King of the Underworld by RJ Kane

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Sephir

Viktor and Ilva quietly left the penthouse without a word to anyone else. We were quiet for a few moments, when

Andrei finally broke the silence. He looked to Misha, saying, “I think you should confirm, but he’ll be back. He just

needs time.”

Misha got his faraway look in his eye for a moment, then looked at Andrei and nodded his head.

room. As I walked down the hallway, I could feel the tears welling up

“At least it means I can take these contacts out,” I said, walking back to the in my eyes. I walked a little faster,

trying to avoid having to fish floating contacts out of my eyes.

1 splashed water on my face, trying to get a handle on myself. I glanced in the mirror, noticing my eyes were

swirling. At least they’re not amber anymore. As I patted my face with the towel, I did notice that I didn’t feel the

overwhelming sadness anymore that I’d been feeling for days now. Moybe they burned it off

Everyone had concem written very prominently across their faces when I wafend back out. While I was still worried

about Viktor and Ilya, I was also enjoying not feeling like I was overcome with sadness,

“I think you guys sharing your anger with me burned off the sadness. I actually feel much better now,” I said,

smiling at Adrik and Ivan.

It caused Stephen and Misha to laugh. “I didn’t even know a human could get that angry without legitimately

exploding and you’re like, ‘right. I feel much better now,” Misha said, laughing.

Vitaliy, always curious, simply said, “explain”

“When she got hit with whatever that was from Elya, she faltered and went kor rold. She’s insanely sensitive to cold.

It was starting to consume her, to the point she was losing control. She managed to tell me and Ivan that she

needed our anger. Clearly, we were holding back because she then asked for all of it,” Adrik said, smiling at me.

“Because we can feel what she feels, we all felt their anger through her. It’s w

said.

Andrei couldn’t give an explanation to Viktor right away,” Stephen

“How did she tell you? I didn’t hear her speak,” Vitaliy said.

“Yeah, so about that. She doesn’t need to with me and Boss atrymore,” Ivan sud.

Vitally looked to me, surprised. “This is true?”

“It’s true. It’s been happening with Adrik for a long time, just not with words how I can talk to Ivan too. It even

worked when he was gone this weekend,” 1 said.

“That’s useful,” he said.

“You do feel better now, spider monkey. Your eyes are normal again, instead of amber, too,” Andrei said. I glanced

around quickly to make sure no one would see, then tapped my temple so he would look in my head. I silently

thanked him for not only being a buffer between me and Viktor, but for also jumping in so quickly with an

explanation. He was the voice of reason in a velitile situation and I might’ve loved him a little more for it.

He gave me a wink and his handsome smile.

As we were clearing up from dinner, Vitaly finally asked what everyone had been wondering, but didn’t want to ask.

“What if Viktor decides not to come back? I know you say he will, but he’s still free to make his own decisions.

Maybe he decides this is too much for him.”

I sighed. “I have thought about that. I glanced at all the guys. “I kind of unwittingly bound all of them to me, but I

haven’t with Viktor yet. They’re all still free to leave at any point, but I also bound our souls together, so they’n kind

of stuck with me now until that agreement changes. I never did

that with Viktor.”

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“What do you mean, Seph?” Steplfen asked.

“Did she pinky swear with you?” Misha asked, grinning. “Because she did with me and it’s one I plan to honor,” he

said, winking at me,

Stephen laughed. “I actually feel much better that I’m not the only one who took that so seriously.”

“I thought it was how I helped you all discover your gifts, but then I never goth chance to do it with Viktor and now

he knows his gift. I’m not sure what that means, honestly,” I said, chewing on my lip.

Adrik walked to me, a small smile on his lips as he watched my eyes for a moment. “I missed seeing them change.

They were amber for too long,” he said, pressing his lips gently to mine. He pulled me against him as he spoke to

Vitaliy. “I’m actually surprised Viktor is reacting this way to everything. He’s always been the voice of reason for

me.”

“This is a high percentage of unreasonable occurrences, though. Everyone has their limit,” I said. “Maybe we just

passed his. Maybe it was all out of order so it’s more chaotic with him. I don’t know. I don’t have the answers.”

“It wasn’t your fault he found out the way he did, princess. It was Kostya. Held Viktor he used you and the Wonder

Twins to make it happen,” Ivan said. I looked to him, completely confused.

“She came in after that part of the conversation,” Adrik said.

“Viktor told me that his kid came to him in a dream the first night we were gone. He said he’s dreamed of his wife

and kid regularly ever since they were killed. They were going to name the kid Konstantin and apparently the kid

decided to keep the name. He knew that Viktor has been avoiding you, so he used Misha and Andrei to create the

situation where Viktor could see his gift. It was his doing. You didn’t do anything wrong, princess,” Ivan said, his tone

softening at the end.

I looked at Andrei. “That must be why I asked you to snoop in the journalist’s head. That’s what started everything

and gave me the idea of how to figure out Viktor’s gift in the first place.”

“See? Always a reason,” he said, winking at me again.

Adrik sighed. “If Viktor decides this is too much, then we’ll deal with it when it happens. Until then, I don’t think it’s

worth obsessing over.”

It was three days before anyone saw Viktor again. He completely disappeared the night Ilya came to the

penthouse. No one could reach him. He didn’t tell anyone where he was going. He didn’t tell anyone that he was

okay. He just vanished.

The guys knew he was back the third night, only because they saw light under his door when they all went back to

their apartments for the evening. They were all so irritated with him that they left him alone. If he wanted silence,

they would give him silence.

Ivan did let us know that he was back. “There’s a light on in his apartment. We could all see it under his door, but no

one went to check on him. No idea if Ilya is still with him or not.”

“Thanks for letting me know, Ivan. I’m still not sure how I’m going to handle thine,” Adrik responded.

“Yeah, I don’t envy you on that one,” Ivan said.

Adrik sighed, clearly stressed about what to do with Viktor. On one hand, well knew he was struggling. On the other

hand, he essentially deserted his duties, which he’d done before. Again, for good reason, but this was now a

pattern.

He had climbed into bed first while he waited for me to finish up. He was rubbing his face in his hands when I

climbed on top of him, straddling him.

“I think it’s on him,” I said, quietly. “He’s either going to accept everything that’s happened or he’s not. If he does,

then we can figure out what to do. If he doesn’t, then he’s free to leave. This is a lot and I understand that. But not

begging anybody to stay ever again.”

“I still think he’ll stay, but he needs to decide. He can’t keep running away from the decision. Once he decides, then

the outcome will be much easier to determine,” he said, pulling me to him. I rested my head on his shoulder while

he wrapped his arms around me, always grateful for the moments of

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peace that I so readily found in his arms.