AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I look at him sharply and blink. My eyes are playing tricks. Or maybe he’s a joke conjured by delirium.
The figure before me certainly could be such a specter: a haggard-looking Mischa, his chin covered in stubble. His bloodshot eyes are honed like lasers, taking in my thin, beautiful nightgown and coifed hair. He opens his mouth, presumably to say something. A quip?
But I’m too tired to hear it.
“Mischa!” I throw myself toward him, and his arms encircle my waist. My face finds the crook of his shoulder and I breathe him in, relishing the heat and the way he stiffens against me—still so fucking suspicious. I can’t humor him now. I try to speak, but all I can do is moan and go limp.
Something in my appearance keeps him silent. I’m in his arms within seconds, held tightly to his chest. His heartbeat plays a steady rhythm as he starts to move, racing through the underbrush. It’s only now that I remember.
“Wait,” I croak, bracing my hand against his shoulder.
“What is it?”
“There’s someone else—”
“What?” He cranes his neck back and then goes rigid.
Following the line of his gaze, I see why.
Ama didn’t run and hide after all. In the dim light filtering between the trees, she looks almost ethereal, her hair falling like a cloak. Wide-eyed, she gapes at Mischa. Then she sinks to her knees, still clutching her son to her chest. Her pink lips flutter, forming the same sound over and over, but it’s wasted seconds before my brain can finally interpret it. A name.
“M-Mischa?”
The arms around me loosen, and I’m forced to stand, clinging to his shoulder for balance.
“No… You’re dead.” Mischa shakes his head, his expression pained. Broken. “No…Anna?”
“Oh my God!” Tears stream down Ama’s face as she rocks herself, clinging to her son so tightly that the boy whines in response. “Mischa!”
He advances on her with slow, deliberate steps. Then, suddenly, he’s on his knees, his arms thrown around her.
“Anna,” he mutters. “I can’t believe it. Anna.”
And something pangs in my chest, so subtle that I barely register it before the feeling spreads, blossoming into full-blown shock that brings me to my knees.
Anna. Anna-Natalia.
HisAnna.
She’s alive.
