Dinastiya Tested // 3rd Book of the Takaryev Trilogy

Chapter 98

Dimitri had managed to stop the bleeding on Ivan's leg. 

"Ivan?" Dimitri asked. 

Ivan glanced over at him from his spot on the couch. "What?"

"Elisha said there's something I don't know about you," Dimitri replied.

Ivan said nothing in reply. 

"What don't I know?" Dimitri queried.

"You'd leave me if you knew," Ivan's gaze drifted down to his feet, and his face was dark with shame. 

"No, Vanya." Dimitri answered. "I'll stay with you until the end of time." 

Ivan shook his head. "You really don't want to know." 

Dimitri persisted. "Yes, I do." 

There was a brief silence.

Then, Dimitri said: "S lyubovyu iz Rossii?"

Something shifted in Ivan's soft blue gaze. "Awaiting orders."

Dimitri furrowed his brow. "You're a sleeper?" 

"Was." Ivan corrected him. "They rejected me. The trigger words don't bother me that much anymore. I've learned to control it. Except when Elisha was torturing me, I was in so much pain that I couldn't focus." 

"Why did they reject you?" Dimitri queried. 

"They turned me away at around the same time they were training Ravil. They made Ravil the new standard. They put me up against him once; made me fight him. I remember it perfectly. They said the words, and he lost it. Went absolutely out of his mind. He was only fifteen. I thought he was going to kill me. I lost, and they saw that I would never be like Ravil. I couldn't hurt people like that. I couldn't kill, and they knew it. So they swore me to secrecy and sent me away. I'm breaking my oath by telling you this." 

Dimitri stared at him, processing everything he'd just heard. 

Ivan gave a grim smile. "So. Have you decided to desert me yet?"

Dimitri shook his head. "I could never leave you, Vanya. Ya lyublyu tebya."

Ivan wasn't so sure.