Page 143 of The Darkness is Calling

At least, not after everything he has done for me.

Artem Voron has just turned against his own family and started a war to make me his woman.

Maybe I’m not quite as angry with him as I thought.

But then I see the new ring on my finger.

It’s stunning, exactly how I always imagined my engagement ring would be: not too small, not too large, so it won’t get in my way when I play the piano.

But it’s forced onto me, and that makes me angry with Artem all over again.

Chapter 25

Artem

Yaroslav and Sasha are waiting for me in the kitchen, the eldest sitting on a high stool, the youngest rummaging through the fridge.

Each of them has a glass of vodka on the island in the center.

“You don’t have any chocolate in this house?” Aleksandr scolds me the moment he catches sight of me from the corner of his eye.

My answer is dry like a sandstorm.

“Not for you.”

“I think I’m starting a second war...” he mutters, upset, then shuts the fridge door and returns to his glass.

“All good?” Yar asks me. “Or do I need to bring some rope from my apartment so you can tie her up?”

“I knew you were into that kind of stuff!” Sasha notes with delight. “Can you teach me how to tie those knots like you do?”

He receives a short, cold answer.

“No.”

Then Yar looks at me, still waiting for my reply.

“All good,” I say in a flat tone.

“How is she handling the situation?”

“Which one?”

“Depends on what you told her.”

“Everything. I don’t ever intend to keep secrets from my wife.”

Sasha smacks his lips. “I still can’t believe you actually did that. I never would’ve pictured you wanting to bind yourself to a woman forever.”

“Well, I did. And I wouldn’t change a thing if I had the chance to do it all over again.”

“To start a war for a woman...” he says thoughtfully. “I’d like that too.”

“Careful what you wish for,” Yaroslav warns him with a frown. “Anyway, you might not get the chance, because I don’t know if we’ll survive the current war.”

My older brother was the first person I consulted about my plan. I knew Sasha wanted us to reach this point, but it seems Yaroslav was just as hungry for revenge. Especially since the attack that put us all in danger ten days ago. It infuriated him, and he took the whole thing as an affront. Even then, we realized someone had a problem with me, and the intervention of an invisible enemy, striking only to keep me away from Ekaterina, didn’t sit well with him.

But I can’t say Yaroslav was the most enthusiastic about what I intended to do. He tried to be reasonable one, advising me to find a plan B or a less bloody route, one that wouldn’t lead to war with the entire Russian mafia. But he didn’t stand a chance against my voices, desperate to reach her faster. To destroy everything in their path and show the whole world our true power.