Andrei

 

Faye never complained.

Besides calling me a bastard the other day when I dumped her in the tub and turned the cold water on, she never said one word about the absolutely vicious workouts I was putting her through. The workouts my brute of a grandfather had invented.

The only person I’d ever known besides me to enjoy them was Baltsaros Kazan, an absolute monster when it came to strength, but the nicest guy you could ever meet.

Sometimes she made a face or rolled her eyes, but Faye hung in there with a smile.

And I found myself feeling guilty whenever she did so. It was like she didn’t want to make me feel bad for how hard the workout was. It unnerved the hell out of me.

“You know I’m only pushing you because of the Electi, right?” I heard myself gruffly ask five days in. As though I had to qualify why I did what I did. That was a first.

“I know,” Faye had said sweetly. “Don’t worry, I appreciate it, Andrei.”

Flabbergasted, I found it hard to sleep that night and stared up at the ceiling, replaying that moment over and over in my head. A prickly set of nerves were winding through my stomach.

Rolling over, I tried to ignore it and froze.

Faye had rolled over, her face was inches from mine. She was deeply asleep, I could tell from her slow breathing and peaceful face. Her gold hair glimmered against her tanned cheeks and her lips were set in a serious line.

Something seemed to slam into my chest at that moment, disorienting me. It was my heart – my heart was beating so fast it felt like I’d just lapped the city five times.

A feeling was rising up, fighting to get free and on instinct, I shoved it down. But there was a roaring in my ears and the nerves in my stomach had twisted into molten wires.

I should have rolled back over.

Instead, I watched Faye sleep.

It was only as my eyes began to drift closed that I realized I had a smile on my face.

 

“Andrei.”

Someone was calling my name and I let out a long sigh. It was a cheery voice, with a sweetness to it and a rolling kind of accent, making me think of hot sand, waves, and sky.

“Andreiii,” the voice said again, a ripple of laughter in the words. “Is this part of training?”

“Mmph,” I tried to answer and pull myself from the depths of sleep. It was a woman.

There was a woman in my bed.

A smirk pulled into my cheek. Where am I? Australia?

A finger poked my cheek and I finally opened my eyes. A cloud of gold hair, a pointed chin, and big brown eyes. Peering at me in amusement and some concern.

“Did you have a nice time, beautiful?” I asked, eyes closing again.

“Come again?” Faye asked, pulling back.

Faye.

My eyes went wide and I snapped awake, sitting up so fast she fell back. Sunlight was pouring in from behind the blinds and I glanced at the clock to see it was almost nine.

“I overslept?” I asked, staring at it as the dreamlike confusion continued. “No, that can’t be right.” Reaching over, I grabbed my phone. 9:04 a.m. What the hell?

“Sorry, I would have gotten us up,” Faye said.

“I-I, it’s fine. It’s a rest day,” I lied. Rest day was tomorrow, but whatever. “I just – I never oversleep.”

“You didn’t want to wake up,” Faye said impishly. “Were you having a nice dream?”

I looked at her and a fissure of heat went through my chest. “No, I…” I stayed up half the night to make sure you were sleeping properly. Like a fool.

“It’s too bad we can’t go out,” Faye said as I stewed in my confusion. “It’s gorgeous today.”

“I have to take a shower,” I said, needing to get away from her.

But a hand stopped me and worried eyes met my face. “Are you alright?”

“You know who I am,” I said with a careless laugh and ruffled her hair. “Of course.”

After a shower on the colder side, I was back to myself and laughing about the incident. I was just being an overprotective knight in shining armor. That’s all. Going above and beyond.

Walking out into the living room, I was about to make a comment about how Faye shouldn’t get complacent about training when I stopped in my tracks.

She was standing in a pool of sunlight, eyes closed and breathing in the fresh air from the open balcony door. The wind tossed her hair around and lifted the skirt of her pale peach sundress.

Mouth dry, all I could do was stare, feeling like an unforgivable and witless dolt.

Sensing my gaze, Faye’s eyes opened and she glanced over with a smile, which faltered. For a moment, we looked at each other and I had the sense of my soul being stripped bare. Exposed.

It was exhilarating and terrifying, like jumping out of a plane without a parachute.

A crazy impulse stole into my veins like a fast-acting drug. To go to her and pull her against me. Hold her face in my hands. Watch her lips part in surprise as I lowered my head and–

Faye looked away then and I caught myself.

Shutting those thoughts down, I tried to think of something to break this weird silence between us. We’d spent hours this week talking and being comfortable together. What had I done?

What was I thinking?

Internally, I was swearing so fluently I almost didn’t hear Faye’s question.

“Is it too risky to go outside?” she asked.

“Huh?” I asked, then I seized onto the question. “Eh, probably. But what’s life without risk?” I went on, “Tomorrow’s our last day here, so we might as well enjoy today.”

“Really?” Faye asked, lighting up.

I swallowed a sudden knot of nerves in my throat. “Of course.”

In no time at all, Faye was wearing a short brown wig under a sun hat and I was in a baseball hat. When we reached the lobby, I realized I’d forgotten sunglasses for the both of us, but shrugged and pulled my hat lower. It would be fine.

Outside, I glanced expectantly at Faye who shrugged and whispered, “I don’t care where we go. Honestly, it’d be nice just to walk around.”

And that’s what we did.

After the awkwardness of this morning, I thought our conversation would be stilted or strange, but it flowed as easy as ever. We talked about training, taking care to avoid shop talk and that drifted into sports we both liked. Faye wistfully mentioned the many places to hike around New Zealand and I laughingly told her we could come back.

At that, she’d smiled. “You don’t have to do that.”

I shrugged. “I want to. Tell you what – we’ll bring Roy and Kesari. It’ll be a laugh.”

Her face softened. “Have you seen them lately?” she asked in a cautious kind of way. Both wanting and not wanting to know. Just in case. Besides a few details about Boston, I’d been careful not to give her news of home. After that picture, I didn’t want to accidentally invoke waterworks.

“I did,” I said. “In fact, I found out a few weeks ago that Roy had to pretend to be Kesari’s fake boyfriend in Bear Valley. Told him he did the job a little too well.”

Faye laughed, eyes lighting up. “I didn’t know about that!”

“Some scheme cooked up by Piper, I think,” I said, shaking my head. “You’d think an engaged woman who had two babies on the way would be above things like that, eh?”

“What matchmaking?” Faye asked, thoughtfully. “I think after Kai and Isla got together, she felt like she had a newfound talent. Last I knew, she was trying to set up Soraya with Dez.”

“Jesus,” I muttered. “Is anyone safe?”

Faye glanced up at me in surprise. “What’s that mean? Did it work? Are they together?”

“Yeah,” I said, wondering how I wound up gossiping about Order relationships.

“Andrei!” Faye said, outraged and she punched me. “You should have told me!”

“Ouch! I thought maybe Soraya should,” I said, rubbing my arm. “And I wasn’t quite sure what you’d want to know.”

“Do you know how it happened?” she asked in a pleading voice. “Soraya and Dez, oh that’s so cute. Those two are so wonderful – that makes me so happy.”

Her hands clasped at her chest and I couldn’t resist smiling. We were passing by a jewelry store and it made me remember something else. Turning, we entered a small, busy park with a fountain and kids splashing, and I told her, “Soraya would kill me if I botched up her news. So, I’ll tell you something else – Roy gave Kesari a promise ring.”

Eyes huge, she stopped and stared at me. “He proposed?”

“What? No!” I shook my head. “He’s too young.”

“Roy will be twenty-eight in a few months, Andrei,” Faye said.

“Still…” I couldn’t imagine Roy getting married. It made me feel suddenly very old.

Faye was now teasing me about being sentimental in my old age and I grinned down at her. Every muscle in my body was relaxed and easy. That’s why it took me a moment to realize some instinct was whispering in my head.

Once I did, I tensed so fast it hurt.

Eyes sweeping the park, the air had changed. People were passing by, unaware, but I could sense the danger now. And I spotted it – three men standing and talking, their eyes also searching the park. They hadn’t seen us yet.

Squinting, I recognized one. Altair Kazan. The blood traitor who’d defected to the TLO.

Any second they would spot us. I wasn’t sure Altair knew me, but with Mirois as a traitor, who was safe anymore? Panicked, I tried to think of a plan, but nothing was coming together.

A diversion! Hide in plain sight!

Faye was asking me something, but she’d broken off and was looking up at me.

“Andrei?”

My hands seized hers and I bent my head, whispering in her ear. “Say yes to what I’m about to ask you. And say it loud.”

“What?” she asked, startled.

“Say yes,” I ground out quietly, then got down on one knee. “I can’t afford a ring yet, you know that, my darling. But we don’t need money, do we? Do me this honor, love. Make me the happiest man alive. Say yes…” People were turning and Faye’s eyes were huge. “Will you marry me?”