Page 93 of Rise of the Queen
“Viktor, none of this really matters right now. What does matter is that Ilya is struggling even more than you know, and you have the tools to fix that,” I said flatly. “Both Andrei and Ivan can see it. I can feel it. But you can fix it.” With that, I turned to walk back to the kitchen. Everyone but Viktor and Ilya followed me.
Viktor and Ilya quietly left the penthouse without a word to anyone else. We were quiet for a few moments, when Andrei finally broke the silence. He looked to Misha, saying, “I think you should confirm, but he’ll be back. He just needs time.”
Misha got his faraway look in his eye for a moment, then looked at Andrei and nodded his head.
“At least it means I can take these contacts out,” I said, walking back to the bedroom. As I walked down the hallway, I could feelthe tears welling up in my eyes. I walked a little faster, trying to avoid having to fish floating contacts out of my eyes.
I splashed water on my face, trying to get a handle on myself. I glanced in the mirror, noticing my eyes were swirling.At least they’re not amber anymore.As I patted my face with the towel, I did notice that I didn’t feel the overwhelming sadness anymore that I’d been feeling for days now.Maybe they burned it off.
Everyone had concern written very prominently across their faces when I walked back out. While I was still worried about Viktor and Ilya, I was also enjoying not feeling like I was overcome with sadness.
“I think you guys sharing your anger with me burned off the sadness. I actually feel much better now,” I said, smiling at Adrik and Ivan.
It caused Stephen and Misha to laugh. “I didn’t even know a human could get that angry without legitimately exploding and you’re like, ‘Right. I feel much better now,’” Misha said, laughing.
Vitaliy, always curious, simply said, “Explain.”
“When she got hit with whatever that was from Ilya, she faltered and went ice cold. She’s insanely sensitive to cold. It was starting to consume her, to the point she was losing control. She managed to tell me and Ivan that she needed our anger. Apparently, we were holding back because she then asked for all of it,” Adrik said, smiling at me.
“Because we can feel what she feels, we all felt their anger through her. It’s why Andrei couldn’t give an explanation to Viktor right away,” Stephen said.
“How did she tell you? I didn’t hear her speak,” Vitaliy said.
“Yeah, so about that. She doesn’t need to with me and Boss anymore,” Ivan said.
Vitaliy looked to me, surprised. “This is true?”
“It’s true. It’s been happening with Adrik for a long time, just not with words. Now I can talk to Ivan too. It even worked when he was gone this weekend,” I said.
“That’s useful,” he said.
“You do feel better now, spider monkey. Your eyes are normal again, instead of amber too,” Andrei said. I glanced around quickly to make sure no one would see, then tapped my temple so he would look in my head. I silently thanked him for not only being a buffer between me and Viktor, but for also jumping in so quickly with an explanation. He was the voice of reason in a volatile situation, and I might’ve loved him a little more for it.
He gave me a wink and his handsome smile.
As we were cleaning up from dinner, Vitaliy finally asked what everyone had been wondering but didn’t want to ask. “What if Viktor decides not to come back? I know you say he will, but he’s still free to make his own decisions. Maybe he decides this is too much for him.”
I sighed. “I have thought about that.” I glanced at all the guys. “I kind of unwittingly bound all of them to me, but I haven’t with Viktor yet. They’re all still free to leave at any point, but I also bound our souls together, so they’re kind of stuck with me now until that agreement changes. I never did that with Viktor.”
“What do you mean, Seph?” Stephen asked.
“Did she pinky swear with you?” Misha asked, grinning. “Because she did with me and it’s one I plan to honor,” he said, winking at me.
Stephen laughed. “I actually feel much better that I’m not the only one who took that so seriously.”
“I thought it was how I helped you all discover your gifts, but then I never got a chance to do it with Viktor and now he knows his gift. I’m not sure what that means, honestly,” I said, chewing on my lip.
Adrik walked to me, a small smile on his lips as he watched my eyes for a moment. “I missed seeing them change. They were amber for too long,” he said, pressing his lips gently to mine. He pulled me against him as he spoke to Vitaliy. “I’m actually surprised Viktor is reacting this way to everything. He’s always been the voice of reason for me.”
“This is a high percentage of unreasonable occurrences though. Everyone has their limit,” I said. “Maybe we just passed his. Maybe it was all out of order so it’s more chaotic with him. I don’t know. I don’t have the answers.”
“It wasn’t your fault he found out the way he did, princess. It was Kostya. He told Viktor he used you and the Wonder Twins to make it happen,” Ivan said. I looked to him, completely confused.
“She came in after that part of the conversation,” Adrik said.
“Viktor told me that his kid came to him in a dream the first night we were gone. He said he’s dreamed of his wife and kid regularly ever since they were killed. They were going to name the kid Konstantin and apparently the kid decided to keep the name. He knew that Viktor has been avoiding you, so he used Misha and Andrei to create the situation where Viktor could see his gift. It was his doing. You didn’t do anything wrong, princess,” Ivan said, his tone softening at the end.
I looked at Andrei. “That must be why I asked you to snoop in the journalist’s head. That’s what started everything and gave me the idea of how to figure out Viktor’s gift in the first place.”