Raina’s head tips against my shoulder as we walk up the steps.
“Home?” she asks in a rough voice.
“Yes,” I say. “First to the doctor. Then to Nadia.”
Her fingers tighten at that name. She does not speak, but I feel the rush in her body.
We move through the trees in a loose group. The blue cottage stands dark behind us when we pass. I don’t look back. This place is dead to me now.
In the SUV, I sit with Raina pressed against my side in the back seat. Kirill rides up front and calls ahead. He arranges for our doctor to meet us at my city compound, not at a hospital. I don’t want Raina’s name on any more lists than it already sits on.
The ride is a blur of road and cold glass. I clean the cut on her temple with a cloth from the kit. She hisses when the liquid hits the skin.
“He hit you,” I say.
“One of his men,” she answers. “I bit him. I don’t regret it.”
I let out a short breath that might be a laugh. “Good,” I say. “Leave marks.”
Her eyes scan my face. “You knew it was Ilya,” she says quietly.
“Yes,” I say. “His name sat on one of the shell companies for this cottage. His voice finished the proof.”
She studies me for another second, then nods. “I thought he died in some small war,” she says.
“So did I,” I say. “We gave him too much credit for dying.”
We fall quiet. She leans into me. I feel every breath she takes. I sit there and count them. She is alive. That is the only fact that matters right now.
By the time we reach the compound, the doctor is waiting in a side room. We walk her in. He checks her pulse, her pupils, the bruise on her head, the burns on her arms from flying dust, the strain in her wrists and ankles.
“You’re lucky,” he says. “Mild concussion, some bruises, nothing worse. Rest, fluids, no long arguments. Try not to fall again.”
“I’ll do my best,” she says. Her voice is dry.
I sign off on whatever he asks for. Once he leaves, I sit on the edge of the bed and take her hand.
“Nadia,” she says at once.
“She is at Aunt Tanya’s,” I say. “Safe. Guarded. She carried your song straight to me.”
Her eyes soften. She squeezes my hand. “Of course she did,” she whispers.
“Rest for an hour,” I say. “Then we go to her.”
She wants to argue. I see it in the set of her jaw. Then her body remembers the blast. She nods once.
“Wake me in one hour,” she says. “If you let me sleep longer, I’ll be angry.”
“I wouldn’t risk that,” I say.
She gives me a faint smile and closes her eyes.
While she sleeps, I step into the hall with Kirill and Andrei. We speak low. We plan the next seventy-two hours around the edge of my promise. We reinforce the compound. We cross-check every guard who ever worked shifts with Ilya’s known men. After an hour, I return to the room. Raina wakes as soon as I say her name. She swings her legs off the bed. I help her stand. She moves slowly but steadily.
“Ready?” I ask.
“Yes,” she says. “Take me to my girl.”
