Page 225 of The Harbinger

My heart ached for her. I wanted to be the Mia she remembered, but she was dead, long gone, and most likely never coming back. “I’m sorry. We still are. Okay. It’s just been a long time. I feel out of sorts around here.”

“Fine.” Her shoulders sagged, and her cell phone pinged. “I’ve got to go anyway. Ada and I are going bowling.”

“I’ll see you when you get back then.” I gave her a nod, and she ceded, taking her foot from my doorway, then slinked back down the stairs.

I closed my door and slid down its length, my sinuses burning as the tears burst from my eyes and cascaded down my cheeks.

Chapter 62

Mia

“Mom,haveyouseenmy phone anywhere?”

“Mia, you just got that thing yesterday. How have you lost it already?”

“Oh, you know me, Mom. I just have a gift for losing things.” I replied with a smirk and grabbed the banister. “Lex,” I yelled up the stairs. “Do you know where my phone is?”

“Check the bathroom counter downstairs,” she hollered back at me from her room.

I grumbled, annoyance evident in every step as I made my way to the half-bath. Just as she had promised, the phone lay waiting for me on the counter. My hand darted out, snatching it up before I settled into a seat at the dining room table.

How did people get used to carrying these things around?

I pulled open my messages and crossed my good fingers that the number I’d memorized two weeks ago on Vlad’s phone was accurate.

No response.

My shoulders sagged.

What time was it in Russia?

I tapped my screen with my thumbs and pulled up Google to see the time. I frowned. Seven P.M. He would be awake, no doubt working.

Mom tossed down a plate of pancakes and syrup, drawing me out of my stupor. “When do your classes start again?”

“In about an hour. Dad said he’d come to pick me up and drop me off at the campus.”

“Okay. And are you sure you don’t want to study Greek mythology? You had your heart set on it before… you know.”

I nodded as she walked back with a plate of bacon and put it down on the table. “I can always change it later, but I want to do Russian Lit right now.”

It was all part of my radicalized plan. After moping around the house for a week, spilling my guts to Lex, who was too smart for her own good, she then helped me devise a plan to get him back. Only it would take some time. Mom and Dad couldn’t afford my plane ticket, and I certainly wasn’t going back to the lion’s den without knowing how to speak the language.

“It just seems out of the blue.”

I popped a bit of bacon into my mouth. “What can I say? I feel like a whole new person.”

“I guess so.”

Grinning, I thumbed out another message.

Me: I got a job.

I stared at my phone for a moment. Would this be the message that got him to respond? I scarfed down a few bites of pancakes, my eyes glued to my screen.

“For someone who hasn’t had a phone for a while, you sure pick up the generational habit with ease,” Lex said, fumbling into the kitchen wearing a green shirt and jeans.

I clicked my phone off and stuffed it into my pocket as she took her seat. “I know your secret.”

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