Time passed, and nothing happened. I knew then that the light I'd seen must have been part of my dream—either that or a reflection from a passing car. If my previous experience with visions had taught me anything, it was that I didn't have to coax them out—visions didn't wait. If I wasn't seeing anything at the moment, then there was nothing to see.
With a sense of relief, I quickly got ready and then ran downstairs.
When I reached the kitchen, I was surprised to hear a breathy melody, and I was even more surprised when I realized it was coming from my grandmother.
"GM, are you singing?"
She froze with a towel in her hand, and a blush crept into her cheeks. "No, of course not. I was just clearing my throat."
I looked at her closely—I had heard GM singing on only a few occasions—and those were rare. It wasn't something she did under normal circumstances.
"Would you like eggs, Solnyshko?" GM asked, turning away from me.
'Solnyshko' was a Russian endearment that meant 'little sun.' The term was actually pretty common, and GM used it without intending any special meaning.
"No thanks," I said. "I think I'll just have cereal."
GM continued to move around the kitchen, and she started singing softly again, as if she wasn't even aware of it. I watched her as she moved—her mood was definitely unusual.
There was a buzz from another room, and GM looked up.
"That's my phone," she said, and she ran to answer it.
I couldn't help but notice that she was smiling as she left the room.
As I ate my cereal, it occurred to me that I had seen GM in a mood like this once before—and that was when she had been receiving correspondence from a man named Maksim Neverov.
And Maksim was the man I thought I had spotted on the night of the carnival.
On the surface, there was really nothing wrong with that. If Maksim was indeed in town, he had every right to be—his son and his family lived in Elspeth's Grove—Maksim was actually Irina Neverov's grandfather. And if he was seeing GM, he had every right to do that, too—years ago, back in Russia, GM and Maksim had been engaged to be married.
But they'd both ended up marrying other people, and for decades they'd had no contact—I hadn't even known that he existed.
And then suddenly, Maksim had begun sending GM letters last year, and when GM and I had made our second of two trips to Russia, we had actually met up with him.
And then shortly after that, I had begun to suspect Maksim—although what I suspected him of, I wasn't entirely sure.
It was true that Maksim was related to the Mstislavs on his mother's side—and the Mstislavs had tried to kill me more than once. And it was also true that I had been warned against him by a vampire named Innokenti—and a vampire's warning was not to be taken lightly. But it was also true that I couldn't connect him to any specific wrongdoing, and he'd seemed to care very much for my grandmother. And he had sat with GM at my bedside when I was in the hospital—he had seemed genuinely concerned and supportive at the time.
And then GM and I had returned home, and Maksim had remained in Russia, and whether or not he was trouble had ceased to matter—he was thousands of miles away. But the night of the carnival when I thought I'd spotted his face in the crowd, it had given me pause. I'd convinced myself that I hadn't seen him, but now I wondered if he could actually be in town.
Was he the one GM was smiling over? And if so, was that really so bad?
I tried to tell myself that Maksim's presence wasn't a problem—but I realized that I very genuinely didn't want him in my town.
GM came back into the kitchen, and I couldn't help blurting out a question.
"Was that Maksim?"
GM looked startled. "What did you say?"
"Was that Maksim Neverov who called you just now?"
"No, of course not. What would give you an idea like that?"
"It's just that you seemed to be expecting that call," I said. "And I thought I saw him on Sunday night at the carnival."
GM blinked in surprise. "You saw Maksim Neverov here in Elspeth's Grove?"
Her surprise seemed genuine, and I began to wonder once again if I'd been wrong about what I'd seen. "I thought I had. So, you haven't heard from him?"
"No—I've not heard from him since we