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Chapter Twenty-Nine
The sound of the creaking door opening caused me to jump out of bed. I didn’t know how long I had been laying in the bed, but I knew that it had been long enough for me to doze off for a short while.
“I brought you some food,” a man said. He was tall and blonde, and there was a deep scar down the side of his face. The room was incredibly dark, and it made it difficult to see the person walking into the room.
“Who are you?” I asked. I sat tensely on the edge of the bed. I had known Zane, which made dealing with him slightly easier, but now, there was a new person in the mix.
The man’s face fell slightly as if he were offended by the question. “You don’t remember me?” he asked.
“Should I?”
He walked closer, and I gripped the sheets in my hands in an effort to keep myself from scurrying away. I was tired of showing everyone in my life my fear. It was time that I needed to be stronger.
He slid the tray off food on the edge of the bed. “I guess it has been a long time, and I wasn’t exactly the best brother when I was in your life.”
I inhaled sharply. “No,” I muttered, but I couldn’t stop my eyes from searching this man’s face. “Nikolai?” I whispered.
A smile formed across his face, and I could see the brother who had died several years ago. The last time I had seen Nikolai alive, he had come in my room to sneak me candy that our mother denied me because I had done something wrong.
“What?” I could barely form any thoughts as I looked at the man who claimed to be my brother. His face was scared, and his normally longer hair was shorn close to his scalp. He also had a tattoo that crawled up his neck, which was new.
Nikolai reached out, and I immediately scooted away. He looked hurt that I moved away from him.
“I’m sorry,” I said. I didn’t know what I was apologizing for.
“It’s alright,” Nikolai said. “I understand. This is all a lot.”
I nodded. “Why am I here?”
Nikolai sighed. “I told Mama that we needed to ease you into this slowly, but you know how she can be.”
I nodded. I more than knew how our mother could be. Nikolai had always been her favorite, and I had suffered her wrath. My father had been close to Nikolai, but he had been hard on him since he was the heir.
“Once she found out about Anastasia…”
“Is she okay?” Anastasia didn’t look well when she’d come to me in the library. She was thin and ragged looking.
Nikolai looked away, and I immediately knew something bad had happened to Anastasia. “Nikolai…” I reached out towards him, unsure of what to do. He saved me from trying to figure it out by getting up from his perk.
He began pacing back and forth. “Don’t look at me like that,” he said.
“You loved Anastasia,” I said. At least from what I could remember. She’d been devastated to lose him, and now, it seemed like he could hardly care.
Nikolai stopped pacing before me. He kneeled down before me. “You don’t understand what I’ve been through,” Nikolai said. “I loved Anastasia, but I’ve worked so hard, and I can’t let anything stand in the way of my plans.”
“What plans?” I asked. “What has our mother convinced you to do?”
Nikolai sneered and got up. The sweet natured brother that I had known growing up was replaced by a man who was damaged and on edge. We’d spent less than five minutes together, and I could already tell.
“You’ve allowed yourself to be brainwashed by that Blanchi trash,” he said. “That's why we had to take you. I told Mama that we needed to convince you of the truth.”
I tried to keep my emotions in check. I had so many questions about things, mainly how the hell my brother was alive, and where he’d been all these years, but I wasn’t going to pass up an opportunity to hear about whatever he and my mother had planned.
“What’s the truth?” I asked.
“The truth is that that husband of yours is a demon. A rabid dog that needs to be put down.”
I was shocked by the venom in Nikolai's voice. When we were children, he was always happy and joyful. Even in the midst of a war, he never seemed to be someone who held onto darkness.
