Page 51 of House of Lilith

“Yes you did, youorderedme,” I insist, feeling myself fuming. “You said ‘Get over here, Anastasya.’ That sounds like an order to me.”

He sighs and throws his hands out. “Come on, Anastasya, this again? You imagine these slights, and then blameme? Did I say I order you? Did I push you? Hit you?”

“But you can’t talk to me that way,” I say, a little unsure now that maybe he didn’t reallyorderme, but it was still not okay, what happened. “You should respect me, and act like it,” I say, feeling myself choking up.

“Here we go with the tears again,” he steps closer and takes me by the hand. “Why do you keep doing this to yourself, cupcake? You know I respect you. You know I love you.”

My heart softens as he pulls me into a hug. He does love me, and he does show it.

His voice is tender in my ear when he says, “Why can’t we just be happy?”

“I’m sorry,” I say, pulling him into a tighter hug.

“That’s okay, cupcake. I love you anyway.” He pulls away and looks at me lovingly, but there’s something else in his eyes.

Raising my eyebrows, I nudge him to talk.

“I was hoping to talk to you about something, but…” And he moves to pull away, but I don’t let him.

“Tell me,” I say, determination in my eyes. I have to do better.Be better.

“Don’t worry about it, it’s too much for you right now,” he says, the words stinging deep inside.

“Tell me,” I urge, pulling away and grabbing his hand.

“Well, if you insist,” he says as he comes to wrap his arms around me again. “Two things,” he leans to say into my ear. “At least until the investigation is over, I want to know where you are at all times.”

The request makes me frown. I’m a big girl, I think to myself. But then again, how can I refuse him in a situation like this? So I nod and put my arms around his shoulders.

“And I want to move the wedding date up,” he adds. “I’m thinking winter break.”

It makes me pull away a little, so I can look into his eyes. “Why?” I finally ask, squinting at him.

“It’s made me realize things,” he says with a warm smile, “all this shit happening.” He gives me a kiss. “I don’t want to delay our happiness any longer than necessary.”

The words make me warm around the heart. Still, I can’t help but panic. That’s, like, three months from now instead of six. And there’s this resistance to it and my mind is buzzing just thinking about all the work changing the date would entail, and besides, I don’t think three more months would kill us.

But he’s raising his eyebrows at me in a silent plea and I decide not to let myself ruin this moment.

So I dismiss it all and I nod, giving him a wide smile. “Yes, let’s do it.”

He beams at me. “You don’t know how happy you’ve made me, cupcake.”

And he gives me a kiss.

I pull away, throwing him another smile as I move to walk past him.

It’s with a click of his tongue that he stops me, reminding me of our newest deal.

“I’ll just be stopping by Uncle’s,” I tell him.

And he smiles, turns on his heel and starts making his way across the Common Room.

He’d have no reason to do it. Still, I’m glad he didn’t ask what I wanted with Uncle this morning. I’m not too eager for the family to find out about my plan.

*

Feeling lightheaded at the very thought of what I’m about to do, I make my way up the Grimm Tower’s wide stone steps. It’s still so early in the morning, the light that’s falling through narrow windows is casting long shadows down the cold, meticulously brushed stone walls.

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