Page 131 of Caged

She blinks at me a few times and looks back to her dad. She’s clever for her age, her dad taught her well.

I glance at Nikolai, he closes the distance between us.

“It’s fine, baby. It was just a little mix up, but we’ve figured it out. Mila, will be living with us from now on. How does that sound?”

She jumps up in the air and claps excitedly.

“Like a family?”

She looks between me and Niki and we both nod.

“And him?” She points to Daniil behind me.

I push myself up to stand, and wrap an arm around my brother.

“Elena. This is my brother, Daniil. He will be staying with us too, if that's okay with you?”

I look over to the door and Lara is leaning against the frame, watching everything with her arms crossed over her chest.

I can sense this will be a frosty reception.

Elena instinctively moves back against her dad, he picks her up. She’s looking at Daniil’s stump and I close my eyes.

Daniil does look battered and bruised. For a little girl, it’s probably terrifying.

He clears his throat behind me and hobbles up to Nikolai and Elena with a smile.

Despite the fact every step he takes looks like agony.

“I’m Daniil. Nice to meet you, Elena.”

He holds out his good hand and she hesitates before placing her tiny one in his.

“I might look a bit scary now, but I’ll heal. I promise, I won’t look this ugly all the time.”

Elena giggles. “You aren’t ugly.”

Nikolai shoots me a look and I roll my eyes.

“Hey, what’s your favorite color?” she asks him.

“Hmm, green. Yours?”

“Mine is purple, today, anyway.”

Nikolai chuckles before setting her down on her feet.

“Shall we go and see aunty Lara?”

Elena scurries up the steps and straight past Lara, who remains in the same place she’s been the entire time.

I grab Nikolai’s hand and squeeze.

“She’ll be fine, baby. I won’t tell her how many times you’ve stabbed me.”

I nudge him in the side and he fakes an exaggerated pout.

Nikolai helps Danny up the steps and shows him to his new room.

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