Stolen Heir (Brutal Birthright, #2)

by Sophie Lark

And I want to know the real Mikolaj: passionate, loyal, unbreakable. I see it. I see who he is.

I’m more than good, and he’s more than bad. We’re opposites, and yet...

“You were right,” he says. “About what?” “You said I wouldn’t die. I thought I would. But you’re always right . . .”

Mikolaj wanted to kill my brother, too. Now he’s doing his best to save him. For me. Only for me. He chose me over his desire for revenge. He chose me over his brothers. He chose me over his own life. “Thank you, Miko,” I say.

His mind is working a million miles a minute, strategizing, formulating our next steps. Half his men may have turned on him, but he’s still the same leader and planner. He’s still the boss.

When it comes to strategic defense, you need your sniper.

he doesn’t stop groaning. He’s clutching his thigh, blubbering away even though I aimed for the muscle and didn’t even hit any artery or bone. Really, he couldn’t have asked for a cleaner shot.

will she want me still, when she has every other option at her fingertips? There’s only one way to know.

There’s a novel called You Can’t Go Home Again. It’s about a man who goes away for a time, and when he returns, so much has changed that he’s not really returning to the same place. Of course, the thing that changed the most is him.

When I finally see my parents’ house again, it is both the most familiar, and the most unfamiliar sight I’ve ever seen. I know its architecture like my own bones. But also, it looks brighter and flatter and simpler than I remember. It’s a lovely house—it just doesn’t have the same spooky grandeur as Mikolaj’s place.

I’m crying because I missed them so much. And I’m crying because they’re so happy to have their daughter back again. But I’m afraid they don’t have her back—not the same one.

It’s funny—usually my father would sit in that seat. Cal is taking his place, bit by bit. I knew he would someday, but seeing it happen makes me realize that we’re all growing up. Things change. And they never go back again.

I suppose you could say he’s the most handsome of Aida’s brothers—if it’s possible for the devil to be handsome.

Mikolaj looks out of place in my parents’ house, more than anyone else. He belongs in his own dark, gothic mansion. In this bright, clean space he’s an obvious outsider.

Their eyes locked together. The jolt of energy that passed between them was palpable.

Jonas hasn’t changed the locks. Why would he? Only a ghost has the other key.

“What do you say?” Jonas shouts to the men. “Which piece of Dante Gallo should I cut off first?” “You should finish one job before you start another,” I say, striding out into the light.

“You aren’t looking very well, brother.” “Still twice the boss you’ll ever be, Jonas,”

“The boss is boss until death,”

The key to knife fighting is footwork. You have to keep the right distance from your opponent.

Imagine two boxers facing off in a ring. Then think how many times Muhammad Ali gets hit, even though he’s the best in the world at dodging blows. You can’t afford to take that many cuts from a knife.

I pretend to lower my guard. This means I have to actually lower my guard for a moment.

My other men seem frozen, unsure of what to do. They don’t know what’s happening, there’s no precedent for all this. I know one thing for certain. There can only be one Boss.

“Go to hell!” he howls, as he writhes and struggles. “I’ll see you there, brother,” I tell him.

He lived in my house. We played pool together, and Chaturanga. We ate at the same table. Laughed at the same jokes. But in our world, you’re brothers or enemies. There is no in-between.

“An agreement by two can’t be broken by one,”

I love her more than I love my own soul. I would never hurt her.

It’s not what I want, not really. I understand that he’s trying to do this for me, to preserve my relationship with my family. And also to give me time to grow up a little more. To be certain of what I want in the long term. But I already know what I want. I want Mikolaj. I want to go back to the house where every day with him is like a dream more vivid than reality. I want to go home.

I always thought you were one-note. A pretty note, but not enough to make a whole song.”

The snow is so thick that I can’t see the lake, or my house. We could be the only two people in the world. We could be two figures inside of a snow globe, suspended for all time.

“Don’t you miss me?” “More than I ever thought I could miss anything.”

I feel connected to him, like we’re becoming one soul as well as one body of tangled flesh. I know he’s feeling what I’m feeling. Thinking what I’m thinking. He’s loving me as I’m loving him: insanely, without reason, without limit.

She doesn’t want to talk about that month I was missing. She wants me to be exactly as I was before. I just can’t, no matter how hard I try.

“Not everything is a love match, Nessa,” she says. “Sometimes men and women are just friends.”

I miss wandering around that labyrinth, continually drawn toward the man at the center. The one who pulls me in like a magnet.

After all, it’s a big city. Plenty of crime to go around.

I don’t expect that they’ll ever like me. They might not even stop hating me. They have to accept me, however, because I’m not letting go of Nessa.

he must be intelligent and strategic, with a core of steel. You don’t get to the top any other way.

I take a breath, trying to think how normal people speak when they make conversation.

A few months ago I would have said she was lucky we didn’t cut her throat and toss her in a ditch. Now I’m Father Christmas. That’s how soft I’ve gotten.

I was a wild animal that night. I wanted to tear her to pieces and swallow her whole. I barely kept control of my desire for her. What I didn’t realize is how strong her desire already was in return.

I’m reliving it all again. I forget that I’m sitting next to her parents. I forget that there’s anyone else in this theater. I just see her and me, how we broke apart and came back together again, over and over, neither of us able to resist the pull of attraction that lured us in and bound us tight. She’s showing me our whole story over again, a dark fantasy retold through her eyes.

They’re amazed by Nessa’s performance. But it’s more than that. They know what it means, just as well as I do. They’ve seen how Nessa really feels. She’s laid her heart out on the stage for everyone to see.

“Thank you,” he says, hoarsely. “You were quicker than me. I wouldn’t have made it in time.”

I’m so happy to be back here. I don’t know how such a strange place could suit me so well, but it does. It was made for me, a hundred years before I was even born. And Miko bought it for us, before he knew I existed.

“I was a corpse when I met you, Nessa,” he says. “No breath. No heart. No life. I felt nothing. I cared about nothing. Then I saw you, and you woke me up inside. I was such a fool at first. I was so numb that I thought that spark must be hatred. If I was a normal person, I would have realized it was love. Love at first sight. From the second I laid eyes on you.”

“I wanted to hate you, because that was easier. But as I watched you, it was impossible to ignore your kindness, your intelligence, your creativity. You’re good Nessa, truly and intrinsically good in a way that most people could never dream of being. But you’re so much more than that. You’re talented, and beautiful, and the sexiest fucking woman in the world. Shit, I wasn’t going to swear during this.”

I understood how important your family is to you. I stole you the first time. This time, I wanted their blessing.”

you. I love you more than money or power or my own life.

you stole my heart. It’s yours forever. I couldn’t take it back if I wanted to. So will you marry me?”