She wondered how many years it had been since anyone had occupied this place.
“I had it prepared for you,” he said. “I hired people from down in the village to come and make sure that it was ready for habitation.”
Since he seemed to be reading her thoughts, his words going directly into her ears, the headphones she wore for the helicopter ride making that possible, she decided she might as well ask the question.
“How long has it been since anyone lived here?”
“Since we left for Basilia. Under cover of darkness. We did not take a helicopter. We hiked through the mountains. Swam through the rivers. Until we arrived at the sea.”
“Oh.”
She found herself feeling sympathy for him, even as she had been proclaimed his prisoner.
Perverse, perhaps.
Well, definitely.
The helicopter began to descend, and she found herself looking for something to hold on to. The most logical thing would have been Andrei, but she did not want to touch him now.
It seemed wrong.
The helicopter landed in a barren field, and she and Andrei got off. Nobody got off with them. And once the helicopter lifted back up in the sky, the wind howling around them, they were the only ones there, shrouded in the wilderness, enveloped by trees. She could still hear the helicopter rotors in the distance, but otherwise, it was all birds.
He was looking around, marveling at the place with just as much interest as she was.
“Have you been back here at all?”
“No. I was pleased to discover that it was still standing, though the condition will be an interesting thing to discover. I was sent photographs, but I had to act quickly. Now you see why I say you will not be found.”
“And you think that we can just stay here forever?”
“I think that we will stay here until I say otherwise. Don’t worry, I will contact Onyx.”
“I want to talk to him.”
“Not now.”
She felt a sort of hollow, cascading terror. This was nothing she had ever expected. This was a side of Andrei that she had never seen. But he was right. She had always seen him in a country that wasn’t his own. She had always seen him next to her brother, to whom he had sworn a level of allegiance and loyalty. But obviously there was a breaking point to that. She had found the breaking point.
He began to walk ahead of her, through the dense trees. And she hurried quickly after him. Whether she felt any symptoms from her pregnancy or not was difficult to say. She felt nauseous, that much was certain. But there were a lot of reasons for her to feel nausea right now.
The trail was overgrown, and even though he hadn’t been back here since he was a child, she was beginning to suspect that he might not know exactly where they were going. Until they came to an overgrown gate.
He looked up, and she was certain that there must be security cameras. “Andrei Ardelean is here to take his rightful place.”
The gates opened, and he went inside. He didn’t touch her. Of course he didn’t. Of course he didn’t.
She went after him and into the garden. It was like an enchanted space. It wasn’t only the walls that were overgrown. Here, ivy had taken over everything. It was glorious and wild. Utterly unexpected.
But then, none of this was expected.
They walked through the shaggy hedges, the untamed greenery, until they came to a small door. Not the main entrance of the house. It opened for them without him having to knock.
And there was a small woman standing there, her white hair captured in a bun. “Andrei,” she said. “I knew you would return home one day.”
His face shifted, shock on his features. “Rebecca?”
“Of course. We kept this place for you. We knew that you were alive. Word of your survival made it back here.”
