“He was a rabid dog,” he replies. “And rabid dogs get put down.”

Matvei twitches, blood bubbling from his lips, eyes glassing over. But somehow, he smiles.

“You think this is over?” he wheezes. “You’ll never be free of me, Volkov. I’ll haunt you…from hell.”

Then he’s gone. Just a body cooling beneath my hands.

I let go and rise on unsteady legs, breathing hard. Blood slicks my palms. My shoulder throbs. The factory hums with fading echoes of war—bodies slumped, guns discarded, groans cutting through the silence.

The fight’s over.

Mostly.

“Vasiliy!”

Galina.

She runs, ignoring the shouted protests, the danger, the blood.

She crashes into me, arms tight around my waist. I grit my teeth as pain flares along my ribs, but I hold her back just as fiercely.

“I thought—” she chokes, voice cracking. “When he had you down?—”

“I’m fine,” I manage, even though it’s a lie. “It’s done. He’s gone.”

Vladimir steps beside us, holstering his weapon. His eyes move over us—me, Galina, the blood we’re both wearing.

“This doesn’t change anything,” he says flatly. But there’s something softer buried in the words. “My niece. Her child. They’re mine to protect. Don’t forget that.”

Before I can reply, a shout draws our attention upward.

Yakov.

He’s broken free of his father, standing at the upper railing, wild-eyed, bleeding fury.

“This isn’t over!” he yells, voice echoing off steel and stone. “You think killing Matvei ends this? This is just the beginning!”

His gaze locks on Igor like a missile.

“You took Ana. You kept my nephew from me. I’ll never stop. Never.”

Sergey moves toward him, hands raised in warning. “Yakov, please. It’s over.”

But Yakov isn’t listening. His face twists with hate.

“There’s not enough blood to pay for what you did.”

Then Igor steps forward, voice quiet but clear.

“I’m sorry,” he says. “For Ana. For everything. I’ll carry that until I die. But this ends now. For your nephew’s sake. For all of ours.”

Yakov laughs—low, bitter, unhinged. “You think I care about peace? About your guilt? You tookeverything.”

He raises his gun.

But it’s not Igor who falls.

It’s Yakov.