Page 49 of Cry of the Firebird

"Anya won't make the same mistake twice now. She knows what Vasilli can do. Don't worry, Yvan, we'll go to Paris, and call others to help us." Trajan's voice had grown soft, and Yvan's frown deepened. He didn't like the way the thanatos had been looking at Anya.

She doesn't belong to you, princeling, the firebird reminded him. Like he didn't know that already. He had seen the way she had been looking at Trajan too.

"You should go and eat something, Trajan. The body you have is still mostly human after all, and it can't live only off the energy you consumed today from that creature," Yvan said. "I'll watch over Anya."

"I don't know if I should," Trajan hesitated.

Yvan folded his arms and stepped between Trajan and the caravan. "She's important to me and the firebird too, Trajan. You're not the only one who has the power and duty to protect her." Trajan relented and headed where the others were eating and talking.

When Aleksandra opened the door, Yvan quickly ducked into the shadows and hoped she didn't spot him. He watched her walk past, the water in the basin alarmingly red. He hurried up the stairs and into the dark caravan.

Anya lay on a bed covered with brightly colored crocheted blankets. Her green eyes flickered open, and she smiled brightly at him.

"I was wondering if you were going to come to visit me," she said as he sat down on the small stools beside her.

"I haven't been allowed to. I'm still not." Yvan gently took her heavily bandaged hand between his own, his heart shredding seeing what Vasilli had done to her. "How are you?"

Anya pulled a face. "I'm sore, but I can move now, which is a good thing."

Let me help her, the firebird said in his mind. It moved and shifted on Yvan's chest as warmth flooded down his arms and into her hand.

"Oh, that feels incredible," Anya whispered, her eyes growing wide.

"It wants to do its part to help you. The firebird doesn't like to see you suffer either."

"Will you stay with me a little while?" Anya asked. Her eyes began to droop.

"If you would like me to."

"Stay. I don't want to be alone, Yvan." She rolled onto her side and cuddled into their hands before drifting off to sleep. Yvan was nodding off as the door to the caravan opened. Baba Zosia shuffled in and grunted when she saw him.

"I knew you be here," she said quietly.

"I'm not disturbing her," Yvan replied, instantly defensive.

"You and dat burd inside you." Her fingers brushed his face lightly, and the firebird's power flared. "You make problems for her."

"I know that, but we can help protect her. I can't leave her now Vasilli is aware of her. I owe her a debt, and he will kill her in case she was the one in Ilya's prophecy."

"He do this for fun." Baba Zosia held a glass vial in front of him. The bloody thorns were inside, and Yvan flinched.

"I know he did. Anya didn't know he could harm her in dreams."

"I will show her how to stop dat. I show her some more tings. But not for long. You all must go. He come for her."

"Thank you. We'll take any help you are willing to givechovihani," he said, bowing his head respectfully.

"Dat other creeture. He care for her." Baba Zosia's face tightened into a scowl.

"Trajan? Yes, he does." Yvan's chest tightened that a complete stranger had noticed Trajan's apparent interest in Anya.

"He fall in love wit her. Bad ting." She tapped her temple. "I see it in vision. He will. She will for him. It is already done. But will you still be there for her?"

Yvan looked down at Anya sleeping beside him. He hadn't even known he was getting any kind of feelings for her, but he suddenly felt like he'd been hooked in the guts. Despite that, he knew he wouldn't abandon her.

"She needs hero, not lover. You be her hero and her lovers not matter," Baba Zosia continued with a wave of her hand. "You be whut she need. She loves you differently. She loves you forever and true. Be her hero. Be her champion." Yvan looked down at Anya's pale face and tangled mass of silvery hair.

"I'm already her champion. I won't leave her, no matter what," Yvan replied, the words cutting him like broken glass. "Her magic woke me, and she saved me. We are bound together, tighter than lovers, to whatever end."

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