liars (гет)

There's something inside of him.
He'd put it down to trauma at first. Easy enough to do when he still screams himself awake more nights than not, the taste of iron thick in the back of his throat. When he can laugh about it (when he can force a dry, bitter laugh), he can admit that the Darkling picked his vengeance perfectly.
Nikolai can live grimly with the knowledge that he was the one who survived in the end, but there's a certain beauty to a revenge that lives on past your enemy’s demise. He can admire that, even as he rubs idly at the itch under his skin.