Seizing Year Four (Grim Reaper Academy 4)

“And say what? That we’re together and we want to adopt?” She laughed.

“Stop being ridiculous, and snap your fingers, make some boxes of toys appear. We’re going to make a donation.”

“Smart!”

She looked up and down the street, and when she was sure no one was watching, she did exactly what I’d asked. Two huge boxes filled with toy cars, dolls, coloring books, and colored pencils sat at our feet. I dragged in a breath and lifted mine. It was quite heavy, and it was fortunate the weight of things didn’t impress me anymore. We walked through the gates of the orphanage and asked to see the person in charge. I spoke Bulgarian, Lorna didn’t. We were friends, visiting my family, and because Lorna had grown up in an orphanage, everywhere we traveled and found one, we made sure to buy toys for the kids. Of course, Lorna was anything but an orphan, but she loved playing the role – a walk in the park for someone who’d pretended all her life she was a heartless, murderous bitch, when now I could see with my own eyes that she was just a normal person who, just like anyone, wanted to belong.

The children gathered in the common room and made a line to receive their gifts. When a girl teared up because her friend got the blond doll and she was left with a fat baby in diapers, Lorna pretended she was rummaging through the box, snapped her fingers again, and produced another blond doll out of it. Smiles and giggles. The older children came last, and among them, there was Yolanda Aleksiev, my dear second cousin.

“Could I have the coloring book with dragons, please?” she asked in English, having heard me and Lorna talk in English before.

I opened my mouth to say “yes”, but nothing came out. I was frozen in place, looking at her as if she were a ghost. She wasn’t a ghost, but dammit, she looked just like me when I was her age. Petite, thin and lanky, with long blond hair that shined like the sun, and big blue eyes filled with sadness. Even our noses looked the same. Lorna elbowed me, and when I didn’t react, she gave Yolanda the coloring book and a set of crayons.

“Thank you.”

“What’s your name?” Lorna asked.

It was a good thing I’d taken the mage with me. I couldn’t have done this on my own.

“Yoli.”

“Yoli, I think you and Mila might be related.”

That snapped me out of my trance. What the fuck, Lorna? Yoli’s eyes grew big and curious. She was looking at me now, more attentively than before, and I could tell she could see the resemblance.

Lorna elbowed me again. “Same hair, same eyes… Well, Mila dyes hers blue, as you can see.” She turned to me. “And you told me you’ve got family around here. Bulgarians have huge, extended families.” She turned back to Yoli. “What’s your last name?”

“Aleksiev.”

“Mila’s is Angelov.”

Yolanda shook her head. She didn’t know anyone in her extended family named Angelov. Lorna to the rescue!

“Your mother, Anelia, had a cousin, Katerina. Do you remember her?”

“I was too little,” she said in a tiny voice. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

“Well, Anelia had you, and Katia had Mila. So, you’re second cousins.”

The girl thought hard for a second, then furrowed her blond brows.

“How do you know my mother’s name?”

Lorna blinked, lost for a moment. I could have slapped her. Instead, I took over.

“I put together a tentative family tree, recently. I was born in Bulgaria, but then a nice family adopted me, and we moved to the US when I was little.”

“If you live in America, what are you doing here?” From the tone of her voice, I could sense that she thought America was the land of the free. Was that why she’d learned to speak English? If only she knew how trapped I felt there…

“I wanted to find out what happened to my mother.”

“Did she die?” The frankness that was so specific to children…

I hesitated. “I’m not sure.”

“Mine died.”

“I’m sorry.”