One for My Enemy

by Olivie Blake

“Yeah, no,” the guy said firmly. “I’m walking you there. Have you seen you? You practically fell in the street just now—though, that left hook was impressive,” he added tangentially, with an air of being powerless to the admission. “I really did not see that coming. Well played, honestly—”

Lev i love you

“Not interested?” Lev replied doubtfully, and Sasha rolled her eyes. “Are you really just going to repeat things I say all night?” “I might have to,” Lev retorted, “if they continue to be so hurtful.” “Why, are you interested?” She wondered what she wanted his answer to be. “No, I’m not,” Lev insisted, “but, you know.” His eyes met hers with something she might have called sincerity. It was … disarming. Unsteadying, and she was plenty unsteady as it was. “I’d appreciate being given the time to decide.”

give me all the banter

“Oh, hell,” Lev rumbled softly, and before Sasha could respond, he had pulled her into him, wrapping one arm around her waist to slide his free hand beneath her jaw, tilting her face up toward his. He leaned close, pausing a matter of breaths from her lips, and then he stayed there, his nose poised delicately alongside hers.

OHHHHHHH

He steadied her for a moment before helplessly falling back, yanking her closer as he reached blindly for the wall of the building behind him, content to let brick and stone do the work of keeping them upright.

OHHHHHHH

“I have to go,” she whispered, and felt Lev growl his opposition, his fingers tightening briefly in the moment before he released her, allowing her to step away.

WHT A MANNNNN

“Is it?” he demurred, brushing his lips against hers. Not a kiss, though. Not yet. “Seems to be going pretty well for me so far, don’t you think?”

ohhhhh

“I’m not here for a one-night stand, Sasha,” he told her. “The story we’re writing? It has chapters. Installments. I don’t want once.”

Hey you met once

“Why didn’t you let me choose you?” he asked hoarsely. “I would have gone to you, Masha, if you’d asked. You would’ve only had to ask, and I would have chosen you over everything.”

I am crying and gagging shut it down

“I will always love you, I will love you until the day I die—and if you’re the one to kill me, then by all means, you should know without a trace of doubt that you will not have turned me away. I will have spent the final beat of my heart loving you, just as I always have. Only you, Masha,” he said, and she bent in anguish, resting her forehead against the still-sluggish motion of his chest while he gathered her in his arms, eternally hers. Even now, eternally familiar. “Only you, forever, I promise.”

ENOUGH OH IM GOING TO THROW UP

“Oof, Sasha—” She kissed him,

Yeah period

“Does it bother you,” Lev exhaled resignedly, “that you don’t know my last name?”

UH OH

“Don’t tell me anything,” Lev warned firmly. “If you and your sisters and your mother are up to something, don’t tell me. Don’t trust me.”

UGHHHHH i live

“This will be complicated,” he warned her, though it was meant to remind them both. “Oh, definitely,” she agreed. “We really shouldn’t do it,” he said, as she tilted her head up, brushing her lips against his. “No,” she said, “we really shouldn’t.” “Fuck,” he sighed, feeling the last of his already highly compromised reservations give way. “But we’re going to, aren’t we?” “Yes, Lev,” she confirmed, reaching up to tangle her fingers in his hair. “Yes, we definitely are.”

LEV THE MANNN YOU ARE

The most dangerous of the Antonova witches is dead now,

*sighs* this is going to ruin the tour

across his chest; across his own heart, which for some reason had not stopped beating despite the stillness where Marya Antonova’s should have been. He’d been so sure that it would, for having loved her. He’d been positive, once, that it would break, shatter, deliver itself to oblivion, all for love of her.

BLEGHHHHH

“Biblical, at this rate,” Lev lamented, but she rolled her eyes and he was helpless to smile, throwing an arm around her waist and pulling her close again. “One more,” he said, and dropped another kiss to her lips, savoring it that time. “Okay, now go,” he exhaled, eyes still closed, “before I completely lose all composure and fall prostrate at your feet.”

KINGGGGGG GOD

“Composure? You’ve already lost it,” Sasha assured him. “It’s long gone.” “Maybe so,” Lev agreed. “But I’d trade it for you any day.”

Yeah im not strong enough

Ivan removed Dimitri’s fingers, prying them free one by one to gather Marya up in his arms.

OHHHHHH IVAN HAD TO PRY HER OUT OF HIS ARMS

He’d told Koschei anyway.

SNITCH someone kill him

them away, not taking his gaze from hers. “Sasha,” he said, her name mournful on his tongue, and she pulled him into her and kissed him, her hands tightly grasping the collar of his coat. Could he really taste so sweet, being her enemy?

Im sick SICK i tell you

“Write me a tragedy, Lev Fedorov,” she whispered to him. “Write me a litany of sins. Write me a plague of devastation. Write me lonely, write me wanting, write me shattered and fearful and lost. Then write me finding myself in your arms, if only for a night, and then write it again. Write it over and over, Lev, until we both know the pages by heart. Isn’t that a story, too?”

OH BITCH WHAT DA HELLLLLL

She turned to him sharply. “My sister is dead, Lev. My favorite sister. My best one.” He said nothing. “My family will come for her killer.” Again, Lev didn’t speak. “Would you deny us that?” she prompted, unsure whether she was lashing out or genuinely asking. “You and your brothers, are you any different from us?” He swallowed, shaking his head. “No.” “I didn’t think so,” Sasha murmured. “So, this may be the only night we’ll ever have, Lev Fedorov.”

IM ILL OHHHH IM ILL

“I don’t want your anger,” he said. She recoiled, irritated, though he didn’t release her hand. “What do you want, then?” she said. “My grief? Is that it?” “If it’s real, yes,” Lev permitted, shrugging. His hand was firm against hers,

DONT SAY THAT

“I want you,” he murmured, twining her fingers with his, “and you have me so easily, without lifting a finger. But don’t use me.”

OH

if I can only have you as a fire, Sasha, as a flame of what you are, then I want you to burn for me. Do you understand? I’ll hold you if you want me to,”

GOD

“I’m your enemy in the morning,” he whispered. Fair warning. His hand traced the shape of her scapula, fingers brushing the length of her spine and then curling upward, possessive. “I’m your enemy tonight,” she said, and kissed him again.

GOD DAMNIT

“I should go,” she said, moving to sit up, and Lev vigorously shook his head, pressing his lips to her shoulder and holding her in place.

SIGHHHH

“I fell in love with you, didn’t I, Sasha Antonova?” His laugh, the set of her jaw, they both said I love you, it’s over, we’re doomed. “I was always going to be trapped.”

THEY MAKE ME SICK

“Papa,” Dimitri said, his voice breaking. “Did you just give up Lev?”

NOOOOO

Roman stared at Dimitri’s closed door for nearly an hour, waiting, before he eventually rose to his feet, letting them carry him to the last place they’d put Lev to rest.

His death hasnt hit me yet because i really dont believe that he is just not coming back

“Well, only because you remember very little,” she said, “Lev Fedorov.”

God is good

“You’re supposed to be dead,” she said. His mouth felt cottony. Dry. “Yes,” he confirmed. “As are you.”

REUNION OF A LIFETIME

“When I kissed you, yeah.” She could hear him grinning on the other side of the phone. “You’re testing me, aren’t you? You think I won’t remember, but I remember everything. Every detail. Test me all you want, Sasha Antonova,” he said with a laugh. “Believe me, I’ll pass.”

THE STANDARD

“You said,” she began, and swallowed. “You said, ‘I’ll find you, Sasha.’” “Yes. I said I would find you.”

LIKE

She seemed unsure of him, as if he might slip through her fingers at any moment, so he undressed her with care, with patience, pausing to remind her of her existence, the actuality of her, the cravings of her appetites and the physicality of her needs, and his. To remind her of this, here,

IM SOOOO UNWELL

“Are you coming?” On the one hand, it was probably unwise. On the other, it was spectacularly unwise. Still, he’d followed Sasha back from the dead. How could he not follow her to her sister’s house?

OHHHHHHHHH

“But Sasha—” “What?” she sighed impatiently, glaring up at him. A nightmare. He paused, taking a moment to tuck a loose curl behind her ear. “I’ll never spend another night without you,” he said.

IM GOING TO KILL MYSELF

It was nothing, he thought wearily, nothing at all compared to her, and his last thought was peaceful, because it was Masha. Because it was her, finally—at last—and then they tumbled together into nothing, her final breath of relief the very last thing to fill his lungs.

aw

Marya and Dimitri had given Sasha and Lev the simplicity—the beautiful normality—that they themselves had been denied.

thats so beautiful im going to jump