My face contorted with the same amount of pain I felt crash through my body. Jakhua abruptly stepped back, the knife removed from my throat. “Your papa would be ashamed of you, 221. Fucking a Tolstoi. Like some fucked-up Romeo and Juliet shit.”
Zaal stepped forward, ignoring Jakhua, and I shook my head. “No!” I cried, my throat rasping with the rawness of my cries. “Please! You can’t go back. You can’t let him do that to you again!”
Zaal’s nostrils flared. His face paled with sadness. He stepped closer. I pushed his warm palm against my cheek. “I will gladly go, to save you. To let you live.”
I shook my head again, but I could see the deep resolve in his eyes. “No, Zaal. They’ll take away your thoughts. They’ll steal your memories again. They’ll make you kill again. You’ll be back living in darkness! I can’t, you can’t, please…”
“But you will live,” he whispered. My heart tore as I heard the break in his deep rasp. He didn’t want this. He wanted to be free, he deserved to be free.
“Zaal—”
“I will happily give up my life for yours.” His eyebrows pulled down in devastation. “I cannot imagine a world without you in it, you brought me the sun. I can live in darkness again knowing that you are shining here on the outside.”
Racking sobs tumbled from my mouth, their severity bruising my empty lungs. Zaal closed in, and with the gentlest of touches, he pressed his lips against mine. The pain from my split lip hit my face, but I didn’t care. I never ever wanted to break from this kiss.
Zaal pulled back, pressing his forehead to mine, as if he was committing this touch to memory, a memory he would lose as soon as he was injected with that fucking serum again. I couldn’t stand the thought.
“You deserve to live,” I whispered.
Zaal’s lips spread into a sad smile. “I have lived, Talia. In the short time I have known you, I have lived more than I could ever have dreamed.” His eyes stared at mine. “I have lived only because of you. I have … I have gained a full heart, a full heart for you.”
I closed my eyes at the pain of this moment, of his acceptance of this fate. Suddenly he was ripped away. Snapping my eyes back open, I watched in horror as the guards dragged him away toward the stairs.
I thrashed in my chains, trying to get free. Zaal shook his head, telling me to stop. Stilling, and unable to breathe, I stopped. I watched as they approached the stairs.
Mustering the last of my raspy voice, I shouted, “Zaal!”
He turned his face as he reached the bottom step and, with his hand on his heart and tears in his eyes, he said, “You are … for me.”
With those words the final dagger pierced my heart. I knew I’d be ruined for life. As Zaal began his ascent, I met his eyes, and declared in a hoarse voice, “I am … for you.”
Zaal swallowed, closed his eyes, and as the guards forced him up the stairs he disappeared from view.
All energy drained, a crippling grief sweeping through my body, I sagged in the tight chains, sagged and cried, cried until darkness claimed me, and I could cry no more.
Chapter Eighteen
Talia
“Down here!”
I stirred from sleep on hearing a male voice shout upstairs. I heard the rush of feet. Footsteps stormed down the steps to the basement.
I was aching, in pain, and my head throbbed.
“Shit! Talia!” I heard. Cracking my bruised eyes open, Luka ran my way. Luka and Mikhail, and byki, lots of byki.
“Luka.” My mouth formed the word, but my throat felt like it was filled with razors.
“Get her down!” Luka ordered. I smiled in my head, my lips too weak to make the gesture. He sounded like a leader, finally like the man he was born to be.
A sudden pain shot through my body as I was freed from my chains. Every muscle in my body screamed as the blood began to fill them, forcing them back to life.
Strong arms held me and lifted me off the floor. Something was put to my lips. Cool water immediately filled my mouth. I struggled to swallow through a raw throat, but I forced myself. I had to tell Luka about Jakhua, about Zaal. I had to save him. Luka had to save him.