squeeze his fingers, blood slick between us. “I don’t blame you. Don’t let them catch you. Leave. Start a new life.”
A cough racks through me. Bitter iron fills my mouth.
Keeping my gaze on his, I rasp, “A life for a life. My debt’s repaid.”
His words. The truth. My atonement.
Slowly, he lets go of my hand. His gaze pinballs down my body, over my wounds.
“I’m sorry,” he whispers. He tears himself away and runs.
Blackness devours my vision. It’s so cold. Terribly cold. My eyes flutter shut.
