AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yes, she does.” My eyes dart from corner to corner as if I expect her to jump out at us at any moment like a horror movie monster. “I’m sure we’ll see her soon.”
A few wrong turns later, we end up pushing through a door and out into the gardens. It’s not the kitchen, but even though my stomach is rumbling, Adam’s gasp of delight is too sweet to ignore.
I let him rush out onto the lush grass. The sun is perched high in the sky, but it’s mostly covered by clouds. He does half-baked cartwheels and falls into a giggling puddle in the middle of the lawn.
“I wish we could stay here forever,” he murmurs, just loud enough for me to hear it.
It’s an innocent statement, but I find myself cringing on the inside. Living here forever would be hell on earth for me.
Taking his hand, I help him up and we keep wandering through the topiary. Rounding a rose bush, we come face-to-face with a dark-haired woman on a yoga mat.
Did Celine change her hair color?
And then I realize—it’s not Celine at all.
She eases out of her pose and fixes me with a look that I’m extremely glad Ilarion prepared me for. It’s sharp enough to hurt.
“Hi, Mila,” I say awkwardly. “It’s been a long time.”
She looks good. Her hair’s shorter, but it suits her. Her eyes veer toward Adam, and just like that, the coldness melts.
“You must be Adam,” she infers with a soft smile.
He blushes and hides behind me. “He’s shy,” I explain to her. “Just give him time to warm up to you.”
Mila ignores me and walks forward. She squats down on the grass and smiles brighter at him. “I love those pajamas. I mean, they are seriously cool.”
“What do you say, Adam?”
“Thank you,” he mumbles. Raising his head, he asks, “Are you my Auntie Cee?”
She chuckles. “No. My name’s Mila. I’m Ilarion’s sister.”
“Oh.” Adam furrows his brow. “Do you live here?”
“As a matter of fact, I do.” She grins and holds out her hand to him. “Wanna see the birdbath?”
I stand awkwardly off to the side. She still hasn’t looked me in the eye, and when Adam takes her hand, she puts her back to me as the two of them go skipping down the crushed gravel path. I trail in their wake, skin crawling with unease.
“Look, Mama!” Adam says when we pass through a circle of hedges to find a huge stone birdbath in the dead center of the garden. “Birds!”
“I see them, honey.”
He rushes over to the fountain. A pair of sparrows flits off immediately, but the larger crows perch studiously on the rim and ignore him.
Mila stands a few yards off. Watching him. Ignoring me. I can’t decide if I should wait for her to break the silence or if I should just say something.
Her profile is mildly terrifying. She reminds me of her brother more than usual. Latent violence pent-up in a beautiful frame.
She’s got that chiseled, granite stubbornness, too. Like her whole body is reminding me that you can’t outwait a mountain. You’ll crumble long before it does.
“Mila…you know why I left. Why I had to leave.”
She doesn’t so much as glance at me. Doesn’t even acknowledge that I’ve spoken. But now that I’ve started, I figure I need to keep going.
“It would have been too complicated to stay,” I try to explain. “I knew Celine wanted him. If I stayed, she would have seen. She would have figured out the truth, and—”
“And you think all these years will make a difference?” Mila demands, snapping to me so fast I recoil instinctively.
