Page 128 of A Curse of Hope and Shadows: Part I
Alexei half-jumped, as if surprised not to find himself alone.
“I’m sorry for alarming you,” she continued.
“I’ve been alarmed by worse faces,” he responded, straightening up.
“I hope you don’t think I’m impertinent—”
“Oh, that ship has long sailed, but please, continue.”
“How’s Dimitri?”
Alexei stiffened. “Lord if I know, he’s barely spoken more than a handful of words to me since his father got here.”
Adeline’s stomach clenched. “Has he spoken to his father?”
“Not that I know.”
Adeline’s face fell. She hated this. It was almost worse than waiting for him to wake up, just as painful, just as powerless.
Alexei frowned. “Does anyone know you’re here?” he asked.
She shook her head.
“Stay here for a moment.”
He swept out of the room. She heard him conversing with someone in the corridor. A guard, maybe. Another servant. She busied herself finishing the bed, in case anyone looked in and found her idle.
The door clicked open again. She didn’t look up.
“Adeline,” said a soft voice.
Dimitri stood at the door, Alexei closing it behind him, finger to his lips. Adeline let out a silent cry, throwing herself across the room in a flurry of skirts and sheets and hurling herself into his arms. Dimitri clutched at her, as if pressing each second of time since he’d last seen her into that embrace.
“I missed you,” he whispered. “But we don’t have long.”
“Are you all right?” she asked, not daring to release him.
Dimitri’s breath hitched. “I’m not sure I can explain it,” he said. “But better, now that you’re here.”
“Have you spoken to your father?”
“He hasn’t summoned me.”
“Do youwantto speak to him?”
Dimitri parted from her, just a fraction. “Yes,” he said. “I want to ask him what the fortune-teller said. I want to assure him that…”
“That?”
“That I can be the son he wants. But I don’t think I would want to be that person. I don’t think I’d like him. I don’t thinkyouwould. I just…”
You just want your father to love you as you are. As you deserve. As I—
“He’s your only living parent,” Adeline whispered. “Of course you want his approval.”
He touched her cheeks, grinning weakly. “I would prefer to have yours.”
“Youhavemine,” she assured him. “You always will. My approval, my—”
