The Forbidden Doors Box Set

by Cortney Pearson

  “Why would it be a mistake if it’s working?”

  Something still feels off. Even though Andrei was kind and listened—and offered to help without any mention of a price—I can’t shake the nagging beneath my sternum that I shouldn’t have been as open with him as I was. Maybe it was his suggestion to encourage the interactions.

  I did try holding my phone for a few minutes last night, after I got home. Squirming, dreading a response. When nothing happened after five minutes, I shoved the thing in the bottom of the nearest box.

  “I don’t know,” I say. “I’m still not sure how to read Andrei.”

  “Maybe it has something to do with what he said about crows being messengers,” she says. “Trying to bring you some omen of death.” She flares out her hands for effect.

  “Not really the most comforting thing a girl wants to hear. Especially with the whole mess with Jerry.”

  Layla taps her chin. “Maybe that was the omen!”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Maybe the crows were warning you he was coming.”

  “Yeah,” I say, cottoning on. “He was so drunk, Layla. He could have forced himself on me or driven off and crashed. Who knows how long he’s been hiding this pent up anger?” I certainly didn’t.

  “Yes!”

  I can’t help smiling at her enthusiasm. A sudden lightness makes its way over me, and an unexpected release comes with the realization. The crows did have a message. That’s why nothing more happened with my phone last night. They delivered it. We’re done now.

  My knees buckle, and I support myself on the back of the couch. Legs still wobbly, I make my way around to sink onto the cushions. A slow smile creeps onto my lips.

  “Thanks, Layla.”

  “Feel better? Good.” She crosses the room, takes my hand, and pulls me into a hug. I inhale her sweet pea perfume. “Knock ‘em dead today.”

  I reach for my messenger bag, nestled on the floor beside her purse of the day. A floral handbag with buckles and colors as bright as her shirt. I fight another smile at the sight of it.

  “See ya.” I tug on the strap of my messenger bag and head out the door.

  The day passes in a breeze. I haven’t felt this good since before I met Jerry. I tell Piper the details about meeting with the Terekhovs, and then Jerry’s psychotic interruption. And how Nikolay nearly kissed me.

  But she doesn’t seem as excited as I want her to be.

  “What?” I ask after I tell her of the almost-kissing. We stand alone in the band room. The sound of her playing still sifts around us like a memory.

  “I don’t know—you just met him,” she says, undoing the pieces of her clarinet. She runs some kind of cleaning cloth on a string through each piece before placing it back in its case.

  I plunk into the empty chair beside her. The black music stand gives me a cold stare. “True. But that doesn’t mean I don’t know how I feel about him.”

  “How do you feel about him?” She closes the lid and meets my gaze.

  My mouth parts. “I’m—I like him, Piper. A lot.” Another pause. “Is there something wrong with that?”

  She raises her eyebrows. “No, it’s just that, he seems older than you.”

  “He is. He doesn’t go to high school, that much I know.”

  “Do you know what his ambitions are? Where he was born, what his favorite ice cream flavor is?”

  “Is that really necessary information?” I ask, hating that she’s right. I hate that even though I’m nearly two years older than she is, she’s the one who sounds wise.

  “It is if you like him,” she says, walking off to put her folder in one of the cubbies by the white board. The band room door drifts open, and Todd pokes his curly head in.

  Piper beams at him, and he winks in response before addressing me. “You’re coming tonight, right?”

  “I invited Nikolay. Is that okay?”

  Todd shrugs. “Fine by me.”

  “You guys can ride with us,” Piper adds before linking her fingers with Todd’s. She offers a salutary smile. I consider arguing, telling her I have my own car, but together, the two of them walked down the hall.

  Piper has a point. I don’t know much about the inner workings of Nikolay Terekhov. But these feelings for Nikolay are vibrant and new, so much more pulsating and reverberating than anything I’ve ever felt before. It’s almost as though there’s more to me that could feel than I knew. And I don’t want it to stop.

  Impatience fills me through the entire three hours of my shift. Nikolay finds me stacking books that a customer left on the floor. The cold marble seeps through my jeans as I kneel before the shelf.

  “It is seven o’clock, zvezda moya,” he says, his voice wandering over my shoulder.

  I slide the final book into its place. “Zve-whata?”

  His thin lips spread into a smile, but he doesn’t elaborate. “Are we going?”

  “Oh!” I hurry to my feet, reach behind to untie the maroon apron, and lift it over my head. It catches in my hair. Heat flames in my cheeks when I realize he’s watching me.

  “My shift is supposed to end closer to eight,” I say, once I return the apron to a hook in Andrei’s office. “Will your father be upset?”

  “Will I be upset about what?” Andrei Terekhov appears in the doorway, glasses askew on his nose. His fingers dip into the shallow pocket of his forest green vest. If he knows about Jerry nearly smashing his store windows last night, he doesn’t show it.

  “We are going to a party, Papa,” Nikolay says. Andrei’s eyes narrow before darting to me and then back to Nikolay. “Things are taken care of,” Nikolay adds. “And I will be back in a few hours.”

  Andrei’s jaw clenches. “No more than two,” he says before treading into his office and closing the door on us.

  I wrinkle my brow. I’m not sure how old Nikolay is, but something is strange about that interchange. If I had to guess, I’d bet he was somewhere around nineteen or twenty, not much older than my almost eighteen. “Is your dad pretty controlling?” I ask as we head back outside.

  “He is just being cautious,” Nikolay says, glancing back at the building. He seems tense, hands crammed in the pockets of his pea coat.

  Being cautious? It’s a party.

  “We’re meeting Piper in a few minutes,” I say, trying to break the tension. Nikolay hesitates at the sidewalk, staring down at his tan boots before stepping onto the pavement.

  He takes in a long breath, staring up at the sun. His breath juts out in puffs, a bittersweet look of contentment crossing his handsome face. I can’t help but admire him. His strong stance, the line of his body, his shoulders and jaw and the utter peace in his expression.

  Todd’s red truck rumbles loudly before it turns the corner, and I quickly mask my surprise when I notice Piper behind the wheel. That’s right, she has no car. She must have borrowed his truck.

  “Maybe I should drive,” Nikolay says, unease filling his tone.

  “You have something against Piper?”

  “No,” he says. “I just don’t want it to be a problem when I have to leave.”

  My brows rise. “And I thought my parents were strict.”

  This pains him for some reason. I nudge him with my elbow. “I’m kidding. Come on, if you have to be back, we’ll make sure you get back.” I link my arm through his.

  We mainly drive in silence. My knee bumps right against Nikolay’s, but he doesn’t seem to mind. In fact, his hand pats nervously against his own thigh, as though contemplating its next move.

  Flashes of black move in my periphery. I peer behind to the skeletal trees lining the sidewalk, my suspicion building.

  Nikolay peers back as well, meeting me with a questioning look. “Something wrong?” he asks.

  “I thought I saw…”

  The movement take
s form, a shadow forging and solidifying. Crows flap from one tree to the next, advancing along the street in the same direction we’re taking.

  I trap fear in my throat. Nikolay continues staring back, but doesn’t seem to notice anything out of the ordinary.

  “It’s nothing,” I finally say. I don’t want to talk with him about this in front of Piper, not when I told her earlier I thought I was done with the birds. What can this mean?

  Todd’s red brick bungalow is in an older part of town. Well, older except for one house on the street, a more modern square-shaped house that’s all whiteness and crisp angles. His house is ordinary in every way, from its battered screen door to the plain roof slanting off on each side.

  It’s extraordinary, however, when compared to the vacant lot beside it. The lot is scattered with remnants of boards and debris, the ramshackle leftovers of a house. Some of the framework still stands, charred and blackened. The stones from a chimney climb halfway before giving up.

  “Whoa,” I say, forgetting the crows for a moment. Nikolay shifts to see what I’m looking at. His leg brushes mine, making me fully aware of how close we’re sitting. It’s not as if he can help it, with me crunched over to keep my legs away from the stick shift. But my whole side lights up, instantly aware of him.

  “What happened there?” I ask.

  “My house,” says Piper, pulling in front of Todd’s, gritting her teeth as she shifts into park. The driveway is taken, occupied by kids playing basketball despite the snow piled along its edges. “Todd’s mom will probably mention how Joel and I need to get the location cleared so the land can be sold. She brings it up every time I see her.”

  “That was it?” I had no idea it was right next door to Todd’s.

  “Yep.” Piper cuts the engine and climbs out. I recognize a few of the kids shooting hoops from school, but I still don’t know them by name. Sierra and Jordan cross the street from the posh-looking modern house. That looks like the kind of place Sierra would live.

  I fidget, waiting for Nikolay to reach for the handle and exit the vehicle.

  “You saw them again, didn’t you?” he asks, staring at the remains of Piper’s supposedly haunted house, a crease between his brows. He sits there. With his leg touching mine.

  “Yeah. Looks like your father was right. They weren’t in my dreams last night. Now they’re trying that much harder to reach me.”

  “But nothing from your phone?”

  I shake my head. “No. Nothing.”

  “Strange indeed,” he says still staring out the window.

  “Hey,” I say softly, pressing his knee and thrilling at being able to touch him casually like this.

  Nikolay jumps as though he’s forgotten I’m here. He turns his head, holding my gaze. His ice blue eyes are anything but cold, and my breath catches.

  Here, secluded in Todd’s truck with no one around, it’s the perfect opportunity. His thin, provocative lips capture my focus, and my heartbeat ratchets at the thought of how they’ll feel against mine.

  He doesn’t move closer as I want him to. Regret flashes across his eyes. “We don’t want to miss the party.” He pulls the handle.

  I reach across his lap, tugging the door shut again. My body is close to his now; he can’t misinterpret what I want.

  My lips tweak into a taunting smile, just in case he needs an extra hint. “We can go in a few minutes,” I say, shrugging a single shoulder and leaning closer all at once.

  He trembles, his breath uneven. Slowly, like an artist working with fragile pieces, his hand glides to my cheek.

  “Sladkaya pytka,” he says to himself, almost painfully.

  “What does that mean? Don’t you want to kiss me?” I whisper.

  His lids close. He cradles my face in one hand, his thumb stroking my chin. “Kissing you would be incredible,” he says in such a simple, honest tone my insides scramble to make sense of it.

  “But?” I say, the tension draining from my limbs. I pull away. He doesn’t let me.

  His eyes still closed, he continues. “Ya khochu ne khochu. I’ve been hasty. Something like a kiss must wait to be shared when people know what they’re getting into. I’ve shared careless kisses with girls in the past that I wish I withheld. A kiss should mean more than this.”

  He sounds more like Piper than I like.

  “You don’t want to get into something you’ll regret.”

  He strokes my cheek. “I don’t want you getting into something you’ll regret.”

  This time he lets me pull away. I can’t help the confusion rattling over me. “I won’t regret you.” My hand slips into his. I stare at our fingers together for several moments, memorizing the shape of his fingers.

  “I hope this isn’t about Jerry,” I go on. “Because it’s not, for me. The truth is, I’ve been into you since we met and trying to fight it.”

  “I’m glad to hear it,” Nikolay says with a smile, “as I have had the same feelings for you.”

  That’s a step in the right direction. Encouraged, I go on. “Now that things are over with him, would you…consider it? Being with me?”

  His eyes take on a distant quality, shading over with a sadness I can’t quite place. “You know very little about me, Everly. It wouldn’t be fair of me to take advantage of your vulnerability in this moment without telling you more about myself first. Then you’ll know exactly who you are kissing.”

  Still, I don’t move back. “But you want to,” I clarify.

  “I think you already know I do,” he says. His hands make their way around me, and we’re sharing air, his lips inches from mine, his eyes close enough to dilate.

  “So tell me,” I say. I rest a hand on his chest, drawing in closer, the heady longing of the moment directing my movements. Just one tilt. One motion more.

  “For starters,” he says, swallowing, never taking his eyes from me. His hand finds the door handle. A rush of air steals its way in, cooling the heat of the moment. “I think I know what’s going on with your crows.”

  Nikolay thumbs my chin with a tantalizing smile before sliding out onto the snow.

  I linger for a few moments, stunned. “My crows?” I peer out the back window again, but they’re nowhere in sight.

  Inhaling, I follow him out. He stands for a moment, analyzing the burned remains before offering me his arm. I link my elbow with his, but instead of guiding me toward Todd’s house, he scowls at the sunset and leads me toward the smoldered remnants of Piper’s house.

  Caution tape surrounds the exposed bones of the house. Only a few blackened walls remain standing, supporting beams, probably, while broken boards with jagged ends pile amid blackened debris and ash. Pieces of black fabric crumple within the heap, along with something circular that might once have been a table.

  Several chimneys stand, gaping like mouths with knocked-out teeth. One sticks out to me more than others. A larger portion of wall remains beside this one, and at its end is a doorway, missing its door. The squared off frame is stalwart, as if it refuses to abandon its cause.

  The sight of it makes my hair stand on end.

  Piper trots across the snow, clasping her arms around her chest. “Hey, guys,” she says. Todd crunches in the snow behind her. “You’re at the wrong place.”

  “Why haven’t you destroyed it completely?” Nikolay asks without looking at Piper.

  “You sound like my mother,” Todd grumbles.

  Piper stares up at the remains, and finally, Nikolay turns to her. She inhales. “Honestly? Joel and I haven’t wanted to come back here.”

  “And I think the city is waiting for the weather to cooperate,” Todd adds. “You know how long it takes for them to get anything done around here. This is Cedarvale.”

  That would explain the rundown buildings downtown, I think but don’t say.

  I want to ask what Nikolay
meant, what Piper’s old house has to do with the crows, but he ducks beneath the caution tape, his feet crunching across the snow toward the ashy leftovers.

  “You’re going in there?” A sliver of panic slips into Piper’s tone. She crushes herself into Todd’s side.

  “Are you sure you should be doing that?” I ask.

  Nikolay looks askance over his shoulder, one eyebrow raised. “Is there a reason I shouldn’t?”

  “Other than legally?” Todd says. “Who am I kidding—what do we care about doing things legally?” He grins at Piper, who elbows him in the side.

  I glance between the three of them, wondering what is going on.

  What interest could Nikolay possibly have in Piper Crenshaw’s burned-down house? And what does it have to do with crows haunting me? Much as I dread it, I wish I’d brought my dead phone with me, to carry out my part of the deal and find out who’s following me.

  My body tenses and flares with adrenaline, almost panic. I step forward to join Nikolay, craving answers.

  “I’m sorry, Everly,” Piper says behind me, backing away and tugging Todd with her. “But I can’t be here.”

  Todd adds, “Come over if you want. We’re about to have pizza.”

  I wave goodbye before squatting beneath the caution tape as well. I cross to the right, around the side of the house, closer to where Nikolay stands, and wait at the house’s edge, not daring to step on the debris as he does.

  “What’s going on, Nikolay? What are you doing?”

  “Searching,” he says, hands in the pockets of his black pea coat. “There were books here. Books that should not have been burned. And a door…”

  “A door? You’re worried about a door. What about the crows, what did you mean?”

  He glances over, the look in his eyes stilling me. “This was the library, and there was a particular door in here that should not have been able to be damaged.”

  “The library? How do you have any idea what should be in Piper’s house?” I didn’t think he knew Piper before we met in the bookstore? She would have said as much.