I wished I were already dead so he wouldn’t have to go through this. “Magnus.”

He ignored me and took the bandages from the medic to apply to my stomach, shouting out orders. “Call our pilot. Tell him to bring the chopper now. Fender needs to get to the hospital.”

Men stepped away to follow his orders.

There was no reason I should still be alive right now. The knife had been ten inches. It stabbed me all the way through, sliced through the organs in the way, the internal bleeding worse than the external wound.

But I knew why I was still there.

She kept me there—so I could say goodbye.

My voice came again, weaker. “Magnus.”

Magnus wouldn’t look at me. He couldn’t. He knew this was it, but he couldn’t face it.

I didn’t have much time. I was growing weaker by the second. I placed my hand on his, soaking his hand with my blood. “I deserve this.”

He shook his head, still not looking at me, sniffing back the tears that emerged. “Stop it.”

“You know I deserve this. The girls are free, and I’ll be dead. That’s how it should be.”

His bottom lip trembled as the tears streaked down his cheeks. “You aren’t going to die! Stop it!”

I squeezed his hand. “Brother.”

He breathed harder and harder, the pain too difficult to face. “Please don’t…”

“Look at me.”

He wouldn’t.

“Magnus.”

Finally, he did. Eyes identical to mine pierced into my soul. His emotions rose, his eyes wet and reflecting the light of the torches around us. His hand remained pressed to my wound as he continued to try to save me, even though it was pointless.

He knew it.

I knew it.

I gripped his hand, prepared to say my last words. “You were the man I could never be but always wanted to be. You said I was the one you looked up to, but it was always the other way around. You’re a good brother…and I love you.” I’d never said those words to him in our lifetime, except when we were little boys, but I said them now.

He breathed through his tears, his features mushed together in anguish. “I love you, brother.”

I squeezed his hand again. “Tell Melanie…nothing would’ve made me happier than to see her in that white dress and make her my wife. Tell her to forgive me…but I did what I had to do. And I would do it again…even if I knew what would happen.” My heart broke for Melanie, that I had to leave her behind, but I was grateful I had been there to keep my brother alive. It was always my job to protect him—and I didn’t fail.

He nodded.