Page 53 of Cry of the Firebird

"No. I don't need another voice in my head," Katya argued. "You breaking in my thoughts is bad enough."

Baba Zosia said something long and terse at Katya. The hunter threw up her hands in defeat, snapping something back before storming out of the caravan. Aleksandra sighed and went after her. Baba Zosia went back to the tiny kitchen and lit a pipe.

"I'll leave you to it, Anya. I'll let the boys know you're doing okay," Cerise said. "They are worried senseless, and Yvan keeps igniting."

"Literally or figuratively?" Anya asked.

"Literally. Both. His skin was dripping flames last night without the bird trying to push its way through."

Anya's brows shot up. "Really?"

"The firebird's troubled as well."

"Aren't I lucky to have all of these people worried about me all of a sudden?" Anya said as she tried to braid her hair. Cerise moved her hands away, and after they had found Anya's brush in her pack, she braided it tight for her.

"I haven't seen Trajan this anxious for a mortal before," Cerise commented as she wove the strands together. "It concerns me."

"Why?" Anya asked. She didn't know if Trajan had told Cerise about their kisses the night before and wasn't about to share it if he hadn't.

"Our kind and humans are on different sides of reality. It's unheard of and discouraged for any of us to get attached to mortals."

"Why?"

"Because they die, or we kill them."

"Accidentally or on purpose?"

"Pick one, honey. It's our job and our very nature. I know you saw what Trajan did to that creature. Doesn't that frighten you?"

"He wouldn't hurt me," Anya argued. Trajan was the one person in the world she could say that with certainty.

And Yvan. The previous night, he had stayed with her, the firebird warming her. That meant more to her than she could articulate.

"Trajan wouldn't do it intentionally, but in the heat of the moment, he could lose control, and it would happen," Cerise explained.

"Nothing has happened for you to be so concerned about any potential heated moments." Anya wanted to reassure her, but she couldn't stop thinking about the kisses the night before. Maybe he did it because she had been dying.

The first one perhaps, but what about the second one?She had no answer for that. It had been so long since she had been kissed that it had shone light on the loneliness that had been eating away at her.

Cerise made a frustrated sound. "I still feel like I need to warn you. I've known him for sixty-five years, and I've never seen him look at anyone like he looks at you."

How does he look at me?Anya bit her tongue to stop herself from asking. She was saved from answering when Aleksandra reappeared.

"I'll be back later," Cerise said, giving the end of Anya's braid a playful tug. "Have fun learning magic."

Baba Zosia turned to give Anya another cup of coffee when nausea hit her. Baba Zosia said something, but her voice was drowned out and far away.

"Oh, shit, something is happening," she gasped. Memories started to fill her mind in a rush. Anya could taste blood and ash, smell mud and lake weed, as images flashed before her.

Humiliation was prickling her skin as a boy with blonde hair picked up another handful of mud. The first one had hit her in the face bruising her cheek and filling her mouth with blood.

The three boys had been teasing her about her tits that had started to grow in the last two months. When she ignored them, they had started throwing things at her. Anya summoned magic in her fingertips, and the next time the boy raised his arm, water surged out of the lake beside him, grabbing the arm and holding tight. His friends started to scream as the reeds stretched out and pulled them into the water. The blond boy was crying as he struggled, and she stepped toward him, curling her fingers as the power sent water up to his mouth. He tried spitting it out, but he couldn't keep it up and started to gurgle.

Anya smiled, watching as he pissed himself…as he stopped struggling.

"Anya! Stop!" Eikki's voice shouted, and then Baba Zosia's strong hand was shaking her. "Anya!"

The memory vanished, and she was in the wooden caravan again.

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