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gasp from the other women. She didn’t want to see the sympathy on their faces—she’d break down. Falling apart wasn’t going to help. She didn’t understand why she couldn’t stop thinking about Gavriil and feeling guilty for leaving him there alone to deal with her mess.
    She turned away from her sisters, wrapping her arms tightly around herself. The memories were too close—on top of her now—and she wanted to vomit, to curl up in the fetal position and hide away. All of her hard-won armor had deserted her and all she could do was feel like a helpless child.
    â€œOf course you would wish the earth had swallowed Caine,” Lissa Piner said. “Who wouldn’t? That man was . . . is . . .” She broke off, looking at the other women sitting on Lexi’s sprawling porch, annoyed at such a mistake. She was bound to fire, and sometimes her passionate nature rose to the surface when she wanted to protect her youngest sister.
    Lissa had no doubts that the man who had abducted Lexi from the safety of her home and forced her into a life of rape and terror by night and work by day wouldn’t ever make it to the hospital.
    Hastily she changed tactics. “What’s Gavriil like? I’m amazed that he would actually use his own name so openly, almost as if he was daring Uri Sorbacov or Uri’s father to come after him.”
    Lexi frowned again, a little distracted, trying to follow what they were all saying. She knew they were trying to divert her attention. She tried to remember who Uri Sorbacov was. He was the son of the man who had murdered the Prakenskiis’ parents and abducted all seven brothers, separating them and forcing them into schools to become covert operatives and worse. He also had been the one to order a hit on most of the Prakenskii brothers and had tried toabduct Airiana. He had a litany of sins to answer for, but was safe in Russia, far from retaliation.
    â€œAren’t they all on a hit list?” Lexi asked, suddenly worried about why Gavriil would use his real identity. Her thumbnail found its way back between her teeth—exasperated, she pulled it out.
    â€œNot Ilya,” Blythe Daniels said. “He’s the youngest Prakenskii brother, and for some reason he seems to be able to live out in the open with no threat.”
    Lexi found Blythe’s voice incredibly soothing. She was always the one who calmed every situation down. She wasn’t bound to an element, but she had incredible gifts of her own and always was the voice of reason in the middle of a storm. She had brought them all together and had found the farm for them to purchase. Lexi would be forever grateful for that alone.
    Judith Vincent swung her feet up onto the wide railing of the porch. “Tell us about Gavriil. When Thomas or Levi talk about him, it’s always with this sort of reservation in their voices. A tone.”
    Married to Stefan Prakenskii, Judith was bound to spirit and could amplify all the other elements. Stefan had taken the name Thomas Vincent and the two of them were never far apart.
    Airiana nodded. “Almost as if they’re in awe of him—or afraid of him. I can’t imagine Max, Levi or Thomas afraid of anyone, but they definitely talk differently about him.”
    Lexi scowled at them. “He was gentle and kind to me. He had no choice when he shot those two men. They were going to kill me. I’m sure he didn’t want to kill them, but if he hadn’t, I’d be dead. And he was hurt. I could see it.”
    â€œHurt?” Judith asked. “You didn’t tell us that. Was he shot? Stabbed? Should we have told Thomas to take him to a hospital?”
    Lexi shook her head. “I think he came here with some injury.”
    â€œThat’s right,” Airiana said, snapping her fingers. “Gavriilwas stabbed like seven times guarding my dear old dad, Theodotus Solovyov. Gavriil nearly