Page 161 of Ivory Ashes

“He won’t need anything once he’s dead. Which will happen if we stay in this war with the Greeks.” I shake my head. “I’m not having another funeral for my child. I won’t do it.”

“Mikhail…” Anatoly’s face breaks.

On the day I buried Alyona and Anzhelina, Anatoly was the only person at the funeral with me. I told him not to come, but he showed up anyway. I never told him how much that meant to me.

I meet his eyes, holding my gaze steady. “There’s no way to save Viv. She made her choice. Now, I have to think of Dante and what he needs. We need to end this war with the Greeks if anyone is going to be safe again.”

Anatoly frowns, but my father steps in front of him, grinning. “I knew you’d see reason, Mikhail. Where is she? I’ll take her off your hands and you?—”

“She’s still the mother of my child.” When I stand up, he stumbles back a step. “I’ll decide how and when she leaves my house. When that time comes, I’ll let you know.”

Anatoly drops his head in defeat, staring down at the floor. But his hand is clenched on the arm of his chair.

This fight isn’t over. Not by a long shot.

59

VIVIANA

I’m half-awake when I hear the door open.

I don’t think I’ve slept at all in hours, or maybe days. I have no sense of time anymore. Ever since Anatoly barred my door, I’ve been in a timeless purgatory. Waiting for Mikhail to decide if I should live or die.

For that reason, I should probably be on edge when a shadowy figure appears in my doorway… but I’m not. I blink through exhaustion, watching as the shape grows closer.

“Has he decided?” I rasp. My voice is hoarse. The last person I spoke to was Anatoly when he barred my door shut.

“Come on. Get up,” a deep voice says.

Strong hands wrap around my elbow, tugging me out of bed.

I pull away from whoever it is. It’s not Mikhail. That’s all I know. It’s the only thing that matters.

The smell is wrong and the voice is deep, but it doesn’t send shivers down my spine. Or maybe I’m too far gone for spine shivers.

This is what hopelessness feels like, I think. I’m too numb to feel anything at all. Even the things I thought I’d have to be dead to forget.

“Viviana,” the voice hisses in my ear, “get up right now if you want to live.”

I blink again and it’s like I’m coming out of a dream. It’s like a filter has just been ripped away from my eyes, finally letting me see the world in front of me.

Anatoly is kneeling next to my bed, his square face etched with solemn lines. It’s nothing like the wrinkled smiles and joy I’m used to from him.

“What are you talking about?”

He shakes his head and keeps tugging me out of bed. “There’s no time to talk. We only have time to move. Now.”

My feet hit the floor, but I don’t trust myself to stand. Meals have shown up every few hours while I’ve been here, but I haven’t felt like eating much. The only time I’ve actually stood up has been to run to the bathroom and heave.

My teeth feel soft and my stomach churns at just the thought. “Are you taking me to Mikhail? Is he going to kill me?”

Anatoly starts tossing things from my closet into a trash bag. “Mikhail would regret killing you. Trofim wasn’t the kind of man anyone should mourn. You killed him, but you don’t deserve to be punished for it.”

I’m frozen by the side of my bed, trying to sort through the muddy soup of information in front of me.

Mikhail doesn’t want to kill me, so he sent Anatoly to take me away?

“Why can’t I just stay here in the house?” I ask. “Mikhail said we would have a marriage in name only. If he isn’t going to kill me, doesn’t that mean I’ll stay here?”

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