Where The Spirit Meets The Bone

Twenty: Aleksander Morozova

Twenty:

Aleksander Morozova

She had locked herself in her room. He placed the takeout that he had gotten for them in hopes of sharing dinner in the fridge, and then turned around and glared at his mother. "How did you manage to let this happen?" he demanded. "Are you trying to sabotage me? She is the key to everything, Mother."

Baghra snorted. "The key to what? To annoying the young Lantsov?"

He crossed the room to where he stood and placed his hands on his hips. "Do you know where she's from?"

"No," Baghra admitted, "but then the girl has been in our lives for barely two days. It isn't as if we have time to know each other."

"Keramazin," he told her.

Baghra stiffened. "Surely not...."

"Yes," he said, "and her mother passed away in a car accident. Much like...."

"The last of the grisha supposedly did," Baghra said, "you really think that girl----"

"I think the Saints led her to me, and she is the key to turning the tide for the war. If we can access the old ways, we might be able to change things for the better for Ravka."

Baghra leaned on her cane. "Then, my boy, you must do what you can in order to keep her. Get her with child. Make her yours, eternally, and keep that boy and the Prince away from her. Ravka's fate depends on it."

He reached out and squeezed his mother's hand. "I know," he said, "why do you think I was so testy with the boy? No one is going to take her away from me. Alina is going to be mine, forever."

"See to it then," Baghra said.

He nodded at her, and then he headed up the stairs. He went to his room first, thinking Alina would be there, and when she wasn't he went to the one Baghra had set up for her. The door was locked. From the inside, he could hear Alina sobbing. He pressed his hands against the door, leaning up against it.

"Alina," he begged, "let me in."

"Go the fuck away," she hissed at him, still sobbing, "I hate you."

"You don't mean that. We're just getting to know each other. This is.... a bad day, that's all. I'm sorry. I am a man who has dedicated his life to his work. I am not.... I am not used to sharing my life. And it's very difficult for me to share."

The crying had stopped, and he heard the sound of shuffling. Then the door opened. Alina's face was stained with tears that she wiped away with the back of her hand. "I am not a possession, Aleksander. I cannot belong to you. If I did, I would wither and die. I need to belong to myself firstly, and if you want me to be part of you.... I can try. But I am not a pretty trinket for you to keep."

He reached out and wiped away the tears that stained her face. "I will endeavor to remember that. But you must understand, Alina, I am not used to sharing, and I take issue with anyone that thinks that I would hurt someone as precious as you."

Alina looked up at him, her eyes wide. "You don't even know me."

He shook his head. "It doesn't matter. The minute you became my fiancé, you became what I care most about in the world. If someone were to take you from me, I would call on the powers of all of the Saints to get you back. Nothing in in this world would keep me from you, Alina."

She blushed. "Do you really mean that?"

"I do," he answered.

He reached out and took her hand in his. "I made you my fiancé for your protection. If Nikolai becomes king, and something were to go wrong, your parentage would be under fire as well. Royals are bloodline purists. If there were a revolution, they would put your head on a spike after they dragged it through the streets. Nikolai needs someone that will help him keep the throne, not someone that will make them question his power even more. It has never been my intention to make your life miserable, or to make you feel like a prisoner."

Alina shivered. She licked her lips. "I didn't mean to make you feel as if I were afraid of you, but none of this has happened traditionally....and I am a young woman in a house, with no one I am familiar with. Can you truly blame me for clinging to someone I know when Mal showed up?"

"No," he said, "I cannot."

Alina stood on her tip toes then. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him close to her. He stared at her, wide eyed. "What----" then she kissed him. He kissed her back, cupping her face in his hands, and he bit down on her lip hard making her whimper in pleasure. He broke skin as he did so, and Alina let out a little yelp.

She jumped back, a little bit of blood dribbling down her chin that she wiped away with her finger. "What...what was that?"

He reached out and cupped her face in his hands again, blood still dribbling down her chin. She looked at him with wide, innocent eyes, and he pulled her close to him. "When we're married, Alina, I am going to devour you," he growled, and then kissed her again until her lips were stung and bruised.

Alina moaned into his mouth at his touch. He pulled away, and whispered into her ear, "My smoking gun," and stroked her cheek, "my kingdom come undone."

He saw the look of confusion on her face. "What does that mean?"

"It isn't important," he said, "Anyway...I...I got us dinner, if you would like to eat with me. But I understand if you don't want to."

She reached out and gripped his hand tightly. "No I...I would like to have dinner with you, Aleksander."

"Then, let's go eat Alina."

He gripped her hand tightly too, and they went downstairs to the kitchen where they ate the takeout, he had gotten them. They spent the whole night chatting, and at the end of the evening when the wine he had poured them was making Alina drowsy with sleep, he picked her up and carried her to his room, placing her gently on the other side of the bed. Where she fell asleep next to him, using his shoulder as her pillow.