The reminder of my parents stabbed my heart. But I tamped it down.
I didn’t want to lurk in the painful past. I was desperate to cling to this moment here and now, with this soft-spoken boy who presented no threat. Whose sweet smile had me wishing I could reply in kind.
“Misha!”
Despite the thick cushioning of the carpet in the hallway, I felt the vibration of Alexsei’s footsteps as he ran down the hall after his yell.
The boy sighed. “Well,shit,” he muttered again, sagging his shoulders.
9
ALEXSEI
“Misha!” I sprinted down the hall, worried that he’d strayed too far down this wing of the house. He had free reign, mostly, but I didn’t need him bothering Kalina. She didn’t need a boy bursting in and keeping her from relaxing.
“Misha?”
I ran toward her door, mentally cringing when it looked like it was open all the way. He’d been playing hide-and-seek, and he might have…
“Misha, where are you?” I yelled out once more, dashing to the door. “You know better than?—”
Stopping short with a skid on the carpet, I held on to the doorframe.
There he was.
Just as I suspected.
He stood a couple of feet inside Kalina’s room.
A sheepish smile covered his face.
On her face, though, there was something I hadn’t seen yet.
Not that vacant stare, the blank, watchful gaze, detached and skittish.
Her brows slightly slanted inward. As if she were frowning, or trying hard not to.
In her eyes was something like defiance.
Anger.
Even… determination.
But it wassomething. She was reacting to Misha barging in here, and that was a big step away from her being nothing but a frozen mute.
“Sorry,” Misha said.
I knew he was. He meant it when he apologized. “You know better than to wander in the hallways on this side of the house.”
“I know. I know. But Lev said we could play hide-and-seek and I thought that these rooms were empty. I didn’t know this lady, uh, this guest was in here.” He glanced at her with that sheepish smile that borrowed more charm than I thought he was capable of at his age. “Sorry, again, ma’am.”
I bit my lip, hiding a smile.
Oh, what manners.
Thatma’amhad to be his attempt at sugarcoating this mistake.
Kalina didn’t react. Not at first. She had gone back to that guarded animal stance of wariness, watching us.
