This Isn't About Reya

Chapter Thirty-One

She did not tell her father about Azrael.

But as Svetlana stood at the gates of the city, part of her wished she had.

With Daniil missing, her father would have marched an army into the woods. They all would've died, and perhaps Ryea along with them. Svetlana would tell her father eventually - there was no other way to stop Azrael - but she had to save Reya first. 

And Daniil if there was still time.

Her hands clenched into fists and unclenched again, over and over. She remembered the last time she stood, indecisive, at the gates of the city. She watched that child wave goodbye to her again in her mind. She'd been lucky to walk back into the city through those gates that day.

Yesterday.

It was only yesterday.

Every hour had felt longer since then. Svetlana turned around and looked back down the street. A contingency of MPs marched from one alleyway into another about three blocks back. Her eyes gravitated towards Reya's house, not far from the alley the MPs had just exited.

What if Reya wasn't even in the woods?

It was about ten in the morning. A Sunday. Right? It was Sunday? Reya could be in her house. She might be sleeping. If Svetlana walked into the woods alone, and Reya wasn't even there...

She turned towards Reya's house. She'd check there first, just in case.

She walked up to the door and gave a timid knock. She waited about a minute, then knocked again. Two raps in, the door opened, and Reya's mother - with frazzled hair, a robe wrapped around her body, and eye sockets the color of old stone - stared out at her from the darkness of the hallway.

"Mrs. Chernykh - "

"Where is she?"

Svetlana's breath caught in her throat. She stared at Reya's mother, unable to form a reply. 

"Where is she?" the woman repeated.

"Reya?" Svetlana asked.

"Who else?" Her voice was rougher than usual and colder than the Nixan air. She reached up and rubbed one eye with the ball of her palm. 

"I don't - "

"What did you do with her?" 

Svetlana stared up at the woman. She took a half a step backward, off of the front step. There was resentment in her voice, a hatred that seeped outwards. It sounded the way Azrael's aura felt in Svetlana's stomach. "Nothing," she whispered.

The woman stared back at her with something like a snarl struggling to push its way onto her face. "Well," she said, straightening her posture and pulling the robe tighter about her waist, "she's not here."

Svetlana nodded and took another step backwards. 

"If you find her," her mother said, "bring her back here, and then don't ever come back."

And she shut the door. 

And Svetlana was standing alone in the street just inside the gates once again. 

Reya was not home. Her mother did not know where she was. She certainly was not with Svetlana. And that meant there was only one place she could possibly be. 

Svet took a deep breath, turned, and began her long march across the plain of snow and into the woods. With each step, she remembered the night before, where she had made the same journey and expected not to come back. And somehow, it was easier this time.