Sienna
I sleep for most of the drive. After carrying the weight of the last few weeks, the not knowing what was happening, the worry that someone would find me and kill me in retribution for killing Andrey, exhaustion took me under.
I open my eyes and it’s light out. The clock on the dash reads just before three in the afternoon. We were driving for hours.
He gets out of the car as I adjust myself in the seat, unbuckling just as he opens my door.
“Where are we?” I ask, looking through the windscreen and seeing a beautiful old house standing amongst tall trees.
“It’s my family home.” He takes my hand as I climb out of the car. “No one has lived here for the last ten years, so it will need some work. But it’s ours, if you want.”
The windows glitter in the afternoon sunshine and as I look around, my entire future plays like an old movie. Picnics in the garden. Fairly lights hanging from the trees. Family parties and children running around. Love and laughter.
“It’s beautiful,” I say, awe tightening my throat.
We walk up to the huge door and Daniil takes an old key from his wallet. The door creaks with disuse as it opens and when we step in, I’m struck by the beauty of it.
“You can decorate however you like, just say the word and we’ll get people in. We can hire a small staff too, whatever you want.”
I turn to him, awe-struck. “Are you sure you don’t mind? I don’t have a job, or a way to pay my way—” I trail off, embarrassment threatening to choke me, hoping he understands my lack of willingness to use Andrey’s money.
“I have more than enough for both of us,” he says, stroking a thumb over my bottom lip. “I just want you to be happy, whatever that looks like. Get a job, don’t get a job, start a business. Whatever you want to do, I’ll support you.”
An idea begins to form in my mind.
He looks around. “I’ll get a trailer brought in so we can stay in there while the renovations are undertaken.” He pulls me further into the house.
Light filters through the tall windows, turning the motes in the air to flecks of silver. Daniil’s footsteps echo off the floorboards as he moves ahead of me, pushing open doors, glancing into rooms that have been asleep for years.
I follow him up the stairs, trailing my fingers along the banister. “It feels like the house is holding its breath,” I say softly.
He glances back over his shoulder, smiling faintly. “Maybe it’s waiting for us to wake it up.”
Something in my chest twists. Something fragile and bright. This house… it feels like it’s been waiting for someone to love it again.
We step into what must once have been the master suite. The fireplace dominates one wall, its stone mantle cracked but still strong. I can almost see it restored, warm and glowing, with a huge bed and a soft rug underfoot.
Daniil looks around, then back at me. “You’re seeing it already, aren’t you?”
I nod, smiling.
He crosses the room in a few long strides, stopping in front of me. “You always have a choice, Sienna. If you don’t want this, it’s okay.”
The way he says my name makes my pulse jump. He lifts a strand of hair from my cheek and tucks it behind my ear. His fingers linger, tracing the edge of my jaw, and I forget how to breathe.
“You saved me,” I whisper.
He shakes his head slowly. “No. You saved yourself. I just showed up afterwards.”
But I know that isn’t true. If he hadn’t come through that door, I’d be dead, in body or in spirit. I never made a plan for what to do after killing Andrey because part of me believed I’d be killed, too.
“I don’t know what this is,” I admit, my voice trembling. “Us. It feels too fast. Too intense.”
He leans in, his breath warm against my temple. “It doesn’t matter what it feels like. It’s real.”
I look up at him then, really look, at the faint scar above his lip, the tiredness he carries in his shoulders, the softness in his gaze that wasn’t there before. Something inside me gives way.
My hands find his chest, feeling the steady thrum of his heart. “I want this,” I whisper. “I want you.”
For a moment he doesn’t move, and then he exhales, low and rough, like he’s been holding that breath for a lifetime.
He tilts my chin up and kisses me, slow at first, reverent, like he’s trying to memorise the shape of everything we’ve become.
The warmth of his mouth spreads through me, dissolving the last of the fear I’ve carried for so long.
His hand slides to the small of my back, pulling me closer, and I feel the shiver that runs through him when I melt against him.
The kiss deepens, turns hungry, unspoken promises passing between us.
Every thought, every scar, every reason we ran fades away until there’s only the rhythm of his heartbeat and the certainty that I’ve finally found where I belong.
When he pulls back, his forehead rests against mine. “Welcome home, moya koroleva.”
I close my eyes and smile, the words wrapping around me like a blanket.
“I’d love for you to be my wife, Sienna,” he says, taking my hands in his. “My strong, beautiful killer bride. Say yes,”
“I’m not sure, Daniil. My last wedding didn’t turn out so great for the groom,” I deadpan and he laughs lightly.
“I’m not like that groom. I plan to worship my wife every day for the rest of my life.”
I kiss him in the middle of this big empty room. A room that’s going to be so full of love that it will forever feel like home.
“In that case,” I say, “yes.”