"Sorry. I'll think quieter."
"I don’t think that’s how it works." His chest rumbles with quiet laughter. "What's on your mind?"
Everything. Nothing. The weight of the last twenty-four hours pressing down on me like a physical thing.
"Valentina's dead," I say finally. "I killed my maker."
"You did."
"I thought I'd feel more." I trace idle patterns on his chest, around the edges of the bond mark. "She ruined my life. Stole everything from me. Told me I was nothing but a weapon waiting to be used. And when I finally killed her, I just felt empty."
"That's normal." His hand strokes down my spine, soothing. "Revenge rarely feels the way we expect it to. The anticipation is always bigger than the act itself."
"Speaking from experience?"
"Luciano." The name comes out flat. "I spent a hundred and fifty years dreaming of killing him. Planning it. Savoring every detail of how I'd make him suffer. And when I finally did it, when I finally ripped his head from his shoulders, I felt nothing. Just silence."
"Did the silence ever fill up again?"
"Eventually. With other things." His hand finds my jaw, turning my face to his. "With purpose. With the network." His thumb brushes my lower lip. "With you."
I kiss his thumb. "That's very smooth for someone who claims I broke his brain."
"I'm recovering."
We're quiet for a moment. His contentment seeps into me, a deep, settled peace that I suspect is rare for him. I want to wrap myself in it, let it drown out the lingering darkness of the night.
"Everyone heard it," I say, changing the subject. "The heartbeat. When you carried me through the compound."
"They did."
"They're going to have questions."
"They already do. Marcellus looked at me like I'd grown a second head." He pulls me closer. "Let them wonder. I don't have answers yet." He shifts, rolling us so he's propped above me, looking down at my face. "Does it bother you? Being visible?"
"No." The answer comes immediately, surprising me with its certainty. "I spent eight months hiding. Pretending to be something I wasn't. Trying to survive without being noticed." I reach up, touching his face. "I'm done hiding."
"Good." He kisses my forehead. "So am I."
"Nadia's going to have opinions about all of it. The heartbeat. The bond. The fact that I'm apparently a sleeper weapon."
"Nadia always has opinions. She's had opinions about me for years. I've learned to ignore them."
"What about the others? Julian? Isabelle? When they find out what Konstantin built into me..."
"They'll help us figure out how to remove it." His voice is firm. "You're part of this network now. Part of my inner circle. That means you're protected. And it means we face threats together."
"Even when I'm the threat?"
"You're not the threat. Konstantin is. You're just the weapon he's trying to use." He cups my face in his hands. "And we don't let enemies use our people against us. We find the vulnerability, and we eliminate it."
I absorb that for a moment. The certainty in his voice.
"And Marcellus?" I ask.
"Marcellus smiled at me." Maximus's expression shifts, something soft and wondering.
"Really?"
