Ira_scribbler
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- Parts 42
Aarvi lunged for the heavy iron door, her fingers clawing at the manual release, but Erevos caught her by the waist, throwing his weight against the bar to hold it shut.
"Let me go!" she screamed, her voice cracking, a sound raw and ugly with panic. "We fight this together! You don't get to decide how this ends!"
"There is no 'together' out there, Aarvi," he said. His voice wasn't the roaring monster she was used to. It was quiet. Defeated. He pinned her against the door, not with the bruising grip of his past, but with a desperate, trembling weight. "They are coming for me. Only me. If you stay in this room, they won't even look for you. If you walk out that door with me, you're dead in thirty seconds."
"I don't care!" She grabbed his collar, twisting the fabric in her fists, trying to drag him down to her eye level. "Don't you dare do this. I chose you. Let me stand next to you!"
He looked down at her. For the first time since she had known him, the hard, defensive armor in his eyes was completely gone. He looked terrifyingly human.
"You chose to walk beside a monster," he whispered, a phantom of a smile touching his lips. "But I never promised to be fair."
Before she could scream, his hand moved. He pulled her into one last, bruising kiss that tasted like salt and desperation. And then, with the practiced efficiency of a man who had spent his whole life executing orders, he shoved her back into the secure server room, pulled the heavy steel door shut, and threw the manual lock from the outside.
Aarvi slammed her fists against the door. "Open it! Open the door!"
On the other side of the glass, Erevos stood alone in the dim hallway. He didn't look back at her. He knew if he looked, he'd open it. He just reached into his pocket, took out his gun, and checked the chamber.
He had spent his whole life making selfish, violent choices. But as the heavy boots of his enemies rounded the far corner of the corridor, he made one last choice.