I raced up the stairs and through the tunnel. I suddenly stopped when I looked at the pit. It was done. There were fighters milling round the pit. When I looked to the stands, I saw Luka climbing to speak to the fighters, Zaal by his side. The Bratva knayz and the Georgian Lideri. Valentin hung back and waited at the bottom. The fighters all stared up, waiting for what needed to be said.
Luka cleared his throat. His knuckle-dusters were still on his hands. “Warriors,” he began. The males all listened intently in absolute silence. “My name is Luka Tolstoi. This will not mean much to you yet, but I am a product of the gulags that Arziani—your slain master—owned.” He next pointed to Zaal. “This is Zaal Kostava. He was raised in this pit. He is one of you.” He pointed to Valentin. “As is he. Valentin Belrov.”
The males looked to one another in confusion. “I’ll keep this short. I belong to a powerful family in New York City. It is in another country, America. We have recovered the files of most of you. In those files are your names and where you are from. Many of you have family. Some, like Valentin and Ilya, your champions, were kidnapped from an orphanage. You have no family.” He paused, then said, “Today, you are free. You get to choose what to do with your life. For those who discover they have family, the guards that helped plan this riot will help you find your way home. Those of you who have none, you are welcome to join me in New York.” Luka placed his hand over his chest. “If you want, there is a place for you in my organization.”
Zaal stepped forward. “I am Georgian, the leader of my people in Brooklyn, New York. If you are Georgian and have nowhere to go, I will give you a place among our people.” Zaal looked at Luka. “Our two families are joined. It is your choice.”
Luka looked to Viktor, who was waiting at the rear of the pit. He nodded and Viktor disappeared. “Right now, we must leave.” Luka’s face frosted with coldness. “We are going to destroy this pit and all the dead will remain in it. You have thirty minutes to leave.”
Then the males turned and headed for the exit doors. A sound from behind caught my attention. When I listened harder, Maya said, “It is the monebi. They are being released, too.” Maya sighed. “There are children here, too. The chiri are getting them out. There has been housing made available for them by these males.” Maya pointed to Luka and Zaal. “For the monebi, too.”
My head swam with a thick fog. It was all too much to take in. Inessa moaned again, her eyes fluttering open. Spurred forward by her glazed gaze, I ran into the pit. Valentin saw me first. In no time at all, he rushed to me.
“Inessa,” he called. I stopped when he reached us. I saw Valentin’s expression darkening at the state she was in.
“We need to get her help,” I said. Luka nodded.
“We have a plane that can get us to New York. We have a doctor waiting for us on board.”
I stared at Luka in confusion. Luka placed his hand on my shoulder and said, “You have a home with us. Inessa is Valentin’s blood, you are her male.” He smiled over my shoulder at Maya and said, “And you are her new family. You all come with us. The males and females that need our help will follow later.”
Inessa moaned again and I held her tighter. A sudden rush of emotion settled within me as I stared at her. “Thank you,” I rasped to Luka, my chest tightening.
We were free.
This was real.
When Inessa moaned louder and shifted in my arms, Valentin leaned over her, pushing her matted hair from her face. “Inessa,” he said softly. It was strange to see such a brutal cold male so soft and caring with my Inessa.
As his voice carried to her ears, Inessa’s eyes flickered open. I could still see the weakness, the confusion in their depths. But my heart raced when she smiled and held up her little finger.
A pained sound left Valentin’s mouth, and he linked his little finger with hers. Inessa smiled, then whispered brokenly, “You … came for me…” She sucked in a breath, then sighed. “Big Brother Promise … my Valentin…”
Inessa’s eyes closed. When I looked to Valentin, he had tears tracking down his cheeks. In a soft voice, he said, “Let’s go home. I want to go home to my Zoya.”
I could tell by Luka and Zaal’s shocked faces that Valentin was never this way. This calm and … at peace?
“Let’s go,” Luka agreed, and we all followed behind. When we left the stairs to enter the night, I gasped when fresh air filled my lungs. Maya had found a blanket and placed it over Inessa. As the cool breeze caressed Inessa’s cheeks, I held her closer, needing her warm touch.
I scanned the outside of the pit, all metal fences and towers. A shiver ran down my spine. For a moment, I remembered being brought down these steps as a child. In a flash, the memory had gone. And I was glad. I never wanted to think of this place ever again.
Males dressed in black ran from a machine waiting in the grass. “A plane,” Zaal informed me as I stared at it blankly. “It will take us home.”
The machine brought me trepidation, but I climbed the stairs and entered the small space, driven by a single promise: It will take us home …
We would have a home.
I snarled when a male in a white coat tried to take Inessa from my arms. Valentin placed his hand on my arm. “He is a doctor,” he told me. “He will help her.”
Staring at the fearful male, I told him, “I will lay her down. Just show me where.” The doctor eagerly nodded his agreement. He led the way, and I laid Inessa down on a bed, chest against the mattress so her back could be treated. I sat down on the end of the bed, taking hold of her hand. The doctor looked at me with a raised brow. “I’m not going anywhere,” I told him plainly.
Maya moved beside me and patiently watched what the doctor was doing. I smirked when the doctor raised a brow at her, too. She lifted her chin to show she wasn’t leaving, either.
As the machine began to move and propel us into the sky, I kept my gaze on the doctor as he patched up moy prekrasnyy. As we sailed into the clouds, I glanced down at the pit. Flames were bringing down the towers. I could only imagine what it looked like inside.
Appropriate, I thought, as I watched the orange and red flames climb ever higher. The Blood Pit was my hell. Engulfed in flames with all its evil burning inside. Now it had been transformed into the hell I’d always believed it to be.