Page 97 of A Curse of Hope and Shadows: Part I
Adeline hurtled from her bed and straight up the steps, forgetting her hair was still unbound and she was probably tracking mud in from outside. She flung herself at Dimitri’s door, expecting him to have taken a turn again. She cursed herself for praying for a distraction. This wasn’t what she wanted—
He met her at the door.
“Are you all right?” she panted.
He surveyed her breathless appearance, and steered her into the room. “I’m fine,” he said. “Are you?”
“You… you called me up here to ask methat?”
“Well, I thought about going downstairs, but if anyone saw me—”
“Idiot!” Adeline punched him on the arm. “I thought you were ill!”
“Sorry,” he said, sounding genuinely apologetic. “I didn’t mean to frighten you, especially after today. I just… I know you aren’t exactly one for asking others for help, even when it’s been offered, and I just knewIwouldn’t sleep tonight worrying aboutyou.”
Adeline’s initial panic and anger quickly sloughed from her shoulders, replaced by a strange kind of warmth, twinned with dread. She did not like how much she liked this gesture, how much she liked being cared for, how much she likedhim.
Elliott asked how she was, too, but he always accepted her lies, and never pried. He didn’t want to know, not really. He needed his big sister to be strong, and she couldn’t—wouldn’t—ever let him know how frequently she came close to breaking.
But Dimitri…
No, she still couldn’t do it. It was like being naked.Worsethan being naked. It was the kind of exposure you never recovered from.
“Thank you for the hamper,” she said instead.
Dimitri blinked at her, dazed by the shift in topics, but then he grinned and said she was welcome. No prying, no probing, no annoyance at her refusal to answer, just an understanding that she couldn’t speak.
And didn’t want to be alone.
Stop it,she prayed silently.Be cruel and mean. Be intolerable. Don’t be lovely. I can’t bear it. I can’t bear relying on anyone this much,likinganyone this much.
Dimitri turned towards his dresser. “I… I have something else for you, too. I didn’t include it in the hamper. Call me selfish, but I rather wanted to see your reaction.”
“Well, colour me intrigued.”
She folded away her dread, and stepped towards him as he opened the top drawer and handed her a small, green velvet box.
She pried open the lid, stilling the trembling in her fingers.
Inside was a bronze key on a ribbon, inlaid with gems in green and blue. It shimmered faintly in the lamplight, brushing something deep within her.
“It’s just costume jewellery,” Dimitri said quickly. “Glass. Didn’t want to give you anything too fancy in case you were tempted to sell it.”
Adeline stared down at the gift in her palm, wondering if she’d ever held anything quite so lovely. She had a few little pieces of jewellery she’d inherited from her mother. A string of pearls. A silver chain. Nothing this pretty. Nothing she feltsuitedher.
A folded slip of paper lay underneath the key.
“Ah, don’t read that yet,” said Dimitri, scratching the back of his neck. “It’s a bit… embarrassing.”
Adeline could not tear her eyes from the trinket. “What does the key unlock?”
“Nothing,” he said. “It’s just—decorative.”
“It’sbeautiful.”
Dimitri’s cheeks reddened. “I’m glad you like it.”
“Dimitri?”
