Chapter 63

Without thinking, I threw myself at the door and stumbled inside. My eyes and ears burned while my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth. It couldn't be Baba...could it? My mind played tricks. He'd been shot by Lager. If I dared think about it, I'd still feel the spray of his warm blood across my face. He was dead. He should've been dead, and yet even though he hated me, a sliver of hope slipped through my closed throat.

"Baba?"

A weighted, eternal pause, and then, "Aika?"

Everything left me in a rush - the tears, the breath from my lungs - but no more words. I stumbled forward, needing to feel him to know if this was real or not, but he'd never been one to want to touch me. If anything, he avoided it at all costs.

"You're...you're here?" His voice came from the far side of the room, soft and disbelieving, unlike how I'd ever heard it before.

I nodded lamely. "You're okay?"