it; we felt it, the outcome of this battle was excruciating.
I felt it before I saw it: a rope-bound dagger flinging itself against Aguzani’s chest, her eyes
rolled back. My arm went loose and she fell on parched sand.
I snapped back to reality again, my head feeling like one big bruise. I had less than three mere
minutes to run. I turned my gaze to the dead whose lives could never be mourned: about twenty
dead Russian soldiers, and all clan members except me and Benjamin.
I knew why Benjamin had let me out, then. It was to spare my life though his was doomed. I
was not ready for this. I wanted this to be only a nightmare so I could start all over again; make
the right decisions and for however little chance I might save Benjamin, too. I would not carry
this dead weight of leaving him alone because I had to, and because he chose it for me.
I was alive because of Benjamin, the one who was forced to murder my parents.
A streak of dawn light was brightening the sight, and I could see the lighting sky. As my feet
flew across the sand, a void had found its way into me, and I could not help but think of death. I
imagined I was buried six foot deep, the way I wished my parents were—respected even in death—
and my breathing slowed gradually.
