I jumped out of the car and raced around, but Lukin was as fast as ever. He grabbed Kristina, slid an arm around her throat and rested the muzzle of his handgun against her temple. I skidded to a stop.

Aleksander was smart: he’d lured us where no one would see. The dam was deserted apart from our little group and it was pitch black: I couldn’t see more than a hundred yards along the dam in either direction. The feeling of space all around us was unnerving: the sky high above, the valley sides far out of view on either side of us, the reservoir stretching out on one side of the dam and the sheer drop on the other.

Kristina was glaring up at Aleksander, too shocked and too mad to be scared. “You son of a bitch!” she breathed. “How could you—I trusted you! My father trusted you!” Her mouth fell open as she pieced more and more of it together. “You put the poison in the bath oil!”

I thought back to the day the King was shot. How Aleksander had been so slow to deliver the warning. “You didn’t get stuck in the crowd that day, did you?” I growled. “You were giving them time to shoot!” I could feel the rage boil up inside me: anger at what he’d done, humiliation at being so expertly played. I took a step towards him, but Lukin pressed his gun harder against Kristina’s head. I froze.

“You leaked the story about Garmania being behind the attacks, didn’t you?” whispered Kristina. “You knew it’d cause violence and that gave the General an excuse to put troops on the streets.”

Aleksander spoke for the first time. “I did what I had to do.” The bastard sounded completely unrepentant.

“Think about what you’re doing,” begged Kristina. “This won’t bring your son back!”

“It’ll mean he didn’t die for nothing,” said Aleksander coldly. “When we wipe the bastards out.”

I exchanged terrified looks with Kristina. With them in charge, it wouldn’t be a war. It would be genocide.

“Let’s get this over with,” muttered General Novak.

One of Lukin’s men grabbed me and pushed me towards Kristina. We stumbled into each other and I put my arms around her protectively. They pushed us until our hips were against the metal safety rail. Beyond it, the dam fell away into the darkness: I couldn’t even see the bottom of the drop, just hear the water thundering down, hundreds of feet below.

“You can’t just kill us,” Kristina said desperately. “People will ask questions!”

“You came here to be alone with your American lover,” said Aleksander sadly. “Love made you foolish: you sneaked out without your guards.” He nodded at Lukin. “A Garmanian assassin had slipped past our security. You died in each other’s arms.”

She looked up at me, eyes full of hope. It made my heart twist because I’d failed her so utterly. “I’m sorry,” I said.

She shook her head. But it was my fault. I was meant to protect her and I hadn’t seen this coming: not General Novak or Aleksander. I took a deep, shuddering breath, trying to control my anger. I thought of all the times Aleksander had thanked me, lying right to my face. I’m an idiot. I’d let the politicians betray me all over again.

Kristina pressed herself to me and I pulled her close, as if I could stop what was going to happen if I only held her tight enough. She rubbed her cheek against my chest. “Please tell me you have a plan,” she said, her voice cracking.

Think! But I didn’t. I didn’t have a damn thing. I shook my head and squeezed her even harder.

“Him first,” someone said in the darkness. I think it was Novak. “Then her.”

I felt cold metal against my scalp. The muzzle of Lukin’s gun.

“You can kiss her, if you like,” said Lukin.

I glared at him. The sick son of a bitch. All those children, dead. The FBI agents, the King... and now Kristina. All so he could get out of jail. Didn’t he realize that Novak and Aleksander would wipe his country out? Or did he not care, as long as millions of Lakovians died as well?

And then there was my dad. A sweet guy who’d never done anything but fight for his country and try to protect Kristina and me. Lying in a hospital bed, barely clinging onto life. All I need is one good punch. But the gun was mashed right up against my head and the bastard was grinning. He wanted me to make a move.

And I had to kiss her. Just one last time.

She tilted her head back and those perfect, silken lips parted. To start with, the rage was pounding through me. I kissed her hard and deep. I wanted her, them, everyone to know she was mine, even in death.

But as always, she calmed me. As soon as our lips touched, it was like cool water running over my heated soul. It became about simple, sweet love. All the good she’d brought into my life, all the ways she’d changed me. I didn’t give a damn, anymore, that I was just a grunt. We were right together. I lost myself in the kiss, running away with my princess—

“Enough,” said Aleksander.

Cold reality returned. Kristina drew back from me, panting with fear, blinking back tears.

Lukin cocked his gun. The muzzle ground against my scalp.

And in that second, I saw it. Kissing her had cleared my head. She’d taken away the anger and without it, I could think. I couldn’t save myself. But maybe I could save her.

My arms tensed around her. I gave her a quick nod, the only warning I had time for.

And then I heaved us both over the safety barrier and off the dam.

The muzzle of the gun scraped through my hair. Lukin had been taken by surprise. Maybe there was a chance—

There was a boom as the gun went off. Blinding pain exploded across the back of my head.

And everything went black.