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Chapter 20
Ana
“Analina Martin, you’re fired!”
I squint my eyes open and stare at the small white boy standing beside my bed in his blue pajamas with a somewhat disgruntled look on his face.
“I had to brush my teeth all by myself today! Why are you still in bed?”
“What?” I blink a few times and try to un-scramble my brain. “Asili? What are you doing up so early?”
“Early? My dear Analina!” he squeaks, and then he scrambles up onto the bed and flings his whole body over mine. “You’re feeling sick, aren’t you?”
I let out an oof as he accidentally jabs a knee into my stomach.
“Father, come quick!” he hollers, bouncing his knees into the mattress and shaking me as violently as he can. “Ana’s dying!We have to take her to a medic!”
“What are you doing?” I moan, and I throw an arm around his waist and drag him down beside me, pinning him to the mattress in a hug at my side. He goes down with a squeal, and then giggles as he tries to escape my clutches. “This is a lot, even for you, you little terror.”
I shut my eyes again and hold him tighter as if I can fall back asleep with this squirming monster in my arms.
“Ana!” he laughs, his voice squeaky as he pushes at me. “It’s nine o’clock, don’t we have to go to your classes today?”
My eyes fly open in panicked shock, and I stare straight into Asili’s broadly grinning face.
“You forgot, didn’t you?” He giggles, and then he pats my cheek consolingly. “You’re gonna be late.”
I have never managed to get ready so quickly. With clothes flying everywhere, supplies shoveled into bags, and one mournful look at my running shoes which I have no time to use this morning, I have Asili dressed, packed, and downstairs in the kitchen in absolute record time, trying to shovel all his food into his mouth at once for him.
“Ana,” he chokes as he pushes my hand away, half laughing and half coughing. “You’ve gone crazy!”
“Come on, come on!” I drop his bowl of fruit-sweetened oats before him and grab at my own food. “Eat it! We need to go.”
I don’t even remember dressing myself, and as I try to take a bite of my kafe and a sip of my cheryk roll, I look down just to make sure I’m not still in my silky night dress.
Looks like I’ve gone for a more Zvezdi silhouette today, with a full-length, high-waisted skirt and cropped shirt instead of the usual pants I favor. Well, as long as I’m not heading out naked, then this’ll have to do.
“Have you finished yet?” I look back over at Asili, who’s barely taken one more spoonfulof his food, and he rolls his eyes.
“It’s still hot!”
Then the door to the kitchen snaps open, and we both turn to see an entirely blank-faced Vahadr in the doorway.
“Uh-oh,” Asili mutters, and suddenly he’s very interested in finishing his breakfast, hot or not.
“Ana,” Vahadr’s voice is cool and calm as his eyes lock on mine, quieter than usual and, if possible, even more articulate. “Come with me.”
“Oh, but…”
Asili shakes his head subtly at me, his blue eyes wide, and when Vahadr lifts a hand and gestures me towards him with a sharp motion, I put down my food and follow him wordlessly out of the room.
Oh god, I think in an almost blank haze. He’s found out that my sister is Asili’s mom. He knows I know.
“What’s this about?” I ask quietly as we head down the hall. But he doesn’t answer. When he opens the door to a random side-office and gestures me inside stiffly, I enter, brows drawn and a feeling of trepidation crawling up my throat.
The door clicks shut behind me.
Before I can so much as blink, his strong arm wraps itself suddenly around my waist and I’m spun around, pushed into the wall, and absolutely assaulted with the heat of his tongue against mine. I make a surprised noise as he leans into me, my back against the wall and my breasts flattened into his hard chest. He grabs my wrist and shoves it up against the wall above my head, while his other hand squeezes my waist and he kisses me with an urgency, with a frenzied sort of anger and an ardent, tangible heat that sends my whole mind blank.
