Chapter 62
ADELINA
Viktor’s laughter filled the room—thick, choking, a sound that burrowed into bone.
His shadow stretched across the walls, swallowing every corner.
I had my dagger, but when I swung, the blade grew heavy, my grip slipping like it didn’t recognize me anymore.
Each strike missed. Each breath shrank in my lungs.
He was untouchable.
And then Cezar appeared. Blood already running down his throat, dark stains soaking into his shirt. His eyes—God, those eyes—looked at me like I was worth every drop he shed. He lifted a hand toward me, reaching, trying, but Viktor wouldn’t allow him to move. A predator. A king who never fell.
I screamed. I lunged. The world blurred.
The dagger fell from my hand. Viktor fired, the gunshot splitting the air louder than a storm.
Thunder roared, but it was Cezar’s chest that burst open, spraying red like shattered sky.
His body jerked once, then went still. My knees slammed into the ground, as if the earth demanded I knelt in my own failure.
I caught him. His weight collapsed into my arms. His blood soaked my hands, painted my clothes, dripped between my shaking fingers. A crimson rose bloomed in my palms, only to wither into ash. Not him. Anyone but him. My vengeance had killed him. My vengeance had made me powerless.
Viktor leaned close, his whisper slithering down my spine. “Your love is the grave you dig. And when he dies because of it, it’ll be you lowering him into the ground.”
I woke with a sound I didn’t recognize, my lungs desperate for air.
My fingers clawed into Cezar’s skin before I tore them away.
His body was there, his voice soft, but I couldn’t say it.
Couldn’t tell him he had already died in my arms, even if only in a dream.
If I said it out loud, it would become truth.
“It’s nothing,” I lied.
He was trying to calm the panic, and when he told me he loved me, I shoved him away.
Because in the dark of my mind, love was the bullet that stole him from me. Love was the grave Viktor promised I’d dig. Love was the curse I couldn’t outrun.
The lie burned my throat raw. My ears rang with the phantom echo of a gunshot. The room smelled of hot metal and smoke. My hands looked clean, yet they trembled like they were still drenched in blood.
I turned from Cezar, retreating to the farthest edge of the bed, as if distance could shield him from me. Every part of me screamed to stay in his arms. Weak. You’re too weak. He was speaking, but I couldn’t hear him. His warmth was dangerous, seeping into every hollow place inside me.
A trap. This was it. To need someone so badly that Viktor became inevitable.
I have to let him go to save him, free him from my prison.
I closed my eyes, pretending the dead man from my dream wasn’t breathing beside me. Pretending those icy blue eyes weren’t watching me with confusion I couldn’t bear. Pretending Cezar’s love wasn’t killing me faster than Viktor ever could.