Killer Instinct

Epilogue

Epilogue.

Standing in front of a sink in Moscow, I dry my damp hair. It's long and black in the mirror, my sapphire eyes crackle with power. Even I feel uneasy looking at myself.

I pop the dull brown contacts in that do a good enough job of masking my power. Along with the dark tan and black hair, I'm nearly unrecognizable. I'm anonymous.

But those eyes are haunted, those eyes are desperate. I will do anything to stay anonymous. I will fight to the death for the life I have now and the one I love.

"You ready to go?" Apollo asks, leaning against the doorframe behind me. His platinum blonde locks contrast sharply with his pale skin and green eyes. It's a good look, but I prefer the black.

"Yes," I say, throwing the rest of my toiletries in the bag at my feet and hitching it up on my shoulder. "Are you sure this place is safe? Are you sure we can trust her?"

"My mother is the one person my father will never cross. He knows he'd lose everything if he did." Apollo forces a smile, and a wave of sadness passes through us.

To be betrayed by our own fathers. At least Apollo still had his mother.

"I trust you," I tell him, taking his hand and looking into his flat blue contact covered eyes. "I trust you with my life."

We kiss briefly, and for a moment the world is golden and beautiful, full of adventure and wonder. A world I never thought I'd ever experience.

And then our lips part ways, and the world is cold cruel and out to get us. To kill us. Because we're two sides of the same coin, two pieces of the same puzzle. With us, they could rule the world. We have to run far, far away to make sure that doesn't happen.

"I trust you, too." Apollo tells me.

It's sad, in a relationship with the benediction isn't "I love you" but "I trust you." Yet trust is more important than love right now, and we haven't time for love. Not if we're going to survive. That doesn't mean I don't love Apollo. I'm just prepared to kill him at any point, and he's prepared to do the same.

That's why we trust each other.