I pull her into my arms and hold her like I can shield her from every sick, twisted fucking thing in this world. Closing my eyes, I press my mouth to her hair, breathing her in.
My anchor in this fucked-up world.
“We ramp up security, like Luce suggested,” I murmur into her curls. “You, Sunniva, even Lucetta will have people on her. Full teams. I want eyes, guns, and blades on every inch of your lives. I don’t give a fuck about optics. No one breathes near you without me knowing.”
She nods against my chest. “Okay.”
“I mean it.” I lean back to meet her gaze. “If I even think Giselda’s moving on you again, I will raze this goddamn city to ash. I’ll flood the sewers with blood. I will find her, Kisa. I will end this.”
“I believe you.”
Sunniva and Lucetta reappear, and I school my face into something colder. We go over protocol, logistics, everything I need them to know. I don’t give a single fuck if they’re annoyed, but I do give a shit that they’re breathing tomorrow.
After they leave again, the quiet settles heavier than it should.
Cressida hovers by the edge of a table, her hands twisting nervously.
I reach for her again, but she steps back. Not far, just enough to prepare me.
“There’s something else I need to tell you,” she says softly.
My pulse stutters.
She looks at me, her eyes wide and glassy. “I’m pregnant.”
Pregnant.
The world around me stops as the air is sucked from my lungs.
“You . . .” I rasp. “You’re . . .”
Staring at her, I’m trying to find the words to say, but it’s like my brain circles around that one word. My expression must be unreadable because she flinches, panic and pain blooming across her face.
“You don’t want it,” she whispers. “You don’t want the baby.”
“What? No . . . no,Lisichka. . .” I move fast, cradling her face in my hands and wiping the fear from her eyes. “I do. Fuck, of course, I do. I just . . .” I swallow the lump in my throat. “I didn’t expect it, and I’m scared.”
Her expression softens. “You?”
My laugh is hollow. “I’m fucking terrified I’m going to fuck this up. That I’ll be a shit father. That I won’t know how to balance the monster I am with the man I need to be. I’m scared I’ll be jealous of my own child because I’m obsessed with you,” I confess, my voice breaking. “Because I can’t share you. Because I love you so damn much, it feels like being gutted every time you’re out of my sight. And now, you carry something even closer to you than me, and I don’t know how to—”
Her lips crush against mine, silencing the rest of my words. She pulls back, and then, fuck, she smiles this soft aching thing that cracks my soul.
“Konstantin Kirovsky, you will not fail. Or him. You won’t be jealous. You’ll love this baby like you love me—fiercely, obsessively, until the world bends under it. This baby . . . it’s not going to take me away from you. It’s a part of you. Of us. They’ll be born from our love.” Her fingers curl around both sides of my face, holding me in place, forcing me to really listen to her. “There is no damn universe, no version of reality, no alternate dimension where I don’t belong to you. All of me, monster man. Even when I’m covered in spit-up and sleep deprived and breastfeeding and cursing your name . . . I will still want you. I willalwayswant you.”
I kiss her slow and reverent, like she’s the answer to every war I’ve ever waged.
Because she is.
And now, so is this child.
The war outside still rages, but inside these four walls, in this moment, I find a reason to fight harder than ever before.
A future worth burning the world for.
I drop to my knees, lift her shirt, wrap my arms around her waist, and press my forehead to her stomach like I’m praying to something I’m not sure I believe in. “I never thought I’d have this. A family. A future. Now, I’ve got something to lose. People to lose. That terrifies the fuck out of me. A man who has never once feared anything is now terrified to my core.”
“You won’t lose us,” she promises, running her hand over head. “We’re not going anywhere.”
