Mama straightened. “He’s being held.”
Katya’s heart sank. Mama pressed her lips tight, the look on her face warning Katya not to ask any more questions.
“We can’t prepare them for burial like normal, so we’ll have to make do.” Mama bustled around the room, directing Alina and Kolya. She told Katya to stay with Pavlo, which she would have done regardless of her mother’s orders, but Katya had never been more grateful to have her bossy mother take charge again.
Kolya hovered at Katya’s shoulder, touching and checking Pavlo every few minutes. “I need to be the one to tell him. About our parents.”
Katya nodded. She had no desire to be the bearer of that bad news.
The rest of the day passed in a blur. Nobody spoke of it, but fear worried them all. On top of everything that had happened, the knowledge that the OGPU could come back after any one of them in this house for being relatives of the deceased and arrest them as enemies of the people hung over their heads.
Pavlo woke as they finished the last of the cleaning up.
“Katya,” he moaned. “Is that you, or am I dreaming?”
She dropped the rag she’d been using to wipe blood off his arms and leaned over him.
“It’s me, my love. I’m here.” She cupped his face in her hands and kissed him, full on the mouth in front of everyone. He groaned as their lips met, whether from pain, pleasure or both, she didn’t know. “I thought I’d lost you!”
“You’ll not be so easily rid of me.” He gave a weak smile and winced as Katya pulled away.
“It’s good to see you awake, brother,” Kolya said. His eyes glistened.
Pavlo struggled to sit up, his face pale and drawn. “Where are our parents?”
Kolya gripped Pavlo’s good shoulder and dropped his gaze. “They’re gone.”
Pavlo stretched his head up and looked toward his parents, laid out on the table, then squeezed his eyes shut and dropped back into the bed.
“There was nothing more you could have done,” Kolya said.
“Maybe. Maybe not,” Pavlo said.
Katya took his cold hand and brought it to her lips, her heart aching for his loss.
“Pavlo,” Mama said. “If you can walk, I think it would be best to bring you to our house. I know we should sit up praying through the night over the bodies, but it’s not safe here.”
“Yes, we can’t stay here.” Kolya wiped the back of his hand over his eyes as he stared at his parents. “They wouldn’t want us to risk our lives. We can come back for them tomorrow after we talk to the priest.”
Pavlo took a deep breath and nodded. “We should go, then. Can you help me?”
Kolya and Katya braced Pavlo up between them as they trudged back across the snowy field. He gritted his teeth and only stumbled once, but never cried out.
They situated him in the bed Alina and Katya normally shared on the side of the pich stove and Kolya made up a pallet on the floor. Tonight, the girls would sleep with their mother. Mama threw another log into the pich and they fell into chairs around it. Katya pulled hers up to Pavlo’s bed so she could hold his hand.
“Talk to me, Katya. Tell me a story.” He spoke through white lips. “I need a distraction until I fall asleep.”
Katya read the pain in his eyes and moved from her chair to perch next to him on the bed. They played this game often, telling each other tales of what was to come and what had passed. She racked her brain for a safe story to tell that didn’t involve his parents or her father.
“Do you remember the time I snuck out of my house with one of my mother’s honey cakes? She’d made it for a party we were supposed to go to, but I took it and found you. We climbed into the hayloft and ate every last crumb.”
A trace of a smile played on Pavlo’s lips. “You told me you’d made the cake for my birthday. But then you cleaned the plate, put it right back where you’d found it, and told your mother a dog must have eaten it.”
“Hush.” Katya didn’t feel like laughing, but she forced a chuckle out for him. “My mother never found out about that.”
The conversation waned and, in the silence, the enormity of the day suddenly overwhelmed Katya. Her mind buzzed with fatigue and her body sagged into the bed. She laid her head next to Pavlo’s and cupped his cheek. Despite her weariness, her voice came out strong. “I can’t lose you. Ever! Do you hear me? We have our whole lives planned out, and you have to be here for it.”
Pavlo squeezed her hand in reply. “I’m here, Katya. You saved me.”