79

Anatoli

I walk into the sunroom with a glass of water and take note of how Avrora looks sitting on the chair.

She's slumped against the side and looks like she's had the life drained out of her.

We've been in here for about an hour now with the doors open. We both need the fresh air. She still looks ghostly pale, and my head is still spinning.

We've been trying to figure things out and decipher where she was in her dream. She's told me her dream multiple times. Each time she's recounted it, I've tried to pick up on everything she's saying.

All I can think when I see her is that she's been here in this house before, and somehow, her past is entwined with the first people I considered family.

I can't wrap my head around it. Nothing makes sense to me, and I thought it was best not to tell her what I learned from Xiou because I don't want to freak her out any more than she is.

Right now, I have Leif on his way over, Zakh going through the Butyrskayas' records to see where Avrora could have been in her nightmares, and everyone else either watching Mikhail or looking for Uther.

While they're doing that, I'm here, pushing aside my inner turmoil in order to take care of Avrora.

I can't begin to imagine what must be going through her head.

She looks at me when I approach. I hand her the water. Her hands shake when she takes the glass from me.

I sit in the chair opposite and watch her take a few sips, then put the glass down on the table.

"You okay?" I ask.

"I don't know. I just... don't know."

I understand the feeling. I don't know anything either. And I don't know if I should be making her stretch her brain to find out something we might not find.

The only things we've processed so far are what we already know-the crest and the secret door with the code.

As I watched her open the door, everything shifted for me and made me realize there's more to this than where my suspicions had taken me so far.

Her recognition of the crest was one thing that was suspicious as fuck, but watching her first identify the secret door then enter the correct code was something else entirely.

Something that's got to be linked to the dark secrets she's not supposed to remember.

Pavel Butyrskaya himself showed my mother and I the passages and taught us the code. We only received it because of what we meant to him.

Only family knew that code. Not even the other members of staff. It was one thing we were never supposed to utter to anyone else.

So how would Uther know it to teach to his daughter?

Avrora looks at me and brings her hands together.

"I think maybe you should go upstairs and sleep for a while." I lean forward and take her hands.

She shakes her head. "No. I at least want to see if anyone finds something. And I wouldn't be able to sleep anyway."

"Avrora, we've gone over everything. I don't think you can do anything else."

"I'm just hoping something might turn up, or it might come to me. Like the door. The moment I looked at it, I just knew someone had told me it was a secret door and how to open it." Her voice shakes nearly as much as her hands. "Anatoli, I know how weird this looks, and I can't figure it out but's that's no surprise since I'm so fucked up. I've been living in a house for two months and don't remember being here before, but I can open a secret door."

"You can't think of it that way. You had an accident, Avrora, and we don't know what else happened to you."

"Or them. The Butyrskayas." She brings her hands to her cheeks and her shoulders sag. "I think I knew them, Anatoli. From what you said, I can't imagine my father teaching me the codes for their secret door. So I need to remember. I have to. Especially if I saw what happened to them. And if we figure out where I was in my nightmares, I am going there."

"Easy there. That might not be best."

"I need to go."

The door opens and Leif comes in looking flustered. I realize this is the first time we've gathered together like this. I wish it were under better circumstances.

I'm not sure what having Leif here will do, but he wanted to come over. At least Avrora looks brighter for seeing him.

"Hi, guys."

"Hey."

Avrora walks toward him, and he gives her a hug.

"Are you alright?" he asks her.

"No. I feel strange, and I don't know what to do."

"I don't think there's anything more you can do." He ushers her back to the seat and lowers himself next to me. "I've been reviewing the safe houses I know were owned by the Butyrskayas in this country. None really match up with what you've said so far. That could either be because you were at another safe house I don't know about, or one that's not in this country. But I've been thinking that maybe you could have been at another house they owned, or some other property. Your dreams seem to be fragments of events pieced together."

"I never thought of that," I say. That's a good assumption.

"How would we find out?" Avrora asks.

"By looking at the same things we did before." Leif nods. "Because you mentioned running through a meadow, I've asked my assistant to look for properties the Butyrskayas owned that either included a meadow or were close to one. But if there's anything else you can think of, let me know."

"I will." Avrora nods. "I really wish I could remember more. All I have is running through the meadow and a bird flying over my head. Then it's darkness and monsters."

Leif nods, and then he seems to contemplate something that furrows his brows.

"What is it, Leif? You look like you've come up with something." I sit forward.

"The bird. I just had a thought." He turns to Avrora. "What kind of bird was it?"

She blinks several times. "I'm not sure. It wasn't a big bird, and it was high in the sky. I'd say it had a dark color. Brownish maybe. God I know that doesn't help. There are a ton of birds that fit that description."

Leif pulls out his phone and taps at the keys. When he's done, he shows Avrora a picture of a Peregrine falcon flying overhead through the air.

"Did it look anything like that?"

Avrora nods. "Yes. I think it definitely looked like that."

Leif sighs. "The Butyrskayas were friends with the Dyshekovs. They raised Peregrine falcons for hunting." He looks from me to Avrora. "Lucca Dyshekov, the Pakhan of the Yurkov Bratva in L. A., still raises them now. I think I might have an idea, but I'll need to speak to him."

"Really?"

"It's a possibility." He switches his gaze to Avrora. "If I'm right, it might be worth going to L. A. to see if anything jogs your memory."

I look at Avrora, who is already nodding eagerly.

"Yes. I want to go. I'll do whatever I need to," she says.

"Then we'll leave tomorrow." I give her hand a gentle squeeze.

"Alright. I'll make contact with Lucca." Leif stands. "Can I talk to you for a second, Anatoli?"

"Of course." I give Avrora's hand a gentle squeeze before Leif and I make our way to the living room. "What's going on, Uncle?"

He bites the inside of his lip and glances over his shoulder like he's checking that we're completely alone.

When he looks back at me, I note the concern in his eyes. "I'm sure you're thinking it's beyond strange that she'd know the code to the secret passage."

"Of course, I am. I just don't know what to make of it."

"Consider this as a possibility: Zakh contacted me earlier with some information we should consider. It makes sense to me."

My scalp prickles with heat. I asked Zakh to look through the records again because I felt he might be able to find things that Gytha couldn't. "What did he find?"

"Some medical records of the Butyrskayas when they lived in Austria. They had another child, Anatoli. A girl they called Mischa. Of course, she disappeared the same time they did, but she'd be nineteen now. The same age as Avrora."

Shock crowds my lungs, then they squeeze as if tightened by a mooring rope. "What are you saying?"

"I think you know what I'm saying. Safety was a big deal for Pavel and Vittoria. Knowing them, the first thing they would have done is teach their kids that code, especially with a song."

"Uncle, you think that she's their daughter?" Just saying the words rattles my brain.

"I'm saying it's a possibility we need to consider. Especially since Zakh also found out that Avrora's medical records were tampered with."

"In what way?"

"He found two sets of blood groups for her. One that would make her Uther's daughter, and one that doesn't. Guess which one was hidden."

"Fuck...."

"The details of her accident were tampered with too. There's something sketchy about the location and the reports the police took from the driver who hit her. It looks like there were different reports but we can't find the original. I didn't want to talk about it in there with her. This is the main reason I came over. You need to talk to her about it, Anatoli."

"How the hell do I tell her that her parents might not have been her real parents?"

"She's your wife. You have to find a way to tell her. The deeper we dig, the more darkness we might find. If that happens, everything will get harder. Don't keep her in the dark. Not about this."

"Okay. I'll speak to her later."

"I'll check in later, too."

I nod, and he rests a hand on my shoulder. "Take care of yourselves and try to stay focused. It's all you can do."

"I will."

He leaves me, but I stay where I am with a million thoughts racing through my mind.

Avrora...

She might not be who I thought she was.

But she's still mine.