22
My own gun fires—but I don’t hear it. I phase into the Quiet once more.
Tolik’s head is frozen mid-explosion. Bits of his skull and brain are caught mid-flight toward the wall behind him. I killed him, but I don’t even register that fact. Instead I focus on something else entirely—and what I see makes me feel like I’m about to burst with joy.
Vasiliy, the guy whose head I was in just a moment ago, is on top of Mira.
He took the bullet that was meant for her.
I roll him off her and see no signs of the bullet having traveled all the way through. It hit him in the right shoulder blade.
Mira is unharmed, other than some minor bruises due to falling with the chair. She hasn’t been killed.
I know there is a possibility, however remote, that the bullet is still about to go through Va
