Page 44 of The Harbinger
Ice cold repulsion.
The vile intrusive ache disintegrated, and a smile formed in its wake. She returned the smile, although Sacha did not. But then again, did he ever really smile?
“My mama cleared the garden for you.”
The garden… Oh yes.Sacha had mentioned that before, and the thought of digging into something so beautiful sickened me. “Thanks. I’m not sure what I’d do with it.”
“My mama can help you. Or I can if you’d prefer.”
“I’ll have to try it another time.”
The thought of digging into the ground when my muscles spasmed and ached from the lack of use made me want to run in the opposite direction and never look back.
“Of course.”
“I’m going to lay down a bit, I think.”
The eggs sat heavy in my belly even though I hadn’t finished them, my stomach unhappy with the invasion. I picked up my plate as a lightning bolt pinched my upper torso. I pressed my hand to my belly and groaned.
“Leave it. Bina will clean it up,” Sacha said, finishing off hisVatrushka.
Sacha kept his eye on Katya, and I slipped out of the dining room and back to my room.
My chest heaved with exhaustion as I stopped halfway up the stairs, my hand to my chest.
I’d been in better shape before all of this. Jenny and I would walk three miles round-trip every day just to grab some dinner at the local soup kitchen. While we’d walk through the park, she’d tell me about her life. Her trips abroad, the daughter she loved dearly but never saw anymore, and the adventures she’d embarked on as a teen. Although I loved her stories, I’d taken them with a grain of salt. If the drugs had eroded my brain, it was safe to say it’d done the same to hers.
I stumbled into my bedroom and collapsed onto the bed, my stomach roiling with pain.
Chapter 11
Mia
I’dstaredattheunorganized bookshelf in my room for seven days, fighting the cravings. Although the nausea and throbbing molars were no longer present, the need to bury the ache in my chest remained.
Sacha had kept his distance, and Katya had stolen his place, checking in on me and bringing me food. But today was the day I’d gained enough strength to tame the unmistakable quiver in my gut. Because whoever placed these books in such a way caused war within the natural order of colors and sizes.
I grabbed the first ten books and stacked them on the floor, then another stack and another, until finally, all the books I could reach were piled around me. And one by one, I filed them back onto the shelf, color-coded by the rainbow and size, until someone knocked.
“Yes?” I flipped through a cardinal-bound book in leather, the words in Cyrillic with no way to read them. The door cracked open, and Katya popped her head through the door.
“Would you like something to eat?”
The large clock above the fireplace ticked on, its charcoal hands resting above and beyond the twelve.Had I been sitting here that long?
Four hours had passed by, and my body hadn’t complained, nor had my head. The flow of memories slowed down since he’d sent me through detox, which only fed the addicted monster inside of me further.
I slipped the last book onto the shelf and swiped my hands. “No thanks. I don’t think my stomach can handle something right now.”
Katya stepped further into the room, her mouth gaping as she stared at the bookshelves. “You did this?”
“Jenny called itfengshuiof the mind. I call it Obsessive Compulsive.“ I stepped back, admiring the flow of colors as they belonged.
Over the week, I’d grown apprehensively closer to Katya. She’d seen to everything I needed. She’d even picked out the clothes Sacha wanted me to wear, despite him rarely seeing me in them.
“Oh my, he will not be happy about this.”
“Why? I made it better.” I shrugged.