7. Elyssa
ELYSSA
B aking had always been a stress reliever for me. It was one of the things that reminded me of my first life, the one I lived back in Sorrento with Jedde and Baba.
My hands were covered in dough, and where I usually didn’t like the feeling of getting my hands dirty, I didn’t mind in the least when it came to making cookies.
During my freshman year, I had bad insomnia. Being in this new place, with so many new people, and a new, way faster-paced schedule, was a lot for me. I found myself wandering through the halls way past curfew until one day I winded up here, in the kitchens.
For some reason, they didn’t lock them at night, and I took full advantage of that. Even though the school had strict rules when it came to junk food, chocolate was allowed. So each year, I brought quite a few tablets with me, going as far as stocking up my cousins’ luggage with it because I knew I’d bake through mine in a heartbeat.
They didn’t mind the lost packing space as long as I brought them some of the baked goods.
The conversation with Lewis back at the village wouldn’t leave my mind, no matter how many times I tossed and turned, even three days after. Tomorrow was Tuesday and I had early classes, but I knew nothing would put me to sleep quite like baking cookies.
Not wanting to bring attention to me in case someone from admin or a teacher was roaming the halls, I only lit a few candles in order to see what I was doing. It gave the whole thing an even more special vibe, which I didn’t hate at all.
“What on earth are you doing?”
I yelped at the voice coming from the doorway, jumping back and nearly knocking the dough bowl off the counter.
When I looked up at the voice, I felt myself tense again.
I was finally starting to relax and, of course, he had to spoil it for me.
“What the hell is wrong with you, Korolov!” I hissed.
“With me? I’m not the one playing Cinderella in the castle’s kitchens at one in the morning.”
“I’m making cookies.”
Konstantin looked at me like I’d grown a second head. He stood in a white t-shirt and some grey sweatpants, clearly straight out of bed, leaning against the doorjamb and staring at me.
“Oh! Sorry, I forgot you probably didn’t have those back in the hellhole you crawled out of. They’re sweet biscuits made of??—”
Clearly not appreciating my humor, he cut me off with gritted teeth, “I know what cookies are.”
I rolled my eyes but couldn’t help the little smirk playing on my lips. My dirty secret? I loved getting on his nerves. In class, I did it innocently, so much so that many people were oblivious to it. Konstantin had gotten a few reprimands over the years by our professor, for his aggressiveness towards me. All the while, I watched from behind them with a little smile on my face and they had no clue.
But Konstantin did, because he saw my satisfied air, and he knew I wasn’t as clueless as I made out to be. He knew I disliked him almost as much as he seemed to hate me.
“It’s like you’re trying to get in trouble,” he stated, squinting at me.
“Because I’m baking cookies?”
“Because you’re deliberately breaking the rules. You’re making it too easy for me to have you tossed out.”
I felt my eyebrow lift in mock surprise. “Need I remind you you’re here with me? What are you, my guardian?”
“No, that title belonged to that useless grandfather of yours.”
My mouth opened but no words would come out. How the hell would he know that? It wasn’t public knowledge. Nobody knew that my grandfather had been the one person responsible for me until I turned eighteen.
The fact that Konstantin of all people did, gave me pause. What else did he know? Was he familiar with the circumstances that led to Gustavo becoming my guardian?
Did he know that although I was twenty now he still had a hold on me?
Deciding not to say anything, I turned my attention back to my dough, hoping against hope that my ignoring him would cause him to disappear.
Spoiler alert: it didn’t.
The annoying Russian stayed right where he was and stared at me the whole time, no matter how many times I sighed in frustration.
After ten minutes had passed and I was forming my cookies into small balls, I’d had enough.
“Okay, what the fuck. Why are you still here?”
“Why not?”
“Don’t you need to sleep? Maybe call up a fuck buddy and exhaust yourself a little?” He blinked at me, clearly bored. “Lord knows you’d need it,” I added under my breath.
But of course, demon that he was, he heard me.
“What was that?” He took a threatening step inside the room, his gaze colder than it was a minute ago.
Feeling a wave of courage submerge me—probably caused by sleep deprivation and frustration— “I said you need to get fucked.” I lifted my chin proudly so he would know I wasn’t afraid of him.
Of course, technically, that was a lie, but he didn’t need to know that.
“You better watch that mouth, Ayaari. Before I give you something to choke on.”
My eyes widened in surprise at the dark look that overtook his face. The bravery that filled me a few minutes ago all of a sudden disappeared as I found myself unable to hold his gaze.
I turned around towards the faucet and turned it on, washing away the sweet mixture clinging to my fingers.
I looked up at the wall where stainless steel pans were hooked. His distorted reflection was mirrored in it and I could tell he was still staring at me, unmoving. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and decided I would just get back to my room and ignore him. Fuck these cookies. Fuck baking. Fuck everything.
I’d just give the raw dough to Lorenzo, he’d eat almost anything as long as it was sweet.
The water turning hotter and heavier got my attention away from Konstantin’s figure behind me. I looked down and instantly felt like throwing up.
“What the fuck!” Yanking my now trembling hands from underneath the tap, I stared at them with wide eyes.
They were dripping in blood.
Konstantin was next to me in a heartbeat, alerted by the panic in my voice. He hurriedly grabbed my wrists and brought them closer to him, frowning in a mix of disgust and disbelief. His skin felt like a burning iron on mine. Even through my stupor, I couldn’t help but feel like his touch would leave a mark. Coupled with that musk and citrus scent that was so unbelievably him, it made me painfully aware of his presence.
“You’re not hurt.”
“Bitch, that’s not my blood!” I whisper-yelled, clearly panicking, before nodding at the sink.
Suddenly aware of how he was holding me, Konstantin released my wrists like I’d been burning him.
Shaking my head, I decided to put the thought aside and get back to the very concerning scene.
Deep red flew straight from the tap and splashed against the stainless steel sink. The flow seemed never-ending and looked darker as time passed. Konstantin silently put his finger under the stream, making me wince in disgust, before pulling it back and rubbing it back and forth between his index and thumb.
“What the fuck?” he whispered, eying the liquid in disbelief. I had never seen him look so… human. Surprised.
Really, few things seemed to shake him, he always wore that annoyingly blank look on his face, but for the first time ever, he looked at a loss for words.
We both watched the crimson liquid stream from the tap, hypnotized by the freakiness of it all, when all of a sudden, it started looking lighter and lighter.
“It’s disappearing.”
We both took a step towards the sink, eying the now pink water with interest until, eventually, it went back to being clear.
I exhaled deeply as Konstantin turned the tap off. Silence reigned between us, the only thing we could hear was the sound of our breathing.
“We didn’t fucking dream that, did we?”
He didn’t answer, but I could see on his face it wasn’t because he was ignoring me; Konstantin was frustrated because he didn’t have the answer to what the fuck just happened.
Suddenly, a bark echoed from the corridor right outside our door and our eyes locked again. A beat passed before we both moved in unison, rushing to blow out the candles before someone could see the light streaming from the swinging doors. Adrenaline was pumping through my veins, the possibility of being discovered made tension grow in my stomach, but I acted quickly.
Looking at the big clock on the wall, I frowned. The guards must have changed their schedule because they usually weren’t on this side of the castle at this time.
“Let’s go. Don’t touch anything,” Konstantin whispered, grasping my wrist and pulling me towards him as he stealthily got us out of the kitchens.
I yelped but followed him nonetheless because he seemed like he knew what he was doing. I kept my still-bloody hands to myself, although some droplets fell to the ground.
He crossed the corridor with assurance, like he couldn’t care less about being found by the guards, which was probably true. It wasn’t like they would do anything to him, after all.
Then he stopped suddenly in the middle of the hall and I bumped into his back.
“Oof, what the??—”
In a move that was way too smooth and fast for me to comprehend, Konstantin found himself behind me, my back flush with his chest and his hand over my mouth, keeping any sound from coming out.
I gasped inaudibly as he pushed us out of the main hall and into a small alcove underneath a staircase, his back against the wall.
That’s when I heard them.
Footsteps. People were walking down the corridor and we would have been discovered for sure had we stayed there.
From the heaviness and the pace of those steps, I would have guessed they were men walking towards us. Four, maybe six.
Not only that but the pitter-patter of paws could also be heard.
The guards didn’t typically bring dogs inside during their rounds, but maybe they were looking for something specific this time around, like drugs.
The Academy was known to throw random drug searches during semesters, bringing in narcotic detection dogs to do the job. Maybe they were looking through our lockers?
My chest was moving up and down as I did my best to steady my breathing but it wasn’t easy when both my mouth and nose were trapped under Korolov’s hand.
Finally, the footsteps became lighter, like they were getting farther from us, but Konstantin still didn’t move.
It seemed like he had completely forgotten about me needing to breathe until I sent my elbow swinging against his ribs.
Then he came back to his senses with a grunt and let go of me like he couldn’t believe he’d been touching me.
And I wouldn’t even blame him for that. We had touched more in the last half hour than in the past two years studying together.
Konstantin cleared his throat, a faraway look in his eyes, before taking a step closer and pointing his finger at me threateningly.
“No more fucking late-night snacks. Go back to your fucking room and don’t get out.”
Before I could snap at him that he wasn’t my dad, he pushed past me and disappeared down the hall, in the direction of the guards.
Looking down at my still-bloody hands, I let out a deep breath.
What the fuck just happened?