A Little Too Much, A Little Too Deep

Chapter 15

"Dead." Dimitri declares as he flips me over, kneeling over me and places his fist over my chest. I groan in defeat, that's the fourth time. I need to step up my game.

"Again?" He asks while helping me back up to my feet. I shake my head no and walk over the deck and pick up my water bottle and chugging it down.

"No, I need a break. Besides, we should probably make sure everything is packed and ready to go for tomorrow," I say while wiping my face with the bottom of my shirt. Why in the hell did we decide to spar outside when it's 93 degrees out? Are we trying to put ourselves into heat exhaustion? Although I will take the opportunity to admire Dimitri shirtless any time.

"You two are terrific," Olena says as she sits in the shade with Zoya, sitting in a little kiddie pool with just enough water to cover her short legs. Walking over to them, Dimitri scoops little Zoya out of the pool and tosses her up gently before catching her and placing a kiss on her chubby cheek, making her shriek with that contagious baby laugh.

"I'm a little out of it, but thank you," I say, plopping down on the grass next to Olena and resting my head on her knees, and she pats my head with a chuckle.

Watching Dimitri play with his niece is probably one of the most calming things to see, someone so tall holding someone so little.

"I see you are writing in that book of yours all the time, it that part of the therapy you were telling me about?" Olena asks while she gazes at her son and grandchild.

One of the few nights where I had woken up in the middle of the night from the onslaught of nightmares, Olena found me out on the couch with my journal, and we talked. We talked about things that I felt before I was in the hospital and about things that happened after, about how I felt.

I let her look at the scarring on my arms, and she jumped up from her place on the couch, walking quickly into the other room before returning with a small tube and applying some of the salve to my arms. It was nice to talk to someone who knew me but was still an outsider to the situation.

"Yes, it is, and it seems to be helping a lot. It also helps now that Lissa isn't producing so much darkness. Oksana healed a little bit out of me before we left their house the other day." I say, looking up at her with a smile.

Bringing my attention back to the two people in front of us as Dimitri is crouched in front of Zoya as she stands in the little pool holding a small ball between her hand and staring at it like it holds the answers to the world. Extending her little hands out towards me with a toothy smile, I take the ball from her and hold it out to admire it before giving it back to her before kissing her little hand.

"I'm going to miss having you both here," Olena says to the two of us, and Dimitri lifts his head to look at his mother with sad eyes.

"I'm going to miss you, Mama." She smiles at him and leans forward to cup his face with her hand, stroking his cheek with her thumb. "I know, baby, but we will see each other again. Soon, I hope."

I sigh and pick up the chain around my neck, twisting it over my fingers as I stretch my legs out in front of me. Olena noticing the gesture looks down, and a little gasp crosses her lips.

"Where did you get that? I thought Mama lost it years ago," Olena says, surprised. I look up and smile at her.

"Dimitri gave it to me, said that it was supposed to be for my 18th birthday. Yeva gave it to him before he left Russia to come and find Lissa and me," I say, twirling my finger around one of the rings. She looks at me before looking over at her son and then back to me again, her smile widening as she moves her eyes.

"I'm glad you are the one who holds his heart, Roza."

After an extremely emotional goodbye to Dimitri's family early the next morning, we stand in an empty terminal in Omsk while we wait to board the plane that Abe sent to bring us to Istanbul. Reaching over and taking his hand in mine, trying to provide him with a little comfort. He brings my hand to his lips and kisses it softly before placing our intertwined hands on his chest.