King of the Underworld by RJ Kane

470

Adrik

That afternoon, once we’d arrived at the house, Viktor surprised the rest of in by asking if he could take Sephie for a walk, just the two of them, while she was upstairs for a minute.

“I still have making up to do with her from everything that’s happened,” Viktor said.

“You do,” Ivan agreed. “But that’s the best place to do it. Make sure you tell her everything, though. She already knows anyway, but she needs to hear you say it.”

Viktor chuckled. “You’re not the only one that’s told me that recently,” he said. Apparently, he and Kostya spoke quite often. Much more than the rest of us were aware of. If he was getting that kind of advice from him, I wasn’t going to be mad about it though.

Sephie walked into the back room, where the rest of us were. Her smile made the room brighter as her eyes landed on me. It didn’t seem to matter how long we spent together, she was always happy to see me after even the shortest time away from me. I loved it. I couldn’t get enough of it..

“Sestrichka, I was hoping you’d like to take a walk with me?” Viktor asked. I don’t think I’d ever seen him so timid. He was nervous, but at least he was finally trying to make things truly right once again.

“I would love to, Papa Bear. But now I have to go get my coat. Shockingly, I’m cold,” she said, grinning at all of us before jogging back upstairs.

“Her lung is getting better and better. She’s acting more like her old self,” Stephen observed.

her again in the morning if you want to come too,” Misha said. “Hopefully this time she’ll be able to catch her breath better, but at

for all of us when that happens,” I said. Watching her struggle to breathe was still one of the most horrifying things I’d ever seen. It’s the biggest reason that I was able to turn off my bloodlust so quickly with Armando. I could feel her struggling. Everything else shu

Viktor. I thought back to how shy she used to

slid her arm through Viktor’s as they walked around the pool toward the gardens, then stopped to look at a few of the rose bushes, noticing

has no idea how lucky he is that she’s so forgiving. I would’ve made him suffer

on her, especially since she’s so connected to all of us now. She’s not with him and she feels that every time we’re all together. She

level as her. It’s obvious to us that his connection is the weakest, too,” Andrei said.

over time. He’s arguably been the slowest out of all of us. Maybe his connection will keep slowly increasing. It seems like he’s talking to Kostya very regularly,” Stephen

you all back from living your own

does what now?” Ivan asked, completely

living your lives. From finding girlfriends. She thinks Stephen will have an easier time, but only just barely. She brought up the conversation we had about it in Italy, when Ivan pointed out how difficult it was going to be to find suitable girlfriends now

have. It doesn’t seem to matter how much I reassure her, she’s still worried she’s holding you back,”

her worry about Viktor, but then something else came up. I asked her about it. She admitted there was something else, but she didn’t want to talk about it then so I

did that night. She doesn’t know how to turn it off to spare you from having to feel what she feels. She thinks she’s condemned all

feel their own inner

realize she’s giving us a gift to be able to feel that along with her,” Stephen