“You are to be a father?” he questioned.
“Yes,” I replied. Ilya looked again to Inessa. I saw the hope in his expression.
“Freedom allows you to do whatever you want,” I explained. Ilya looked overwhelmed. “You will understand in time,” I told him. He slowly nodded his head. “Ilya, this is Kisa, my wife.”
“Hello,” Ilya said quietly.
“Nice to meet you, Ilya,” Kisa replied.
Zaal held Talia tightly. “This is my fiancée, Talia,” he announced proudly.
Ilya repeated his hello, then movement came from the stairs. Maya timidly began descending the steps, clutching the rail as her wide eyes surveyed the crowd.
“Who is that?” Kisa whispered. I heard Kisa’s maternal side rise to the surface as she watched Maya awkwardly reach the tarmac.
“Maya,” I replied. “She was one of the chiri in the pit.”
“A plague?” Zoya questioned, interpreting the Georgian term. Maya turned her head away at that point, and I felt Kisa stiffen. “Her face,” Zoya whispered, so low that Maya couldn’t have heard.
“The chiri were the lowest caste in the pit. They were the servant slaves. She was Inessa’s. They are best friends. Maya wouldn’t leave her side the entire way here. She helped keep my sister alive,” Valentin said to his female.
“She refused a guard taking her at a young age so Master ordered that acid be poured over her face. Then she was demoted from a mona to a chiri,” Ilya said. Kisa, Talia, and Zoya flinched at the information the champion supplied. “She is only sixteen,” Ilya added sadly. “But she defended my Inessa’s life like a warrior.”
Zoya immediately broke from Valentin’s side and approached Maya. Maya froze in fear. Zoya smiled and held out her hand. “Maya, is it?”
Maya lifted her head and timidly nodded. “Yes, miss,” she replied in Georgian. Zoya smiled again. “It’s a beautiful name.” Zoya spoke to her in Georgian, too.
Maya looked to the stretcher and asked, “Is Miss Inessa okay?”
Zoya held out her hand and nodded. “I am Zoya, Valentin’s female. Inessa and Ilya will be coming to our house.” She paused, then added, “You are welcome, too. You are Inessa’s closest friend, after all.”
Maya stared at Zoya, and her dark eyes filled with tears. “Really?” she questioned, as though she were being tricked.
Zoya edged closer and kept holding out her hand. “Truly,” she responded. “I am recently freed myself. I understand what it’s like to have this new world thrust upon you.”
“You do?” Maya asked warily.
“I do,” she replied.
Maya stared at Zoya’s hand like it was a forbidden fruit. But when Zoya persisted, nodding her head in encouragement, Maya gently placed her shaking hand in Zoya’s.
“Come,” Zoya coaxed gently. “Let us go home.”
Maya sighed and whispered, “Home.” I heard Kisa sniff and her hands held me that much tighter.
“Bless her heart,” Talia said, but broke away from Zaal when Zoya led Maya to us. I watched as my sister introduced herself. Then I watched, with pride in my heart, as Kisa took Maya’s other hand. Maya, along with Ilya, appeared overwhelmed with emotion. But then, when you have never seen kindness before, it is difficult to accept its power.
Signaling to the cars, I announced, “Let’s go home.” We all made our way to the cars and Ilya took Inessa to the van. As Kisa slipped beside me in the backseat, I threaded my arm around her shoulder and pulled her close. When I closed my eyes, I felt Kisa’s hand drawing lazy circles on my stomach. As the cars pulled away to take us all home, I left the pit and the kills I had made on the tarmac.
It was done.
It was an impossible feeling to accept, but as I held my Kisa in my arms, I knew it would hit home eventually. I was finally in New York to stay. The threats from my past now put to bed.
At long last.
*
“They are all settled?” I asked Valentin and Zoya as they came down the stairs in their house.
Valentin rubbed his hand over his closely shaved hair and nodded. “Yes. They’re all sleeping. It took awhile to show them everything, but they’re all exhausted.”
Zoya sat back on the couch and ran her hand over her face. Valentin sat beside her, laying his hand on her knee. Zoya shook her head at something in her mind. “That pit is truly a place of hell,” she uttered, and Valentin nodded his in agreement.
Zoya looked to Kisa and me standing in the room and said, “What that Master did is beyond anything I could have imagined in my nightmares. What he created through greed and hate.” She shook her head. “What he did to my brothers.” She placed her hand on Valentin’s face. The male turned to his female, and I could see his adoration for her shine through. “What he put my Valentin through … Inessa, Ilya, and poor little Maya.” She shook her head again. “I wish I could have killed him myself. The gulags, everything because one man saw people as disposable and subhuman. It makes me so mad.”
“He’s dead,” Valentin said with finality. “They all are. That’s all that matters.” Zoya exhaled through her nose and nodded. She then smiled. “And you have your sister back.”
“I just want her to wake,” he said, and Zoya kissed his scarred cheek.
“She will. And when she does, she will know that you kept your Big Brother Promise. You never gave up.” Valentin lay down with his head in Zoya’s lap. Her hands ran over his shorn hair.
This was Valentin in love.
“Lyubov moya?” Kisa said quietly. “Let’s go.”
I nodded my agreement and waved to Zoya and Valentin. Valentin’s eyes were being pulled by sleep. Zoya moved to get up. I held out my hand and shook my head. She gave me a grateful smile. “Thank you,” she mouthed. I knew she was thanking me for more than sparing her the need to see us out. She was thanking me for Inessa.
It wasn’t just me who was responsible.