“It sounds lonely.”
He took a drink from his crystal goblet. “I bought a used motorcycle and got out of Russia, crossing through Poland, Germany, France, Spain—all the way to the tip of Gibraltar. I caught a ferry south to Africa, then in Marrakech, I took roads that were barely roads—”
“You wanted to disappear?” she whispered.
He gave a hard laugh. “I did disappear. My tires blew up, my engine got chewed up by sand. I was dying of thirst when they—” he nodded towards the encampment “—found me. Luckiest day of my life.” He took another gulp of wine. “They call this place the end of the world, but for me, it was a beginning. I found something in the desert I hadn’t been able to find anywhere.”
“What?”
He put his wineglass down on the table and looked at her. “Peace,” he whispered.
For a moment, they both looked at each other, sitting alone on an island amid an ocean of sand in the darkening night.
“What would it take to make you give up the war with your brother?” Josie asked softly.
“What would it take?” His eyes glittered in the deepening shadows. “Everything that he cares about.”
“It’s just so… sad.”
He looked at her incredulously. “You’re sad? For him? For the man who took your sister?”
She shook her head. “Not for him. For you. You’ve wasted ten years of your life on this. How much more time do you intend to squander?”
He finished off his wine in a gulp. “Not much longer now.”
The brief, cold smile on his face made her shiver. “There,” she breathed. “That smile. There’s something you’re not telling me. What is it?”
Kasimir stared at her for a long time, then turned away. “It’s not your concern.”
She watched the flickering shadows from the lanterns move like red fire against his taut jaw. He clearly wanted to end the subject. Fine, she told herself. What did she care if Kasimir wasted his life on stupid revenge plots? She didn’t care. She didn’t.
She bit her lip, then said hesitantly, “Is hurting your brother really more important to you than having a happy life yourself?”
“Leave it alone, Josie,” he said harshly.
Josie knew she should just be quiet and drink her mint tea but she couldn’t stop herself from replying in a heated tone, “Maybe if you just talked to him, explained how he’d hurt you—”
“He’d what, apologize?” Kasimir ground out. “Give me back my half of Xendzov Mining, wrapped in a nice gold bow?” His lips twisted. “There must be limits even to your optimism.”
She looked up quickly, her cheeks hot. “You keep telling me to be honest, to be brave and bold, but what have you done lately that was any of those things?”
He looked at her.
“If I weren’t bound by my vow,” he said, “I’d do the bravest, boldest, most honest thing I can think of. And that’s kiss you.”
She sucked in her breath.
Exhaling, Kasimir looked up, tilting his head back against his chair. “Look at the stars. They go on forever.”
Josie stared at him, her lips tingling, her heart twisting in her chest. Then she slowly followed his gaze. He was right about the stars. They had never looked so bright to her before, like twinkling diamonds above a violet sea. Looking at them, she felt so small, and yet bigger, too, as if she were part of something infinite and vast.
“You really want to kiss me so badly?” she heard herself say in a small voice.
“Yes.”
“And it’s not just because I’m—handy?”
He groaned. “I never should have said that. I knew I was wrong to kiss you. I was trying to act like it was no big deal.” His lips quirked upward. “Hoping maybe you wouldn’t notice that it was.”