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Nikolai's POV

As I waited with my eyes shut for a final blow that never came, it all happened at once. One second Jonas was staring at something on the other side of the garden, the next he had slumped to the floor, blood gushing from the hole in his forehead. Still in shock, I stared at Jonas' unmoving body on the floor through my heavy lids, and then I looked to the other end of the garden. That's when I saw her. Liyah dropped the gun from her hand, racing towards me in a split second.

"Nikolai..." She breathed, placing a hand behind my head for support. "Drew and Annalise will be here soon, okay? I mindlinked them already. Just hold on..."

I smiled, feeling my busted lip ache, but I didn't care. Liyah was here...leaning over me and smoothening out my hair. She was here...she was alive.

And Jonas was dead.

It felt like a dream. Everything had happened so fast, I wasn't even sure it had happened. My chest was burning, and everything was beginning to get blurry. But that was okay.