His mouth twists like he’s not sure whether to smile or cry. He looks down at our linked hands and takes that big breath I’ve been trying to coax him into. He’s never been good at getting words out when he’s distressed, but the moment he calms down, it gets easier.
“But I… miss my basement. I don’t like being up here… alone.”
He pummels his head against my chest and I clutch the back of his neck. “You’re not alone. I’m right here. I’m always here. How about this: just for tonight, you can sleep in my room.”
Lev jerks his head up. “Like a sleepover?”
I stare at my not-so-little brother’s face, marveling at all that childlike joy, the innocence that has become a permanent part of his personality. I still see the boy he was. The boy he is, frozen in time. Trapped in a body that left him behind a long time ago.
“Yes, like a sleepover.”
He grabs me for a tight bear hug. “Sleepover!” he exclaims. “Sleepover! Sleepover!”
Nikolai would accuse me of enabling Lev’s fears instead of helping him to face them. But I see it differently. I want him to face his fears, too.
I just don’t think he should have to face them alone.
13
URI
Alyssa is lying spread-eagled on the bed with her eyes trained on the ceiling. But the moment the door snaps shut, she jerks upright.
“You,” she hisses as her eyes narrow intensely.
She pops out of the bed and onto her feet. Her hands are balled into fists and I can’t look away. Is she about to fight me? I’ve got a foot and a half and a hundred-plus pounds on her. Does she really think she can take me?
Apparently, that’s exactly what she’s thinking because she charges forward, her jaw clenching with purpose. “I guess all those rumors about you were true.”
“If I got into the rumors about me, we’d be here all day.”
“I have been here all day,” she snaps. “Speaking of which, why the hell am I in this dungeon of yours?”
I look around in amusement. “I’d hardly call this a dungeon. You’ve got a flat screen TV in that nook, for Christ’s sake.”
“Oh, am I supposed to be thanking you for the very comfortable prison you’ve stashed me in?” She scoffs derisively. “Because I got news for you: it doesn’t matter how pretty or luxurious it is; a cell is still a cell. And I don’t do well in cages.”
Her chest is heaving temptingly but I make sure to keep my eyes fixed on her face. Watching those pale cheeks turn pink is strangely quite a titillating experience.
“You think I want you here?” I ask carelessly. “If I had my way, you’d be sitting in your little shack right now doing a crossword puzzle.”
She flinches backward. “Don’t do that.”
“Don’t do what?”
“Don’t act like you know me. All that information I gave you last night, I shared only because I thought—” She stops short, her eyes going just a little wider as something clicks in her brain.
I take a step closer to her. “You thought what, narushitel?”
“Stop with the nickname. I don’t even know what it means.”
“It means ‘little thief,’ because that’s what you are. And you didn’t mind it last night.”
“Yeah, well, you hadn’t abducted me and locked me up in the basement last night.”
Is it weird that I’m enjoying this interaction so much? Is it weird that it’s giving me a natural high better than any drug?
Her fingers are trembling as she inches closer. “Please, Uri… let me go.”
“Believe me: there’s nothing I want more.” The strange tightening in my gut says otherwise, but I choose to ignore that. “Except that you, Little Miss Pandora, went and opened a box you should have left closed. And now, it’s unleashed all manner of horrors.”
She stiffens instantly. Her eyes dart from side to side before finally settling back on me. “I thought it was my package,” she whispers in a voice that’s heartbreakingly meek.
“My name on the label didn’t tip you off?”
“I wasn’t exactly thinking straight. I had just come back home and I was flustered and distracted and thinking about—”
She stops short again, but this time, I think I know what she was about to say. “You were thinking about me.”
She grits her teeth. “Yes, I was thinking about you—but only because of… what happened. But it wasn’t like I was all googly-eyed about what happened. I was ready to put the whole thing behind me.”