Chapter 131

Sofia. The car ride was too quiet for my liking. Smoke and blood clung to my clothes, thick and suffocating. The scent of cordite was still sharp in my nose, like I had been branded by the fight we’d just survived. Alexei slept in my lap, small and fragile, his tiny hands curled into the fabric of my jacket with a desperate grip. Like he was afraid I’d disappear if he let go. His breathing was uneven, little tremors running through his body. I kept running my fingers through his hair, whispering soft reassurances even though he was too far gone in exhaustion to hear them. Arsen was in the backseat, and I couldn’t look back. I couldn’t handle seeing him like that. Couldn’t handle the silence. Nikolai was beside him, pressing a wad of gauze to the worst of his wounds. He wasn’t talking, but I saw the way his hands shook slightly—how his jaw clenched tight, like he was barely holding something together. Nadei was driving, his knuckles white on the steering wheel. Nial sat in the front pas