I inhaled, steeling my nerves. Ilya led me forward. Valentin moved aside as I approached a door. Ilya opened the handle and pulled it open. Fresh air immediately dusted the hair from my face. I closed my eyes as the cool breeze washed over me, chasing my nerves away.
I felt Ilya tense beside me and knew he was feeling it also. He stepped forward, leading me off a step and down onto a patch of grass. As my bare feet sank into the soft ground, I closed my eyes. It was only for a moment as I told myself it wasn’t a dream. I opened them quickly. I didn’t want to miss a thing.
Ilya looked around us. Trees and fences surrounded us. But best was the coolness of the air in my lungs. The pit was dank. This evening air was a balm to all the pain I had endured. It helped me to forget.
Ilya gasped. When I turned to face him, he was looking at the sky. I followed his mesmerized gaze, and as I did, I lost my breath.
“Stars,” Ilya whispered as we stared at the tiny glittering lights.
Tears filled my eyes and I squeezed his hand tightly. “Ilya,” I murmured, in awe of this new life aboveground.
“I know,” he replied, and lifted his arm to thread over my shoulders. “I know,” he whispered again.
Inhaling deeply, my body infused with this heady feeling. Releasing this breath, I asked, “Ilya, can you feel it?”
“What?” he questioned, the warmth of peace radiating from his worn body.
“Freedom,” I hushed out. “Our freedom … our freedom … at long last.”
Epilogue
ILYA
Three years later …
“Rodian!” Kisa called to her son as he ran over to his little cousin and pushed her to the ground.
Larisa, Talia and Zaal’s daughter, began to scream. Zaal, who was talking to Luka near the barbeque, turned his head and rushed to his daughter’s aid. He scooped her up and brought her to his chest. His little girl wrapped her arms around his neck and cried into his long hair.
“Shh,” Zaal soothed, rubbing the little girl’s back. “It’s okay.”
Talia approached her husband and daughter, and rolled her eyes. “She’s fine, Zaal!” She shook her head. “I swear, that daughter of ours has you wrapped around her little finger.”
Ivan and Vera Tolstoi, Talia and Luka’s parents, walked to Zaal. Ivan folded his arms across his chest. “I remember someone else wrapping her papa around her finger, too.” Talia glared at her papa. Then, bursting into a smile, she threw her arms around his waist and squeezed tight.
“I still do,” she quipped. Ivan and Vera both nodded their heads.
Luka walked toward Zaal, his son in his arms. Rodian was scowling at Larisa. Larisa scowled back. As Luka stopped beside Zaal, he looked down to his son. “Rodian, what do you say?”
Rodian glared at his papa and crossed his arms. But Luka’s stare was stronger. Kisa joined her husband, hand on her swollen belly. She too waited for their son to apologize to his cousin.
Kirill, the Pakhan, walked over and asked, “What happened?”
Luka pointed at his son. “He pushed Larisa to the floor. He’s refusing to apologize.” Kirill’s hard eyes turned to Rodian, and with the same level of success his glare pulled out of everyone, Rodian turned to his cousin and muttered, “I’m sorry, Larisa.”
Larisa hiccupped pathetically and said in the sweetest voice, “It’s okay, Rodian. I forgive you.” I saw Zaal almost melt on the spot when his daughter kissed his cheek, then she politely asked to be put down. Rodian immediately took her hand and they ran off to play.
A hand lay over mine, and when I looked to the side, Inessa was smiling at me watching them. “Are you envious, moy voin?”
Seeing Zoya and Valentin across the yard, rocking their newborn son, Alexei, in their arms, I felt a pang of jealousy. “No,” I said, but Inessa leaned forward and raised an eyebrow at my lie. “Okay, yes,” I admitted. I shrugged. “But I can wait. I have you. That’s all I need for now.”
I had married Inessa only four months after we arrived from the pit. We were both it for each other, we knew it. We had both struggled to adjust to this new life. Had no idea how to assimilate into the world aboveground. But we stumbled through, and all the time held each other up.
Inessa came in for a kiss. I placed my hand on the side of her neck. The kiss was deep and long. When she broke away, she said, “Remember in the cell, when I came to see you before Master found us, we wished for many things?”
I nodded my head. I hated being reminded of those times.
“Do you remember we wished to walk together outside the pit? To finally choose to be together?”
“Yes,” I said, and brought her hand to my mouth to kiss.
“Do you remember what else we said?”
I shook my head, but then said, “That we would have a family. That we would one day have a family, by choice.”
Inessa nodded slowly, then watched me as she grew silent. I searched her eyes, wondering what she wanted me to know, when my heart stuttered in excitement. I glanced down to Inessa’s stomach under her pink summer dress, then looked back into her eyes.
I opened my mouth and quietly whispered, “Inessa?”
Inessa’s eyes filled with tears and she laughed as my mouth gaped farther still. “Yes,” she replied, answering my unspoken question. She pressed her hand on her stomach. “You’re going to be a papa.”
Pure joy sailed through me. Reaching forward, I pulled Inessa into my arms, then leaned back. “I’m going to be a papa?” I half exclaimed, half asked. The wish we had wanted for ourselves was surprisingly hard to digest.
Inessa threw back her head and laughed. She was at her most beautiful when she laughed. “Yes!” she said louder, seizing the attention of everyone in the yard.
Valentin walked over first, leaving Zoya cradling a sleeping Alexei in her arms. “What?” he asked.
I looked to Inessa, and she nodded, giving me permission. Looking to my brother-in-law and best friend, I said, “I’m going to be a papa.”
Valentin’s eyes widened and a smile broke out on his face. “Nessa,” he said happily. Inessa jumped to her feet and wrapped her arms around her brother’s waist.
Zoya gave me a one-armed hug. “Get ready to join the no-sleep club,” she teased.
“I’m ready,” I replied. “I’ve been ready for a while.”
Luka and Kisa came next, followed by Zaal and Talia. Kirill, Ivan, and Vera came, too. Pushing through the crowd last was Maya. She targeted her best friend and ran into her arms. Maxim, her male, one of the young fighters who chose to move to New York, stood back and watched on with pride.
“Inessa,” Maya said quietly, “I am so happy for you.” Inessa leaned forward and kissed Maya’s previously scarred skin. Over the past few years, the Volkovs had paid for Maya to have reconstructive surgery. Although all the damage couldn’t be reversed, it was almost as it had been before. It had given her the confidence to live again. And fall in love. Maxim was one of forty-three males who chose to join our ranks. Due to our high numbers of highly trained warriors, our Bratva and Kostava Clan were unstoppable.
Maxim was young too, still only twenty himself. But he was a worthy male. And he adored Maya. He knew that Maya was a sister to my Inessa. And he also knew the consequences from all of us if he ever hurt her. He wouldn’t, though. I could see they were forever by the look in his eyes.
When the congratulations had died down, I saw Kirill tap Luka on the back. Luka took a deep breath and nodded. I was about to question what was happening, when Kirill tapped the side of his champagne glass with a fork.
We all turned to watch the Pakhan as he stood before us, Luka by his side. Ivan joined him. I frowned. I looked to Kisa and saw her subtly wipe a stray tear from the corner of her eye.
She was tearful in happiness. In pride.
“Seeing that we are already celebrating, I think it’s about time that we add another reason to be merry.” Zaal and Valentin walked beside me and we shrugged at one another, all three with no idea what was going on.
Kirill placed his hand on Luka’s shoulder. “I am getting old. And I have held the Pakhan position in our great brotherhood for too many years.” Kirill became somber. “I always thought this day would involve my son, Rodian. But, well, that dream never transpired as it should have.” Kirill nodded to his daughter. “I should have had my wife by my side too, but life didn’t work out that way for me, either.” Turning to Luka, he said, “When you were taken as a child, I gave up believing that we would have a strong leader.”