Chapter Thirty

Adrik

I looked at Sephie’s amber eyes as she stood in front of me. She’d just heard the last bit of the conversation between Ivan and Viktor, as well as me and Ivan. I knew she felt Viktor’s sadness. It was very different from anything I’d ever felt from her. I didn’t realize Viktor was struggling with it as much as he clearly has been for the last few years. Even Sephie was struggling to get a handle on it.

“I didn’t realize he was struggling this much with everything,” she said quietly.

“None of us did. I think we know now why he always kept so busy. I can feel his sadness through you. I can also feel that you’re struggling to deal with it, the same as him,” I said, pulling her closer to me.

She rested her head on my chest. “Yeah, this is a lot.” She folded her arms up in front of her, pressing her body even closer to mine. “I feel really cold.”

“Come. We’ll go upstairs and get one of my sweatshirts for you, and I’ll make you something warm to drink.”

“Your meetings are done for the day?” she asked, following me out of my office. I nodded, my heart threatening to stop at the smile that stretched across her face. “Good.”

We met Stephen in the elevator. “We’re going upstairs. She’s cold,” I said, as Sephie went back to the same position she was just in before we left my office.

He chuckled. “Seems like as good of an excuse as any to leave the office.”

“Where are the Wonder Twins?” I asked. Sephie giggled against my chest. She still found it funny that I used her nickname for Misha and Andrei.

“They’re on a quick errand, but they should be back shortly,” Stephen said. He cut his eyes at Sephie, who wasn’t looking at him, then looked at me with a small smile. I knew they were planning something, I just wasn’t sure what yet. “I’ll tell them to come upstairs when they get back,” he said, pulling out his phone.

We had just walked out from grabbing one of my sweatshirts for her when Andrei and Misha walked in. They were each carrying a box, each had giant grins on their faces.

“Spider monkey, we got you something,” Andrei said as he walked to the kitchen. He set the box down on the counter, then slid it over toward her. Her face brightened for the first time since we’d overheard Viktor talking to Ivan. The heavy sadness that was attached to her lifted for a moment. She opened the box and her heart-stopping smile stretched across her face. “I don’t know the first thing about baking, but we found a baker who makes lemon sugar cookies,” he said.

“We also got a box of orange, since you and Boss are basically the same person now. We figured you’d want to experiment and see if lemon is still your favorite, now that you know orange is his,” Misha said as he set his box on the counter, sliding it toward me.

“You guys are the best,” she said, as she went to Andrei, then to Misha.

As she looked up at Misha after hugging him, he was clearly confused. “Gazelle, you feel happy right now. Why are your eyes amber?”

“They’re still amber?” I asked, walking toward her to see.

“Why are you sad, Seph?” Stephen asked.

“It’s not hers, is it?” Andrei asked.

She looked at him, a small smile on her face. “Bubba’s right.”

“How did you know?” Misha asked Andrei.

“It feels different,” Andrei said. Stephen got quiet, like he was trying to see if he could feel a difference. He looked at Andrei, then to me. “It’s colder. No wonder you needed a sweatshirt,” Stephen said.

“That’s why Adrik and Andrei picked up on it so quickly. They’re always warmer. They noticed the difference. You and Misha tend to be cooler so it wasn’t so obvious,” she said. Misha had been doing his own checking as they talked. He finally felt the difference as well.

“Yeah, I don’t know if I would’ve noticed that if I hadn’t been looking for it,” Misha said. “Where’s it coming from if it’s not you?”

“Viktor,” I said. I looked at Sephie, having a silent conversation about whether we should tell them about our newest trick. She smiled at me, leaving the decision completely up to me.

“Your connection to him is already that strong?” Misha asked.

“It’s a little more complicated than that,” I said.

“It has something to do with you being able to talk to Ivan without words, doesn’t it?” Stephen asked.

I was surprised, just as Sephie was. “You know?” she asked.

He nodded. “He came up with answers that he couldn’t have known without talking to you. He also has a special connection to Sephie that the rest of us don’t have, so it makes sense he’d be able to do so, just like Boss can. The three of you share a few special things.”

“Really? You can talk to him the same way you can talk to Sephie?” Misha asked.

I nodded. “It only just started happening, but yeah. I went to check on Viktor earlier and we overheard a conversation between him and Ivan. That’s when her eyes changed. She can feel his sadness.”

“What else can you do? Stephen said there were a few things,” Misha asked.

Sephie couldn’t keep her grin from her face. “I think you should show them. They’re going to find out eventually.”

I chuckled, closing my eyes. When I opened them, I looked at Sephie first. Her eyes switched to black immediately when she saw mine, which confirmed that mine were also black.

“HOLY SHIT! You can do it now too???” both Misha and Andrei said.

“So can Ivan,” Stephen said. “Are you guys considering adding adult diapers to your wardrobe right about now? Because I did, when they first showed me.”

“Solid life choice,” Andrei said, still completely astonished.

“But how? Do your eyes change the same way hers do now too?” Misha asked.

“I think that’s going to remain true for her only. But the reason hers turn black is because her demon is stepping forward when it happens. Same for me and Ivan,” I said.

“But I don’t feel nauseous when it happens. I’ve never felt nauseous when her eyes have gone black. It usually makes me happy because I know there’s about to be some fuckery afoot,” Misha said, grinning at Sephie.

“You wouldn’t feel nauseous with us, my adorable Russian guardian,” she said, sliding her arm around his waist. “Our demons work for us.”

Misha’s eyes went wide as he looked between me and Sephie. “You just unlocked a new life goal for me,” he said quietly.

“Me too,” Andrei said.

As always, Stephen offered the comic relief in the most serious way possible. “Okay, so we all agree to learn how to do this now. Vlad is going to be ecstatic when he hears about this, but we’re going to need to step up the training. Mehmed’s janissaries are no joke, and when they see our black eyes, they’re going to be scared, which will make them fight harder. We might need to increase the number of impalings happening, just to keep the fear working for us, rather than against us.”

Sephie laughed, walking to Stephen. “I love you, Yoden. Please never stop being you.”

“Can’t stop, won’t stop,” he said, hugging her tightly, an uncharacteristic smile across his face.

“Who wants cookies?” she asked. She had a wide smile on her face, but I could still feel the heavy sadness from earlier surrounding her. It was starting to worry me that she couldn’t get rid of it, even though she was doing what she does best and smiling through it.

Ivan and Viktor stayed at the house for the rest of the week and through the weekend. Viktor’s youngest brother, Ilya, was supposed to arrive Monday evening, so they came back late Monday morning. Sephie and I had talked to Ivan periodically over the weekend, but it seemed like Viktor still wasn’t completely ready to fully accept everything happening.

Sephie was wary about being around Viktor now too. She was worried she was going to make something worse for him. Ivan had said Viktor had talked some over the weekend, but he was mostly staying quiet. When Ivan told us they were on their way back, Sephie took the Wonder Twins upstairs to the penthouse.

“I have an idea for an experiment anyway,” she said, her sweet smile on her face. She was using it as an excuse to not be around when Viktor got back. The heavy sadness that was from Viktor was still with her. She’d been quieter than usual most of the weekend. The guys all tried their best to cheer her up, but they could feel her struggling against it as well. None of us knew how to get rid of it.

“What experiment now, love?” I asked her, curious.

“You’ll see,” she said, grinning at me. For a brief moment, the sadness lifted. Her eyes had stayed amber for almost the entire weekend. They would change briefly now and then, but even her eyes weren’t changing like normal. Her emotions were constantly changing, which meant her eyes were constantly changing. But right now, it felt like the overwhelming sadness was the dominant emotion and was overriding all other emotions. It was starting to worry me.

I stuck my head out of my office door, motioning for Andrei and Misha to come to the office, instead of her having to go to them. Since I’d learned she was self-conscious about people looking at her, I tried to make sure I was with her as often as possible or that she didn’t have to walk across the floor very often. I’d started paying attention to the people in the office as they watched her as well. Most were fascinated by her, but she was still dealing with everything from being taken so it still felt negative to her.

“Take her upstairs,” I said as they walked in. I watched as they looked at each other, seemingly having a silent conversation between the two of them. Misha clearly won whatever contest they were having. He walked to Sephie, squatting down in front of her while Andrei walked behind her and picked her up so she could wrap her arms and legs around Misha.

She giggled as Misha bounced her higher. “I know I can jump again, but not gonna lie, I prefer to be picked up like the princess I am,” she said, hugging Misha’s neck a little tighter.

“It’s easy when you’re still too skinny,” Andrei said, grinning at her.

She glanced back at me, a devious grin on her face. “Bubba said I can eat more cookies, so I’m going upstairs to eat more cookies.”

I just laughed as they walked out of the office as Stephen walked in with my next meeting. While she hadn’t been in my life for an entire year yet, I almost couldn’t remember my life before her.

I could feel her have moments of happiness, as I’m sure she was laughing and joking with Misha and Andrei during my meeting. Once that meeting left, I had a few minutes before the next meeting arrived, which I was planning on using to catch up on some paperwork. As I got started, I figured out her experiment.

She was at her piano, but I could hear her just as well as if I was in the same room as her. “This makes paperwork so much more enjoyable, solnishko.”

“It works?”

“It does. I can hear you just as well as if I were in the same room.” I could hear her soft laugh as she continued to play while I continued to look through boring reports.

Ivan walked in my office without Viktor. “He’ll be down in a minute. Aleksander called when we got here. I guess he talked to Ilya before he left to come here. It might be worse than we thought from what it sounded like,” he said.

“That doesn’t sound good. When does he get here?” I asked.

Ivan looked at his watch. “Not for a few more hours. Viktor still has to leave stupid early to make it to the airport since he’s flying commercial. I hate that airport,” he said, a clear look of disgust on his face.

“It is very peopley there,” I said in agreement.

“Where’s the princess?” Ivan asked.

I could still hear her playing in my head. “She’s upstairs,” I said, as I shared her impromptu concert with Ivan.

“That’s impressive,” he said. “Did she just figure out she could do that?”

I glanced toward the open door, expecting Viktor to walk in at any point. “She’s worried about being around Viktor. She was looking for excuses to go upstairs to try and give him space.”

Ivan nodded in understanding. “He’s some better. I’m hoping seeing Ilya will help him. She’s still sad, isn’t she?”

“Yeah, it’s starting to worry me. She can’t get rid of it. Her eyes have stayed amber the entire time you two have been gone. The Wonder Twins and Stephen have tried their best to keep her distracted and find ways to make her laugh, but it’s always short-lived. The sadness is becoming oppressive. I don’t know how Viktor has handled it if he’s been walking around with that for this long.”

Before Ivan could respond, Viktor walked in. He did look better after his short time away, but it was obvious he was still struggling to come to terms with everything.

“Everything okay, man?” Ivan asked.

“Yeah, Sasha is worried about Ilya too. He talked to him before his flight. He said he hasn’t ever heard him like that. I guess the girl he thought he was in love with really did a number on his head,” Viktor said.

“Hopefully some time away from it all can help him clear his head,” I said. “Give him a job, if he wants it. We could use the extra help.”

Viktor chuckled. “Ivan said the same thing. I’m waiting to see how bad he is before I offer him a job, to be honest.”

“Fair. Totally fair,” Ivan said.

“Where’s Sephie?” Viktor asked.

“She’s upstairs with the Wonder Twins. She wanted playing time while it was quiet,” I said.

I almost expected him to want to go upstairs then, but he stayed quiet.

“He’s totally still avoiding her,” Ivan thought.

“Agreed.”